Today you'll hear how extreme right-wing policies of the United States literally cause starvation and death in the Third World.
And, I'll show you the link between this unfortunate situation, and two hot button front page issues in the US, health care, and the occupation of Iraq.
The microcosm will be Malawi, where right-wingers in the US and international financial institutions insisted that the government cut back if not eliminate its fertilizer subsidies to small farmers. The result: famine and death.
The marcrocosm will be the entire Third World: how Western economic policies are designed to, and all too well do, transfer wealth from poor nations to the rich.
(PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first. Please don't respond just on the basis of the brief preview above. Thanks!!)
Programming note: Until January, there will most likely not be live shows on alternate weeks.
Another superb podcast from Jack. His points are quite valid and important and I strongly agree with him.
ReplyDeleteBut what is profoundly critical here is to examine these issues in the context of biogeography and human population ecology. The underlying dynamic is the interplay between geometrically-increasing population growth and massive resource depletion. Any discussion of these issues that doesn't address the inherent pathology of large-scale global overpopulation will never provide the solutions that are needed. It is the resulting resource scarcity that creates the hyperagressive/competitive social environment that breeds the conservative mindset. When humans must violently compete for vanishing resources then ideologies that rationalize hyperselfishness actually function as ecological behavioral adaptations. Conservative ideologies will continue to thrive as our planet is stripmined of its critcal resources. If you truly want to combat this then the fundamental issue of overpopulation cannot be ignored. It is the linch pin of human misery.