Saving the World American Style
I am always so baffled at Americans and their blindness to reality in terms of their ideas on how they will save the less fortunate in the world.
In a November 20th article that ran in the Glendale News Press titled “Giving help, a box at a time”, I was saddened to see that Americans of Armenian decent feel the need to help with providing gifts to less fortunate children of the world, in the case of this story, the children of Iraq.
A 17-year-old student from Clark Magnet High School in La Crescenta, CA, Jenny Lee, was quoted as saying, “"We have so much here. The least you could do is buy something for just $1 or $2. Just donating will make us happy and make them happy."
So Jenny, a member of her school's student government, set out to help her school gather dozens of boxes of toys, school supplies, shoes and clothes to donate to the women and children of Iraq. The boxes were handed over to Passions & Dreams Funding, an organization accepting donations that will be sorted out and shipped to Iraq.
The founder of Passions & Dreams is an ethnic Armenian Silva Mirzoian, who I’m sure started her band-aid organization with good intentions, but the question I have to ask is if America should be the nation to administer band-aids to those who they have injured in the first place?
Getting back to Jenny’s stating that America has so much, I would think that the question of why America has so much and Iraq, China and Armenia has so little should be asked?
According to the CIA world factbook, America is a country that imports almost twice as much as it exports. It’s GDP per capita is $37k, compared to China’s $5k, Armenia's $3,500 and oil rich Iraq’s $1,500.
America labor force by occupation is: farming, forestry, and fishing 2.4%, manufacturing, extraction, transportation, and crafts 24.1%, managerial, professional, and technical 31%, sales and office 28.9%, other services 13.6%
America’s GDP composition by sector is lead by service at 72.5%. This just does not add up and you have to ask the question if America’s economy is based on service and they are importing $713.24 billion more than they export, where is all the wealth coming from to explain Jenny’s statement of America having so much?
For those that need a clue on where to start to look for answers, consider this. The American government is a constitution-based federal republic with strong democratic tradition. It is not a democracy. It has international aid programs that stipulate foreign governments to implement a democratic system (something that America itself does not have), the same democratic system that John Adams, one of Americas founding fathers stated, “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
Jenny if it really did effect you to watch a video of Iraqi girls playing with rocks instead of dolls and you really want to help, you can help out by learning to live with a little bit less and send the message to your leaders that it is wrong to invade countries (by military force and with aid programs that were designed to have the same effect) in the name of American interests, since such invasions deplete countries of their much needed resources for a promising future, leaving behind only rocks for little girls to play with.
I am always so baffled at Americans and their blindness to reality in terms of their ideas on how they will save the less fortunate in the world.
In a November 20th article that ran in the Glendale News Press titled “Giving help, a box at a time”, I was saddened to see that Americans of Armenian decent feel the need to help with providing gifts to less fortunate children of the world, in the case of this story, the children of Iraq.
A 17-year-old student from Clark Magnet High School in La Crescenta, CA, Jenny Lee, was quoted as saying, “"We have so much here. The least you could do is buy something for just $1 or $2. Just donating will make us happy and make them happy."
So Jenny, a member of her school's student government, set out to help her school gather dozens of boxes of toys, school supplies, shoes and clothes to donate to the women and children of Iraq. The boxes were handed over to Passions & Dreams Funding, an organization accepting donations that will be sorted out and shipped to Iraq.
The founder of Passions & Dreams is an ethnic Armenian Silva Mirzoian, who I’m sure started her band-aid organization with good intentions, but the question I have to ask is if America should be the nation to administer band-aids to those who they have injured in the first place?
Getting back to Jenny’s stating that America has so much, I would think that the question of why America has so much and Iraq, China and Armenia has so little should be asked?
According to the CIA world factbook, America is a country that imports almost twice as much as it exports. It’s GDP per capita is $37k, compared to China’s $5k, Armenia's $3,500 and oil rich Iraq’s $1,500.
America labor force by occupation is: farming, forestry, and fishing 2.4%, manufacturing, extraction, transportation, and crafts 24.1%, managerial, professional, and technical 31%, sales and office 28.9%, other services 13.6%
America’s GDP composition by sector is lead by service at 72.5%. This just does not add up and you have to ask the question if America’s economy is based on service and they are importing $713.24 billion more than they export, where is all the wealth coming from to explain Jenny’s statement of America having so much?
For those that need a clue on where to start to look for answers, consider this. The American government is a constitution-based federal republic with strong democratic tradition. It is not a democracy. It has international aid programs that stipulate foreign governments to implement a democratic system (something that America itself does not have), the same democratic system that John Adams, one of Americas founding fathers stated, “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
Jenny if it really did effect you to watch a video of Iraqi girls playing with rocks instead of dolls and you really want to help, you can help out by learning to live with a little bit less and send the message to your leaders that it is wrong to invade countries (by military force and with aid programs that were designed to have the same effect) in the name of American interests, since such invasions deplete countries of their much needed resources for a promising future, leaving behind only rocks for little girls to play with.
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