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Originally written by radix malorum est cupiditas:

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Originally written by I Would Have Been Your Daddy:

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Originally written by radix malorum est cupiditas:

What are you talking about. It nearly has. Yom Kippur war, six day war, etc.

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I'm not presuming to know more about Israel's history than a citizen of Israel, but didn't the Six Day War resulted in Israel gaining a lot of territory and defeating three countries in six days? Hardly "almost destroyed".

Even the Yom Kippur War ended with not all of the territory regained, and in fact helped diplomatic relations.

In any case, nothing like open war is going to happen now. Israel has proven that it is very hard to beat in armed conflicts, and has the backing of the U.S.

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During the first four days of the six day war, Israel looked like a squashed ant. A squashed ant that somehow managed to rise up and defend itself from it's attackers agains all odds.

The Yom Kippur war was not so much a near defeat for Israel as it was a surprise. Practically no troops were on duty. They struck at the time when Israel was weakest in hopes of getting rid of it.

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Originally written by Butt Paladin:

WHY WON'T BOYS GO HOME WITH ME EVEN IF I MAKE IT CLEAR I WILL PUT OUT

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Originally written by Strontium:

Sudan is an ugly spot right about now. What is your counrty doing about it and what are you doing to move your countries policies?

Be like the US (hooray) and get it called genocide. Be like the (US) and work with an international community to pursue war crimes (see link)

http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=15298

I have advocated with my government representatives for a political statement and to fund resources for peacekeeping. I would look for you to do the same. By small steps we as an international community can show brotherhood with those who are suffering.

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Originally written by radix malorum est cupiditas:

Any muslim theocracy is a potential enemy. I don't know how long western countries can deal with them, but in Israel there are no second chances (except amongst the idiots in charge). One threat and you become what the public views as the enemy.

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Originally written by radix malorum est cupiditas:

@TM: That's wrong. Either remove the Israel statement or reinsert the word muslim.

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Originally written by Grignard:

Because you said they made a makeshift refugee camp. This is similar to the sort of civil disobedience that has invaded college campuses since the mid 60's. Simulating a refugee camp brings along the sort of problems that a real refugee camp entails, such as hygiene and general enforcement of law and order.

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Originally written by Mc 'mini' Thralni:

So. What I read until now was very interesting, and I agree with many people about specific things. I read about causes, I read about solutions. However, I can't remember reading about what the poverty is, and why its there.

What we have talked about until now, is mainly this:

"I think we should so it this way. That is because of this and this and that."

"No, I think this would be a better way, namely..."

"I agree, but..."

Now lets do it differently. lets start with these two basic questions:

1) Why are these specific people poor?
2) In what way are they poor?

Before we answer the questions however, we need to know what we are talking about. The questions will have different answers when we are talking about different countries. I say its best, like kelandon, to start with our own countries. I'll take Holland again as an example:

1) These people are poor for the simple reason that they have no work, and therefor no money. In the long run these people get thrown out of there houses, relying on charity.

2) These people have money problems. That is the only reason for them being poor, most of the time. Of course, if their parents were poor, then there is a big chance that the children will be poor too, and than the parents re at fault. However, this still boils down to one thing: money.

Now specifically the second qustion is of importance. Why? because different people have different needs. Indians in South America, whi live from hunting. Are they poor? No. The are not. Thy have water, food, and the rest they don't need. They will probably even reject money the west would give to them. Same goes for tribes in Africa, by the way.

After that we have answered these questions, then comes the time to start thinking of solutions:

3) These people are poor because of their money problems. They get thrown out of their house. This is the first step to being a tramp and living from charity. Conclusion: don't let them get thrown out of their houses. Instead, they must find themselves a good job. This brings us to a problem: most poor people have low education, as they, again, have no money to pay for it. Solution (Sovjet union had this): make schools free for the poor people, let the state pay at least a part of the sum needed for the children to go to school. that way they will have education, and thus a better chance for a good job.

I think this is the best way to start discussing the problem.

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Originally written by Dintiradan:

"Finally!" Demetrius smiled. His secret plan had finally come to fruitition. The fact that the Rashasi had decided to attack now just made him all the stronger. He had found the secret of the Red Star. The tigers were all connected to each other telepathically. Unfortunately for them, that link was the only thing about them susceptible to magic.

In a couple of hours, his sorcerors would hack into that link, and the Dominion would have its own unstoppable army with which to take over the world!

Bwuhahahahaha!!!

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I am, of course, willing to edit this post out, provided that the players in this RP actually show some interest in it! If not, well, I am perfectly happy to win by default.

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Originally written by Khoth:

I wasn't thinking you meant inflation, I was taking it to be increasing the available resources by X%, and increasing what everyone has by the same factor. If it was possible, I'd say it was a good thing. It sounds like you'd be against a (hypothetical) scheme that would give everyone enough to live on if it meant that the richest 5% became twice as rich.

I don't think having an imbalance is an intrinsically good thing, but I do think "everyone has X except for 5% who have 10X" is better than "everyone has X".

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Originally written by Kelandon:

I may be missing vital pieces of the puzzle, but I really think that our aim has to be, at first, to end destitution in our own country. Foreign aid is important, too, and I'm not saying that we should stop; I'm just saying that we can have an immediate positive impact here.

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Drew:A lot of people on this board would promote some form of communism as the cure. I don't know all that much about communism, but I'm pretty certain that every time it has been implemented in the world, it has failed, despite looking good on paper. Why has it failed? Because (a) it was quickly overwhelmed by corrupt, ambitious leaders, and (b) it reduced incentives to work hard because it rewarded all members the same no matter how much they contribute.

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Originally written by Drew:

The problem with foreign aid then is that it reduces its recipients' incentives to take steps to extract themselves out of their situations and improve their lot.

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Originally written by Dintiradan:

Perhaps I'm reading these posts wrong, but I see a lot of them proposing a single, 'nutshell' way of viewing domestic and foreign aid. You've got to assess each situation separately. You wouldn't continue giving a group of uneducated people free supplies, just as you wouldn't tell a group of people after a disaster to pick themselves up and get back to work.

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Originally written by Ash Lael:

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Originally written by The Worst Man Ever:

It's a zero-sum game, and making the poor less poor is going to take the rich being made - or becoming, by attrition - less rich.

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Yes, but that would involve a lesser imbalance as a means to an end, not an end in itself. That's an important distinction.

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Originally written by Cairo Jim:

As far as I can see, the only imbalance is the initial people who recieve wealth, such as a fwe leaders who'd rather spend the money on their own militairy and the original problem is still there.

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Originally written by Mc 'mini' Thralni:

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Originally written by The Worst Man Ever:

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Originally written by Mc 'mini' Thralni:

These countries could have been more civilized by now, if only the governments wouldn't have been giving themselves a healthy salary, paid by the US' and Europe's friendly "help-the-poor" donations.

Personally, I think that, if we want to help these people in any way, we will have to give money and people. What i mean is this: first collect money, then send people with the money to these countries, and see to it that these people who are there to give aid, spend the money efficiently.

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I've never seen someone make a good point in a more despicable, patronizing way. Congratulations, I suppose.

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personally, I don't see what's so despicable or partonizing about what I said.

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Originally written by Thuryl:

It's all very well to talk about what "we" can do, or about what world leaders can do, but the only person whose actions you have control over is yourself. So the question is: what can you, personally, do about poverty?

Well, the best thing you can do is sell everything you own, donate the proceeds to charity, buy a plane ticket to a poor country and spend the rest of your life as an aid worker.

If you're not willing to do that, stop tut-tutting about poverty and get used to being part of the problem. Thousands of people die every day as a direct result of living in poor economic conditions; unless you are spending every waking hour of your day working against poverty, you have absolutely no right to complain about others not doing enough.

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Originally written by Spring:

Personally, I think everyone should just donate at least a dollar. It would help a lot.

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Originally written by Ash Lael:

EDIT: And yes, "Mass poverty" is the issue, not "imbalance of wealth".

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Originally written by Mc 'mini' Thralni:

These countries could have been more civilized by now, if only the governments wouldn't have been giving themselves a healthy salary, paid by the US' and Europe's friendly "help-the-poor" donations.

Personally, I think that, if we want to help these people in any way, we will have to give money and people. What i mean is this: first collect money, then send people with the money to these countries, and see to it that these people who are there to give aid, spend the money efficiently.

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Originally written by Kelandon:

Um, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to order the execution of an entire race of people.

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Originally written by Spring:

おお--チンポコですね. フラ~~!!! あたしはチンポコがとてもおいしいです!!!

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Originally written by Zeviz:

[QUOTE]
PS WKS, to aviod future opportunities for creative FYTing of your posts, say "death camps", instead of "concentration camps" when talking about Holocaust. Many countries built "concentration camps" of various degrees of repulsiveness. Nazis are the only people who built "death camps" - places for killing hundreds of thousands of people with industrial efficiency. So in the future just use the term "death camps".

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Originally written by Randomizer:

Brazil built up ethanol fuels for cars by subsidizing the industry for years so energy and auto manufacturs were assured that a market would exist. By the time the Brazilian government could no longer afford to subsidize it, the infrastructure was in place. Companies could make ethanol cheap enough to beat gasoline prices and there were enough flex fuel cars to use it.

It's a pity that we don't do it. Detroit is building flex fuel cars and trucks, but outside of the midwest and northeast there aren't many places to buy it.

Reuseable resource fuels will save on transportation costs to get to remote areas. I wouldn't mind the computer powered by cranking it for a few minutes at a time instead of line current.

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Originally written by Wild Kinky Slugs:

This kind of makes me want a diesel engine. Just to try this. Diesel in and of itself should not be overlooked as an alternate energy source. Diesel engines are considerably more efficient than regular gasoline engines.

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Originally written by Cairo Jim:

I've seen an article on how two guys modified their car so it ran on recycled chip oil, and they managed to drive across the U.S. with no problems.

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Originally written by I Would Have Been Your Daddy:

I'm a fan of hydrogen fuel cells. All we need now is a reliable source of hydrogen.

There was an article in Discover about a huge factory that made usable oil from KFC's turkey guts. Gross and smelly, but it worked.

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Originally written by Cairo Jim:

What I would like to see is ice being imported from Antartcia, although it is internationaly illegal. It would release quite a few strains on fresh water, as Antarctica has most of the worlds largest amount of fresh water.

That was brought up by the fact that any thermal energy plants require an enormous amount of water as part of the process, as far as I understand.

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Originally written by Mister Fox:

Wow :eek: I didn't expect so many posts so soon.
1. I am curious about people's positions on this sort of thing, I just like to hear what people have to say and I'm not sure why.

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2. According to several psychiatrists and therapists, I'm normal. My parents tried to have me "cured" but now they just pretend I'm normal.

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[b]
3. I will clarify that I have interest in humans as friends only, but I do have a lot of human friends. I did have a hurtful relationship with a human, but I was a zoophile long before that. I've always liked animals, it just expanded when I went through puberty.

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4. I did post a story or two a while back, but I didn't think anyone would remember :P I think I only used this forum for a day or two before neglecting it for reasons I can no longer remember. I returned recently to find my account still around.

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5. About YaP's pics, whether the humans meant to or not (I'm sure they didn't) they actually were stimulating the cats. Cats have very sensative skin compared to most other animals and petting them can do things to them. I won't get into a lot of detail here.

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6. I read my old post from that link, hard to believe my posts were that short and pointless when I was 15 haha. Thought I suppose the pointlessness hasn't really left...

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Originally written by The Worst Man Ever:

it's an extreme enough deviation from the norms of human sexuality that it is almost certainly evidence of underlying psychological problems.

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