Western Indifference??

The following is my reply to a debate I had recently on the internet...Topic Western Indifference to the suffering of Africans (he has not as of yet responded to my replies)

My replies are in Red.
His original wording is in black.
My links posted are in Blue.


I have to agree with Gavin here. the silence of African-American leaders (or any other leaders for that matter) on this issue is very much something that everyone should be ashamed of. Everyone is eager to jump into a discussion on racism, and how to stop racial violence, but when it is people of the same race, there is very little comment.

From Leftist/liberal sources perhaps….Most Conservative News Sources consistently mention these which is why I believe that at the end of the day the right is more universal in its approach to human rights…the left is all about smoke and mirrors and feeling good about oneself the neo-con right in particular is about action

Ironically when neo-conservatives (in the tradition of Leo Strauss and Scoop Jackson) advocate interventionism as a means of preventing future horrors (how many lives would have been saved during the holocaust had the West followed such an approach earlier) they are cynically branded as post-colonial imperialists by the do-nothing contingent of the ‘progressive’ left.

It also shows the lack of regard the west has for the lives of africans.

I don’t believe this is true although the ‘selfish west’ meme has been around for some time (the super inept UN secretary general, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, was a big popularizer of the idea), Western Countries have donated billions of dollars to Africa on both a government, NGO and private donation level (those evil Americans rank amongst the most generous…. ahead of morally superior Canadians who tend to be a bit stingier with the looney). Ironically and you will hardly see it on campuses (where BDS – Bush Derangement Syndrome is an epidemic) the current US administration has done more than any previous administration in the fight against HIV in Africa for example.

Even the uber-leftist Guradian agrees

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/15/georgebush.usa

In short the West has bent over backwards to save Africa (a continent riddled with corruption and governed by a smorgasbord of incompetents) however the results have not been promising
See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/12/AR2006021201150.html

f that happened in the US, or Canada, or Britain, it would be all over the news and there would be an international furor. but this incident in the congo gets a twenty second slot on the news, and everyone not everyone goes "oh. how horrible" and then don't give it another thought. Its the same thing as we hear about bombings in India or Pakistan.

(On another note if a Palestinian suicide bomber was killed in advance of a sabotage we would all hear about it ad nauseum via a mountain of criticism directed toward Israel)

Unless someone white dies, the west doesn't seem to care.

In a sense you are correct… the Islamists know this as well which explains why so many of the 12,000 attacks that they have orchestrated since 9/11 have been so under reported....Such as this one

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/12/26/08/military-names-milf-commanders-deadly-civilian-attacks

Here is another news clip that you won’t find in the Toronto Star or Utne Reader for that matter.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Taliban_threaten_to_kill_Pakistani_schoolgirls/articleshow/3890827.cms?TOI_latestnews

Till later
Gavin