---

No. It will not do. Even as we see African states refusing to take
action to restore something resembling civilisation in Zimbabwe, the
begging bowl for Ethiopia is being passed around to us, yet again. It
is nearly 25 years since Ethiopia's (and Bob Geldof's) famous Feed The
World campaign, and in that time Ethiopia's population has grown from
33.5 million to 78 million today.

So why on earth should I do anything to encourage further catastrophic
demographic growth in that country? Where is the logic? There is none.
To be sure, there are two things saying that logic doesn't count.

One is my conscience, and the other is the picture, yet again, of
another wide-eyed child, yet again, gazing, yet again, at the camera,
which yet again, captures the tragedy of . . .

Sorry. My conscience has toured this territory on foot and
financially. Unlike most of you, I have been to Ethiopia; like most of
you, I have stumped up the loot to charities to stop starvation there.
The wide-eyed boy-child we saved, 20 years or so ago, is now a
priapic, Kalashnikov-bearing hearty, siring children whenever the whim
takes him.

There is, no doubt a good argument why we should prolong this
predatory and dysfunctional economic, social and sexual system; but I
do not know what it is. There is, on the other hand, every reason not
to write a column like this.

It will win no friends, and will provoke the self-righteous wrath of,
well, the self-righteous, letter-writing wrathful, a species which
never fails to contaminate almost every debate in Irish life with its
sneers and its moral superiority. It will also probably enrage some of
the finest men in Irish life, like John O'Shea, of Goal; and the
Finucane brothers, men whom I admire enormously. So be it.

But, please, please, you self-righteously wrathful, spare me mention
of our own Famine, with this or that lazy analogy. There is no
comparison. Within 20 years of the Famine, the Irish population was
down by 30pc. Over the equivalent period, thanks to western food, the
Mercedes 10-wheel truck and the Lockheed Hercules, Ethiopia's has more
than doubled.

Alas, that wretched country is not alone in its madness. Somewhere,
over the rainbow, lies Somalia, another fine land of violent,
Kalashnikov-toting, khat-chewing, girl-circumcising, permanently
tumescent layabouts.

Indeed, we now have almost an entire continent of sexually

hyperactive indigents, with tens of millions of people who only
survive because of help from the outside world.

This dependency has not stimulated political prudence or commonsense.
Indeed, voodoo idiocy seems to be in the ascendant, with the next
president of South Africa being a firm believer in the efficacy of a
little tap water on the post-coital penis as a sure preventative
against infection. Needless to say, poverty, hunger and societal
meltdown have not prevented idiotic wars involving Tigre, Uganda,
Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea etcetera.

Broad brush-strokes, to be sure. But broad brush-strokes are often the
way that history paints its gaudier, if more decisive, chapters.
Japan, China, Russia, Korea, Poland, Germany, Vietnam, Laos and
Cambodia in the 20th century have endured worse broad brush-strokes
than almost any part of Africa.

They are now -- one way or another -- virtually all giving aid to or
investing in Africa, whereas Africa, with its vast savannahs and its
lush pastures, is giving almost nothing to anyone, apart from AIDS.

Meanwhile, Africa's peoples are outstripping their resources, and
causing catastrophic ecological degradation. By 2050, the population
of Ethiopia will be 177 million: The equivalent of France, Germany and
Benelux today, but located on the parched and increasingly protein-
free wastelands of the Great Rift Valley.

So, how much sense does it make for us actively to increase the adult
population of what is already a vastly over-populated, environmentally
devastated and economically dependent country?

How much morality is there in saving an Ethiopian child from
starvation today, for it to survive to a life of brutal circumcision,
poverty, hunger, violence and sexual abuse, resulting in another half-
dozen such wide-eyed children, with comparably jolly little lives
ahead of them? Of course, it might make you feel better, which is a
prime reason for so much charity. But that is not good enough.

For self-serving generosity has been one of the curses of Africa. It
has sustained political systems which would otherwise have collapsed.

It prolonged the Eritrean-Ethiopian war by nearly a decade. It is
inspiring Bill Gates' programme to rid the continent of malaria, when,
in the almost complete absence of personal self-discipline, that
disease is one of the most efficacious forms of population-control now
operating.

If his programme is successful, tens of millions of children who would
otherwise have died in infancy will survive to adulthood, he boasts.
Oh good: then what?I know. Let them all come here. Yes, that's an
idea.

---

On 13 Dec, 10:41, "." <bbbbbdfgdfgdgd...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> No. It will not do. Even as we see African states refusing to take
> action to restore something resembling civilisation in Zimbabwe, the
> begging bowl for Ethiopia is being passed around to us, yet again. It
> is nearly 25 years since Ethiopia's (and Bob Geldof's) famous Feed The
> World campaign, and in that time Ethiopia's population has grown from
> 33.5 million to 78 million today.
>
> So why on earth should I do anything to encourage further catastrophic
> demographic growth in that country? Where is the logic? There is none.
> To be sure, there are two things saying that logic doesn't count.
>
> One is my conscience, and the other is the picture, yet again, of
> another wide-eyed child, yet again, gazing, yet again, at the camera,
> which yet again, captures the tragedy of . . .
>
> Sorry. My conscience has toured this territory on foot and
> financially. Unlike most of you, I have been to Ethiopia; like most of
> you, I have stumped up the loot to charities to stop starvation there.
> The wide-eyed boy-child we saved, 20 years or so ago, is now a
> priapic, Kalashnikov-bearing hearty, siring children whenever the whim
> takes him.
>
> There is, no doubt a good argument why we should prolong this
> predatory and dysfunctional economic, social and sexual system; but I
> do not know what it is. There is, on the other hand, every reason not
> to write a column like this.
>
> It will win no friends, and will provoke the self-righteous wrath of,
> well, the self-righteous, letter-writing wrathful, a species which
> never fails to contaminate almost every debate in Irish life with its
> sneers and its moral superiority. It will also probably enrage some of
> the finest men in Irish life, like John O'Shea, of Goal; and the
> Finucane brothers, men whom I admire enormously. So be it.
>
> But, please, please, you self-righteously wrathful, spare me mention
> of our own Famine, with this or that lazy analogy. There is no
> comparison. Within 20 years of the Famine, the Irish population was
> down by 30pc. Over the equivalent period, thanks to western food, the
> Mercedes 10-wheel truck and the Lockheed Hercules, Ethiopia's has more
> than doubled.
>
> Alas, that wretched country is not alone in its madness. Somewhere,
> over the rainbow, lies Somalia, another fine land of violent,
> Kalashnikov-toting, khat-chewing, girl-circumcising, permanently
> tumescent layabouts.
>
> Indeed, we now have almost an entire continent of sexually
>
> hyperactive indigents, with tens of millions of people who only
> survive because of help from the outside world.
>
> This dependency has not stimulated political prudence or commonsense.
> Indeed, voodoo idiocy seems to be in the ascendant, with the next
> president of South Africa being a firm believer in the efficacy of a
> little tap water on the post-coital penis as a sure preventative
> against infection. Needless to say, poverty, hunger and societal
> meltdown have not prevented idiotic wars involving Tigre, Uganda,
> Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea etcetera.
>
> Broad brush-strokes, to be sure. But broad brush-strokes are often the
> way that history paints its gaudier, if more decisive, chapters.
> Japan, China, Russia, Korea, Poland, Germany, Vietnam, Laos and
> Cambodia in the 20th century have endured worse broad brush-strokes
> than almost any part of Africa.
>
> They are now -- one way or another -- virtually all giving aid to or
> investing in Africa, whereas Africa, with its vast savannahs and its
> lush pastures, is giving almost nothing to anyone, apart from AIDS.
>
> Meanwhile, Africa's peoples are outstripping their resources, and
> causing catastrophic ecological degradation. By 2050, the population
> of Ethiopia will be 177 million: The equivalent of France, Germany and
> Benelux today, but located on the parched and increasingly protein-
> free wastelands of the Great Rift Valley.
>
> So, how much sense does it make for us actively to increase the adult
> population of what is already a vastly over-populated, environmentally
> devastated and economically dependent country?
>
> How much morality is there in saving an Ethiopian child from
> starvation today, for it to survive to a life of brutal circumcision,
> poverty, hunger, violence and sexual abuse, resulting in another half-
> dozen such wide-eyed children, with comparably jolly little lives
> ahead of them? Of course, it might make you feel better, which is a
> prime reason for so much charity. But that is not good enough.
>
> For self-serving generosity has been one of the curses of Africa. It
> has sustained political systems which would otherwise have collapsed.
>
> It prolonged the Eritrean-Ethiopian war by nearly a decade. It is
> inspiring Bill Gates' programme to rid the continent of malaria, when,
> in the almost complete absence of personal self-discipline, that
> disease is one of the most efficacious forms of population-control now
> operating.
>
> If his programme is successful, tens of millions of children who would
> otherwise have died in infancy will survive to adulthood, he boasts.
> Oh good: then what?I know. Let them all come here. Yes, that's an
> idea.

Racist dimwit.
Why don't you dare using your name?