New Axis of Evil Announced!!!

Originally posted by johnny: quote: Originally posted by Downunda: Fear us! Our Navy has even upgraded to include oars for when the motor craps out [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Whoa, when he fires that thing, that boat will move really fast... backwards. [/QUOTE]They’ve obviously run out of ships, and are using bathtubs instead.

[Mojo]

Well, it's nice to know that Britain is doing something...or did I read it wrong?

[Morgeruat]

The US decision to increase steel tariffs and introduce agricultural subsidies exemplified its lack of commitment to free trade and helping poor countries.

that one is completely absurd, the economy in the states right now is cra* and if we can't keep people employed and fed here how can we do anythign to help the rest of the world (US charities are also some of the biggest contributors to 3rd world countries, I guess they're choosing to ignore this fact since the government doesn't mandate that we donate to other countries and gives us the right to choose our charities, or to give at all)

back to bed to wait for the swelling to go down some more

[Morgan_Corbesant]

whaaaa!!!!!!!! hello!! am i mistaken, or does America not help those in need? when i was in the military, i was on a ship for a couple of months. while on shore leave in Manila, i was told that i needed to get back to ship....we all were. upon arival, we were told that we were going to be sent to help with a volcano eruption elsewhere in the philipines. anyway, if America and Britain, and Australia gave its money to those without, then we would all be without too. just another classic case of those without being jealous of those with, and trying their best to make us look bad. call us an axis of evil if you wish, but none of them will be ABLE to do anything about it. whinning and crying wont help. maybe go through the proper channels, and you MIGHT get some aide. damn!!

[ 08-27-2002, 07:37 PM: Message edited by: Morgan_Corbesant ]

[Attalus]

Oh, it's the "Greens." [img]graemlins/yawn.gif[/img] So what else is new? More useless complaining.

[The Hierophant]

Hey hey hey c'mon now fellas. [img]smile.gif[/img] Most of us Kiwi's didn't even vote for the Greens. Personally I find them arrogant, self-righteous and whining(as do most folks over here).
Most New Zealanders like and respect our Australasian, European and American allies. Don't let a bunch of protesting hippies give you the wrong idea [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Morgeruat]

ok, we won't hold the hippies against you [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Downunda]

Originally posted by Morgeruat: ok, we won't hold the hippies against you [img]smile.gif[/img]

You can if they're pretty [img]graemlins/showoff.gif[/img]

[Chewbacca]

And I thought we were just miguided by our own consumerism...Alas, it turns out we are evil!!!!!

Only time, not opinion will tell.

[Donut]

The mind boggles! Where does it say that New Zealand has branded the US as part of an ‘Axis of Evil’. It doesn’t even say that the New Zealand Greens said it. It was Friends of the Earth which is a worldwide organisation. The article is from a New Zealand paper that is reporting from Johannesburg.

Did anyone actually read the article?

They used the term ‘Axis of Evil’ because they wanted to get people’s attention – and it seems to have worked. Because they used this hook they had to pick three countries. The US is the obvious one to include but the others could have been any other industrialised countries.

And why do people think that helping others who have to live on less than $1 a day (give that some thought) only involves helping out in times of natural disaster or sending aid? One of the main problems is the level of subsidy given to farmers in the rich countries of the world.

This example was given in the Times today:

Sugar costs £319 a tonne to produce in the EU

EU farmers are guaranteed a subsidised price of £415 a tonne and are protected by a 140% tariff on non-EU sugar imports.

The subsidies have led to a surplus of seven million tonnes of sugar, which has been dumped on the world market, depressing the price to £121 a tonne.

Farmers in the developing countries grow sugar cane rather than beet. It costs only £183 a tonne to produce, but this price is not competitive because of the dumping.

But of course ‘there are no votes in foreign policy’.

A couple of other things to think on:

The average cow in the industrialised world is subsidised by three times the level of income of a poor person in Africa.

Last year rich countries gave about US$57 billion in development aid in 2001 but paid more than US$350 billion to their own farmers. Such subsidies help keep out Third World produce.

Of course one country has shown that it can be done:

New Zealand farmers thrive after agony of pruning

BY VALERIE ELLIOTT, COUNTRYSIDE EDITOR THE TIMES


NEW ZEALAND farmers have demonstrated that farming can flourish without state handouts. Eighteen years after payments and price controls were abolished the Federated Farmers of New Zealand, the main farming union, has declared: “There is life after subsidies.”

In 1984, when the Government ended the subsidy programme, farmers were benefiting from as many as 30 different subsidies and export incentives. As a result, trading partners had threatened to ban sales of New Zealand produce — something ministers feared because the farming export market was vital to the survival of the country’s population of four million.

The impact of removing the subsidies was initially brutal. Beef and sheep farmers lost 40 per cent of their income, and other farmers lost a third. Land prices collapsed and analysts estimated that as many as 8,000 of New Zealand’s 80,000 farms would be forced out of business.

Yet there were only 800 forced land sales and in all about 500 farmers decided to quit. For the most part banks stayed loyal to their clients. Prices were depressed during the difficult first years.

Though it was a traumatic time for family farms, many farmers took advantage of the changes. They were forced to find new customers and they concentrated on expansion in Asian markets. They also increased the size of their holdings and livestock numbers. Farmers moved into new forms of farming such as wine, venison and dairy. Land that had been considered marginal for livestock was used for vineyards, exotic fruits or forestry.

Farmers’ wives and children exploited new opportunities for tourism. They organised outdoor activity courses and holidays and opened up their gardens and homesteads. There were added efforts to ensure maximum profitability at each stage of the production process. In the mid-1980s New Zealand used to export whole carcasses of frozen sheep and cattle, until the industry spotted the potential for processing the meat at home.

Hundreds of jobs were created in this sector and prime cuts are now routinely packaged prior to export. Agriculture has, in fact, grown in importance to the economy since subsidies came to an end. In the mid-1980s the sector represented 14.5 per cent of gross domestic product; now it accounts for 17 per cent.

In the UK agriculture as a proportion of GDP is 1 to 2 per cent. Importantly, the sentiment among farmers is positive. They feel they are in control of their destiny, and monitor signals in the marketplace and respond to consumer demand.

They are also relatively wealthy. A typical sheep farmer has about 600 acres, keeps about 2,000 sheep and 100 cattle and is likely to earn NZ$100,000 (£31,000) a year — equivalent in spending power to an annual salary of more than £60,000 in Britain. The average UK farm income is about £7,000 a year.