From: jnr@igc.apc.org (Jim Rosenfield)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: Re: Proposals to Aid Somalia?????
Date: 12 Dec 92 19:00:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #R:cdp:1471700289:cdp:1471700301:000:4221
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!jnr    Dec 12 11:00:00 1992


>your best argument *against* doing something...
>our global society was built upon the concept that people must
>help other people in our society in order to maintain stable
communities.

Ronald:

This belief may comfort you, but the facts do not bear out your
interpretation of our history.  The emergence of a global society
is first of all, merely a theory, a very recent and hopeful
interpretation of modern life.  One might say that we will have a
humane society in which people help each other "to maintain a
stable society" IF we pass the test of history.  We are far from
this ideal now.

What really impacts human society most are the great forces of
nature, and second to these are the forces of power in society.
These forces are exercised by those who control the wealth, the
force and means of production.  For the most part, these do not
operate in the interests of a cooperative society except to the
extent that such cooperation benefits the wealthy and the
powerful.  Most of this "cooperation" is actually the result of
fear of those in power, fear of marginalization, fear of
retribution, punishment and imprisonment.  The draft is an example
of cooperation, along with taxes and war.  You cooperate or go to
jail.  If you fail to "cooperate" in war you will be shot.  If I
fail to cooperate with the War on Drugs, I will be demonized, my
possessions will be comfiscated and I will be put in jail.

In the past forty or so years, maybe less, it is dawning on some
of us that we all could live better if we develop means of true
cooperation, working together not to control each other and
commandeer each others' wealth, but to produce a larger, better,
synergistic result.  One great man called this "moving from a 'me
or you' society to a 'me and you' society.  The works of
Buckminster Fuller, also, provide a powerful theoretical basis for
moving in the direction of a synergistic, cooperative society.
But we are not there yet.

The famine in Somalia provides those who are involved in this
global conversation with an opportunity to discuss the possibility
of intervening in large scale social events in a spirit of true
cooperation, synergy, helping each other because we consider
ourselves citizens of the world and responsible for the whole of
humanity.

Knee-jerk humanitarianism has let us down.  It has so often been a
cover for religious imperialism, for self-righteousness and even
for colonization and direct exploitation of native peoples, that
we MUST question it as a basis for action.  If we don't, we will
continue to be misled by our leaders, and we will continue to fall
into despair and resignation when we find out we've been lied to
again.

We have an opportunity here to articulate more powerful and
compelling principles for cooperation, than merely that we are
offended by the sight, the thought of babies starving.  Babies
starve all the time.  Famine amounts to only one-tenth of the
deaths from hunger in the world.  The NINETY percent comes in the
form of deaths from chronic undernutrition.  Chronic
undernutrition of one forth of humanity is the result of how we
live, including the historical forces mentioned above.

Where is your humanitarian outcry for cooperation in the face of
this NINETY percent?  Why do you cry for action only when the
horrifying images of starving children fill your television
screen?

Famine occurs ONLY where chronic undernutrition has been.  Are we
now "global" enough to tackle the real root of hunger?

We need now to speak up with more thoughtful reasons for
cooperation.  That is why I asked for people to articulate why we
should take action in Somalia, and that is also why the
counter-arguments become so important, so we can hear them and
respond to them.  I did not invent "life-boat ethics" (since our
resources are limited, who do we throw over the side?), but we
must deal with these deeply held convictions, interpretations of
life to which people cling for survival. By dealing openly with
such premises way we can bring about a true global society based
on clearly articulated principals.

So, I ask you to think -- why should we take action to alleviate
the famine in Somalia, and why should we *not* "let them starve"?