Do you really care.....

ninerbuff said:

Lol, do you realize how much money there is at the vatican in gold? If being "humble and meek" is what is being preached, this ain't a good example of it. Imagine how many people could be helped if that money was used correctly.

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I get it and understand how meaningless money actually is for helping others. I am also an ex catholic and understand what catholic's preach.

I also understand that no human catholic or not pactices what they preach or cares for others more than themselves. Because of this condition we will always have poverty, hunger and wars. As a human you have the right to complain about it and do nothing even the catholics.

By the way America is a christian country and gives far more money than any other rich country to aid others yet the other rich countries are all less christian and more atheist. In fact the population of the United States not the government is actually the biggest contributor to charity in the world and it is mostly religious.

bobhikes said:

I get it and understand how meaningless money actually is for helping others. I am also an ex catholic and understand what catholic's preach.

I also understand that no human catholic or not pactices what they preach or cares for others more than themselves. Because of this condition we will always have poverty, hunger and wars. As a human you have the right to complain about it and do nothing even the catholics.

By the way America is a christian country and gives far more money than any other rich country to aid others yet the other rich countries are all less christian and more atheist. In fact the population of the United States not the government is actually the biggest contributor to charity in the world and it is mostly religious.

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That's because they can get a tax write off for it.

dmgdnooc said:

I'm a sucker for children's charities and support several on a monthly or quarterly basis.
I do refuse unsolicited requests if the charity is overtly religious oriented or less than 80% of donations get to the field.
　
It is not religion that drives the 3rd Word birth rate.
The pressures to have children that operate in 3rd World countries are quite different to those that operate in the West.
There is a higher infant mortality rate which encourages more births.
A non-mechanised agricultural economy requires more hands to work the soil.
A lack of social services creates the need for a larger family as a hedge against the deprivations of old age.
Sex education and availability of contraceptives is rudimentary.
　
Yet despite the cultural differences that these factors contribute to when food security is achieved with a degree of affluence, social services programmes are implimented and education becomes readily available, family size decreases and begins to approach the Western norm.
It is easy for Westerners to criticise the birth rate of the 3rd World when the judgements being made take no account of the different pressures that apply.
If the West made concerted effort to address the underlying economic reasons for the 3rd World's birth rate the population pressures would level out fairly quickly.
　
This is not new knowledge, not a secret thing, this was economics 101 in the mid 70s.
It was established fact then; and then was when it could have been most easily addressed.
Our fkd-in-the-head, shoot-ourselves-in-the-foot, exploit-em-and-run, politics has created the march to a world population of 10 billion souls.
It is our fault, not theirs, if you can see it.

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Very well said and will probably be glossed over because it would require humility. But also bear in mind, some of the posters are referring to Westerners, probably minorities that just push em out and smoke and drink and party and collect big government checks due to their arrogance, stupidity and the joy of being on welfare.

TJ73 said:

Very well said and will probably be glossed over because it would require humility. But also bear in mind, some of the posters are referring to Westerners, probably minorities that just push em out and smoke and drink and party and collect big government checks due to their arrogance, stupidity and the joy of being on welfare.

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Thanks.
Yeah, well, I chose not to address that side of it.
And it seems to me that looting the Vatican to address the US's, UK's, Oz's etc social problems would be a mis-application of good loot.

ninerbuff said:

about starving children? If you really do what are you doing to reduce it? If you aren't doing anything, then you really don't care at all.
I support through doctorsoftheworld.org since my parents were in the medical field.

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We do what we can afford. It is the middle of the month, and we have less than $20.00 to our names until Feb. 1
When I was single, I sponsored a child in Save The Children- from Thailand.

You're right, I guess I don't care very much. Sure, if I came across a hungry person I'd feed them, but there are billions of people in the world. Most of those people are going to have real trouble getting enough to eat from now until the human population peaks and begins to decline, due to climate change causing more flooding and drought, water scarcity and other factors. I do what I can to reduce my consumption and my carbon footprint, but I haven't got any spare money to throw at the problem. Even if I did it would be trying to empty the ocean with a sieve.

So I give up. Poverty and starvation could have been completely wiped out decades ago but instead our leaders opted to make it worse with economic imperialism. Now it's too late. The food riots have already begun. I'm too busy learning to feed myself without relying on the grocery store to worry about people on the other side of the planet, but I sincerely wish them the best of luck.

There was a documentary on a while ago about how you should only donate to those charities that have proven to be reliable. An investigation showed that in some children's charities, people were paying each month to sponsor a certain child and were told that the money would go to that child - it turned out it was paying for staff lunches, and transport etc.

ninerbuff said:

about starving children? If you really do what are you doing to reduce it? If you aren't doing anything, then you really don't care at all.
I support through doctorsoftheworld.org since my parents were in the medical field.

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A lot of the misery in Third World countries are due to the way the global economic system is designed, which I cannot change. I am, however, a supporter of the Venus Project.

Also, I believe in helping people to help themselves, which is why I spend most of my vacations in Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) helping them rebuild their educational system.

In addition I donate to Médecins Sans Frontières because I think they do a damn good job as well as sending the right message.

ninerbuff said:

about starving children? If you really do what are you doing to reduce it? If you aren't doing anything, then you really don't care at all.
I support through doctorsoftheworld.org since my parents were in the medical field.

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I don't have an income, being that I'm too bogged down with schoolwork to get a proper job, and even part time jobs are very, very difficult to get in my town, but yes, I care. I'm even going on an expedition to do community work in Kenya in summer 2012.

As it is I rarely sleep working to feed MY OWN kids.

You know, really, it takes more than sending money to these countries. I remember back in the mid-80s, when "We Are The World" made a lot of money- they sent food but it couldn't be distributed because of the government. I also believe that charity begins at home: it isn't as romantic to feed hungry children in your own neighborhood than to send money to a foreign country, but there are hungry children right under our very noses.

ChristineES said:

You know, really, it takes more than sending money to these countries. I remember back in the mid-80s, when "We Are The World" made a lot of money- they sent food but it couldn't be distributed because of the government. I also believe that charity begins at home: it isn't as romantic to feed hungry children in your own neighborhood than to send money to a foreign country, but there are hungry children right under our very noses.

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My thoughts exactly.

ChristineES said:

You know, really, it takes more than sending money to these countries. I remember back in the mid-80s, when "We Are The World" made a lot of money- they sent food but it couldn't be distributed because of the government. I also believe that charity begins at home: it isn't as romantic to feed hungry children in your own neighborhood than to send money to a foreign country, but there are hungry children right under our very noses.

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I don't think that you can run very far with the idea that helping the hungry is of greater urgency than helping the starving.
Most especially when it appears to rest on the mistaken assumption that those who donate to overseas efforts do not also donate to local initiatives.
My understanding is that those who give will give first to local initiatives (to the in their faces causes) and then, as their perception of needs expands, they will give to enterprises further afield.
　
If (when) the individual National goals of the Millenium Project are achieved the effects of private donations will be greatly enhanced.
UN Millennium Project | Press Archive
Regular private donors recognise that their donations have only a small, but accumulative, effect within the programmes that they support, and also that the amount that they donate is not great when compared with their overall income.
　
And being a donor is not 'romantic' though it may appear so to you.
Many donors live, for all intents and purposes, a hand-to-mouth existence and charity is a necessity that requires them to do without this or that thing that, in reality, they have no, or very limited, need for.
It is not a necessity for the donor, it is a necessary activity for those who are kept alive and given opportunities through the programmes that are supported.

Nerthus said:

I ask the same question. I can understand people desperately wanting children, but when you know that you are so poor you can barely feed yourself it is crazy to bring another mouth into the world.

The prayer issue is worrying.

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Did you know that poor children in Afghanistan and Pakistan have found to have extraordinarily good immune systems as compared to the rest of the educated and privileged classes? There was a research on this one which was recently printed in a journal. They have less incidence of diseases like hypertension, Diabetes and all those junk food related disorders and etc and high immunity against disease causing bacteria.

Anyhow, poverty is no reason to stop from marrying, having a family and etc. One should work to provide means of livelihood, and it should be the state's responsibility to take care of the needs of the newbrons who are less fortunate. Nowhere in the world where there are democracies, are the funds so scanty that they have lavish dinners and parties for the rich in abundance( who just taste the food to watch their weight) and throw the rest to the bin, instead of funding a few decent meals for the poor, or maintaining them at a reasonable allowance.

One is overlooking the responsibilities of the ruling class by outrightly saying' don't bring children into the world" its juts like saying, don't get married, don't get born, don't live! just do nothing cuz you cant afford it.

For the sake of common sense, please don't spend billions of dollars on lavish useless sport events if you care so much about feeding the poor, Don't spend lavishly on a dress, on a concert, on your trips abroad, on women, on anything If you have the nuts to dictate to people that they shouldn't have children, one day they will creep up right at your door and snatch everything from you and then ask you not to live since you've indirectly contributed to their misery, willingly all your lives.

Don't spend trillions of dollars on NASA every year to make those 'save the humanity trips' to the moon, while people are dying left right and centre in misery , and no thank you they can never even afford to move to the moon if such a possibility ever arose. Don't spend billions of dollars on war, if you care so much about poverty, people in ethiopia, somalia wont be dying due to food shortage since forever, even in the presence of UN. And this is for ALL the world govts int he world, all of them.

EDit: not saying you as in you, just generally.

La Tomatina 2009: Pictures from the World's Largest Tomato Fight!
La tomatina festival in Spain

And lastly, don't waste all your food like this when there are millions of poor people out there who could have plenty to eat if such abundance of food was not wasted in such vile and arrogant ways.

I'm seeing some really weird answers here.

First of all, people aren't going to stop having sex because they are poor. Babies are inevitable.
People aren't going to stop wanting families of their own because they are poor- our biological urges are not switches that can easily be turned off.

And you want to bring religion into it too? You're using the notion of helping poor people to facilitate your ridicule of religion. Religion is not the reason that there are starving children in the world. Go blame your politicians and systems of economy on that, if you are really looking for someone to blame. And then instead of ranting about religion, go back to the OP and ask yourself those questions. What are you doing to make it better? Are you even in a position to be putting blame on others?

Of course people who are poor are going to want to have a family. Of course urges will not be turned off. However, if you cannot even afford to feed yourself then I believe it is wrong to bring children into that situation. I don't think that is fair.

ninerbuff said:

about starving children? If you really do what are you doing to reduce it? If you aren't doing anything, then you really don't care at all.
I support through doctorsoftheworld.org since my parents were in the medical field.

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What am I, miss America?
I donate money to British soldiers. because I'm assuming that like Israeli soldiers they are the ones who understand more about provoking an economic reality that might secure a future for more children to live in a more adequate reality, and hopefully not starve.

Nerthus said:

Of course people who are poor are going to want to have a family. Of course urges will not be turned off. However, if you cannot even afford to feed yourself then I believe it is wrong to bring children into that situation. I don't think that is fair.

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I think many people in that situation didn't plan for their kids. A lot of women get raped. Other people find themselves in desperate situations when they already have babies. And in some societies, poor women must marry as their own family cannot afford to maintain them. They do not find work. They marry a man who will attempt to support them both. They do not have access to reliable contraceptives. Children are inevitable.

There are many reasons/factors. It isn't fair to put everyone in a group and judge them.