[RightWhale]

The Onion could parody this, but they wouldn't need to change a word.

[F.J. Mitchell]

Those friends mentioned in the article, who have given up their automobiles for, walking, biking or riding their brooms, probably had no choice-it's hard to keep a drivers license while following a diet of psychedelic mushrooms.

[hellinahandcart]

According to Smith, electricity can wreak havoc on cultures. "I have seen villages in Africa that had vibrant culture and great communities that were disrupted and destroyed by the introduction of electricity," he said.

These people are no more than zoo exhibits to him. He doesn't seem to care that maybe the PEOPLE he's talking about might rather NOT have to work themselves to death putting food in their mouths, roofs over their heads and clothing on their backs. Without electricity, the above three goals require every moment of one's brief and miserable life to accomplish.

[Free Vulcan]

ping

[jmax]

"Gar Smith, editor of the Earth Island Institute's online magazine The Edge, spoke about what he considers the virtues of poverty during an interview with CNSNews.com."

When hearing and seeing people like this, I think there's sometimes a need for abortion, afterall...... : )

[Billthedrill]

Poverty is not relative. Death by parasites, infections, and in childbirth isn't merely a point of view. Anyone who thinks that is a happy lifestyle should volunteer to trade - he or she'd find plenty of takers.

[Nuke'm Glowing]

"There is a lot of quality to be had in poverty"

The creedo of the Demorat party as long as you vote for them.

[Nuke'm Glowing]

"There is a lot of quality to be had in poverty"

The creedo of the Demorat party as long as you vote for them.

[lavaroise]

This man does not need electricity?

This gentleman was attacked by chimpanzees when he was very young

What a great culture that needs to be preserved indeed.

[operation clinton cleanup]

Earth Island Institute, the San Francisco-based environmental group, once popular with millions of school children for its efforts to save Keiko, the killer whale that starred in the movie Free Willy, sent representatives to this week's Earth Summit.

Did they walk, canoe, or ride horses to the summit?

[LRS]

Thanks for this! It made my day :) *LMAO*

[Southack]

"There is a lot of quality to be had in poverty," and the introduction of electricity is "destroying" the cultures of the world's poor, according to a U.S. environmentalist, who commented on the eve of the United Nations Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa."

There's nothing quite like a spoiled little rich White kid telling starving, diseased kids in Africa that they should be denied electricity in rural hospitals. It almost makes the subtle racism of liberalism appear to be overt for a fleeting moment...

[goldstategop]

Its just like a liberal like Gar Smith to romanticize poverty and think living in a thatched hut with no electricity, no hot water, no indoor toilets, no labor saving modern conveniences should be the world's Club Med model. I don't see him and his fellow liberals giving up their affluent Western lifestyles or immigrating to the Third World to commiserate with the wretched of the earth. What they do want is to prevent them for achieving an affluent Western lifestyle and the material comforts Smith and Western liberals enjoy. More evidence if it was needed of just how "compassionate" the enlightened crowd is. They feel so guilty over living in a free and prosperous society that what offends them most is sharing the fruits of how that freedom and prosperity was achieved with those who don't yet have it. I think it a birthright of every one on Earth and yet I'd like to see every home on the planet be as clean, stocked with electricity, hot water and labor-saving modern conveniences like Americans take for granted and that should be our aim in helping the Third World escape poverty. After everything we've seen in the last century its out of touch with reality liberals like Smith who still don't get it.

[mn12]

Smith called the developing world's poverty "relative" and explained "you can't really have poverty unless you have wealthy people on the scene."

Amazing. So if we all live in mud huts without food, everybody's doing great. Usually commies don't say they want the populace to live in poverty-stricken misery quite so overtly.

[aruanan]

Environmentalist Laments Introduction of Electricity

Perhaps such folks could be encouraged to help rid the world of electricity by soaking up as much of it as their individual bodies can take. Thus they could become electron sinks for environmental peace.

[A_perfect_lady]

"The idea that people are poor doesn't mean that they are not living good lives," Smith said.

He's right. Let's end all foreign aid. After all, the poor are probably perfectly happy without it.