Real problems

Hmm. Seems like another bloody good reason to go get Mugabe and his ilk and bring some good old fashioned western civilisation to the continent.

Well, if he started with education and healthcare for all children, especially female children, we mightn't need to argue about whether he should be 'taken out'!

MM, you're a dreamer.

Why not just teach South Africans to eat their dead? I mean, the real problem with this world is that no-one knows how to survive it anymore, without first and foremost becoming dependent on another nations charity! And why are dead people so sacrosanct? Like durrr...they're dead...so they won't miss an arm and a leg...or both! Just imagine, it'd be like a Mac Donalds walk-though....."Two Baby Burgers and one of them Mother's Breast Subs, thanks Cuz!" Feed the poor.....EAT THE RICH AND DEAD PEOPLE!

Well, it's a leedle bit more complicated than that, Jaspie. The old Darwinist idea of populations in balance with their environment no longer works.

Sure it does...only on a larger scale.

People don't like the idea of being surplus to requirement on the survival scale, Radio. I mean, it's easy to say that 'Nature' is killing plenty of us off in order to rebalance the ecosystem as a whole; only problem is, it's only the people in the poorest countries who are doing the dying off, while us rich fatties with our sophisticated medical systems live until 80 or so, sucking up over 25% of the world's resources. The question of 'survival of the fittest' no longer applies; it's 'survival of the richest'.

AG, step back a bit....lets say...to the moon. Now remove yourself emotionally from earth all together and look at it from the standpoint that you have just noticed it and are observing what is happening.... It's a giant eco-system, working on the same theory that darwin figured out, and it is constantly in a state of change. It will not support life forms that aren't capable of living on it. Everything changes...eventually, we'll all be extinct. Darwin wasn't all the intuitive. He had a pretty good idea of what he thought was happening when he visited the Galapagos Islands, it's really simple common sense. He just filtered out the clutter and reinforced his own belief system, so he wrote it up in a really cool way and sold it to people that couldn't generate independent thoughts of any meaning.

Well, yes, I do see the big picture, RD, of course. In the end we're all either food for worms, a target for an asteroid, or casualties of our own consumer culture. BUT: in the shorter view: I was modifying Jasper's comment that no one knows how to survive anymore without someone else's help. I [secretly] tend to agree that it's not down to survival of the fittest anymore; certainly it's likely that my firstborn would have died during childbirth (and possibly me as well) had I lived in an underdeveloped country. BUT (another one): I must remind myself that the world is full of disparities; I -did- have access to medical care; my son -did- survive very well, thank you. For the day-to-day 'survival' of everyday people, it really is down to access to resources. Does this make sense?

No, I didn't read Jaspers comment. I don't read comic books either. But okay, what ever you say.

Tsk. You're getting so reticent in your old age, RadioD.

I'm a recovering workaholic....please allow me. I'll go back off the deep end tomorrow...maybe...if I can loose my shyness.

Well they have no material life-value, whatsoever, other than the commodification their dead status. So what's so complicated about good food going to waste which could permanently sustain an entire race of people who need not die of starvation! But then you seem to miss the Critical Mass V Human Priority agrument here, AG! Any population's Birth rate will always be naturally and greatly exceeded by its Death Rates, in every species... exponential effects demand it...go the domino effect! Farm humans instead of animals! Errrr...I'm a Veggie Head btw

Is commodification a word? Is it like superstitiation....? I like demilitarized...that was a good non-word.

Jeez. I hope so. Humans are defying that 'Critical Mass' theory anyway, Jaspie. Again, the biggest birth/death ratios are in the poorest countries; the most uneven or imbalanced ratios are in the industrialised nations. There aren't enough of us dying, and too many of the poorest. We'll consume ourselves out of house and home before too long, anyway, so perhaps we're -all- correct, to a point!

Bullshit: My folks were Dairy Farmers their whole lives, and Holstein cattle have more human cells spliced into their DNA than you'd ever imagine! Multinational Dairy companies do it to save expense on the manufactung costs of Whole Milk for human consumption...especially for Baby Fomula and Skim Milk Powder! Gives the term Lactose Intolerance a whole new meaning, don't it just! Maybe it's just the monkey fur they've an allergy too? So errrr....I reckon, there is no anti-argument against canibalism as the transgenic modification of animals into something more humanly digestible is standard horticulture practice! You're simply living on borrowed time, AG....very borrowed, trust me!

Oh, and the BABY BOOMERS crisis is worsening very quickly! All them old farts will fall like Dominoes, and those Transgenic Pandemics are now classified as WHEN not IF!

Yawn zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Nah, the Baby Boomers are full of all those nice preservatives that have since been outlawed (Gen Xers are, as well, I'm afraid). They'll all live to 326 and continue to vote Republican 'til they [finally] poop off... ;-D

Is zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz a word? Oh I mispelled it.

War babies and Baby Boomers are getting to the age when naps are essential, perhaps... take your teeth out, first! *cackles gleefully*

Poor old Sludge....too much Lawn Bowling and cucumber butt munching today, I suspect! See ya tomorrow me old mud mucker!

Naps are a good thing. I've done my best napping whilst taking a nap.