The government of Myanmar has seized the aid the UN sent them -- to sell, no doubt -- while rejecting direct aid from the US. Now, what could be the difference between US and UN aid? Could it be that the US will send troops with the aid to make sure it gets to the people, while the UN will just stand aside and let people get away with murder and theft?
Perhaps the fact that every 3rd world country in the world has a government like Myanmar's is why they are 3rd world countries.
4 comments:
When a Florida teacher is fired for being a wizard; yes, a wizard, I sometimes question if this idea/defined langauge of the "3rd world" is bunk.
sl
No one said there weren't isolated patches of idiocy in this country. In fact, there are people in the U.S. who do have the kind of thinking which dominates in 3rd world countries (read my various articles talking about Clare Graves' theory of psychosocial development).
I had thought about commenting on the Florida teacher episode, but decided anyone capable of getting online would understand how incredibly stupid that case was.
Almost as stupid as the endless jokes in the media about "making the teacher's job disappear." Ugh.
After spending a year among American G.I.'s in Seoul, I can sympathize with anyone who doesn't want a bunch of hung over, pimply-faced 19 year old former crystal meth addicts with M16's roaming their country's streets. Not that these would probably be any worse than the thuggish military government the Burmese have endured for the last 20 years or so, but soldiers make terrible police, and history has proven multiple times that once your country is full of foreign troops, it's much harder to get them out again.
Don't get me wrong--I'd like to see the State Peace and Development council go down in favor of a freely elected Burmese government. But I'm not sure if I've ever met an American grunt that didn't have an IQ below 90 and a chip on his shoulder.
When we deliver aid, though, we leave. The troops just make sure the aid gets to where it's supposed to be going. The government of Myanmar certainly doesn't want that to happen. I'd prefer it if we didn't have to use troops to get aid to dying people, but that's just not the world we live in. It's worse when we have to be a country to take our help.
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