Sage,
I'll give you one thing - consistentency! You keep nailing the pronlems, but never provide a possible solition. Please gift us with your wisdom? What should we do?

Astutely observed Sage

FU2 “The WTO will ONLY buy raw, harvested beans,”

Actually, WTO does not buy anything. It is a facilitation and arbitration forum, not a buying agent.

One reason might be, the political history of the grower country has been so volatile that no one will risk investing in a processing plant there again.

If you would like some other examples,
there are, apparently, more tanneries which specialise in Kangaroo skins in Italy than there are in Australia.
Australia exports raw iron and imports it back as Japanese Cars.

None of those trades are funded or represent purchases of the WTO either.

As for “What price the economic freedoms of the west”

I would observe, an education is the first requirement for anything, if those aid recipient countries had spent more on educating plumbers and less on inventing supposed excuses for cocoa beans they would not have many of the problems which seem to besot them. I would further suggest you get some education too instead of simply indulging us with your blatant ignorance.

Jimbo – your own contributions to NGOs – excellent response and attitude. As for Bono, who the hell cares what one opinionated and indulgent Irish man thinks. No one has ever elected him to public office, when he cares to stand on his merit and not on his populist appeal, then maybe he will have relevance,
I could not care less about Bono’s opinion of Australia, we do not need his approval for anything. If he felt that strongly about it, he would cross us off the tour list, foregoing the revenue and ego boost.

Generally well said David BOAZ, your expectations of capitalism are realistic but those of socialism are idealistic in the extreme and not the stuff which socialists will ever think to achieve, instead “mediocrity” inherits the benchmark.

SHONGA, maybe certain national governments remain unready for “self rule”. Too many governments arm up for prestige whilst their populous starve. Recolonisation would be one option, but it flies in the face of what is deemed “politically correct”.

Shonga, what say we over-fly some of the African countries and bombard them with the pill.

End foriegn aid. At best, its a mechanism for the ruling party to reward their mates with no bid contracts to ship unsaleable goods off for a profit. But with apparently half of Aus forign aid budget currently going to pay Aus Federal Police officer salaries in foriegn countries (let me bet those with public order problems that threaten extractive industries), theres fat chance of that happening - you can't rely on local uniforms to keep the wheels of progress churning fast enough, probably cos they have to stick around to face the mconsequences.

Make Poverty History? What a ridiculous idea, as likely make sneezing history, so long as the West still stacks the deck via the IMF & World Bank structural adjustment programs, 'kick the ladder out' free trade dogma that the WTO enforces, and the 170 overseas bases for capitalisms leading (but not sole) military enforcer, the US. MPH is a sad joke, pulled on all those who still believe the propaganda arriving daily from on high. No combination of tied or untied aid and debt relief will even reduce poverty so long as businesses operating in those countries are able to literally bulldoze local land rights and basic needs, and export the profits along with the resources and skilled labour, which is currently the rule rather than the exception.

The massive drain of fish, oil, timber, soy, beef and just about every other commodity from the majority world to the industrialised nations also has a little to do with embedding poverty, but Australia is less guilty of that than many other nations (just don't ask where yr imported timber comes from).

BD, I am confused in the extreme. Proletariat? Capitalists refusing to give living wages? In China?

Well yes, capitalism is rampart in China - it is the governing ethos of the burgeoning middle class which is by far the largest social stream in China as in Australia. But who are these people not getting a "living wage" and on whose behalf you call for protests in Canberra?

Yes,I've seen dreadful sights over the past few years as a result of poverty: homeless children packed six into a two-man tent on sleeping bags soaked in urine; children as young as 6 selling weed on street corners and also providing access to crack; homeless old men and women sleeping in dank alleyways and infested with lice; kids crying with hungerpangs; a child being sent home from school in mid-winter for "breaking the dress code" by not wearing shoes and the teachers not caring that it was because he had none; and homeless families being turned away by indiferent Government officials when desperate for food, clothing and shelter.

But all of those sights were in Australia, mate, not in China. I think perhaps we should attend to the mote in our own eyes before we go banging on any embassy doors with self-righteous ignorance

It's only by living in a poor country for an extended period that you come to realize how their poverty stems directly from us. Small countries are not only slave workshops producing our amazingly cheap consumer goods, they are locked out of trade relationships, their economies cornered.

To argue that we should deal with our own poverty first is misguided - world poverty is our poverty. We have to own it.

Live in a poor nation for a while then you realize that 99% of Australians, although many may be trapped by mortgages, are filthy rich.

Sure there is no excuse for us not supporting our own poor, but that is no excuse for not attending to the misery we bring onto others.

The author also referred to the Stern report. Again it is our consumer lifestyles that are threatening the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions. This is mass manslaughter we are talking about, much bigger than Auswitch.

BOAZ_David if, as a Christian, you cannot acknowldge this gross immorality, then please don't preach your Christian values, it does a great disservice to your religion.