Ang said it best that nobody's perfect, we're only human.
Mother Teresa led by example.
Do we measure poverty by material things? Why is it that the happiest people in the world could be found in a remote region of Mongolia. They're living in poverty by our standards, heck, the families living in that area might even have a dozen children each, who makes their living through farming root crop and herding sheep, living in bamboo houses etc.... Living in poverty is not bad in my opinion, just as long as your needs in life are being met and you are happy.
Primula Baggins wrote:Lurker, just because a reprehensible belief was a common one does not make it any less reprehensible. Ford's contributions to disseminating anti-Semitic literature in the United States could have contributed to weakening our response to the Holocaust and indirectly to the deaths of thousands and thousands of innocent people.
I agree that just because a reprehensible belief is a common one doesn't make it less reprehensible. Then I ask you this? How many US presidents own slaves? Owning slaves is a human rights violation nowadays and yet even now people admire those Presidents who owns them back when it was allowed. Same thing with Ford, we can't entirely blame him for contributing to the weakening of the response to the Holocaust, cause even the people in their own homes back then were racists, if that literature wasn't accepted in those days people won't be buying his newspaper. Even smart people can be stupid sometimes you know. Plus the fact, I remember a prof in business school saying that he allowed that literature to be published because the "white" businessmen where in direct/indirect competition with the Jewish businessmen back then.
(Again, I'm not anti-semetic, just stating a few facts.)
As for the other issue, where women control their child-bearing, most have fewer children. The children have a better chance of being nourished well and educated. The women themselves also have more opportunities to become educated and to contribute to the support of their families (and support themselves when they're widowed). None of this is a bad thing. Westerners are not imposing mandatory contraception on the Third World; in fact, current U.S. policy is basically undermining the effort to even offer it.
Yes, I agree with you but if you go to countries like India, the Middle East etc... it's difficult to "market" birth control pills when what you are selling violates their religion and culture. Even the Catholic Church has been educating families with regards to natural birth control in this particular countries, yet people don't seem to buy that. Plus the fact, most of these people live in farming communities where children are needed to help in the farms. It's not like here in North America where you hire ranch hands, there it's a family thing.
Oh, and overpopulation is a problem. Technology lets us squeeze more and more out of the planet, but for what kind of life? The carrying capacity of the Earth is not infinite. It's not even that far away.
No, overpopulation is not a problem if people are not greedy. It ties in with what we are doing to our enviroment. In fact, China and India are becoming one of the sought after outsourcing countries in the world because of their population. People is what makes a nation sucessful.
“Lawyers are the only persons in whom ignorance of the law is not punished.” - Jeremy Bentham (1748 - 1832)
I'd just say that I strongly disagree with statements of the form of "No, I'm afraid a terrorist is a terrorist". I believe people can change, and I believe that redemption is possible and that forgiveness is best extended to everybody who have shown that they have moved beyond whatever past deeds neccesitated forgiveness ( I'm talking in general now, not about Mandela in particular ). People can and do change.
