the world has gone wank

[mousapelli]

listen, maybe it's just because i need a nap so very badly, but this pisses me the hell off:

Zambia refuses food aid from UK because of genetically modified crops

I'm sorry, but are you STARVING or aren't you? "No, we don't want THAT food, give us better food." It's AID for chrissake, maybe you should take what you can get and shut your damn native mouths. OR MOVE OUT OF THE DAMN DESERT.

And also, Laurell Hamilton has apparently said that people shouldn't fic her characters, although i can't dig up any confirmation on that. My theory on this is that as writers begin to suck mightily, they can't bear the mirror of fanfiction being held up to their shoddy constructs. Jealousy is also perhaps a factor.

So I will console myself with the news that Rupert Grint (the HAIR! *squee*) has kept the rats from Poa as pets beause he liked them so much.

Comments

[ifihadameadow.livejournal.com]

Aaah, but the real reason development countries don't accept genetically modified crops is to get leverage with the EU since they're opposing it from the States.

Baffles me as well.

Hem, Hem.

[dphearson.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, but are you STARVING or aren't you? "No, we don't want THAT food, give us better food." It's AID for chrissake, maybe you should take what you can get and shut your damn native mouths. OR MOVE OUT OF THE DAMN DESERT.

Even the starving don't deserve shit(your love of the Remus character should kinda clue you in on that), and if these people are receiving food aid, they have the right to refuse.
Going on a slight tangent, there is a trend with mass farming, where if they cannot get rid of certain crops in the first world, they will dump it in Third World countries, thus creating a market for later use.

One more thing: Zambia is not a desert. It's high plains, forests (which are being dpelted) and low lying riverlands. Their problem is that they have being suffering a drought (shared with Zimbabwe) and their infrastructure is rather poor( as is the country).

If you need to rant, rant well.

[tryptofan.livejournal.com]

Random, but the reason a lot of developing nations don't want GM food in their borders is because if it were to contaminate their fields it would be basically irreversible, and then they couldn't export their crops to the EU.

I'm pro-GM myself, but I can understand their reasoning.

[lostpapers.livejournal.com]

Ok. I came across this post through a friend-of-a-friend's list, and I realise that I do not know anything about you; so I am going to respond as calmly as I can.

So. Where to start?

Firstly: your use of the word "native". Are you a nineteenth-century coloniser? No. Good. They were ignorant and arrogant people. You, however, are not. You live in the twenty-first century, where we have thankfully moved on from thinking so condescendingly of all "developing" nations. You have absolutely no excuse. The word, in the context that you have used it, is incredibly derogatory. It is also quite appallingly racist.

Secondly: the "get out of the desert" comment. Now, I won't waste both of our time by explaining the climate and geography of Zambia to you, but needless to say that it is not a "desert", and nor do all its inhabitants live in rural, arid land. I think you have made the common assumption that all "Africans" live in huts/wear furs/wander the deserts. This is a horrendous stereotype.

Your general sentiment towards the matter seems to me incredibly insensitive. These people are starving. They are dying. This does not mean that they should be forced to eat any old waste that we "donate" them. Many Britons refuse to eat GM foods; why should the people of Zambia not be afforded the same choice? It is true that the decision is largely political, and not necessarily in the best interest of the 2.4 million people suffering from famine, but you have no right at all to undermine their dignity by telling them to "take what they can get". These people do not choose to be dying of hunger. They do not choose to live in poverty. Their situation is very complex—and you clearly have made no effort whatsoever to understand it; and have made an offensive, small-minded post on a subject about which you know absolutely nothing.

What angers me is that it probably took you all of two seconds to form your opinion; whilst I have taken a great deal of time thinking carefully on how best to try persuade you to re-think it. I fully realise that you may take one look at this comment, think "wanky" and move on. But I hope you read it, and I hope you can understand where I'm coming from. But mostly, I hope you rethink your attitude, and what you have written. I realise that I don't know enough about this subject myself, but I do know that these people are dying. I know that they need our help. They do not need pity, and they certainly do not need this kind of pompous, condescending bullshit.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's the Zambian authorities who are still kow-towing to the former colonial power - they invoke the BMA (British Medical Association) as if its word were completely indisputable, to deny food to their people. No doubt they have a number of reasons, but you'd have to be incredibly charitable to think they are simply naïveté and concern for the environment. The entire American continent eats GM crops, so you can't say the US are "dumping" somehow inferior product. One of the reasons the Western world no longer knows famine is the development of scientific agriculture. Refusing it outright at a time of great hardship is insensitive , cruel and actionable. mousapelli's words were too hasty, but she's right.

[lostpapers.livejournal.com]

In what sense is she "right"? I agree that to turn down the aid was not in the best interest of the people suffering from hunger, and I agree that the decision was made for many reasons, not least the opinion of the BMA. However, this is not what I understood by this post. And to say that her words were "too hasty" does not excuse the way that she phrased it.

If I have hideously misinterpreted everything, please correct me.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Right now, you are squatting her LJ to deliver your judgement from on high on her choice of words. Who made you the Political Correctness Police here?

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

Yes, Laurell Hamilton is among those who doesn't want fanfic. She's been that way for a long time, though I can't remember if it's precisely before or after she started going so rapidly downhill. (And honestly, why NOT? The books are pretty much entire smut already, why not add more smut to the pile? Who doesn't want to read some pretty Jean-Claude/Jason? Anyway.)

[lostpapers.livejournal.com]

I am not "squatting" her lj. I am replying to your comment which was (correct me if I am wrong) directed to me. It certainly appeared in my inbox.

Who made you the Political Correctness Police here?
There is a difference between being un-PC and being RACIST. In my opinion, the way she expressed her opinions tended towards the latter. And that is something I won't just idly read.

I'm not going to start mud-slinging back at you. I'm not delivering my "judgement". I wouldn't assume to do that. I do not know mousapelli, so I can't say anything about her character. What I can say is that I find her treatment of this subject highly insensitive. And I'm sorry if I have come across as self-righteous; I am trying to be reasonable but this is something that I feel very strongly about.

Why not let her speak for herself though, eh? I'm open to discussion.

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

people are nuts, man. You can't tell me that if they just dropped the crates in the middle of the country, somebody wouldn't eat the stuff.

Re: Hem, Hem.

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

if these people are receiving food aid, they have the right to refuse.
well, sure, but i'm having a hard time believing that people who really are starving want to quibble about where their food comes from. I suspect the people behind the waffling are really government folk.

if they cannot get rid of certain crops in the first world, they will dump it in Third World countries, thus creating a market for later use.
who cares why, though? You are hungry and i give you food. I mean, if the situation is as desperate as people are claiming further down within my comments, I don't see how refusing aid, offered for whatever reason, is going to do you any good.

Zambia is not a desert
fair enough, I didn't know that, nor did i expend the energy to investigate about general climate. lesson learned.

If you need to rant, rant well.
It's true that my post was made in the heat of the moment, unresearched, and ill-informed in places. But none of the new information I have received has changed my mind that it isn't stupid to refuse food from anywhere offered for any reason if you are starving.

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

I hadn't ever heard that about her before. It makes me sad. Does she really think we'll stop doing it because she doesn't want us to?

and maybe it's the overload of how much slash i read, but her damn smut ISN'T EVEN HOT. like, come on.

I want some Jean-Claude/Jason. I want Jean-Claude/Asher, and i want it right fucking now.

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

due to the mangled format which LJ has made of you and Seshat's comments, i'm just going to address everything thus far here in one go.

So far as 'native' goes, I'm not equating it with 'stupid' or 'inferior'. Certainly since the rest of my post is not positive, it comes off worse than most people like. What it really meant was people living in a not overtly industrial foreign place, although I don't really expect people to know exactly what I mean when i use the word over LJ rather than in real life, and if you continue to think it's a racist use of the term, I won't stop you.

Zambia is, in fact, not a desert. I am wrong. I admittedly did not research before posting. I don't think that all Africans do anything in particular, but to ennumerate everything that every African does in order to not stereotype anybody would likely be more keystrokes than is LJ's posting limit.

You are right that I have made little effort to understand the complexities of this particular situation, and that I did form my opinion in roughly two seconds. because here is what i see: people are starving, other people offer food, the starving people demand other food. Is this oversimplified? sure. But if things are really as dire as even you yourself are claiming, than I fail to see how refusing help, for whatever reason, is doing Zambia any good.

You are right that they do not need pity or bullshit, what they need is FOOD, and some people, for whatever reason, are offering it, and the Zambians are saying no. Me being the biggest ass in the world, which i might be, does not change the fact that this is very, very stupid.

[lostpapers.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with you that the decision was unwise, and not in the best interests of all the millions of starving Zambians. However, the decision was not made by the Zambian people, it was made by their government. Denounce the politicians as much as you like.

I stand by what I said about your phrasing being inappropriate and insensitive, but if I have misinterpreted the message behind them I am sorry. And you are certainly not the biggest ass in the world. That title rests firmly upon the head of one George "Dubya" Bush :)