Comments on US Food Aid Propaganda
Tim May
tcmay at got.net
Wed Oct 10 10:10:05 PDT 2001
On Wednesday, October 10, 2001, at 09:52 AM, Matthew Gaylor wrote:
> Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 16:47:47 +1000
> From: Danny Yee <danny at staff.cs.usyd.edu.au>
> To: Matthew Gaylor <freematt at coil.com>
> Cc: fight-censorship at vorlon.mit.edu
> Subject: Re: US Food Aid Propaganda
> Mail-Followup-To: Matthew Gaylor <freematt at coil.com>,
>
>
> Air drops of food aid are a resort of last desperation; most of it will
> never be found or used. So dropping 40 000 food packages is definitely
> just a media stunt -- I can't see it having any real effect at all on
> the Afghan population it's supposed to be feeding.
>
Another way to do the math:
-- 3 to 5 million Afghanis on the move, abandoning tiny farms and
villages
-- 40,000 orange food packlets, of which maybe 10,000 will be found in
the mountains and ravines
However, showing technicians pushing these orange packlets out the back
of a transport plane made for good PR.
Fact is, the peasant population of Afghanistan needs to be reduced by
another 5-8 million. The West Nile and Crimea viruses introduced into
the camps cannot do the whole job. Starvation must do its part as well.
--Tim May, Corralitos, California
Quote of the Month: "It is said that there are no atheists in foxholes;
perhaps there are no true libertarians in times of terrorist attacks."
--Cathy Young, "Reason Magazine," both enemies of liberty.
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