[pyritechips]

Obvioulsy Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle-East and terrorism has dominated our focus upon the world in the last few years. We claim to intervene in order to make the world a better place.

My question is, should we invest all our resources and efforts in one place, and if so, why? Is it true that we will make an effort in only those countries that have something we want?

AIDS is a confirmed worldwide pandemic, and without moralizing, we know it is something that is killings millions every year and adversely affecting the lives of countless millions of others.

We abhor the thoughts of child pornography and prostitution and have heavy laws in place to fight them. But do we care about other nations, especially nations that are poor and have not much to offer us. Is our apparent altruism only a mask, hiding our greed? I offer the following example. Should we do something?

This is how Meena's day began: cloaked in the safe, anonymous shroud of a black burka, she left her home in Chittagong, the second largest city in Bangladesh, and went to a hotel on a bustling downtown street.

She walked up a dark staircase, past the reception area and down a narrow, barely-lit hallway littered with garbage and condom wrappers and dust. She turned into a room furnished with only a couple of beds and no sheets, smelling faintly of piss. Then she sat with her co-workers and waited for the customers to arrive at opening time: 6:30 a.m.

Four hours later she has had sex with five men, and if today is like most days, this 13-year-old prostitute has 20 more clients to go. But before that happens, her broker - the hotel manager - allowed her to talk to me...

... she is actually about the average age for a hotel sex worker according to data kept by HELP, a local organization working to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS within the hotel-based sex trade.

Almost all of the 500 sex workers they have identified are 10 to 15 years old...

...She grew up poor in a village in central Bangladesh. Three months ago, a family member promised he could get her a job as a garment worker if she came with him to the city. She took the offer and he sold her to a pimp for less than $70...

...The ultimate pawns in this scheme are the sex workers, who usually get 10 to 15 per cent of the total profits, says Hasan. The average hotel-based prostitute works 15 days per month, seeing 25 clients per day. Their normal monthly salary is about $80...

...While child prostitution exists in the brothels and streets of Bangladesh, the sex workers in hotels are uniformly young because they generally attract wealthier cliental...

Read the full story here and consider whether we should do something about this, and other world issues: http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_mick/20040427.html

[Infidel_Kastro]

Hey Pyrite, hows Canada? Did you go awol from the threads for awhile?

INtersting topic, I feeel for this young girl/child, and unfortunately, Bangladesh isn't the only place that happens; Thailand and Mexico are also infamous for this type of "employment".

I guess to answer your question, it would be easy to pawn off the question and say blah blah, we should start at home, but that is too easy. I think that you hit a bit on one my concerns, and that is the pandemic spread of HIV in the world, not necessarily Africa. I saw a PSA yestrerday and it said by 2010, 45 MILLION new cases of HIV if we don't so something about it.

I know we can't solve all of the worlds problems, but sickness and illness is the only real thing doesn't care if you are a Christian, Jew, muslim, or atheist. It doesn't care what color or sex you are, it simply doesn't matter. So I would start with illnesses like HIV.

p.s. After that, I would begin to work on the plight of the Naga's.

[pyritechips]

Hey Pyrite, hows Canada? Did you go awol from the threads for awhile?

Canada is great! No, I haven't been AWOL; I've been posting.

Yes, I selected AIDS because I can think of no other universal problem that affects everybody regardless of religious, racial or political stripe. Consider it: even terrorism affects only thousands, and only in localized areas. Like you said, AIDS is killing multi-millions worldwide and indiscriminately...

[Infidel_Kastro]

Originally Posted by pyritechips

Canada is great! No, I haven't been AWOL; I've been posting.

Yes, I selected AIDS because I can think of no other universal problem that affects everybody regardless of religious, racial or political stripe. Consider it: even terrorism affects only thousands, and only in localized areas. Like you said, AIDS is killing multi-millions worldwide and indiscriminately...

I didn't see you respond to Rex's blast on you, and the aftermath, maybe you haven't been on when I was.
Anyway, Howdy.

[LANMaster]

I am growing more and more concerned about our silent war in Columbia.
There's a whole lot more going on there than is being reported.
It's like the Nicaragua fiasco all over again.

[slickoe]

Karadzic and Mladic need to go before the Hague. They are monsters.

[pyritechips]

I don't feel I can have a civilized discussion with somebody that calls others "primitive" so I just won't bother to respond.

LAN: Thanks for the Columbia reminder; I am no different than others that my attention has been focused elsewhere. I will read up on the situation down there...

[brushmaster1]

There are a lot of countries with serious human rights issues, but if there is no economic reason, the US will do nothing to help....

[LANMaster]

Thanks, Jim. I look forward to your opinion.

[pyritechips]

Well LAN, it seems as if i am the victim of irony.

I entered "Columbia" into Google and checked "news" and "web" and...

...nothing! I got nothing but results for Columbia University, Columbia, South Carlonia, Columbia shuttle, Columbia records...

It's like the country doesn't exist. Is Google proving my assumption correct, that nobody is interested in any other areas?

[pyritechips]

Ok wait. I entered "South America" instead and got this site:

http://www.southamericadaily.com/

[LANMaster]

I am really not sure how accurate this story is;

11 Pablo Escobar & Jorge Ochoa: THE MEDELLIN CARTEL
Colombians Pablo Escobar and Jorge Ochoa are the leaders of the Medellin Cartel, which is responsible for 80% of the cocaine entering the U.S.
Escobar, known as "Godfather", is a former car thief and gun-for-hire who started his own organization in 1977 and is now believed to be the world's richest criminal. He provides security (a 2000-man police force) for the Cartel.

Ochoa, middle son of the notorious Ochoa clan, once bragged of personally smuggling 4,000 pounds of cocaine a week. The tremendous profits generated from the sale of cocaine, in excess of $3 million a day, enable the Cartel to buy influence and protection. Panama's General Manuel Noriega, to take but one example, received as much as $10 million a month for allowing the cartel to use Panama's airports and launder its profits through Panama's banking system. (Noriega also received $200,000 a year from the CIA.)

The Medellin Cartel and the CIA had a relationship of convenience. The CIA offered airstrips, radar clearance, and no customs inspections. Th Cartel provided pilots, airplanes, and money. According to Ramon Millan-Rodriguez, a convicted Medellin accountant, the cartel gave $10 million to the contras at the request of CIA agent Felix Rodriguez as a "goodwill" gesture (see card #30). Ocean Hunter, the cartel front which dealt with John Hull (see card #12) through Rene Corvo and Felipe Vidal (see card #10), provided $200,000 a month, some of which went to contras on the southern front.

Link

[LANMaster]

I post this because I truly do not know what is happening in Columbia and Venezuela. This is from an 81 year old Columbian living in Columbia who posts to a different, and rather extreme/anything goes, forum.
(He's obviously not to friendly with the US, but he raises some concerns about US involvent there)

Content unconfirmed.

Since we see that still the US doesn’t respect Latin American democracies we will remain at our highest level. Are sources of information are very solid they are www.elcolombiano.com www.eltiempo.com www.presidencia.gov.co and other sources that we keeping private.

Few weeks ago in Venezuela when president Hugo Chavez was headed in his helicopter to film his TV show "a lo presidente" The helicopter had to land near the city of maracaibo because of mechanical problems.

Another day it was found that his cars breaks were not working. We have reasons to believe it was a foreign intelligence agency doing this to try to kill him and make it appear like a accident to destabilize another Latin American democracy ones more like the US has done in the past..

the US has funded opposition groups in Venezuela that do violent protests in which they kill innocent people. We urge the US to stop interfering in our countries affairs by aiding terrorists. We do not interfere in the US so stop interfering in ours.

The US only has shown pure disrespect to Latin America since the beginning. In Colombia panama was never for sale and it has never been. The real history is that the US bribed officials in panama not to receive orders from Bogotá, because Colombia wasn’t going to allow the US control of our territory where the canal is. In panama the most people that live are Colombian, there are even a lot of Colombians in Costa Rica. The Costa Rican president’s family comes from the state of Antioquia, Colombia. When terrorists enter panama to massacre people its our countries soldier that have to enter panama in order to help the poorly equipped panamian border guards and since panama has no army. In a very short future we hope that panama will once again form part of the country since it was stolen basically from us.

Presidents Uribe’s biggest enemy is the US. He wants to eliminate FARC but the CIA supplies FARC with weapons and uses corrupt officials in neighboring countries to do it We have enough evidence about this even got some evidence on this website which was given to DAS and Colombian military intelligence. On a past post the user crackmonkey said something like “FARC ARE GOOD PEOPLE AND WE WILL CONTINUE SELLING WEAPONS TO THEM” we want to know who ‘we’ is. We want to know who is the ‘we’ that supports terrorists that all they do is do guerrilla attacks here and there in rural areas by attacking military trucks or the civilian population in rural areas.

We have always had a gov’t and our own army and we don’t need no foreign troops in our soil is a violation of our sovereignty. We urge some people to become informed. Knowledge is public domain. People outside of Colombia talk that 40 yrs of civil war. Well I don’t see no war going on just a few in population doing guerrilla terrorists attacks on the military and on population in rural areas. There is no war here just aided terrorist to threaten our democracy. Any foreigners aiding any terrorists will be dealt with and we urge the Russian, Chinese, the US or whoever aiding these terrorists to stop or they’ll face retaliation.

Any threats coming towards Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia or Peru. There are any threats especially to these countries we will be force to defend ourselves and retaliate back. Like I said our sources of information are very solid.

Sorry, no link.

[slickoe]

I don't feel I can have a civilized discussion with somebody that calls others "primitive" so I just won't bother to respond.


I remember that thread, pyrite, and it was the post before me that called them primitive. I merely isolated that part in a quote. Lighten up. It's all a matter of semantics. What's in a name? A rose by any other name...

[Fidelista]

Venezuela has OIL. Bush+OIL+CIA = trouble. Cuban Embassy attacked during the "uprising" kidnapping of the President also. Venezuela has oil--Columbia has .....well. Anyway Oil is curse , as of late.