Starvation: the way to conquer nations

Smarty Pants sent me this link (the video is horrible, so be warned), about the Russian plan that essentially killed Ukrainians by starvation (a quarter of the population of Ukraine starved to death in 2 years). It made me think about how effective starvation is at killing people and making them accept your terms. The Russians starved the Ukrainians; the Germans starved the Jews; everybody’s starving everybody else in Africa.

The American government cut the Aboriginal population off from their main food source, then prevented them from hunting what little there was left. The British government, who’d had a long and bold history of starving people to colonise their land, watched the Native population here dying. The Irish people lost 25% of their population the same way over a span of 7 years.

What I don’t understand is how you can watch someone treat other people this way. How could you look at a child so near death, or a man so weak he cannot stand…how could you look at them and know “I did this”, and not be filled with self-loathing?

It has to be more than propaganda. Just because I tell you “don’t feed the Indians/Irish/Ukrainians/Tutsis/Mennonites/Jews/Japanese/Homosexuals, even if they’re pretending to be hungry, because they’re not really people” doesn’t mean you should believe me. How can we still be doing this to each other? How could we have let it happen at all?

What’s *wrong* with us?

(list of famines)

Posted

26 November 2008

Everything Else Drawer

cenobyte

Tags:

Comments

8 responses to “Starvation: the way to conquer nations”

cenobyte

2 February 2010

Wow, VP. Um. Wow.I mean…wow.you had me at ‘soap dodgers’. I’m pretty damned close to a leftard loser, and most of the organic farmers I know use fertilizer of some description and have fairly good yields. Not as good as hard chemical fertilizer, of course…but then again, most of the organic farmers I know don’t run huge operations, and they’re not trying to feed the world; they’re trying to feed their families and folks in the area. most of the really leftards around here are also in to getting their produce from within 100 km or so of their homes. Sure, that won’t feed the world, but there are enough folks out there who have *huge* operations who *will*. And the industry is never going to go “all organic”. Because most of the big-operation farms are interested in profit, and there’s nothing wrong with that.But I also don’t think hippies cause genocide.

Reply
Viper Pilot

2 February 2010

The extreme greenies and the technophobes of this world are well on their way to endorsing yet another genocide through hunger.Humans have been using genetic modification to improve crops for over 3000 years (selective breeding and crossbreeding ARE GM, folks!); genetically modified rice, wheat and corn saved the lives of over ONE BILLION people in China, India and Mexico ALONE in the 1970s.Now, however, a bunch of overzealous soap-dodgers have taken the arrogant stand of decreeing that their fear of science is more important than the dietary needs of the population of earthDid you know that if every single farmer on the planet reverted to “all organic” growing techniques that a third of the population of the planet wouldn’t have any food to eat?Think about that next time some leftard loser stops you in the street to spout some ill-informed and ignorant rant about the ‘evils’ of using technology to keep people fed.Fear is just as bad as hate.

Reply
Smarty Pants

2 February 2010

I think it actually *is* propoganda. But by that, I mean more than those creepy posters.If you tell someone something for a long enough time, it becomes the “truth”. In the military, you don’t shoot people, the other guys, troops, etc. Your target is labelled as “The enemy”. Deep down you know it’s people, but “the enemy” is faceless and contemptable, and easier to obliterate because of it.Or, if you will, tell someone they’re ugly and stupid enough, that’s what they come to truly believe.If one group says “the other” is less than you, yet is harming you in someway, awful cruelty then feels like putting a rabid dog down or stomping rats…as opposed to feeling what most would when killing another *human being*.Why? Why all this in the first place? Hate. And the human mind has a wonderful way of justifying and acting on things the heart has already decided. If that makes sense.

Reply
Silent Winged Coyote

2 February 2010

Don’t worry about Viper, he just gets overzealous about any science that is badly represented in a movie that stars Marky Mark (Aka Mark Walberg)Seriously, I think he’s more refering to things like the EU’s ban on genetically modified grains. There is a theory that GM grains that cross polinate with non GM grains, that it will produce toxins released by plants, or reduce the genetic viability of the native plants, thus reducing the overall viability of the planet.It’s a worst case scenario fear mongering and I agree with him to a point.I’m also somewhat mystified by the all organic thing. Having read some of the qualifications for ‘organic’ food, as in what qualifies, it’s not nearing as organic as people think. Really the only big no no in the organic label is using pesticides that are purely manufactured in a lab. You can still use pesticides, as long as they are naturally occuring, which are sometimes just as nasty as the chemical ones. Also potash based fertilizers with little modifications are allowable.And the health benefits of organic products have not been proven to contain any significant reduction in toxins (Most come from contaiminated ground water rather than anything the famers do, as well land that has been non-organic for decades still has trace elements of the chemicals that are ‘banned’ so it’ll take ooooh, say about a hundred years before those disappear…) or to contain any larger number of nutrients. Really it’s mostly a marketing gimmic to get folks to pay more. And folks like me can’t afford more.Oh and for produce, it can be grown all natural, but most distributors still use some form of agent to prolong freshness, and most grocery stores (Again, us po’ folks can’t travel far for food without it being non-cost effective) use similar things to clean and keep their produce so… it’s kind of a wash out to avoid the things that we’re told is ‘bad’ for us.And of course, the hits keep coming. What’s wrong with us Ceno? Where do I start. I think I’d rather recommend everyone read Timothy Findley’s book “Not Wanted on the Voyage.” As it stands now, Platypusnboots is correct, it’s not countries anymore that are doing this, it’s the corporations. I’m AGAIN going to recommend that everyone go watch The Story of Stuff. Just google that name, it’s a twenty minute video, but it’s probably a well spent twenty minutes.Althought VP, dude, leftard? That’s a little harsh. Again, we’re dealin with fearmongering, something that news outlets use to sell their product, so of course the extremist view gets a little more exposure.Psst also, VP, BTW, most secular humanists I’ve met are left wing nut jobs. :)

Reply
Platypusnboots

2 February 2010

There should be some recognition that we’ve moved and evolved from starving others to death. Now we’ve gotten more efficient and its all about with holding water. And its not governments, its corporations. Like Bechtel:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechtel http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/water/bolivia.htmlCause everyone knows you can’t go nearly as long without water as you can without food.

Reply
Anonymous

2 February 2010

words words words

Reply
Smarty Pants

2 February 2010

Hippies don’t cause genocide.hatred and a lack of money to spend on camps, gunships, bullets, and hired thugs.Also: “Leftard”? Kinda like calling someone a “Cracker”, isn’t it? Kettle meet pot.

Reply
cenobyte

2 February 2010

*snort*I think I want a shirt that says “Hippies don’t cause genocide”

Reply

Starvation: the way to conquer nations

Like this:

Comments

8 responses to “Starvation: the way to conquer nations”

Leave a Reply to Silent Winged CoyoteCancel reply