Where is the love for the people in suffering?

[NewBlizzard]

Well yeah, there is all that Bilderbergish stuff. But that's not the stuff I find claustrophobic. What I detest is the minutiae of day to day household economics.

Those are not conspiracy theories, those are realities. The reality doesn't change according to whatever one feels like calling "Bilderbergish stuff".

- The US considers that more democracy in Mexico is a threat. (NAFTA was considered to be an effective device to diminish the threat of democracy.) - link
- In 1991 in Iraq, the USA prefers Saddam instead of a democratic government. (The rebelling forces in March 1991 were an alternative, but the USA preferred Saddam. There was an Iraqi democratic opposition in exile. Washington refused to have anything to do with them before, during, or after the Gulf War, and they were virtually excluded from the US media, apart from marginal dissident journals.) - link
- In 1958, the USA president Eisenhower's staff notices that "We ought to be supporting brutal and corrupt governments which prevent democracy and development because we want to control Middle East oil, and it's true that leads to a campaign of hatred against us." - link
- 1961 - The USA president Dwight Eisenhower famously warned the U.S. about the "military–industrial complex" in his farewell address. - link
- In the Guatemalan Civil War of the 1960's, the USA supported the para-military forces doing this: "In the majority of massacres there is evidence of multiple acts of savagery..Acts such as the killing of defenceless children, often by beating them against walls or throwing them alive into pits where the corpses of adults were later thrown; the amputation of limbs; the impaling of victims; the killing of persons by covering them in petrol and burning them alive; the extraction, in the presence of others, of the viscera (internal organs) of victims who were still alive; the confinement of people who had been mortally tortured, in agony for days; the opening of the wombs of pregnant women, and other similarly atrocious acts, were not only actions of extreme cruelty against the victims, but also morally degraded the perpetrators and those who inspired, ordered or tolerated these actions." - link
- "Despite his aw shucks style, Reagan found virtually every anticommunist action justified, no matter how brutal. From his eight years in the White House, there is no historical indication that he was morally troubled by the bloodbath and even genocide that occurred in Central America while he was shipping hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to the implicated forces. The death toll was staggering — an estimated 70,000 or more political killings in El Salvador, possibly 20,000 slain from the Contra war in Nicaragua, about 200 political “disappearances” in Honduras and some 100,000 people eliminated during a resurgence of political violence in Guatemala." Those people in the villages were declared "communists" because they could not agree to work like slaves for the Rockefeller's United Fruit Company, they could not stand anymore brutal dictators or they wanted a daily glass of milk for the poor children in the public schools - link
- Indonesia carried out a huge slaughter in 1977-78 in the East Timor with the decisive support of the Carter Administration - link
- In 2004, the UN and the USA refuse to protect the democratically elected president of Haiti, in front of the "National Revolutionary Front" of the gang leaders. Those gang leaders are now in power and help the West to implement "free market reforms" in their country, helping the rich to drive the population in deeper misery. - link
- 2003-present: There are lots of people who know exactly what they are doing and know exactly how this organization works, and not a single one of them, so far as I can tell, has been invited to be part of any special task force on countering ISIS. The guy who is now going to head the coalition, the special envoy, Brett McGurk—his nickname in the Green Zone is "Brett McJerk," because he was backing Maliki at a time when everyone was saying this guy is a sectarian thug; he is Saddam-lite. (Daily Beast senior editor Michael Weiss) - Video - Text

And one can always educate themselves by watching a few helpful videos like:
- Noam Chomsky: "Free Markets?" (1997)
- The Power Principle by Scott Noble (2013)

If you think any statements are conspiracy theories, you can simply say why it's that, pointing to the information debunking such claims.

 

[NewBlizzard]

Are you able to teach them how to farm?

Hello smaneck,
I think this question is not exactly thoughtful.
If I would be able to do everything on my own, then why should I try to reach others in order to share ideas and to do work together?
The (hundreds of) billions of $US spent on inefficient charity can be better spent on buying land, renting land and training the poor how to do efficient agriculture.
Also, the farmers in Africa who had their land confiscated by their governments (who are supported by the West) don't need much training, they only need their land back.

Who gives free houses to the poor? Habitat sells houses to the poor it doesn't given them away. But because, as former President Carter stated, charging interest to the poor is unbiblical, they give them an interest-free twenty year mortgage. As for renting cheap houses to the poor, I believe that is called Section 8.

As I understand, Habitat for Humanity (HfH) sells the houses at some 10% of their real price. They build a house investing $50,000 US and they sell it for $5,000 US. The recipient usually pays making an interest-free loan. So the $45,000 is supported by those making donations to HfH. Therefore they give 90% of that house for free.
I'm afraid the poor countries don't have a Section 8. The poorer a country is, the more it's government tends to give generous subventions to the rich and minuscule or no subventions at all to the poor.
Also, I live in Spain and the government's "efforts" here to help the poor to get a cheap rent are absolutely laughable.

People weren't real happy when Robert Mugabe did that.

Robert Mugabe is the president of Zimbabwe, a very corrupt country. That country's ability to provide competent training to it's farmers is very poor comparing to the Western countries. And the country's corrupt people are welcomed like kings in the West, like the corrupt leaders everywhere. And speaking about Zimbabwe, do you have indications that the life of the black small farmers in that country is much worse than the life of the farmers in Ethiopia who had their lands confiscated by a military regime supported by the UK's Department for International Development?
In February 2015, DfID has ended its financial support for a controversial development project alleged to have helped the Ethiopian government fund a brutal resettlement program - link1 - link2

Countries that do that make the poor the principle tax-payers.

Can you provide some examples? USA is such a country for example, where the poor are the main tax payers. The corporations don't have to pay taxes. They can siphon their incomes into the fiscal paradises and then they get bail-outs from the taxpayer. The public had to pay about $US 10 billion for General Motors (those money will never be returned - it was a gift, not lending). After all, those top executives must maintain their expensive lifestyle, in order to be always fresh, creative, and capable of making "intelligent decisions". Because having too much can never be enough. (Through the Troubled Asset Relief Program the US Treasury invested $49.5 billion in General Motors and recovered $39 billion when it sold its shares on December 9, 2013 resulting in a loss of $10.3 billion.) - link
Heard about corporate welfare?
As I was pointing in a previous message, the Western governments are always trying to find excuses to increase the taxes for the poor and to reduce the taxes for the rich.

You might take look at this program:
http://www.fundaec.org/en/guidingprinciples/index.htm

Thanks. If one would invite FUNDAEC to join or to create a web forum where they can share their experience and ideas and to connect with other people like them, from other parts of the world, what do you think their answer should be?

 

[NewBlizzard]

It seems to me that you want to form a movement around yourself, collecting 'disciples' to your way of life. Are you sure you don't have a messiah complex?

I really don't think that I have a messiah complex, since I am not searching for people with raw vegan diet, or with any of those personal choices enumerated there. I am looking for people interested in finding the real solutions and in sharing ideas. But I think I didn't express myself clear enough in that message, sorry for that.
I am not interested to be anyone's leader, I am not looking for leaders or followers, I am just looking for partners. No "alpha male instinct" involved here.

 

[NewBlizzard]

Works for me. The government is the best single source of money that circulates within the domestic economy. All you need to capture it as it passes is a job. Once you have job you're on the way; no college needed if your goal is wealth.

Unfortunately it doesn't work in the poor countries. The governments are paying there miserable wages. If you get to a public hospital with an emergency and you don't pay a bribe to the doctor, they will refuse to give you the most basic help and they will let you die. Such a sickening environment is encouraged by the miserable wages payed by the governments to their workers.

 

[NewBlizzard]

The liberals would never agree with my ideas (they are in control of the agencies that 'help' the poor). So while my ideas would make interesting conversation nothing would ever become of them. So there it is.

Not when you find enough people who share your idea. That's why we have to offer a common meeting place to the charitable people from everywhere in the world.
At very least, those living close can get together and implement a system based on such ideas between themselves.

 

[NewBlizzard]

The money grabbers don't want us farming and recycling. The very worst thing for them is human self-sufficiency. If we're contained in a state of total addiction to, and dependence on, purchased 'life' (food, utilities, clothing, housing, etc), we keep lining their pockets as per slaves.

I completely agree with that, and that's why I think that the people like me and you should try to find the others who already understand that and then together to search for ways to help the rest of the public to understand such things. I think the world has a lot to learn from the Jewish communities: they get together, they live close in Jewish quarters, they help each others, and they tend to be more united than many other communities. Others can also do similar things.

 

[NewBlizzard]

I have been (successful - money wise, if nothing else), but still find the topic mind snappingly dull. I don't mind the big economics of change, but can't stand the coalface, day to day stuff. I have a friend who owns a very successful business, and has run it at a great profit for the past 20 years without ever thinking about money. And I mean that quite literally. He doesn't budget, forecast, plan, or analyse. He has no computer, no credit card or debit card facilities, and doesn't obtain receipts for his (always cash) purchases. He bought the old building in which he trades for a song, and just muddles through. His talent, or skill, is in the product he trades. He is so prodigiously clever in his field that lack of accountancy has little. if any, negative impact. Another friend is actually a degree qualified accountant (shudder), yet is barely staying afloat in the business she paid $800k for. She lacked the imagination and talent to develop her own ideas, so paid for someone else's. Now, despite three years of very careful management, she's probably going to have to sell at a huge loss.

Off topic, apologies to OP

No need to apologize. I think that the activists and the charitable people should have some good understanding of economy anyways.
The more technology we use, the easier it becomes to produce everything the community needs, using less workers. Once the government are properly collecting taxes, the rest of the people, instead of receiving welfare, they can be employed by the governments in order to do research, space exploration, space colonization, educational resources like documentary movies, encyclopedias and many other things like those. Such things do not require any communism - the USA government is paying a lot of money for research for example.
Not everybody has to be good in doing business. Those without predisposition or talent for running their own business can be engaged in all kind of educational and scientific research projects. Researchers need a lot of materials, and therefore there is plenty work to do for those not directly involved into doing the research, by producing the materials needed by the research projects.
Not everyone has to become a successful businessman/businesswoman.

 

[smaneck]

As I understand, Habitat for Humanity (HfH) sells the houses at some 10% of their real price.

You got it wrong. President Carter says the houses are sold at full market value, but the mortgages are interest free, in the end they pay considerably less.

Also, I live in Spain and the government's "efforts" here to help the poor to get a cheap rent are absolutely laughable.

Awe, so all this is from a global perspective.

USA is such a country for example, where the poor are the main tax payers.

On the local level, yes. On the state level, sometimes. On the federal level, almost never.

Thanks. If one would invite FUNDAEC to join or to create a web forum where they can share their experience and ideas and to connect with other people like them, from other parts of the world, what do you think their answer should be?

They are probably already doing that as an NGO to the United Nations.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

No need to apologize. I think that the activists and the charitable people should have some good understanding of economy anyways.
The more technology we use, the easier it becomes to produce everything the community needs, using less workers. Once the government are properly collecting taxes, the rest of the people, instead of receiving welfare, they can be employed by the governments in order to do research, space exploration, space colonization, educational resources like documentary movies, encyclopedias and many other things like those. Such things do not require any communism - the USA government is paying a lot of money for research for example.
Not everybody has to be good in doing business. Those without predisposition or talent for running their own business can be engaged in all kind of educational and scientific research projects. Researchers need a lot of materials, and therefore there is plenty work to do for those not directly involved into doing the research, by producing the materials needed by the research projects.
Not everyone has to become a successful businessman/businesswoman.

With due respect for your optimism and altruism I believe we're past the tipping point, in that our problems are now virtually unsolvable. Just as a metaphor I once planted a garden that was so huge that it was impossible to maintain it or to harvest it properly. This is what we have built.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Unfortunately it doesn't work in the poor countries. The governments are paying there miserable wages. If you get to a public hospital with an emergency and you don't pay a bribe to the doctor, they will refuse to give you the most basic help and they will let you die. Such a sickening environment is encouraged by the miserable wages payed by the governments to their workers.

Helping 'poor countries' is not even on my list of priorities. After taking care of myself, my family, and my community there's nothing left for the needy in foreign lands. Most people can barely take care of themselves and those close to them as it is. Many of the world's poor are just SOL.

 

[LOVEthroughINTELLECT]

Hello everyone,

I think that helping the people in need is absolutely the normal thing to do for Christians, and for the religious people in general. I'm not sure if the Bible is specifically asking to help those in need, but at least Jesus was helping the people who were in suffering, and I think that the Christians are supposed to follow his example.

Many times I realize that most of the problems in this world can be easily solved if some groups of people would try to really help those in need. Most of the time I see governments, charities and religious organizations coming with some relief for those in trouble, but they are never coming with some genuine solutions.

These are a few things that the charitable people (especially those living in the West) can do for those in need:
- Instead of giving free food to the poor and unemployed, they can buy land and rent the land to the poor for very cheap, so the land will give a job to those people.
- Instead of giving free houses to the poor, they can rent cheap housing to the poor, so the poor won't be easy prey for the real estate speculators, having no money left to buy food after paying their rents.
- Instead of sending free food to African countries, they should pressure the African governments to make land reforms and to give land to the poor, so the land will give jobs to those poor people. This is what the government of (capitalist) Taiwan did in 1950's, to great success. Or better, the governments should rent the land to the poor.

I understand that the governments represent the interests of the rich and especially of the super-rich, and not the interests of their people. I also do understand that the biggest charities are not created by grassroots movements, they do not represent the people and those charities are in fact created by the super-rich people, the same people who are making money from slavery, exploitation, war, and a lot of human misery.
So I understand why they act like that.

But what about religious communities? Why aren't they significantly different? I would gladly and generously support projects that come with real solutions, with both time and money, but I can't find such projects, not even in religious communities.

Why do you think is that?

If there is a God, I don't think that God is somehow dumb - by the contrary, he can properly judge people. He can clearly see how honest the everyone is when they help others and when they just claim they want to help others.

I am trying to do my best to make sure that I am as clean as possible in face of such a judgement - no matter it comes from God or from other people or from my own consciousness. I am trying to find and to create such projects that come with real solutions for the people in need. I'm already involved into many things that I'm not going to enumerate them in this post.

So I would like to ask as many people as I can reach to try to participate into creating projects that come with solutions for the people in need. It doesn't matter who creates and manages those projects. I want to participate and I want to call others to participate. And I dare to say that I think that every religious person should do that too. Because God is not stupid for sure. He can see if a person really has a hearth for the poor or just pretends to have a heart for them.

There are many ideas and projects that the people can do in order to make this world a better place to live, a real home for the people living on this planet, if only the people would bother to gather such ideas, to discuss them and then to try to materialize them.

If anyone is interested to participate into such things, then please let me know. There is always something to do or at least some very valuable ideas to share.

I'm sorry for posting such a long message but I could not make it shorter. I am not trying to change the world, I know that's not possible, but I just want to do my job as a human being, to make sure I did my best to try to make a difference.

Thanks for reading this message!

Read Grassroots Post-Modernism: Remaking the Soil of Cultures, by Gustavo Esteva and Madhu Suri Prakash. There is now a 2014 edition, I believe. I read the 1998 edition.

The book is a riveting account of what the authors believe to be a post-modern epic unfolding at the grassroots among the oppressed people who make up the overwhelming majority of the human population and who have only suffered from modernity and its encroachment through globalization. They offer as evidence a breathtaking account of the First Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism.

It sounds like you are wittingly or unwittingly calling for everybody to act within the development paradigm that has dominated Western thinking for several decades now. Grassroots Post-Modernism asserts that the world's oppressed majority are moving beyond that and regenerating their local natural and cultural spaces.

My advice is to give up the ethnocentric modernist/Enlightenment fantasy of improving every square inch of the globe through Western institutions and belief systems. Defend the right that indigenous peoples have to their own cultures; respect their ability to take care of their own selves; and understand that real change and real improvements are going to originate locally/internally, not in the minds of outsiders.

 

[stevevw]

Hello everyone,

I think that helping the people in need is absolutely the normal thing to do for Christians, and for the religious people in general. I'm not sure if the Bible is specifically asking to help those in need, but at least Jesus was helping the people who were in suffering, and I think that the Christians are supposed to follow his example.

Many times I realize that most of the problems in this world can be easily solved if some groups of people would try to really help those in need. Most of the time I see governments, charities and religious organizations coming with some relief for those in trouble, but they are never coming with some genuine solutions.

These are a few things that the charitable people (especially those living in the West) can do for those in need:
- Instead of giving free food to the poor and unemployed, they can buy land and rent the land to the poor for very cheap, so the land will give a job to those people.
- Instead of giving free houses to the poor, they can rent cheap housing to the poor, so the poor won't be easy prey for the real estate speculators, having no money left to buy food after paying their rents.
- Instead of sending free food to African countries, they should pressure the African governments to make land reforms and to give land to the poor, so the land will give jobs to those poor people. This is what the government of (capitalist) Taiwan did in 1950's, to great success. Or better, the governments should rent the land to the poor.

I understand that the governments represent the interests of the rich and especially of the super-rich, and not the interests of their people. I also do understand that the biggest charities are not created by grassroots movements, they do not represent the people and those charities are in fact created by the super-rich people, the same people who are making money from slavery, exploitation, war, and a lot of human misery.
So I understand why they act like that.

But what about religious communities? Why aren't they significantly different? I would gladly and generously support projects that come with real solutions, with both time and money, but I can't find such projects, not even in religious communities.

Why do you think is that?

If there is a God, I don't think that God is somehow dumb - by the contrary, he can properly judge people. He can clearly see how honest the everyone is when they help others and when they just claim they want to help others.

I am trying to do my best to make sure that I am as clean as possible in face of such a judgement - no matter it comes from God or from other people or from my own consciousness. I am trying to find and to create such projects that come with real solutions for the people in need. I'm already involved into many things that I'm not going to enumerate them in this post.

So I would like to ask as many people as I can reach to try to participate into creating projects that come with solutions for the people in need. It doesn't matter who creates and manages those projects. I want to participate and I want to call others to participate. And I dare to say that I think that every religious person should do that too. Because God is not stupid for sure. He can see if a person really has a hearth for the poor or just pretends to have a heart for them.

There are many ideas and projects that the people can do in order to make this world a better place to live, a real home for the people living on this planet, if only the people would bother to gather such ideas, to discuss them and then to try to materialize them.

If anyone is interested to participate into such things, then please let me know. There is always something to do or at least some very valuable ideas to share.

I'm sorry for posting such a long message but I could not make it shorter. I am not trying to change the world, I know that's not possible, but I just want to do my job as a human being, to make sure I did my best to try to make a difference.

Thanks for reading this message!

Great post and I think there are a couple of points I would like to make. first off one of the greatest commandments that Jesus told was to love others as you love yourself. Jesus said that this commandment and to love God with all your heart and strength were the two greatest commandments which covered all the laws of God. So its up there as very important and there is good reason. Most of what we do involves others so sin and evil is normally about something to do towards others. When you love others you are not going to sin. But you are also going to be proactive and do good in many ways. So its not only preventive of evil, its also inventive of good.

There are many religious charities out there doing good as well as non religious. Research shows that people involved in religious activities are more likely to be charitable. So being involved in a belief in God who tells us things like what Jesus tells us about helping the needy is important and makes a difference. Non religious charities do a lot of good as well and anyone who helps others with a genuine heart is like what Jesus said whether they belong to a religion or not and is doing good in Gods eyes. But inevitably I believe there is the influence of secular ideas about materialism and commercialism that can be a big factor in diverting people away from the type of sacrifices God asks of us.

In saying that there are religions who have a foot in both sides of the fence and dont give as much as they should. They hoard material wealth while people go hungry and suffer, If we were to truly be like Jesus said then we should be seeing simple church houses with people that dont reflect all the trappings of a material society rather than ones that seem to look like they are more like a profitable company showing off its wealth. Let them all sell their investment properties and portfolios and build those cheap houses and buy that cheap land for the needy. Better still use what they already have and turn it into cheap housing, rehabs, soup kitchens, nursing homes, mental institutions for the needy.

 

[Extraneous]

Just to answer the question in the title-

Its the fault of teachers and their followers who have itching ears. People dont care about helping others because they are too busy wanting government to help them instead. This however doesn't reflect the spirit filled Church we see in Acts 4

They are also too busy worrying about living the abundant life on earth. They want to live like some Old Testament king instead of living like the King of Kings, who was poor, not rich. This however doesn't reflect the spirit filled Church we see in Acts 4

Just my fallible observation

 

[smaneck]

With due respect for your optimism and altruism I believe we're past the tipping point, in that our problems are now virtually unsolvable. Just as a metaphor I once planted a garden that was so huge that it was impossible to maintain it or to harvest it properly. This is what we have built.

It can seem that way, but we are in a much better position to solve these problems than we were in any other time in human history.

 

[NewBlizzard]

You got it wrong. President Carter says the houses are sold at full market value, but the mortgages are interest free, in the end they pay considerably less.

And how does your statement answer to what I said? Habitat for Humanity (HfH) is an NGO. When they build a house in Ecuador for example, paying for materials and for work $US 50,000 and sell it to poor people for $US 5,000 they don't have to consider what president Carter said.

On the local level, yes. On the state level, sometimes. On the federal level, almost never.

Can you please provide some indications (web links for example) to back up this claim? Who was paying the money for the "too big to fail" (TARP) program for example?

They are probably already doing that as an NGO to the United Nations.

That's not how you reach other people. UN has a high degree of bureaucracy and I've never heard of the UN working with any country to implement land reforms in order to allow the poor people to become small farmers and I've never heard of the UN trying to do any credible efforts to help the small farmers.
By the contrary, the UN represents the will of the powerful Western countries, and the West wants to and also works very hard to remove small farms in the poor countries and to replace them with palm tree plantations, coconut tree plantations, biofuel plantations, and with big farms of inherently inefficient crops like cereals and grains.
So, no, working with the UN is definitely not a good idea if you want to reach other people, and if you want to connect people doing similar things.
But opening a web forum is a good idea for reaching other people.

 

[NewBlizzard]

With due respect for your optimism and altruism I believe we're past the tipping point, in that our problems are now virtually unsolvable. Just as a metaphor I once planted a garden that was so huge that it was impossible to maintain it or to harvest it properly. This is what we have built.

So you can scale it down. The rest of the land - give it back to the wild.

And I am not being optimistic at all. In fact I am quite uneasy about the direction we are going. I am just doing what my consciousness tells me that I have to do. So I can sleep better in the night.

And I think that in general, the terms of being selfish and altruistic are vastly misunderstood or at very least they are not explored at all. If you are selfish in an intelligent way, then you help your friends and neighbors when they are in need. So they will help you back in return, when you are down. What it looks like naive altruism to others can be in fact pure, pragmatic selfishness. If one is not altruistic or is even being selfish - I can agree with that. Just be wise, realistic and pragmatic in your selfishness, that's all.

 

[NewBlizzard]

It can seem that way, but we are in a much better position to solve these problems than we were in any other time in human history.

I can not agree more. We are in fact living the best times in history. I am not optimistic about how the things evolve in this world, but the fact is that never in the history of humanity the people had so many chances to afford to survive like they have today, never there were so few wars and conflicts, never there was as much medical care and education available as today, and the list can continue.
Not to speak about communication, of course. Today, thanks to the internet and to forums like this, people around the world can find and share extremely valuable information, learning in a few years what their ancestors could not learn in 20 human lives.
It would be very sad if the humanity would lose this great, unprecedented opportunity, to build a sustainable existence.

 

[NewBlizzard]

Helping 'poor countries' is not even on my list of priorities. After taking care of myself, my family, and my community there's nothing left for the needy in foreign lands. Most people can barely take care of themselves and those close to them as it is. Many of the world's poor are just SOL.

Those poor countries are also part of your community. We all live in the global village. The fact that there is a distance of 10,000 kilometers instead of 100 meters between you and your neighbor doesn't change much.

We, the Westerners, are sucking the blood of the people living in the third world. And we are welcoming their corrupt politicians and organized crime leaders in our countries - like kings. We just have to stop doing that.
And we can also pressure the governments of those countries to stop destroying their own people and to start helping them. Land reforms and real free market reforms would be a very good start.
We can do all that without spending any money. By the contrary, we can save a lot of money. Because, as one internet commentator noticed with remarkable insight: "Foreign aid (as it is today) = taking money from poor people in rich countries and giving it to rich people in poor countries."

As I said in a previous message, this is nothing about trying to change the world by oneself. Most of the people adopt a passive attitude claiming that it's no use to do anything because "you can't change anything". And that's fundamentally wrong - The situation doesn't improve because everyone think and say that in the first place.
If you walk in the street and see a group of adults abusing a child, you have to try to save that child. Either directly or indirectly, by calling the police. If you are not doing it, then I can guarantee that you won't be able to sleep very well in the night.
The same thing happens with the third world: our leaders abuse it as much as they please, and they are always teaching us that such abuses are beneficial to everyone. If you stop supporting such abuses, then you can better sleep in the night. And that would make your life more meaningful and colorful.
So it's highly impractical to do nothing for the poor people from remote areas.

 

[NewBlizzard]

Read Grassroots Post-Modernism: Remaking the Soil of Cultures, by Gustavo Esteva and Madhu Suri Prakash. There is now a 2014 edition, I believe. I read the 1998 edition.

The book is a riveting account of what the authors believe to be a post-modern epic unfolding at the grassroots among the oppressed people who make up the overwhelming majority of the human population and who have only suffered from modernity and its encroachment through globalization. They offer as evidence a breathtaking account of the First Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism.

Thanks for the info, I will have a look at it.
I am really skeptical about such movements though.
Some years ago I've contacted the people at the Occupy Wall Street, to try to start collaborative efforts together.
I am not a communist at all, but I am very enthusiastic about any honest effort to develop collaborative projects like for example cooperatives where the benefits are decently shared between participants.
I was trying to convince them to start cooperatives (for example small farms) in order to grow solutions. In 2012 (How to create democratically run workplaces and communities) and again in 2014 (Why you don't build cooperatives?) but the answers were somewhat less than encouraging, so to speak.
Also I've asked them to start an encyclopedia of human exploitation in 2015 (How about an encyclopedia of human exploitation?), also to no effect.
The sad reality is that, when the people feel too oppressed, they go out in the street, protesting and they talk about beautiful concepts like "unity", "solidarity", "cooperation", and so on. But in reality, all those claims are nothing else than empty words. I really wish I am wrong, but other than protesting, I've never seen such groups of people trying to actually build something meaningful together.

It sounds like you are wittingly or unwittingly calling for everybody to act within the development paradigm that has dominated Western thinking for several decades now. Grassroots Post-Modernism asserts that the world's oppressed majority are moving beyond that and regenerating their local natural and cultural spaces.

Sounds wonderful and fantastic, however in reality such things are completely not existent.

My advice is to give up the ethnocentric modernist/Enlightenment fantasy of improving every square inch of the globe through Western institutions and belief systems.

Excuse me but this really looks like a standard answer you already have prepared, and nothing to do with the things I said. I have already stated it clearly that "I am not trying to change the world, I know that's not possible, but I just want to do my job as a human being, to make sure I did my best to try to make a difference." Where is that "ethnocentric modernist/Enlightenment fantasy of improving every square inch of the globe through Western institutions and belief systems"? Because I completely fail to see them.

Defend the right that indigenous peoples have to their own cultures; respect their ability to take care of their own selves;

That's exactly what I am doing when suggesting land reforms for them (so they can take care of their own selves through small farming) and when suggesting to stop buying slave-made products. I said those things right in my first post, are you sure you are answering to me and not to an imaginary interlocutor?

and understand that real change and real improvements are going to originate locally/internally, not in the minds of outsiders.

I am sorry for having to say this but I find your statement extremely insensitive and highly cynical.
Those poor people are exploited by our companies or by their own corrupt officials and "businessmen" (who we welcomed here in the West like kings) and have no time to properly think. Their lives are ruined. They have to work all day, they are constantly threatened and pressured by corrupt officials, police, criminal gangs (who work hand in hand with the police most of the time), living in terror, having to deal with anxiety, depression, insecurity, panic attacks and other psychological disorders which lead to physical health problems too.
In such conditions, for most of them, it's almost impossible to put themselves together and to think properly. They lack the peace of mind necessary for building a coherent discourse.
Your statement is just another form of the Western cynical mindset of "if you work hard you will make it". After working those poor people to death, the Westerners are ready to tell them (or to their families) that "they didn't make it because they didn't work hard enough."
After destroying their peace of mind they need in order to generate ideas with their own minds, we ask them to generate such ideas.
This is the apex of (and resumes very well) the Western cynical mindset that our Western governments are carefully cultivating into the minds of their people.

It was our idea to steal the peace of mind from those poor people in the first place, so we are supposed to give it back now. Only after that we can ask them to think for themselves.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Those poor countries are also part of your community. We all live in the global village. The fact that there is a distance of 10,000 kilometers instead of 100 meters between you and your neighbor doesn't change much.

We, the Westerners, are sucking the blood of the people living in the third world. And we are welcoming their corrupt politicians and organized crime leaders in our countries - like kings. We just have to stop doing that.
And we can also pressure the governments of those countries to stop destroying their own people and to start helping them. Land reforms and real free market reforms would be a very good start.
We can do all that without spending any money. By the contrary, we can save a lot of money. Because, as one internet commentator noticed with remarkable insight: "Foreign aid (as it is today) = taking money from poor people in rich countries and giving it to rich people in poor countries."

As I said in a previous message, this is nothing about trying to change the world by oneself. Most of the people adopt a passive attitude claiming that it's no use to do anything because "you can't change anything". And that's fundamentally wrong - The situation doesn't improve because everyone think and say that in the first place.
If you walk in the street and see a group of adults abusing a child, you have to try to save that child. Either directly or indirectly, by calling the police. If you are not doing it, then I can guarantee that you won't be able to sleep very well in the night.
The same thing happens with the third world: our leaders abuse it as much as they please, and they are always teaching us that such abuses are beneficial to everyone. If you stop supporting such abuses, then you can better sleep in the night. And that would make your life more meaningful and colorful.
So it's highly impractical to do nothing for the poor people from remote areas.

My rationale for helping others is to make sure I've done everything I can for myself, those close to me, and my community. Beyond that I trust that the various aid agencies; government, churches, or NGO's, will use the money we give them in the wisest way to help foreign peoples.

That said I stand ready to share my experiences with any individual who genuinely wishes to improve their lives.