So I got this annoying chain mail today from my brother-in-law (who actually sent it to me as an example of xenophobia and racism).  Thankfully, there was a pretty big list of people this email had been sent to listed throughout the body , so I wrote a response and sent it to every address listed.  Got me thinking that this is a good tactic for anyone who gets this sort of stuff from wayward family members/friends.  If the people forwarding this stuff list all their recipients, hit right back at all of them!  If you're interested, I've included the chain mail and my response below, so feel free to use part/all of it if you find this piece of filth in your inbox too.  

Yesterday my dear friend in Germany called me.  She's been through all the ups and downs of the Bush years with me (well, there must have been some "ups" but I can't recall them) and has oftened sympathized with the disappointment I feel in my country's direction.

She, like many Germans, retains a different memory of the USA, one from her childhood.  One from when we were a country that did extraordinary things sometimes, things to be proud of.

She told me about "The Raisin Bombers."

Foreign Aid draws critics from the right and the left.  One says there's too much, the other too little.  The problem with most US foreign aid, though, is that it's not designed to help the developing world as much as it's meant to line the pockets of US companies.  I saw how it worked from the inside.

The. Chutzpah. Is. Unbelievable.: In a press conference yesterday, Laura Bush took the Myanmar junta to task for failing to prepare its citizens for the recent cyclone (est. death toll: 10,000) and for spurning foreign aid.

Asked whether she worried that US aid might not reach Myanmar's people, Laura Bush replied: "I'm worried that they won't even accept US aid."...

Gee--it's too bad the junta couldn't learn how to lead from Boy Bush's government:

In one exchange, State Department officials anguished over whether to tell Italy that its shipments of medicine, gauze, and other medical supplies spoiled in the elements for weeks after Katrina's landfall on August 29, 2005, and were destroyed....And while television sets worldwide showed images of New Orleans residents begging to be rescued from rooftops as floodwaters rose, U.S. officials turned down countless offers of allied troops and search-and-rescue teams. The most common responses: "sent letter of thanks" and "will keep offer on hand," the new documents show.

http://www2.nysun.com/article/53433?page_no=2

Culprits on both the supply and the demand side have caused the current crisis in world food prices.  Everything from weather to a new taste for richer foods are to blame, exacerbated by import curbs and agricultural subsidies by rich nations and export bans by poor ones.  Even the well-intentioned but controversial move to biofuels has impacted markets.  There may be a silver lining, though, as sky-rocketing prices and the resultant food riots around the globe might prompt some meaningful long-term changes in both trade policies and aid practices.  

The debate over foreign aid's ability to improve conditions in the developing world continues unabated as even commentators like Nicholas Kristof can't find data to support either side. What few argue, however, is the impact aid dollars have had on health care in the third world.  Literally millions of lives have been saved as a direct result of foreign aid programs of that type.

"Debunking" chain emails isn't exactly a fresh topic for a diary, and rarely does any good. "Even when someone is corrected, said [psychology professor Nicholas] DiFonzo, they're unlikely to make a point of sending out a retraction, because it's embarrassing to admit to all your friends and family that you sent them something bogus. The result is that while rumours spread exponentially through networks of people, the information necessary to debunk them does not."(Vancouver Sun)

That said, the practice of debunking/fisking forces us to look for facts and possibly even learn a thing or two. I warmed up this morning learning about oil, NAFTA, foreign aid, international relations, Social Security and fiscal responsibility...

Got an exciting term paper? Wish you were published? Looking for a way to get your arguments heard?

S.C.O.U.T. B.A.N.A.N.A., in conjunction with Michigan State University's African Studies Center and Office of International Development, invites you to submit a manuscript to <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Articulate</span>: Undergraduate Scholarship Applied to International Development</span>.

I had a short, bitter conversation with the younger of my two sibs.  The "rebate" being issued by Shrub's Merry Men, aka the Federal Reserve Counterfeiters, came up for discussion from the start.

My sib asked, "Now here our government issues foreign aid to countries, and never asks to be repaid.  But they're giving us money against our own taxes this year, and we've got to pay that back.  How is that fair?"

I had to go look it up, because I wanted to be certain he wasn't pulling an urban legend out of thin air.

  As those people who are obsessed with candidate diaries may know, I support--and will support to the end--John Edwards. But, frankly, when another candidate is criticized and attacked for something good she or he is suggesting, I think it's important to say something. After all, at the end of the day, we should all want a better country, no matter whose ideas contribute to that goal. And here is an instance where Sen. Obama is 100 percent right--the issue of foreign aid.

Thumps up to Abu Mazen - Abbas: No Talks With Hamas; Gaza Heading For "Catastrophe".

I am sick and tired of seeing the slogans 'Death to this', 'Death to that', and 'Al Jihad' as synonymous to Palestine, I wanna see my brothers' children advanced in life, not in death.

200,000... Gazans Rally on Hamas Anniversary Thousands, including women, sang along with a popular Hamas song, which starts: "A Hamas is not afraid of death.".

Tens of thousands of Palestinians joined an anti-Annapolis rally in Hamas-run Gaza on Tuesday, chanting "Death to Israel, death to America" and calling President Mahmoud Abbas a traitor for attending the peace talks..

As it hates its people:
Hamas denounces Paris donors conference

How sick and cruel is that?
Why care that poor Palestinians get aid, anyhow?

Did you hear this morning (Thursday) that Condi Rice has promised "a thorough review" of all US aid to Pakistan?

Just how is that done when so much of the money flowed through untraceable cash transfers?

What will Condi's quote be next week on the subject? 'Um, we've reviewed the transfers and confirm that they were all, indeed, cash and that it all was transferred. No smoke, no fire here.'

NOTE on Condi quote source: I heard it on BCC World News (radio) and haven't found it in print this morning).

Is it in America's best interests to continue to provide foreign aid to Israel?

Since my last visit to the White House webpage on the current "Africa Policy" not much has changed. Our current administration still lumps all African countries together and creates one broad policy to deal with all African governments. On the site there is a list of President Bush's "Africa Accomplishments and Initiatives." They include meeting with 25 African Heads of State, visiting Africa in his first term, providing the greatest level of monetary assistance, and promoting health, development, and peace & stability. Possibly a great list, but it all has to put into context. We need to look at what was discussed with African Heads of State, where he visited in Africa, what restrictions there are on his 'development' funding, and what constitutes peace and stability promotion?

The late & great Progressive Texas journalist, Molly Ivins, insisted from the very beginning of the current Immigration Reform debate that the only effective way to deal with the issue was to begin to address the economic problems in the Latin American countries where the issue originates.  People are leaving their homes for a reason. In most cases other than seeking asylum, the reasons are economic.  

John F. Kennedy had a Progressive solution, one that really never got off the ground because of his assassination and because of the Vietnam War that drained away American resources and created monetary inflation and huge deficits.

That economic situation is raising its ugly head again, thanks to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, their cabal of Straussians and their War in Iraq -- let's say it again in case there is any confusion -- a war that has nothing to do with 9/11 and the sinister sound-bite they created for its marketing, "The War on Terror."

Just for funzies, in honor of both JFK and Molly, let's revisit a pretty darn good program that could still have its day if we decide to make it happen -- The Alliance for Progress.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi children uprooted by the war in Iraq and forced to flee their country started classes in Syria this week. For many, it is the first time in more than two years that they have been able to attend school.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Syrian Ministry of Education have been preparing since the beginning of 2007 to increase the number of Iraqi children enrolled in Syrian schools to 100,000 during the 2007-2008 school year, from 38,000 last year. But many more Iraqi refugee children in the region remain unable to attend school for lack of space, teachers, and funds.

The UNHCR estimates that more than four million Iraqis, equivalent to the entire population of Kentucky, have left their homes since the beginning of the war in March of 2003. More than two million remain internally displaced. Another two million have fled to neighboring states, most ending up in Jordan and Syria, countries already with limited resources. Humanitarian agencies estimate that over 500,000 Iraqi children are now living in neighboring countries, a scattered and unseen generation hiding in plain sight.

It hardly seems good news that 9.7 million children younger than age 5 died worldwide in 2006, but according to a new UNICEF report, the number represents a child survival milestone, the first time the under-5 mortality has dropped below 10 million since global health officials have been keeping track.

The drop represents progress in areas such as malaria prevention, childhood immunization, and breastfeeding rates, according to the report. The drop also represents substantial success at decreasing childhood preventable diseases from a high of 20 million deaths in 1960, especially considering that the world's population has more than doubled in these last nearly fifty years.

Nonetheless, last year there were 72 deaths of children under 5 for every 1000 live births worldwide, down from 184 deaths per 1000 in 1960, but considerably higher than the under-5 mortality rate of 8 per 1000 in the United States. And most of these deaths are preventable, at relatively little cost.

Here's a "foregn affairs" story now up on NewYorkTimes.com: Jamaica Braces for Direct Hit by Hurricane.

What does this story have to do with us, compared, for example, to this fine diary posted today about how Bush will politicize the aid given when this storm has passed Jamaica and moved to Texas?

Not much, perhaps.  But perhaps not.