Dirt Eating Haitians

[Woody]

Today's AP report on Haiti ... says that many can barely afford to eat dirt because of an increase in the price.

The price of the edible clay has raised by $1.50 just this past year. It is now $5 for enough to make 100 dirt cookies. This compares to 60 cents for two cups of rice.

Children are complaining that the dirt causes stomach pains. But this is all that some of the poor Haitians can afford.

Just think of what the cost of just a few of the bombs that we build ... could do by going for food in Haiti.

[Stan]

Makes so our problems look small..

[Amelia]

I saw an item like this on the evening news. Only it was in Africa and the people were eating red clay. The people are eating the clay to ease hunger pangs, instead of eating food they can barely afford once a day. Many of these people are working hard during the day too. One young woman interviewed said that she was happy because she was losing weight by eating clay and that that was a good thing. Drs are reporting children with bellies full of worms from clay eating and others with intestinal blockages. It was a very sad news piece.

[Dr. Shane]

A lot of these areas have plenty of land they can grow food on but need to learn agriculture, sanitation and health principles. The meat industry doesn't help either. Many of undeveloped countries raise cattle on land they could be raising crops on. It takes 7 - 14 pounds of feed to produce one pound of beef.

Our church is making a difference.

Becoming Healthy and Prosperous in Madagascar

Quote:

By the end of the project, ADRA will have increased food accessibility for 18,000 households in communities throughout the Moramanga and Anosibe An’Ala districts of eastern Madagascar, in the Alaotra Mangoro region of central Madagascar.

ADRA Ghana supports 38 blind farmers at Karni

Quote:

The ADRA officials also educated them on the need to use improved seeds and prepare the land in line with modern trends that would increase field.

The participants were also taken through savings, record-keeping and the use of organic manure to improve yield and reduce cost of production.

ADRA does an incredible work in the developing world. They are involved with food security, basic education, economic development, health care and emergency management. It is an incredible way the Adventist church is helping people in a very real way.

[Woody]

How many pounds of feed does it take to build a bomb?

May God come quickly.

[Dr. Shane]

Apples and oranges.

The key to helping developing nations is not giving them more money. While foreign aid may help in the short term, the "key" is to help them be truly independent. Foreign aid causes dependency not independency. Our focus needs to be on agriculture, sanitation, health care and economic development. These are the very things the Seventh-day Adventist church are doing.

The idealogical argument that if the US were to quit building bombs and instead give more foreign aid to developing countries fails to take into consideration that foreign aid is short-sighted and doesn't address the root causes of the problem. Foreign aid is good for the short term but by itself will only create a dependence by the receiving nation.

[Woody]

Ok. Good Point.

[Planey]

The key to helping developing nations is not giving them more money.

[Dr. Shane]

Groups like ADRA get grants from various nations (not just the US) to do the work they do. So they are a good means of accomplishing the goal of helping these countries. Unfortunately, much of the foreign aid given to these countries is given directly to corrupt governments for political reasons. Only a faction of the aid is used to feed the people or improve the nations' infrastructure and in some cases foreign aid has actually been used to harm the people more than what they were already being harmed.

If all foreign aid was being given to groups like ADRA, Catholic Charities, Salvation Army or groups like Bono's Global Fund, then the argument that more foreign aid would help solve the developing world's problems would be much stronger. As foreign aid is distributed today, it is quite a weak argument.

[carolaa]

A lot of these areas have plenty of land they can grow food on but need to learn agriculture, sanitation and health principles. The meat industry doesn't help either. Many of undeveloped countries raise cattle on land they could be raising crops on. It takes 7 - 14 pounds of feed to produce one pound of beef.

I don't disagree with you, but there are also areas that are not suited to agriculture, and the only profitable use of them seems to be raising livestock. I wonder how suitable for agriculture the clay soil in that area would be.