Should we as Americans care about starving people in Somalia?

[Blanca BusaLess]

Saving Ahmed from starvation - CNN.com

Our country is on the verge of complete collapse itself. Don't drink the koolaid it's worse than they are telling you. So taking this into consideration should we care that 1000s have died already and are dying daily? Should we race to stop more innocent kids from experiencing a horrible slow death?

Myself? I'm near homeless, bills pile up with no end in sight and no solution on the horizon but I just donated $50 to the Red Cross Somali effort.
I have kids. I look at Adam and cannot comprehend watching him wither away to death. It bothers me to the point to where that fifty bucks helped dry my tears away. No matter how bad it gets here or how bad you think you are it can never equal walking ten days in the African sun just to get to a tent as Ahmed did in the article above. It is a small world and politics aside help if you can.

 

[Snakers]

If people want to care, they can care individually.
As a whole, we need to not give 2 cents about anything that is happening outside our borders. Take care of our own. If they have issues, they can sort it out themselves. We dont have anyone rushing to our aid. We need to stop being the police of the world, and world charity and fix our own issues. ALL OF THEM, before we even consider caring outside our border.

 

[skydivr]

You are a good man Saiid to have such a big heart. But I don't think it's our government's responsibility. The famine in Somalia is 100% result of politics and the use of force by the Islamic militias to keep these people from moving. Then, they ransack the relief convoys. Remember the last time we tried to help these people.

 

[dadofthree]

Well I don't exactly keep my finger on the pulse anymore, but the warlords control everything including who eats and who doesn't.

 

[karnage]

I think we should but only after we take care of the starving people here in America.We need to take care of our own for once in America.Its good to be charitable and we give as much as we can being we have a 4 kids and a mortgage and bills but we always try to give back.Things will get better.

 

[Blanca BusaLess]

I too am troubled by people on the corner with will work for food signs but I don't feel as bad for them because they are here and have opp to help themselves. The amount of money we spend dropping bombs on people could much better be served helping people.
It is not all politics and warlords bu they do have a big part played in it.

Just tears me up thinking about innocent kids dying of slow starvation.

 

[dadofthree]

There's problems all over the world. When it comes to children you don't have to look far for victims. They're everywhere.

 

[dpert1]

I too am troubled by people on the corner with will work for food signs but I don't feel as bad for them because they are here and have opp to help themselves. The amount of money we spend dropping bombs on people could much better be served helping people.
It is not all politics and warlords bu they do have a big part played in it.

Just tears me up thinking about innocent kids dying of slow starvation.

These bombs (in most cases) prevent MORE innocence from dying of slow starvation. The bad guys we take out would otherwise just terrorize the surrounding population to meet their own needs.

We need to take care of our own first.

 

[BlueHaya]

As humans...yes. As American's....no

Our govenment funds are suppose to be for our needs. Why do they think we need to be the provider for other countries? We have real needs here in our own country....and we are getting services cut.

If we as human beings want to donate to help kids....let it be our choice.

 

[Blanca BusaLess]

These bombs (in most cases) prevent MORE innocence from dying of slow starvation. The bad guys we take out would otherwise just terrorize the surrounding population to meet their own needs.

We need to take care of our own first.

I would ask you to research the amount of civilians killed in Iraq from collateral damage as well as suicide bombers which were non existant before our invasion as compared to how many civilians were killed at the hands of the Ba'ath party or Saddam. Since there are no accurate records it is difficult to determine but many including many Iraqis feel it was less under Saddam.
Remember we have been dropping bombs in Iraq now for twenty years!

 

[Sous]

This may sound bad, but I think we need to take care of our own before we start dishing out hundreds of millions of dollars to another country.

Get us back on top as number one, then start helping others again. Right now, we are headed down the rabbit hole, and it is a lot deeper than any of us know.

I just came back to this because as I hit the "new post" button I felt I had to come back. Our government is sending hundreds of millions of dollars overseas to feed the starving. We have starving here, hell I see them every day on my way to work. I give what I can, when I can, but the damn gas prices and food prices make it to where I have not donated much at all lately.

Now the government is looking to take away military retirement benefits and make it to where you cannot collect until you are age 65. They are also looking at converting our current retirement system into a 401K type system, SOUNDS F'IN GREAT!!!! I heard on the radio today you cannot call it a 401K anymore, it is a 201K because it is only worth half as much. So, now that I am nearly 17 years into my career and people have tried to kill me, the government is going to thank me by taking my retirement away.....

Take the millions of dollars they piss away on stupid **** and save our country for crying out loud. This is stupid.......

 

[Big Bo]

We do need to take care of home FIRST. We as a compassionate country will and should help others.

Like it or not, this is the LAST of the late great nations. We lead, or we sink to the lows of the others, just like the others.

If we do not get control of OUR Country, it will continue to fall off the deep end.

If America fails, the world will be in turmoil and it will NEVER see another like her. The starvation will soon come to America, too.

Should we help? Yes, we should.

 

[Kitcheneater]

I've been there! That place is horrible, no law or order! Spent 4+ months running around that nasty country and surrounding areas.....

Made me even more proud of what we have as AMERICANS!

 

[Rollin20z]

This may sound cruel and offend some but oh well.


Sorry, but I say no unless certain stipulations are met. I say let all these big shots doing the programs,fundraisers and begging commercials dip into their own fat pockets and do something about it if they want it done so bad.

And I am saying stipulations being say if your country is like the all so pitiful Somolia in the clip want our help saving their kids(don't know why we don't even save our own) but if they do then it should be only if any man or women of legal(child bearing age according to their beliefs) has or has produced 2 or more children be clipped. That meaning either vasectomy or tubes (cut & tied) before any help be given. And if agreed to then no help should given, and there should be no religious belief card played out either. Because if you feel it's against your religion to not have a child if that's what god wants but it's ok to have that child and allow it to starve to death because you cannot provide sufficentley for it then maybe you should rethink religions.

Why help save Ahmed now when Ahmed 2nd,3rd,4th and so on just keep popping out. they can't feed what they have but they sure as h ell know how to keep having them, whether there dying or not. And that should not be just for them, I say the US as well. All these ones on welfare and all these other programs made up to help supposedly needy people out do almost nothing but feed the fire. Why should they go out and work when if they want a raise or a new car all they have to do is have another degenerate(really what most end up being because they have no home life or parents to show them right from wrong) and in the end what happens? They end up on assistance ( big joke) meaning welfare having a bunch of little no goods because that was the way they were brought up, why work or earn your own living when you can wimper a little and some dumb azz will come running acting like they are the savior of all and give them something for nothing. I say welfare and those kind of programs should have rules just like anything else. Not just "oh, I don't know the babies daddy's name" or whatever else they come up with to get by the system. Like my grand dad said once"you laid and played, now it's time to stand and pay". really couldn't be much clearer than that.
2 or more kids have to get fixed.
Mandatory drug testing(if dirty it stops, no 2nd chances).
Fixed amount of time allowed on assistance.

I mean really, why should us working,tax paying people have to pay to help everybody in the whole dam world much less all the worthless one's we have right here in the US..

Just like when you were living at home with mommy and daddy or even now a days with say banks for example. If you want help from them then there are certain rules/criteria that has to be met or followed for them to agree. Why should this be any different?

Besides I remember seeing some study/investigation done a few years back about a lot of these help the children mercy beggins. And they found on average for every dollar donated to help these kids in other countries that are starving,fight aids whatever it may be, a average of only .05-.08 actually got to the place/purpose it was originally supposed to be helping. By time they deducted for all the TV/advertising time,host fee's,if food was sent, transportation getting it there etc,etc,etc. SO in the end the ones that made out were the ones asking everybody else to reach deep and help save the kids.

Only ones I will give to anymore is The Shriners & St Jude. because those 2 have been proven to actually use the money to help the kids and not all the politics and crooks in between.


Sorry Ahmed, I feel for you buddy but the Busa needs some new Pirelli's.

 

[nabusa]

This may sound bad, but I think we need to take care of our own before we start dishing out hundreds of millions of dollars to another country.

Get us back on top as number one, then start helping others again. Right now, we are headed down the rabbit hole, and it is a lot deeper than any of us know.

I just came back to this because as I hit the "new post" button I felt I had to come back. Our government is sending hundreds of millions of dollars overseas to feed the starving. We have starving here, hell I see them every day on my way to work. I give what I can, when I can, but the damn gas prices and food prices make it to where I have not donated much at all lately.

Now the government is looking to take away military retirement benefits and make it to where you cannot collect until you are age 65. They are also looking at converting our current retirement system into a 401K type system, SOUNDS F'IN GREAT!!!! I heard on the radio today you cannot call it a 401K anymore, it is a 201K because it is only worth half as much. So, now that I am nearly 17 years into my career and people have tried to kill me, the government is going to thank me by taking my retirement away.....

Take the millions of dollars they piss away on stupid **** and save our country for crying out loud. This is stupid.......

And when you do 20 years of military service you basically gave up your youth for your county yet they still try and screw you over. Plenty of words I can say but that's a different topic.

As humans yes we should care. As Americans no, we are not required to help the entire world. This country is screwed up as it is, there is no need to screw it up more by helping every person in the world. We help enough as it is, the choice should be made individually. If someone wants to help with their own money, go right ahead. But don't make the choice for someone else, and my them help another country. We pay taxes to help "our' country, not (x) country with it's own issues.

 

[CruzinBusa]

I would ask you to research the amount of civilians killed in Iraq from collateral damage as well as suicide bombers which were non existant before our invasion as compared to how many civilians were killed at the hands of the Ba'ath party or Saddam. Since there are no accurate records it is difficult to determine but many including many Iraqis feel it was less under Saddam.
Remember we have been dropping bombs in Iraq now for twenty years!

I had to comment on this when I saw it. There are no accurate counts of civilians killed in Iraq. They can only at best, guess. I know for a fact that there was a long time that many of the civilians getting killed had a weapon in their hands. Not to mention the regime and insurgency using schools, hospitals and mosques to store munitions, fire at you from and to base their operations out of. They used a lot of cowardly tactics and as in any war that has ever been conducted there is always collateral damage.

Most of the villages hated the holy warriors in their midst, but they were pretty powerless to move them away. If they spoke out, they died. Why did they hate them? They knew they would bring the fight to their homes. The vast majority of the insurgents were not from that village or city and as such didn’t care about the population. I personally saw these insurgents fire RPGs, miss up and slam into some innocent’s home killing them.

I went over there in 2003 when everything was starting. That doesn’t add up to 20 years

 

[zukracer]

I think if we stopped giving away Billions of $$$$ every year and focused some of that on our issues domestically and paid some debt, we would see massive changes. If we stopped all foreign aide for 3-4yrs the dollar would be the strongest currency in the world and we would have a much much better quality of life for all Americans.

Just my 2c worth, I feel for the starving kids but that area has been in crisis for decades and yet people continue to have kids, lots of kids, under those conditions. I don't have extra money for local groups so I'm not in a position to give internationally. I think we should focus on domestic issues but to each their own...

Oh and if I see one more lady Obama relief for Haiti commercial I'm going to scream.

 

[BusaWhipped]

I don't think it's our Governments job to take care of them. Individuals and corporations should help the less fortunate according to their means and hearts regardless of geographic boarders.

 

[RussellJ]

No, we shouldn't. Period. We have enough problems here.

 

[Malicious]

im not an american... im canadian, but i dont agree with giving money to people in starving somolia or africa drought or haiti relief... pretty much any third world contry, japanese tsunami relief, yes, i donated, and bought a new bike, katrina relief, i did my part... but the reason being that thses are countries that try to help themselvs, and are useful and industrious, i know in my city, there have been sveral murders in the somali commuity this year, and when the cops go around there looking for witnesses/info nobody says anything, then the victims familys say the cops arent doing their jobs... kinda cheeses me off.... so why do i wanna donate to bring more of them over here so that they can come and be criminals, or in the case of haiti, the billions of dollars in earthquake relief they recieved was probably more than the gdp of that country for the past 10 years.... i say why bother to prolong the life in the crap hole they live in? they arent going to turn the country around on that money, theyll rebuild the rubble into squaller anfd be back to where they were before.... ill kepp the money in the home front, and donate to useful countries that need help, but just like the panhandler thats been on the same corner for the last 5 years, im not gonna help someone that doesnt help them self it already bothers me that there is a "charitable deduction" on my paycheck that i cant do anything about... dont even know where it goes, it adds up to all of 175ish bucks a year, but id rather donate that to the "awesome stuff for me" fund... yes i am a bit of a ********* but i can admit that, just my 2 cents