Comments on: Starving Africa

By: ninme

ninme — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 22:32:31 +0000

No, I think that would be making a point rather worth making. They’d surely prefer to take the opposite tack.

By: Brett_McS

Brett_McS — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 22:21:05 +0000

Man first developed in Africa, but has since ceased to do so there. The zoo could put a plaque with that (P.J.) quote just outside the pretend village.

By: Rueful Red

Rueful Red — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 17:30:44 +0000

We just prefer them picturesque. Part of the fauna.

By: ninme

ninme — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 17:22:06 +0000

Right, which is why it’s all such a joke. And man, the Seattle Zoo made me mighty uncomfortable, cuz in the African Safari section (which is directly opposite from the entrance) they’ve put up a little model African village, with some little thatched huts the kids can play in, and a model school room with a big school map of Africa rolled down and on a huge chalkboard all this writing on how we’re going to preserve habitat. But it’s such a big installment, and since the Safari fields are so big you have to walk around them to see all the zebras and giraffes so from that one spot all you see are these African huts and a lot of grass, maybe one or two gazelles, so it’s very much “Come to the zoo and see how the funny little Africans live” which I told Peter made me feel very uncomfortable, but then figured since we weren’t British we didn’t have to really worry about the residual guilt from the Empire, but still.

But yeah, there’s no one there, yet they’re all starving. And those rose farms I linked to a couple months ago? They’re draining that one lake. They can’t get a brake. And here’s this guy that could have solved his problems but a bunch of socialist environmentalist intellectual types who think what’s better for the Africans is to keep them starving because then they’ll still get to live in those sweet little huts that we can put in Seattle zoos to show how wonderful their native culture is, all without actually asking the Africans what they think. And then we get lectured to by Rock Stars for not caring enough.

Bah.

By: Brett_McS

Brett_McS — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 10:25:25 +0000

(and excluding Sweden and Norway, and other snowy countries).

By: Brett_McS

Brett_McS — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 10:21:07 +0000

There aren't many countries with a lower population density than Canada. Australia shares that honour with Namibia, Botswana and Mauritania.

Over-population is not a problem in Africa. I didn't see one African country with a population density greater than any European country (excluding Russia) in the list.

By: Rueful Red

Rueful Red — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 08:41:08 +0000

Borlaug still alive! I read about him in the Sixties! They should drop the “arguably” in “achievements are arguably the greatest”. Ain’t no argument about it.