Who cares about the third world? Let's face it, people get what they deserve.

I remember that when news of how the money & food were not getting to the starving Africans, Geldof was amzed at his own naivete. He sais something to the effect that he thought he would be so easy, that all he had to do was raise the money and that would save the people.

I'd like to see him go out there and try to distribute the aid...then perhaps he'll get a feel for what he's really up against. People whine that the U.S. government is horrible and that we don't do enough for people, but what it really is about is terribly corrupt governments in Africa that don't give a hoot about the little people...all they care about is power. Sorry, but when was the last time we had a famine here?

We don't have famine's here because we have US Dollars. But an awful lot of our meat and produce now comes from abroad. All it would take is for the dollar to drop another 20% or so and the community food banks will be empty. The ones up here are strained now.
Of course you'd have to call the dust bowl years in the early thirties a famine. A lot of farm land was suddenly unproductive and people were starving to death. And we didn't have a civil war to blame it on.

I'm always checking on the source of the meat & produce I buy, and most of it is produced in the USA. I live in NY State, so during the winter I'll see more produce from Chile, but still most of it comes from the South.

While it's true that we did have the dust bowl in the '30s, that was an unfortunate natural phenomenon...drought. And drought can happen anytime, anywhere. What's happening in parts of Africa is more often due to brutal governments, rather than natural phenomonon or even poor farming methods. For example, in Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe forced white farmers off of their farms in order to "redistribute" the land to "rightful" black owners. However, he pretty much gave it to friends and relatives, forcing black workers off the land as well as the white owners. His political party has burned millions of acres of farmland and prevented the farming of millions more. Combined with drought, this has caused tremendous food shortages, poverty and starvation in a country that used to export its grain.

Ethiopia is again facing famine partly because of drought and fires, and partly because the government is corrupt and inefficient.

No, we didn't have civil war to blame for the dust bowl. But our government (the Dems were in charge at the time) wasn't to blame for it either. Raising money for African countries and forgiving their debt is a noble concept. However, as long as corrupt governments reign, it's pretty much throwing money down the sewer, because it won't get to those who really need it. And if the governments there don't change, what then?