> ----------
> > From: Mark D. Fulwiler <mfulwiler@earthlink.net>
>
> > Actually, I think the best thing to do would be to ship firearms over to
> > any legitimate freedom fighters so they can take out the evil leaders
> > responsible for keeping their countries in poverty.
>
> Not a good idea; the freedom fighters of today are the "evil leaders"
> of tomorrow. All you'd do is waste more billions to finance the next
> crisis. Do we really need to create more Saddams?
>
> Actually, the only thing that might help is to reintroduce strict colonial
> rule, although it might be too late for that now. In any case it would
> be monstrously expensive, bad PR and would almost certainly backfire.
> Since nothing really seems to work then what's there left to do (assuming
> that you find this a high-priority issue, which from a purely rational point of
> view it isn't)? Probably the best course of action would be redirecting the
> bulk of foreign aid towards scientific projects, especially nanotech-related
> ones. A replicator in every home should pretty much do the trick. Um,
> unless the governments don't like it, of course.
It is unfortunate that today's mass media doesn't give us the ability to repeat the
success that was the British colonial era. I daresay that the British in that era
did more to spread civilization than anyone before, or possibly since.
-- TANSTAAFL!!! Michael Lorrey ------------------------------------------------------------ mailto:retroman@together.net Inventor of the Lorrey Drive MikeySoft: Graphic Design/Animation/Publishing/Engineering ------------------------------------------------------------ How many fnords did you see before breakfast today?