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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (13994)	5/22/2001 10:46:48 AM
From: thames_sider	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

The BBC is very good; and also, because of our <ahem> historic links with much of Africa, we tend to get a fair amount of news. The Independent newspaper, for example, is reasonable - independent.co.uk (I read this off-line); as is The Guardian guardian.co.uk. Both are centrist broadsheets, the latter more to the left. [The Telegraph and The Times are owned by super-rich, tax-evading media magnates, Black and Murdoch respectively, and no longer to be trusted to be unbiassed or objective.] It generally goes in fashions, however: some more 'newsworthy' happening - famine, a new war, flood, etc - will briefly reawaken general media interest, and then apart from those few outlets it all goes quiet...

To: epicure who wrote (13994)	5/22/2001 11:06:53 AM
From: The Philosopher	Respond to of 82486

I think it's not so much not knowing, and not really not caring, as it is a total inability to think of anything that would help. Traditional aid seems a drop in the bucket and merely temporarily alleviates rather than solving the problems--which can be good, but how long can you go on alleviating without solving? Is there any heart in the West for, say, a Yugoslavia-type action against Rwanda? We simply don't have the infrastructure or bases there to intervene militarily even if we wanted to. And whose side to you intervene on? In so many of those countries, there doesn't really seem to be a "good guy," just a choice of bad guys. The Powell doctrine absolutely forbids intervention in a place where once in place it would be impossible to withdraw for years, decades, perhaps even ever. Personally, I just feel totally burned out about Africa, with no resources left to think there is anything constructive the US can do. I do continue to support with small donations private relief organizations, and I supose they're doing some good, but it seems like bailing the Atlantic ocean into the Pacific ocean with a child's toy bucket.