In Reply to: The factsheet posted by Hal Scoggins on September 19, 1996 at 18:14:06:
> I've just been reading the "fact"sheet which apparently started
> all this nonsense. Personally, I find it to be absolute nonsense.> Besides generally being a load of bleeding-heart whining about
> rich people having more than poor people, some of the assertions
> it contains are total rubbish.> For example, the first sidebar, titled "GROSS MISUSE OF RESOURCES",
> asserts that the alleged waste of the equivalent of $20 billion
> would be enough to "feed, clothe and house the world's entire
> population for one year." Let's see now... Total world population
> now exceeds 5 billion. So it would only take $4 per person per year
> to feed, clothe and house the world's entire population, right?
> Give me a break!!> The second sidebar, titled "FIFTY ACRES EVERY MINUTE", asserts
> that global deforestation "causes at least one species of
> animal, plant or insect to become extinct every few hours." Now
> I don't pretend to know exactly how many species there are in the
> world, but this would suggest that the entire planet will be
> totally lifeless by the end of the decade, if not sometime next
> year.> Come on, people! Sure we need to watch our use of resources and
> guard against becoming needlessly wasteful. But we are part of
> the environment, too. If we don't make of of our natural
> resources, then they're not resources.> And stop all this whining about rich people having more. They
> have more because they've done more - period! People who are more
> well off than others have done what the others weren't and aren't
> willing to do. They got off their butts, turned off the television,
> and built themselves the lifestyle they wanted. They don't owe a
> bit of it to those "less fortunate", although they do, as a group,
> give tremendous amounts to charities around the world. Remember,
> poor people can't help poor people! The people who have worked
> to have more should be applauded for their accomplishments, not
> criticized. Anyone can criticize. It takes no particular talent.I thought myself lucky to have found a criticla point of view about the McLibel trial, but
as i read on, i found out that there were no "real" arguments in this letter whatsoever.
You don't seem to know that , let's take the rainforest for example, used to cover the whole
of south america. Although i quite disagree with the figure
of 50 acres being destroyed every minute, i still think that there is too much deforestation
every day, and that these forests took years an years to get the vital soil on which trees can
grow, and these trees took years and years to become as massive as they are now , and , if we cutt them down
now, our children will never know what a forest is. Yes, they can go to the local city park, and hold their
artificial teddybear in their arms, but we will have robbed them their heritage.And about the rich being richer because they worked more: Big, big joke, we, here
in the western world are not so rich because we work more, but because the southern hemisphere
of our planet works hard and gets paid nothing, THAT is why why we can buy t.v.'s, and cars, and
microwaves, ....aso,aso, Because companies are investing in poor countries, where they can produce their
goods for almost to nothing, because they mustn't pay much for the work done,that is where our western companies
get there richness, and we our wealth from, because it is us who are taking profit from the state taxes these companies
pay to the council. so it is not that we are rich because we work harder, that used to be the case ages ago, but the
times , they are changing : it us who are wealthy because they work hard.I know i myself am taking profit out of exploitation of the third world, but i try to avoid
supporting this whereever i can. I don't want to go into the woods (and for those i will have to travel a fair distance)
and live in my little hut, cut of from the rest of the world, but the things i can change, however little they may be,
i want to change.so i hope, that there are not many more of those people like you who do still believe
in untrue facts, because they don't want to admitt the truth to themselves.
None.