I have been introduced elsewhere to Kevin Myers, a charming *spit* columnist for the Irish Independent newspaper and his educated opinion on the issues in Africa:
Africa is giving nothing to anyone -- apart from AIDS
0-Rage in 60 seconds.
OK, there is a point buried underneath the xenophobic sensationalist self-satisfied clap-trap there: There are some very deep political, ethnic and religious issues within many countries that mean giving aid in those countries is only going to be a stop gap. Reliance of forign aid instead of being able to start providing for yourself, and governing yourself, is a fail-fail situation.
But he has managed to turn a potentially intersting point into a tirade. Possibly that is his intent, to shock people into thinking 'what has worked? why and how do we get it to work?'
I doubt it. from the sounds of it he is just shit stirring to get attention.
On LJ he would be a nasty Troll to be ignored, banned & reported for abuse of Terms & conditions. then forgotten.
OK. So there are 2 points overall in this article
~ the actual issue of charity work in unstable countries
~ xenophobic scaremongering
My bias shines through. I approve of charity work in general when it focuses on either short term disaster relief, long term self-sustainability and education. It can too easily end up as a long series of hand-outs with no clear cut end in site (much like the war in Iraq). Whether this means we should / shouldn't do it is a much deeper discussion.
However what is nasty is the terms this twerp is talking in. And it isn't just Africa. Feminism in medical world a prescription for disaster ~ again, some important points (I read a BBC article on this) but twisted into a biased rant.
Edit: His wikipedia article says "His articles often offer criticism of left-wing opinion and the "liberal consensus", sometimes incorporating hyperbolic sarcasm and parody." and also mentions the Alleged Hate Speech and that the first article above has been reported as hate crime to the Garda Síochána / Irish Police
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