[Valin]

Just leave the rat hole alone.

So do we have a moral obligation to do something to help? Or are we to sit aside and watch millions of people die?

[rdb3]

I'm waiting for a clarification myself.

[sandydipper]

My vote is to sit idley by.

[AdA$tra]

Or are we to sit aside and watch millions of people die?

The problem is tha the more we help them the worse off they seem to be. The same as any welfare system. The only hope if for people anywhere to help themselves, by taking responsibility for their own existance. Nobody had to tell our founding fathers that something had to be done for them to end the tyranny here. They took responsibility, went against the majority, and made it happen for themselves.

[RJS1950]

None! No moral obligation. This same question was asked 32 years ago in a college biology class. I an a small minority (all male) said that the western world should do nothing, that these people had refused to adopt western farming methods because it would mean abandoning the traditional ways, they refused to change their eating habits because of the same cultural or religios taboos, and they refused to change their corrupt governments which in the main were responsible for a lot of the misery. We said that if they were willing to die for their religious or political beliefs even though alternatives were at hand, then let them die. We caught all kinds of hell from the other students, but history has proved us right, helping them 30+ years ago saved a very few, who grew up to continue the cycle today. Let them kill themselves off, it's their "tradition" and it would seem their destiny.

[A_perfect_lady]

So do we have a moral obligation to do something to help? Or are we to sit aside and watch millions of people die?

I vote we leave them to their own devices. If they can't figure out how to make a decent economy despite all the foreign aid and foreign examples they have access to, there really is no hope for them. Besides, I think you are exaggerating the likely outcome. Africa will limp along as it always has.

[Publius6961]

So do we have a moral obligation to do something to help? Or are we to sit aside and watch millions of people die?

An incomplete (and dishonest) question.

Do we save millions today? and then watch tens of millions die 20 years hence?
Or hundreds of millions later?

It's a question of when, not if, so long as those people are unwilling to help themselves.