Posted on 04/15/2005 3:35:15 PM PDT by Tern
Carter: rich states "don't give a damn" about poor
ATLANTA, April 14 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Thursday harshly criticized his own country and other wealthy states for being stingy with foreign aid and said in rich countries "We really don't give a damn."
In a speech to a human rights conference in Atlanta, Carter said increasing financial assistance was critical to battling malaria, AIDS and other common diseases that disproportionately affect the poorest parts of the world.
"Unfortunately, in the rich countries like ours, we really don't give a damn," said Carter, who was president from 1977 to 1981 and who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
He especially criticized the United States for failing to follow other Western nations which are increasing spending.
Although America tops the foreign aid donor list in dollar terms, it falls behind the Netherlands, Canada and many other smaller, less affluent nations when contributions are measured on a per capita basis.
U.S. foreign aid is approximately 0.18 percent of gross national product, the lowest of any G-7 nation and far below a 0.7 percent United Nations target that 22 of the world's developed nations have agreed to meet by 2015.
A handful have met the goal, while others such as Germany and Great Britain insist they will achieve it.
"We have not budged so far," lamented Carter, who has spearheaded efforts through his non-profit Carter Center to eradicate diseases in the developing world, including Guinea worm and onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness.
(Writing by Paul Simao, Editing by David Storey)
I guess America's greatest failure thinks we should be giving more money to the Marxist, totalitarian dictators that he so enthusiastically endorses.
"The Reagans make us feel comfortable about our prejudices." --Former First "Lady" Rosalyn Carter.
I will never forget what these sanctionious Georgia Libs did to our country back in the late 1970's.
Jimmie Carter's courses on nuclear engineering were probably what is offered in training for all nuclear navy sailors. We had working prototypes of the nuclear portion of its ships and boats. I worked at Westinghouse Electric many years ago when it ran the nuclear training program for the navy. I was part of the civilian side of the operation but our office, Radiological Controls, was in charge of nuclear safety and got reports of radiological "incidents" which occurred anywhere on the site.
The sailors there were supposed to be la creme de la creme but a significant number of them were idiots. I remember an incident where a couple of sailors decided to take a dip in a hot pit (pools of water about thirty feet deep where "hot" materials were stored to attenuate the radiation). Some other sailors tried to steal a 30-foot dinghy.
I helped give the original orientation to all comers to the site, including admirals from the Pentagon whom Jimmie Carter had shipped to the site to learn more about the noocleer navy. They arrived fighting mad and we had to train them on basic nuclear safety and the alarm system ("this one means run to the bus, this one means shut your windows, and this one means make peace with your creator"). Out of sheer spite from being shipped to a desert in Idaho and away from those chauffeur-driven limos of DC, those admirals deliberately screwed up their exams and flunked safety regulations. Most of them came to enjoy the respite what with all the hunting and fishing around there. One admiral even dug up some sagebrush and took it back to DC with him.
Needless to say, I wasn't too impressed with the nuclear engineering know-how of a lot of these guys.
EXCELLENT point!
I don't know about the rest of y'all but I'm too busy working to supply the money that we send all over the world to give a damn. I need rest.
He has had too many TIA's..."mini strokes"....it bothers me that he claims to be a Christian....
To keep those diseases away from here?
Maybe Jimmy would like to donate some of the $8 million advance he got for that book he wrote when he lost his reelection bid. Rosalyn wrote a book, too, for which she was paid in the millions. Maybe she'd like to open her purse and fork over some loose change to poor nations. Oh, I forgot. Jimmy's talking about the rest of us, not himself and Ros.
I was in the military under Carter and Clinton - Carter was worse.
I had to try financing things under Carter and Clinton - Carter was worse.
I was not as politically active with Carter as I was with Clinton, plus there wasn't an internet, per se, back then so info was from TV or newspapers. Carter could have been selling secrets all over the place but he was covered bigtime. The MSM back then couldn't have told you how incompetent Carter was because they were still high-fiving each other over getting rid of Republican Nixon.
Feel free to disagree but Carter was worse...no make that MUCH worse...than Clinton. Just IMHO (that doesn't give Clinton a pass, though)
Bingo.
I don't know about the rest of you but that pretty much sums things up for me.
We don't need to send any more money to corrupt foreign dictators. America has more money in research to cure/prevent AIDS, malaria, you name the disease than any other. How's that for helping out the world Jimmy?
Jimmy's incompetent mishandling of Iran started the whole terrorism mess.
Kimmers said:it bothers me that he claims to be a Christian...."
No kidding - especially when the good Baptists (along with all the other missionaries to the area, from Seventh-day Adventists to Mormons to Methodist, Lutheran, Catholic, you name it) do so much for those countries. Has he become a Unitarian or something? (only joking - hope I didn't offend any Unitarians).
The peanut farmer has this absurd notion that if we give everyone on earth what they want, then they will suddenly like America. That theory was brilliantly disproven when Carter betrayed the Shah of Iran to make way for the Islamofascists, who then succeeded in convincing the entire world what an incompetent and impotent jackass Carter really is.
Well, that might be true Jimmah, but one things for sure...
We DO give a damn about IDIOTS! We elected YOU!
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on April 14, 2005 harshly criticized his own country and other wealthy states for being stingy with foreign aid and said in rich countries. Carter is seen during a press conference in Caracas, Venezuela, August 16, 2004. (Howard Yanes/Reuters)
The "per capita" Aid amounts are not fair because they don't include our military contributions. Our fine men and women who wear, and have worn our uniforms, has contributed to 1 billion people living in freedom around the world.
Can Canada and the Netherlands say that?
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