Food against terrorism

[Artur F. Silva]

At 17:04 20-09-2001, Jim Metcalf wrote:
>To all in the Open Space community:
>
>Please help me spread a powerful idea to combat terrorism.
>
>I'm proposing a simple idea for a radical response to terrorism in our
>country. Please think about it in terms of "if your enemy is hungry, feed
>him; if your enemy is thirsty, give him a drink" (Romans 12:20). After all,
>loving those who hate us is the sweetest form of revenge.
>
>My idea is simple: Send to Pakistan and Afghanistan vast amounts of food.
>Feed the hungry! House the homeless! Ignore the Taliban if necessary. Buy
>the food from American farmers. Send it with international cooperation. Do
>good to those who hate us. We will refuse to fight terrorism with our own
>state-sponsored terrorism. And then we must listen to the poor of the world
>to understand how they would construct a better world for their children.

I have some mixed feelings with this proposal, Jim. On one side I tend to
think that, yes, this can make a difference. Exactly as in Chris daughter's
"suggestion".

The problem is that when we feed someone we assume a sort of
superiority (at least of wealth) that is not necessarily well accepted
in some less affluent countries. The point is that our "help"
can be interpreted not as true love but as "revenge" as you have also
pointed:

>After all,
>loving those who hate us is the sweetest form of revenge.

Then, by choosing Pakistan and Afghanistan as recipients we are
assuming that those countries and not individual criminals are the targets.
And in what concerns Pakistan, that is being blackmailed by the occident
to enter the war, as they are almost in bankruptcy and need the "help"
of the occident, our offers can be considered part of the "help" the American
government has promised to the Pakistan government. (It would be
different in case of private donations to Iran, Iraq or Cuba...)

Lastly, I am afraid that private and public "help to the poor" (individuals
or nations) can be part of the problem and not so much part of the solution,
as occidental help will maintain the dependence - as it has always happened
in history. They can think "those Americans are always trying to show
that they are richer than us".

Having said all that, I must say that this one is the first form of
"concrete action"
I have seen and maybe it will introduce a more human perspective of the
problem - at least the leaders of the occident will see that much of their
citizens
are concerned with the life of the peoples that will probably be under attack.

After all, I think that I support the proposal in spite of my mixing
feelings...

Regards

Artur
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