The issue was related to bringing in supplies that thwart the local economies and businesspeople. The documentary mentioned a farmer in Africa somewhere who put everything he had into setting up an egg farm and was finally becoming successful. A church here in the US decided to run an egg drive to help feed the people in the farmer's community. Overnight, the farmer's hard work was worthless. Nobody would buy his eggs because they got them free. He lost everything. The next year, the church focused on helping another area and the farmer's village had to get eggs from another community.
Tom's Shoes was another one. Someone here buys a pair of shoes and they send a pair to a developing nation. What happens to the shoemaker in the village when Tom's shows up with a load of free shoes? These are universal issues.
It's not just where the aid comes from, though. It's how the influx of free supplies affects the area and economy as well.
I understand.
I understand that just, the scope of the documentary did not escape me.
I still don't think the needy cares too much about that. And at the end , they are the ones downhill from discussions on influx and area economics.
I understand the deflating effect that this aid has in the local economy. But until a reasonable transition can be reached, at the end, it's the poor and destitute getting squeezed. Ty for responding. Good question.
I never commented on it, but I read your blog. It hit me in a number of ways and I had to read it several times before the gravity of it all sunk in. After I finished soaking it up, I still didn't go back and comment, but it has stuck with me in my everyday actions with a lot of people since the first day it was posted.
I saw your other comment to me on this thread first and I was about to respond to it when I realized it was an "I understand" without the words. I stopped and moved on. I got here and saw it verbatim and it made me smile. The simplicity of it all. The diplomacy. Thank you. (And thank you for sharing that story, as well.)
Yes. The way we're going about it, is an economic weapon of mass destruction. It just makes them more dependent and bankrupts their struggling economy.
I don't believe that this was an accident. Nothing in politics ever happens by accident. The people who run the world aren't stupid.
Of course, of course. I knew you'd get the significance of the so subtle, " I understand ". And for a second I feared that you'd take it offensively.
I'm glad you didn't.
I do appreciate your comment on my story. I understand that like most people, we come here to get away from the daily toils and sorrows, not to read about some guys dying Padre. It is uncomfortable to comment on things like that, it requires an uncomfortable closeness.
Like driving by an accident.
I appreciate certainly, and greatly that you did. It made me feel like it mattered if only a little. Thank you.
Understand?
I understand. :)
Insightful.
We are crippling this nation by ignoring our own needs and giving too much of this aid to our sworn enemies.
