tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6911506.post112017703880557844..comments2023-11-05T04:29:40.867-08:00Comments on Choosing Hope: Three Huge ChallengesWalkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07043584417557166784noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6911506.post-1121361488100898562005-07-14T10:18:00.000-07:002005-07-14T10:18:00.000-07:00Anonymous,Not sure whether you are agreeing or arg...Anonymous,<BR/>Not sure whether you are agreeing or arguing, but certainly I agree that "third world thuggery" is a huge problem. Note the title of my post was "Three Huge Challenges", and what makes them huge is the difficulty of solving them. One of the problems I identified is despotism. What do you think of the idea of holding Swiss banks to account for providing the means for these thugs to store the assets which they steal from their countries? I make no claim that such a move by itself will overturn the despots, but if we presume to represent the free world, the least we can do is to refuse to enable and abet the despicable behavior of opportunists who put their own luxuries above the lives and well being of their own people.<BR/><BR/>I also believe that those who promote "fair trade" practices are onto something, as the current spate of free trade agreements are invariably skewed to retain the current power imbalances among the nations, and serve to exacerbate the expoitation and mistreatment of the lower classes in other nations.<BR/><BR/>I do not believe that throwing our hands up in the face of third world corruption and doing nothing is a defensible response. As always, I believe in choosing hope, in spite of long odds.<BR/><BR/>(P.S. Though I will never require it, I would appreciate it if anonymous posters would identify themselves in some way at the end of their post. I know that blogger's requirement of creating a blog in order to generate an automatic identity is annoying, but it does work to prevent spam comments.)Walkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07043584417557166784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6911506.post-1121353527027049372005-07-14T08:05:00.000-07:002005-07-14T08:05:00.000-07:00Most of the 'third world countries' that you are t...Most of the 'third world countries' that you are talking about, are that way because of the Thugs running them. Look at the Billions of dollars that have been poured into Africa over the years, what good has it done? The money gets siphoned off by the thugs in charge and the people barely get enough to live on. Why? Because that way we will continue to send money and supplies to these thugs. Not to mention the way that this aid crushes any chance of free market trade between the people to build up an economy. How do you create something to sell (clothes, etc) if it is going to be shipped in and passed out for free?<BR/><BR/>There are catastrophies that occur and do need our help and aid, but when you take over subsidising an entire contenent without any reforms in their government, you only exeracerbate the problem and give the thugs more power over them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com