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  • From: EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Africa-originally posted on 10/2
  • Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:54:06 -0500



shepperd wrote:
Two points: First, about stun guns for insect and snake bites.

Thanks for sharing that. Everything about this use is anecdotal, so I
would expect to to see the door open and close. Some have posed that
perhaps it works on hemotoxins (like the venom of many pit vipers), but
not neurotoxins (like the venom of a mamba). I'm guessing that there is
a lot going on-more than one variable at play. Adults may respond
better than children, it may be that time of treatment post bite has an
effect, success could be related to the amount of venom released, after
all, many times the snake will give a dry bite..lots of variables.


Second: My wife is from Northern Ghana, and while I have never lived
in Africa, I am on the receiving end of lots of information and strong opinion.

It sounds like your opinion of the state of the African continent is
similar to mine....lots of tribal conflict, lots of religious conflict,
lots of economic conflict...conflict, conflict, conflict. Does your
wife concur with the status of the list of nations I provided? BTW,
this whole thing started as a personal project for myself, to list and
check status of African countries; I often do things like this as a way
to learn and fill in the gaps from my own education and misdirected
attention. It started when I was looking at the OnTheIssues website and
noticed how much Africa played into Obama's section on foreign
relations. Since by October, it was pretty clear to me that he would be
the next President, I decided to kick my own education up into high
gear, develop my own internal Africa policy<g>. As I was making my own
conclusions and analysis, I decided I wanted more opinions, and my
research page became the Africa post. I tried to be conservative in my
assessment of problems. I couldn't find much on Ghana other than petty
type crime-stuff you could find in any large city in the US, so my list
just says "crime". It actually seems to be one of the better places in
Africa. Also, this season, Survivor is in Gabon, and I have to say that
it really does seem to be an Eden of sorts. I've never been to any of
the places that the show has used for locales, but the scenery in Gabon
is spectacular and I have decided that it would be the first place I
would go should I ever have the opportunity to travel there.

In the US, Africa has a large influential interest group, in the state department, and in the growing numbers of African ex-pats, who
lobby Congress, the World Bank, the IMF, the WHO, and other governmental and UN agencies to provide monetary, medical, educational and technical assistance to Africa. Plus, the US government, under both Republican and Democratic administrations has
a stated interest in increasing US involvement in Africa.

I have noticed that the news about African concerns have increased
tenfold over the last 15 years. To believe what you write above, all
one has to do is to set your homepage to CNN International for one day.
Almost all the headlines are about African issues, one county or
another. The continent has been largely ignored by the West in the post
imperialistic age, but not ignored by all. During the Cold War, it
because quite a battleground between economic ideologies. Now, it is
set to become a battleground for natural resources, for religious
conflict...will it ever end? Africa is so fluid!



Part of
this, of course, is an anti-Arab, anti-Middle East policy, but a large part is driven by a genuine humanitarian impulse. Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have been actively involved in Africa, and
we should expect to see this involvement increase with the
presidency of Barack Obama.

Yes, I concur. You and your wife provide a unique perspective. Since
so many countries are troubled, do you think we should be there, or
should we limit our involvement to a pittance allowance to countries for
humanitarian aide? How involved should the US become? Are we
developing a solid foreign policy for African nations to prevent the
kinds of faux pas we are making in the Middle East? Can we 'win' in
this giant game of Risk, and make friends and alliances and strong
partners that will see us through the 21st century?



--
“Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to
hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda




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