Shadow Minister agree every word
Loudmouth in fact I think I said such help [machinery training ext] should be given
Singapore does not grow its own food clearly
Let me say this I truly honestly think every tax payer in the western world include Churches and multi nationals, should pay a one percent levee to fund aid
Fair honestly used AID is a start to feeding housing and educating every one
Too that in time, we will know we need to act now, to reduce population stop waste recycle every thing always but by planning not waiting for another war reduce the number [yet to be known] of the world population to manageable levels

Interesting discussion re the loss of productivity of Zimbabwe farms once in the hands of locals. Productive farming is a mind set. It really doesn't work when traditional subsistence farmers are given commercial farms. They simply can't see the point in working as hard as necessary for commercial production.I saw this happen in PNG, but fortunately without the conflict & murder.

In the early 70s we were giving PNG hundreds of millions, [when millions was a lot], in aid. Quite a lot of this was used to buy out white planters, & give the plantations to the local villages. Interestingly the local villages had never worked these plantations, it was always workers imported from other districts, housed on the plantation, that worked them.

It took a while for the penny to drop, but this was disastrous for the PNG economy, & the villagers.

Very quickly a 30 ton a month copra plantation would fall to something like 3 ton a month. The locals just weren't interested in working that hard, they couldn't see the point. From the countries point of view, this rapidly reduced the export income desperately needed. After a few years they realised they were cutting their own throat, & stopped the practice.
Continued.

Continued

For the locals the effect was much worse. With the planter & the income he generated, very soon the power house would stop working from breakdown or just lack of fuel. So no lighting, no power tools, no 2 way radio, & no water pumps.

The same thing quickly happened to the tractors & other vehicles. No slashing meant the coconuts were hard to find in the thickening undergrowth, but worse the light aircraft airstrip soon disappeared under regrowth.

With the reduction in copra for shipment, the copra boats came less often, or not at all. These had supplied the fuel, batteries for radios torches etc, clothing, & bully beef & rice, which had become staples.

No 2 way radio meant medical emergency help could not be summonsed, & there was no where for evacuation aircraft to land.

I don't know about all plantation workers, but I built jetties at 13 isolated plantations, using the plantation work force for much of it. I got to know them pretty well, working closely with them for a month or 2 at a time. In every instance they were not interested in returning to their home villages, much prefer the living standard at the plantation. Most had only signed up to go to a distant plantations, because their village life had been far from pleasant.

In the PNG case aid was used in a detrimental was, & this is often the case.

Hasbeen again agree every word could be mine, watch as some one names us racists
Truth is however worth hearing and Zimbabwe is a show case but not the only country to see such happen
Idi Amin and every leader after did great harm and little if any good to that country he once ruled

Continued

For the locals the effect was much worse. With the planter & the income he generated, very soon the power house would stop working from breakdown or just lack of fuel. So no lighting, no power tools, no 2 way radio, & no water pumps.

The same thing quickly happened to the tractors & other vehicles. No slashing meant the coconuts were hard to find in the thickening undergrowth, but worse the light aircraft airstrip soon disappeared under regrowth.

With the reduction in copra for shipment, the copra boats came less often, or not at all. These had supplied the fuel, batteries for radios torches etc, clothing, & bully beef & rice, which had become staples.

No 2 way radio meant medical emergency help could not be summonsed, & there was no where for evacuation aircraft to land.

I don't know about all plantation workers, but I built jetties at 13 isolated plantations, using the plantation work force for much of it. I got to know them pretty well, working closely with them for a month or 2 at a time. In every instance they were not interested in returning to their home villages, much prefer the living standard at the plantation. Most had only signed up to go to a distant plantations, because their village life had been far from pleasant.

Thank you, Hasbeen. Did you think that there was a belief that primitive societies would be idyllic?