Africans came to America and became African-Americans.

Asians came to America and became Asian-Americans.

Then the UN came here...

MDGeist: take the T.

(that's "subway" for you non-Boston Farkers)

/miss Boston

Fark-the-Fnord: Gosling: My prediction is big water problems in the western US in about 20 years. In 50 years? Who knows what kind of a mess there will be?

Then we should go ahead and bottle up all the water that is covering the midwest right now. And then we can get the big ice chuck that fell off of Antarctica and keep that in storage for a while.


Gotta figure out a cheap, quick, easy way to refine salt-water first...

/I don't think you thought your cunning plan through

Tell ya what. I will donate if there is an emphasis on family planning. I fail to understand why I should help one person, another person help a different person, those two people hook up and pop out a third.

factoryconnection: I'm also pretty sure that the UN doesn't fund the dining habits of ambassadors, anyhow.

While this is not rock-solid evidence, this is one blog after the Indonesian tsunami:
'In this part of the tsunami-wrecked Far Abroad, the UN is still nowhere to be seen where it counts, i.e., feeding and helping victims. The relief effort continues to be a US-Australia effort, with Singapore now in and coordinating closely with the US and Australia. Other countries are also signing up to be part of the US-Australia effort. Nobody wants to be "coordinated" by the UN. The local UN reps are getting desperate. They're calling for yet another meeting this afternoon; they've flown in more UN big shots to lecture us all on "coordination" and the need to work together, i.e., let the UN take credit. With Kofi about to arrive for a big conference, the UNocrats are scrambling to show something, anything as a UN accomplishment. Don't be surprised if they claim that the USS Abraham Lincoln is under UN control and that President Lincoln was a strong supporter of the UN.

Maybe watching the UN flounder is not like watching a train wreck; perhaps it's more akin to watching an Ed Wood movie or reading Maureen Dowd or Margo Kingston -- so horrible, so pathetic, that it transforms into a thing of perverse beauty. The only problem, of course, is that real people are dying.

I hope soon to return to my habitual corner of the Far Abroad . . . far, far away from the UN.

UPDATE: More on "The UNcredibles": WFP (World Food Program) has "arrived" in the capital with an "assessment and coordination team." The following is no joke; no Diplomad attempt to be funny or clever: The team has spent the day and will likely spend a few more setting up their "coordination and opcenter" at a local five-star hotel. And their number one concern, even before phones, fax and copy machines? Arranging for the hotel to provide 24hr catering service. USAID folks already are cracking jokes about "The UN Sheraton." Meanwhile, our military and civilians, working with the super Aussies, continue to keep the C-130 air bridge of supplies flowing and the choppers flying, and keep on saving lives -- and without 24hr catering services from any five-star hotel . . . . The contrast grows more stark every minute. '

BlorfMaster: MDGeist: Sucks for the UN and the countries in need, but they'll just have to wait till my family is taken care of before I worry about them and theirs. Not my fault, not my problem. Maybe they could take this small break in getting free food and money to learn how to fend for themselves finally.

Do you really need that car? for the couple of thousand you spent on it, hundreds of families could eat for a year. But no, a fat American like you can't walk anywhere or take the bus. Better for you to live a life of ease and comfort that to keep people from starving to death.

BlorfMaster - If a person works hard for their money they should be able to spend it as they see fit, no matter how frivolous it is. Is it awful that people live in poverty and starve to death? Absolutely, but they control their own choices and if they feel the need to actually do something like eat they should put themselves in the best possible position to succeed. Making money does not obligate another person to reduce their quality of life.

Gash: Hear go the Americans with the UN-bashing. Funny, they liked the UN fine when it rescued the sorry asses of their "elite" troops in Mogadishu.

broken clock...twice a day...

/and they just saved us the gas money is all

The UN might fail, but perhaps the Democratic Order Of Planets can help.

The UN: Even more useless than every other bureaucracy!

Gash: Hear go the Americans with the UN-bashing. Funny, they liked the UN fine when it rescued the sorry asses of their "elite" troops in Mogadishu.

Oh, here come the US bashers. Funny, they liked the US when it rescued their sorry asses in WWI and WWII

Headso: Manfred J. Hattan: The entire shortfall is because of increasing prices (what with liberals putting food in their gas tanks and all)

If you would like it is still possible to blame American gluttony on the higher costs of oil which have made the cost of food more.

Yes, increase in competitor supplies ALWAYS causes your own prices to almost double just as oil supplies have...

/basic economics... FAIL

Headso: Manfred J. Hattan: The entire shortfall is because of increasing prices (what with liberals putting food in their gas tanks and all)

If you would like it is still possible to blame American gluttony on the higher costs of oil which have made the cost of food more.

Actually, as much as I like to tweak the enviros, with their food-filled gas tanks and their replacing lead paint with mercury bulbs in the homes of the poor, the main reason food prices are increasing is because more people are eating well. All those Indian programmers have decided they want some damn meat in their vindaloo, and meat is more grain-intensive than just eating the grain. The same phenomenon is happening in China and elsewhere. The emergence of a world middle class is putting a temporary strain on the poor until agricultural activity catches up with the demand (by allowing productive crops in Europe, for example).

Gash: Hear go the Americans with the UN-bashing. Funny, they liked the UN fine when it rescued the sorry asses of their "elite" troops in Mogadishu.

This thread just turned a corner.

filth:

Still, one wonders how the UN has any credibility left with regard to food aid.

FTFY

Y2Jericho: US first
THEM second

I disagree, when the cost is minimal for us to save a lot of people's lives. Americans are valuing our own convenience and luxury over other people's lives. I think that's wrong.

aedude01: Gotta figure out a cheap, quick, easy way to refine salt-water first...

If only we could heat up the water to some sort of gaseous state to leave the salt behind and then have it turn into water again but without the salt...hmmm.

fark tha UN.

Hang On Voltaire: I would sooner give M.C. Hammer the $500 million than the UN

Hammer actually tried to help people, but he was too nice about it...and a lottle stupid..yes a lottle.

samimgreen: Yes, increase in competitor supplies ALWAYS causes your own prices to almost double just as oil supplies have...

what fantasy land do you live in where the worlds oil supply is increasing?

Well, p the boiler, I wouldn't say we rescued Europe in WWI, since we came in pretty much at the tail end of it. WWII could have very well been won by the Soviets, as well... It would have took longer, though.

However, it's not like Gash is anything other than a troll, so why even give him the time of day?

Before Americans didn't mind helping other people out. We had plenty of extra time and money to go around.

But now we are in a receding economy and stuck in the middle of a costly war. With no help from other countries in our own struggles. How can the United Nations expect the average American to want to return the favor?

You would think people would get how the American mind works by now. It isn't all that hard.

1. Don't fark us over or we'll get you back someday, somehow.
2. If we can help someone, we will (unless you break rule #1).

YixilTesiphon: The UN: Even more useless than every other bureaucracy!

Sure they cured smallpox, but what have they done for me lately?

Ok, ok, we get it, USians don't like the UN.

Here's a suggestion, why don't you quit it? Seriously. Just get out. The Security Council's decision making would be a lot more streamlined without US vetoing. As for US influence on the IMF, WTO, WIPO,... Good riddance.

BlorfMaster: Do you really need that car? for the couple of thousand you spent on it, hundreds of families could eat for a year. But no, a fat American like you can't walk anywhere or take the bus. Better for you to live a life of ease and comfort that to keep people from starving to death.

Yes, this.

Sorry, rest of the world, but my (proverbial) family is waaaay ahead of you on the list of things I wish to spend my money on.

Success: I seek it to better myself and my own life, not to help equalize a level of downtrodden poverty worldwide.

For the record, yes, I need my car. For the record, I also don't give a flying fark, I want a car even if I didn't need one. I also don't need a television, but I have one of those, I don't need my library of books, but I have those. I don't need to live in an apartment all by myself, I could share an apartment with several other people, but I don't.

To paraphrase Dilbert, charity isn't about helping others, it's about making yourself feel better. As long as you have money to buy luxuries for yourself, you aren't giving as much as you can. If you donate less than every cent you can afford, you aren't more charitable than me, you simply want to feel less guilty. But chances are you still have things you don't strictly speaking need. So I don't see you as being any better than I am on the basis of our charitable giving.

Mnemia: Y2Jericho: US first
THEM second

I disagree, when the cost is minimal for us to save a lot of people's lives. Americans are valuing our own convenience and luxury over other people's lives. I think that's wrong.

So go sell your Hummer then, I'm taking mine down to the station for a refill...

BlorfMaster: MDGeist: Sucks for the UN and the countries in need, but they'll just have to wait till my family is taken care of before I worry about them and theirs. Not my fault, not my problem. Maybe they could take this small break in getting free food and money to learn how to fend for themselves finally.

Do you really need that car? for the couple of thousand you spent on it, hundreds of families could eat for a year. But no, a fat American like you can't walk anywhere or take the bus. Better for you to live a life of ease and comfort that to keep people from starving to death.

Not all of us can take up comfy residence in our mom's basement. I actually need my car to live. I carpool to work every morning since it's 60 miles from my home.

Since you're up on your soap box; what luxury have you given up to aid the starving folks?

/The UN sucks

Can't we just move over to electic vehicles already and end this farce?

I wonder if a country has ever closed its borders and work totally on itself to fix itself and not worry about anyone else, Oh yeah there was this one country one time that did that, I think it was called China.

This whole situation is farked. We can't feed them because we produce virtually every foodstuff at a fraction of the cost for local producers, even with transportation. This drives out the locals and the infrastructure decays beyond salvage. We can't teach them to farm with our techniques because it risks farking up the worlds biodiversity even more. Meanwhile U.S. farmers get to choose between subsidies and flooding foreign markets, plus the new food-sink, ethanol production. Something needs a drastic overhaul.

Manfred J. Hattan: Actually, as much as I like to tweak the enviros, with their food-filled gas tanks and their replacing lead paint with mercury bulbs in the homes of the poor, the main reason food prices are increasing is because more people are eating well. All those Indian programmers have decided they want some damn meat in their vindaloo, and meat is more grain-intensive than just eating the grain. The same phenomenon is happening in China and elsewhere. The emergence of a world middle class is putting a temporary strain on the poor until agricultural activity catches up with the demand (by allowing productive crops in Europe, for example).

What happens when world population keeps on growing and standards of living keep increasing? Eventually we will run out of the ability to grow enough crops for all to have an American-style lifestyle. We're straining all kinds of resources already. Should we just let a bunch of people starve, downgrade some people's lifestyles, cap population growth somehow??

BlorfMaster --
The same also tends to happen for US food aid. It's bought from US food producers and shipped via US transportation companies, and dumped into local markets -- damaging local agricultural economies, but reaping $ for the US farmers and shippers. There are aid organizations that would like this to change.

RockyMtnMan: Before Americans didn't mind helping other people out. We had plenty of extra time and money to go around.

But now we are in a receding economy and stuck in the middle of a costly war. With no help from other countries in our own struggles. How can the United Nations expect the average American to want to return the favor?

You would think people would get how the American mind works by now. It isn't all that hard.

1. Don't fark us over or we'll get you back someday, somehow.
2. If we can help someone, we will (unless you break rule #1).

Yeah really, after the UN got down on its hands and knees to beg you guys to invade Iraq, this is how it repays you?

That's not cricket at all!

To whom would we sell a flying machine stuffed with proprietary technology to?

To P.N. Guin, of course! He's got a PO box and everything!

corbell:
However, it's not like Gash is anything other than a troll, so why even give him the time of day?

Because it is almost 4:30, I have to pee and can not focus at the moment... and I have no idea who he is and what his intentions are - he could seriously feel that way.

And, really, you think life in europe would be close to what it is today if we did not jump in to both wars?

Fark-the-Fnord: aedude01: Gotta figure out a cheap, quick, easy way to refine salt-water first...

If only we could heat up the water to some sort of gaseous state to leave the salt behind and then have it turn into water again but without the salt...hmmm.

If it's so COST effective, why aren't we already doing this? Because it isn't. That's why people freak out about aquifer contamination; because when you drink one dry its gone, for a good long time. Sure you can purify salt water and bottle it for a small community, but try doing it in a cost-effective manner for New York City...

/somehow I don't think you thought your cunning plan through.

Lemon-Lime Malthus:
Because if there's one thing the world *definitely* needs, it's more people.

Are you saying that you are pro-starvation?

KellyX
MrGumboPants: Dear Kelly

It's not our problem the US has a chronic problem with overspending on the military.
Eat a dick,
The Rest of the World

Yea, cause I've love to see how the world does then...

I would actually be interested ("interested", not "love") to see how the US economy would do then when the US military gets drastically downsized and spending for weapons and related project gets squashed.

I wonder how many jobs are directly or indirectly connected with the military and related industries in the US - isn't that basically the only industry branch where the US still produces on a world class level and hasn't outsourced most of the production?

Korovyov: BlorfMaster --
The same also tends to happen for US food aid. It's bought from US food producers and shipped via US transportation companies, and dumped into local markets -- damaging local agricultural economies, but reaping $ for the US farmers and shippers. There are aid organizations that would like this to change.

US farmers have mansions full of AIDS-infected hookers?

Manfred J. Hattan: because more people are eating well.

And what liquid drives all the machinery that allows the farms to feed the masses? It's all about oil and cheap easily extractable oil is the direct reason for the planets population explosion over the past 50 years, and now it's going down, production is in decline and the worlds population in 1950 was 2.5billion people. Billions of people are going to starve to death in the next decade or two, but after that it's going to be smooth sailin!

Thisbymaster: Can't we just move over to electric vehicles already and end this farce?

Better yet, can we make electric cars affordable? You know, going to an alternative fuel is nice but what do we do about all the other cars in the country that run on gas? I know that I cannot afford to buy an electric car if I wanted to.

Shostie: Gosling: In the meantime, I think we can sell off one fighter jet. That should give us the $500 million right there.

Running price for an F-22 Raptor, the top-of-the-line currently in production is $137.5 million. So we'd have to sell 4 to cover $500 million.

But then comes the question: To whom would we sell a flying machine stuffed with proprietary technology to?

Knee-jerk reactions, only. Please.

Welcome to Lifeboat Earth.

I find it funny that Americans are talking about how the UN has no credibility left. Because America has so much they can afford to point fingers.

Reading the comments here, the one thing that Bush-Rove machine did succeed in is changing the perception of the UN in the eyes of average Americans. If you don't like the UN, guess what, you just bought Bush's propaganda! Sure you may think you may know the "facts", but I really have to wonder where you got those facts...

To some of you, who are you anyway to think you deserve to live more than those starving Africans?

There is YouTube video (not a rickroll) which sums up the world nicely: there are 7 people stranded on an island, 1 of them American, the rest from the rest of the world. Each got a task, one was to fish, one was to gather firewood, and the American's job is to consume. In the American's eye, without him, everybody would be out of work! Whereas without the American, they would just have enough with less work...

I'm in favour of moving all the Americans to Africa and Africans to America...

Mnemia: Y2Jericho: US first
THEM second

I disagree, when the cost is minimal for us to save a lot of people's lives. Americans are valuing our own convenience and luxury over other people's lives. I think that's wrong.

You say that as if America hasn't done the lion's share of providing aid around the world.

ManicParroT: I find it funny that Americans are talking about how the UN has no credibility left. Because America has so much they can afford to point fingers.

As do the French...

Wait?

They were right about the war...

Ah fuc--

The Voice of Doom: KellyX
MrGumboPants: Dear Kelly

It's not our problem the US has a chronic problem with overspending on the military.
Eat a dick,
The Rest of the World

Yea, cause I've love to see how the world does then...

I would actually be interested ("interested", not "love") to see how the US economy would do then when the US military gets drastically downsized and spending for weapons and related project gets squashed.

I wonder how many jobs are directly or indirectly connected with the military and related industries in the US - isn't that basically the only industry branch where the US still produces on a world class level and hasn't outsourced most of the production?

Broken Window Fallacy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window#War