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StumbleLETTER TO THE EDITOR:
Education as important overseas as here
Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009 | 2:07 a.m.
How many presidents of Third World countries could address their children and advise them to stay in school? Often there are no schools or teachers in the first place. Seventy-five million primary-aged children around the world are not in school.
Despite the uproar about President Barack Obama’s address to America’s schoolchildren, nearly everyone will agree that education is the key to long-term individual financial self-sufficiency. This principle also applies to the education of children in underdeveloped and desperately poor countries.
Educated children are more likely to grow into healthy, productive adults who contribute economically and socially to their communities and countries, thereby building the stable, inclusive and democratic societies that U.S. foreign policy seeks to promote. A crucial tool in fighting terrorism must be support for public education, particularly in the Muslim world, because it decreases the influence of the madrassas that foment extremism.
In these troubling economic times, it is sometimes difficult to justify spending our dollars on foreign aid. However, President Obama should lead by supporting a Global Fund for Education, which he proposed during his presidential campaign. He pledged last year that the U.S. would put forth a $2 billion commitment in a multinational effort.
Our aid to support worldwide education needs to be smarter, targeted and delivered through a multilateral global fund, which would improve coordination and create new mechanisms to support the achievement of basic education for all. I urge members of Congress and President Obama to lead the world in supporting a multilateral Global Fund for Education in partnership with other nations.
The writer is group leader for RESULTS Las Vegas, a nonprofit organzation that seeks solutions to global poverty.
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Excellent!
Uhm, uhm, uhm, Barack Hussein Obama
He said all should lend a hand to make the country strong again
Uhm, uhm, uhm, Barack Hussein Obama
He said we must be fair today, equal work means equal pay
Uhm, uhm, uhm, Barack Hussein Obama
He said take a stand, make sure everyone gets a chance
Uhm, uhm, uhm, Barack Hussein Obama
He said red, yellow, black and white, all are equal in his sight
Uhm, uhm, uhm, Barack Hussein Obama
YEAH. Barack Hussein Obama
Hey Kathleen: Your first paragraph says it all: But what you don't understand is that the reason a country is a third world country is because there leader is a corrupt dictator who rules by military force who could care less about the people of that country. With out freedom the good people will always lose just like those kids do everyday.
Yes, tax us more and send more money overseas to help their economies. This will make everyone like us more and maybe not attack us or charge us more for oil. Great ideas.
It is time for Americans to care about America and not worry about the others in the world. We don't need to be, can't afford to be, nor should we be the savior of the world from all of its ills.
Let's build schools here, build hospitals for our people, repair roads, dams and other infrastructure like our power grid. We have been trying to democratize the world for over 100 years and it has not worked; it is time do it for us, not those that don't appreciate it, want it and resent it anyway.
Nations in the backward areas of the world like the near east, Afghanistan, Sommalia, South America etc. do not need us. They are the way they are because of who and what they are and have been for eons of time. Let them be.
Let America put the word out that we will not stand idlely by and let others attack and attempt to destroy us. Any attack on America or her close allies will result in nuclear devistation beyond imagination for those that promote, harbor or encourage terrorism be it chemical, biological or nuclear. If we must respond to an attack by terrorists then we must be prepared to attack any and all who encourage it whether there is direct, indirect, implied or whatever evidence of their participation. This includes: Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Korea, or whatever no potential terrorist will be immune to any such attacks. All will be suspect and all will be subject to counter attack.
So it seems the "NO" crowd can't think past their own NO's.
Maybe they're right. Maybe a better way is to spend a few trillion on our military so we can punish them whenever a bunch of backward foreigners who "hate us for our freedom", come here and hurt us. Then, we can Shock and Awe the crap out of them, fly and float a quarter of a million soldiers halfway around the world to punish them. Or "just" send over a hundred or two hydrogen bombs and eliminate 30 million people altogether to teach the rest of the world the lesson "Don't F with the US of A!"
I don't think that StanG likes our military. Too bad...
I think the point some are making here is, let's keep the money at home until we get out of our economic problems.
Is this letter and organization for real? Give Muslim countries billions of our money so they grow to be educated and therefore stop hating us? I can't stop laughing.
This is part of the fight on terrorism? Is Ms. Close going to be the one doing the teaching in the Muslim world? Do I have to state the obvious that giving them money does not control what is taught (whoops, I just did)?
I just LOVE it when liberals like this, with WAY too much time on their hands, want more of my money to give to someone else (this time in a foreign country and among them the Muslim world).
I think Ms. Close and her ilk should have a bake sale and sell cup cakes and cookies to raise the money she seeks and leave her hands out of my pockets.
"The writer is group leader for RESULTS Las Vegas, a nonprofit organzation that seeks solutions to global poverty."
I have a solution - get a copy of Ishmael and follow the logic.
Hey uddeboda: You might just be useing the same arms dealers yourselves over there in Sweden in the next 15 to 20 years when the Muslims finely start taking over whats left of western Europe. ALSO DON'T CALL US ANYMORE FIX IT YOURSELF!
StanG......
You hit the nail on the head. As you and I both know, the last administration's use of "cowboy diplomacy" didn't work very well....
We have spent over a trillion dollars on two wars in the Middle East that were designed to make us safer at home, and yet several questions still remains, "are we safer now than we were before 9/11? Are there less terrorist in the world now than before 9/11? Has the world become a less dangerous place due to our two wars in the Middle East?
Of course, the American military-industrial complex is happier than a "pig in a mud hole." The more we spend on arms, the higher the profit margin for that group.
Eisenhower, the old general, had it right. It's a case of the "tail wagging the dog."
Yes, we can "Shock and Awe the hell" out of the rest of the world by waving our thousands of nuclear weapons in their face, and sending a million or more of our troops any place and every place in the world at a moments notice...
That's impressive stuff but history seems to remind us that force alone is not the answer...
When it's all said and done, however, our attitude of "we'll kick your ass if you don't agree with us" has not helped us or made the world any safer...
Maybe we need to try a different approach or tweak the approach that we're following?
Just a thought!