Goodwill attack!

Discussion Open Forum
1

You all know how nice a surprise party can be. The world has become such a depressing place. Countries send each other deadly missiles and spread nothing but hatred. I call on all men and women of goodwill to do the opposite. Why can a poor community or country not be surprised by richer communities or countries with a goodwill attack? Picture this. A poor community somewhere in the Third World. The community is fast asleep. The forces of good get ready for a goodwill attack.
The town is awoken by trumpets. House are built in front of the communities eyes. Lawns are rolled out. Food is distributed by the forces of good. Those who need medical attention get it immediately. Things get repaired. The community gets cleaned up. By the time they leave, the community is totally transformed. The community is pounded over the next few years with longer lasting changes such as improved education, hospitals and jobs. Dream with me!

BEFORE

AFTER

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If we did that we wouldn’t have any time to kill each other though.

3

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
USAID is the government agency providing US economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for more than 40 years.

People don’t really like you when you just “give” them things and then walk away.
They tend to get dependent on the hand-outs and resent it when they do not continue.

Teaching problem solving and basic life skills tends to have a better long term benefit.

4

[quote=“TainanCowboy”]United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
USAID is the government agency providing US economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for more than 40 years.

People don’t really like you when you just “give” them things and then walk away.
They tend to get dependent on the hand-outs and resent it when they do not continue.

Teaching problem solving and basic life skills tends to have a better long term benefit.[/quote]

How is it that when a violence is always avenged, yet a good dead is not paid back?

The word “attack” also implies something sudden and shocking. If changes take too long, they don’t grab peoples attention and that’s what we need to inspire many such attacks!

Once I saw a house being built (on TV) in 8 hours in an attempt to break a record. Have you ever seen a new lawn being rolled out. Quick, but lasting changes can be very inspiring!

5

Just what we all need. A nice house, lawn to mow, and maybe even a white picket fence. The only thing missing from your picture is the SUV parked outside.

Presumably you’ll also want to build a freeway where Mr Foreigner can spend a couple of hours a day on the way to his new job in a cubicle somewhere?

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[quote]People don’t really like you when you just “give” them things and then walk away.
They tend to get dependent on the hand-outs and resent it when they do not continue.

Teaching problem solving and basic life skills tends to have a better long term benefit.
[/quote]

Just like Pop Duel (sp), I suppose.

7

Great idea AAF. Wouldn’t it be nice if wealthy nations and organizations launched such goodwill attacks on others?

To a certain extent they do. Habitat for Humanity invades impoverished communities, erecting tens or hundreds of houses for people who had nothing and asking very little in return.
habitat.org/ap/

And, much as I don’t wish to admit it, some church groups do the same. My brother, who’s not religious at all, and his family helped such a group in the immense slums of Tijuana, Mexico, where they built homes for people who previously lived in tin and cardboard shacks with dirt floors. Of course there was some proselytizing in return, but despite that the people still received the most incredible assistance, not least of which being overwhelmed with gratitude for these complete strangers who stepped in to help them out.

If you want, I’m sure there are lots of such organizations you could join up with, including here in Taiwan. One such group is the Tzu Chi Foundation, a Buddhist group that provides housing, food, medical care, and other aid for people around the world. You’re welcome to visit their HQ in Hualien (I did) and check out their medical school, giant temple, and museum showing many of the good deeds they do.
tzuchi.org/global/

I disagree with the notion that giving assistance to people doesn’t help because then they’ll get lazy/greedy and just want more. If people need blankets, food and medical care following a typhoon or earthquake, or housing that they’ve never had, I think it’s great to provide that. But I agree that providing counseling, education and jobs – the kind of stuff that provides long-term results – is also important, and perhaps more difficult to accomplish.

Chiayo! :slight_smile:

8

How are you gonna get all those people in one house? :astonished:

Hey AAF. Since you believe in giving things to deserving people, I need a place to stay. Can I move in with you??? I’d really appreciate it.

9

i believe AAF describes what i have always thought of as “eutopia”.

hopefully, eventually humans will evolve to this state, instead of the state we are in now, which predominantly seems to be greed, chaos, bigotry, hatred-on a large scale.

hopefully, eventually over the decades, humans will evolve to the state that seems like the eutopia i imagine. peaceful coexistance, helping others, and being helped by others, sharing, caring. not taking too much, not accumulating too much. just living. just being.

i don’t know if humans have ever been in this state as a whole, but i bet there are some small communities that exist in this realm. in some small pockets of the world i know this state exists, and i hope they set the seeds-the good examples like habitat for humanity, etc.

for the entire planet of humans to exist like this, in my opinion, is what i hope we evolve to.

hopefully things like capitalism, racism, hierarchies, etc, will subside, and humans will become wiser and no longer think in these terms. people the world over pitch in when others need help: tsunamies, earthquakes, floods. we are setting the seeds for what is right. but there is also a lot of looking the other way going on. eutopia exists when every need is met. we are a long way from that with poverty on a massive scale everyday (not just a flash on the tv news), diseases rampant, corrupt leaders creating horrendous living conditions for their citizens, etc. small steps are being taken in the right direction everyday fighting disease, starvation, corruption, but eutopia, well,…

i think AAK is on to something, but i also think it’s my great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandchilden that will experience such a eutopia on a planetary scale.

here’s to wishing for something better for our descendants: a world without war, greed, corruption, hatred, bigotry, the haves and the have nots. can it be possible? who knows. it should at least be what humankind strives for as it evolves over time. to go in the other direction is something i wish not to even think about. it only seems right to evolve to a state of eutopia, otherwise why are we taking up space on this planet???

jm

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[quote=“AAF”][quote=“TainanCowboy”]United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
USAID is the government agency providing US economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for more than 40 years.

People don’t really like you when you just “give” them things and then walk away.
They tend to get dependent on the hand-outs and resent it when they do not continue.

Teaching problem solving and basic life skills tends to have a better long term benefit.[/quote]

How is it that when a violence is always avenged, yet a good dead is not paid back?

The word “attack” also implies something sudden and shocking. If changes take too long, they don’t grab peoples attention and that’s what we need to inspire many such attacks![/quote]
Karma works.
Always has…Always will.

Tzu Chi Foundation, as mentioned, is a fine group.

11

[quote=“tmwc”]Just what we all need. A nice house, lawn to mow, and maybe even a white picket fence. The only thing missing from your picture is the SUV parked outside.

Presumably you’ll also want to build a freeway where Mr Foreigner can spend a couple of hours a day on the way to his new job in a cubicle somewhere?[/quote]

The “AFTER” house probably has to be scaled down. Just yesterday someone mentioned that if all people on earth were to live a European lifestyle, the earth’s resources would be depleted in a few years. So, a neat, attractive, healthy, economic and ecologically friendly house is what I would recommend.

12

AAF
Bill Gates and William Buffet have already done it. Watch over the next few decades how much is done with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Your description is an oversimplification as you can not just dump resources without eliminating root causes of poverty. Give a hillbilly pipes for his new sewage system and he may still make a distillery. He may still need a distillary, but you have to teach him he does not need it as much as he thinks he does first… luv ya!

13

eventually is should become not just “dumping resources”, but simple sharing. giving and receiving whatever we need. a simple barter system which includes helping out when needed and being helped when needed.

no more disproportionate accumulation of wealth and materials, but getting what you need, giving away what you don’t.

everyone contributes something, we are all equal. we all matter. we all enjoy life without concerns of poverty, starvation, eviction; as well without concerns of wealth, glutony, and accumulation.

makes sense to me.

it would get us all closer to enjoying life, not just trying to get to the next day to either survive or acquire more.

jm