MEow said:While frolicking around in rec.food.cooking said:Quoted message said:So, since I can't do it perfectly, and get it 100% right, that means I shouldn't try at all?
I'm sorry, but I don't buy into that mentality.
<grins> oh, go ahead and try! but, if you're going to try, at least be _effective_ about it. Do
something about the larger problems, about all the LDCs, and you won't have people needing to
work in these factories. Try to be at least a little sensitive to people who have used their
entire lives to study how to stop these problems, and figure out who the smart ones are, and try
their solutions.... because the "solution" of "fair trade" is at best a hollow, hollow victory
echoed by the deaths of thousands of starving children (yes, starving children also have fixes...
but abortion isn't the most effective way of solving that problem _either_).
Truth is that I don't have the faintest clue what to do.
<grins> first step to learning, that.
Quoted message said:I know that just picking what you buy doesn't make much difference, and isn't nearly enough. I
even said so, myself "I generally try to shop ethically concerning the treatment of humans and
animals, but I don't think I'm managing to make much of a difference.", so don't try to tell me
that I think it solves things, or that I do so to feel "cool", because you don't have the
knowledge about my person it takes to make that kinds of judgments about me.
gotcha. Lena likes to [censored] about general categories of people, not always about individuals. And is
always glad when someone is listening...
Quoted message said:I can't save the entire planet, and you have no right to say that I ought to, because you
can't either.
Sez who I can't? You? Please... If I can save fifty people, and you can too, we be doin' pretty damn
fine, if you're askin' me. [meta-note: and you said I couldn't type in accents!].
Quoted message said:How about being constructive and tell me who the people who have worked their entire lives
studying how to stop these problems are, in stead of just criticising me for not knowing what to
do? or maybe you don't have the answers either?
Gomenasai (transl: I'm truly sorry.) I didn't mean to frustrate you. Look at what the political
scientists and economists have to say. Economists will tell you the flaws with ideas such as "fair
trade" and "minimum wage"... political scientists will look for solutions.
But, as for me, I'll continue to support "yellow rice" and other genetically engineered products
that will practically end malnutrition as we know it. also, support adding genes that will allow
cultivation in places where it isn't feasible with most ordinary crops (briny areas, fens, etc.).
[see, I can even make it food related!]
Support giving money for education in other countries, as well as allowing more of a brain drain out
of other countries (makes more sense to have all the good people in one place, than it does to have
all the smart people spread everywhere where they can't talk).
Support giving money to poor peoples disease (and not just aids...) instead of giving money to cure
cancer and other foolishness.
Support any initiatives that will allow LDCs to gain a foothold into the "civilized" parts of
the world.
And, finally, just understand the problem. It isn't just that people are willing to buy products
made with other's blood, but that we haven't figured out how to make machines cheaper than people
yet, for many products. when we do, those people will be out of jobs. starving. best we find better
uses for them than that, no?
Quoted message said:In any case, my point in the discussion was that it's entirely possible to care about both humans
and animals, nothing else.
But, at least from my perspective, the two can often conflict. Free range beef from Brazil is just
the tip of the iceberg.
Quoted message said:What do you do to solve these things?
me, I help out those who are smarter than me... and I try and inform people about stupidity,
whenever i find someone smart enough to be able to change their spots.
Lena
