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Goodings Grove first graders tackle Pumpkin Math

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News Release
Homer CCSD 33C
Goodings Grove Luther J. Schilling William E. Young William J. Butler
Hadley Middle Homer Jr. High
Contact: Charla Brautigam, Communications/Public Relations Manager
cbrautigam@homerschools.org | 708-226-7628
For Immediate Release:
Oct. 27, 2015
Goodings Grove first graders tackle Pumpkin Mathgoodings pumpkins 009

Goodings Grove first graders discovered pumpkins float during a math exercise at the school on Oct. 27.

Pumpkins not only make great pies and colorful fall decorations but useful math tools.
Just ask a first grader at Goodings Grove School. They were each given a pumpkin to practice their math skills on Tuesday (Oct. 27), measuring the fruit’s height and circumference before plopping it on a scale to see how much it weighed.
First, however, they had to guess what each pumpkin weighed and whether they would sink or float when placed in a tub of water.goodings pumpkins 060
A Goodings Grove parent helps a first grader determine the circumference of his pumpkin during a math activity at the school
 
“It’s OK to be wrong,” first grade teacher Janet Blackburn assured her students as they prepared to complete “Pumpkin Math” with the assistance of parent volunteers.
Students worked in small groups, using tape a measure to determine their pumpkin’s circumference and math cubes to measure its height.
In another exercise, students had to guess how many pumpkin seeds were in a jar.
“I’m a bad estimator,” Blackburn confessed to students as they formulated their own assessments.
Afterward, they were given colorful pipe cleaners and self-adhesive foam pieces to decorate their pumpkins with and then take home.goodings pumpkins 109
Goodings Grove parent Maria Brutus helps students decorate their pumpkins after a math activity at the school on Oct. 27
 
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Summary of Homer District 33C School Board Meeting October 27, 2015

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Summary of Homer District 33C School Board Meeting
October 27, 2015
District 33C School Board:
Meeting Summary Report
Homer School Board
Barb Wilson, President
Angela Adolf, Vice President
Amy Blank, Secretary
Ed Campins, Member
Elizabeth Hitzeman, Member
Debra Martin, Member
Russ Petrizzo, Member
Tim Rutter, member
The Next Regular School Board Meeting is November 17, 2015 at 7:30 p.m.
Board Summary Continued on Next Page
Prior to the regular Board meeting:
The Board’s Finance and Operations Committee (consisting of board members Angela Adolf and Russ Petrizzo) met at 6 p.m. with Superintendent Kara Coglianese and Assistant Superintendent for Business John Reiniche to review upcoming projects in the business department including:
The 2015 Levy
Establishing a Fund Balance Policy
The Board of Education held a public hearing at 7:25 p.m. on the intent to transfer $2,400,000 from the district’s Educational Fund to the Operations and Maintenance Fund to meet its final debt payment on the renovation work completed at Schilling School.
At the regular Board meeting:
Union representative Terri Pellizzari introduced the district’s first-grade teachers. Teacher Molly O’Neill spoke on behalf of the group about some of the projects and programs going on in first grade this year, including Grandparent’s Day, differentiated instruction and teaching strategies. She also thanked the PTO for its help and support.
Ed McCormick, a partner at Mulcahy, Paurisch, Salvador & Co., Ltd., presented the board with an Independent Auditor’s Report for FY 2014-2015. He reported Homer 33C maintains its “Financial Recognition” level, the highest category for financial strength.
The Board of Education approved the transfer of $2,400,000 from the Educational Fund to the Operations and Maintenance Fund to meet its final debt payment on the renovation work completed at Schilling School.
The Board of Education approved a proposal from Finalsite, an award-winning software and web design company, to upgrade the District’s webpage. A committee of parents, community members, teachers and administrators helped select the company after studying various websites and website companies from across the country.
The Board of Education approved a memorandum of understanding that future post-severance payments for retirees will be placed into the employee’s 403b account. The understanding was voted on by the Union and represents a concerted effort by the District and Union to maximize benefits for employees.
The Board of Education approved a farm lease agreement.

Republicans that vote for the budget deal should be voted out/ No trust for these sellouts

Editors Note: So our Republicans we elected to defund Obamacare and Amnesty want to do a 2 year budget funding everything Obama wants at an increase to debt our children and grandchildren will pay to the tune of 85 Billion. They still want us to trust them. They say what they need to say to get elected then do what the opposite. If you want liberal government just vote Democrat and get the real deal. Why vote for a liar, who will claim to be conservative and vote with the liberals. I am sick of the cowards in Washington who have no regard for the people who elected them. I am sick of political kicking the can till after an election so the vote won’t matter at least in the minds of the idiots that think the American people are stupid.

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The Boehner-Obama Budget Deal Explained in One Chart

Sources: Congressional Budget Office and Heritage Foundation calculations. (Chart: John Fleming/The Heritage Foundation)

Washington is addicted to spending.
The most recent embodiment of this fact is the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. The deal, agreed to by House Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama, increases spending (including debt service and offsets) by $85 billion over the next three years. Nearly half of those offsets (including new revenues) are not realized until 2025—the last year of the budget window.
Between this Boehner-Obama deal and the Ryan-Murray spending agreement of 2013 (the last time Congress revisited the discretionary spending caps), Congress has increased spending by a total of $143 billion before 2021 (the period covered by the Budget Control Act) paid for with $98 billion in savings not realized until after 2021.
As we know from past experience, these “savings” sometimes never materialize because they’re so far into the future.

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Rather than taking meaningful steps to address the growing debt, the Boehner-Obama deal is a colossal step in the opposite direction. This deal does nothing to reduce the size or scope of government over any period of time.stock-photo-young-wife-asking-her-husband-s-money-269184887

Joe Walsh Seriously Considering Kirk Challenge

Foster: Joe Walsh Seriously Considering Kirk Challenge

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By Howard Foster –  From Illinois Review

Former Congressman Joe Walsh, the most outspoken conservative member of Congress from Illinois in decades, is considering challenging Sen. Mark Kirk in the March primary.
That is hardly news. But in my conversation with Mr. Walsh he indicated his number one issue would be immigration. He says “there is no more important domestic issue.”
That would make the challenge quite colorful, as readers of this site know, Sen. Kirk is in favor of sanctuary cities, which harbor illegal immigrants and in favor of more legal immigration. He voted for the 2013 immigration reform bill after promising not to, and takes a business-friendly approach to the issue with cheap labor being the goal. Walsh believes Republican voters have become disgusted enough with the levels of immigration and the government’s apparent inability to control the border for him to win a primary focused on that theme.
Walsh has very little time to make his move. The filing deadline for the primary is in early December.  He is now amassing pledges of support that he hopes will turn into actual cash if he announces.

Mr. Walsh offered some choice words for his former colleagues in the House, including Paul Ryan.  Ryan, the presumptive new Speaker of the House, is pathologically pro-immigration.  He’s not only for amnesty but does not believe in any immigration limits at all.  We now have a million legal immigrants per year. Walsh contends  a lot of House Republicans would love to double the number of illegal immigrants in order to lower wages.  They also secretly believe “it’s  amnesty or death for the GOP,” he said, quoting Speaker Boehner.  Walsh’s view is the opposite, amnesty guarantees the death of the GOP.  The idea illegal immigrants and their Families will ever vote Republican is a fantasy given wide currency by the Chamber of Commerce and Paul Ryan’s followers.  Most surprising to me was Walsh’s view that House Republicans do not actually believe the border can be enforced.  It’s merely a talking point to appease the base.
The former Congressman says Governor Rauner and the Republican establishment know Senator Kirk cannot win re-election, and would like to see him retire.  But he won’t go gently into the night, and realizing the optics of the situation, do not feel comfortable publicly asking the disabled Senator to step down.  The Governor hopes to offset the damage Kirk will do at the top of the ticket by raising money for Republicans running for the Assembly.
Knowing Mr. Walsh from his radio program, it would seem we well have the most fascinating Senate primary in the country.  Walsh, of course, would bring plenty of baggage to any campaign, including his 2012 defeat and some incendiary comments.  But Newt Gingrich had even more baggage, enough to fill an airport, in 2012, and made the primaries interesting and won some contests.  Given Kirk’s extreme vulnerability, he could well defeat him or force his retirement.

Will County Forest Preserve reduces tax rate and Levy

spending
 
Republican Commissioners serving on the Will County Forest Preserve, believing in less taxes and smaller government, have no desire to raise taxes and grow government. Forest Preserve Staff originally proposed large raises, land purchases, dipping into cash reserves, and bonding for capital projects.

 
The Finance Chair stepped down and was replaced bringing the Board together with a positive plan: Balanced Budget, Levy lower than the previous year, Reduction of the tax rate by 5%, fully funded vehicle replacement program, increasing contributions to retiree health insurance trust fund, purchase of a fuel management system, new website, reducing use of reserves by 30% $200,000, with an operating budget 2.31% lower than last year.
 
 
Swearing in Ceremony Springfield 2015
Will County Forest Preserve’s new finance chairman Ray Tuminello Republican New Lenox moves in with a proposed Levy Taxpayers can view as fiscally sound and favorable. There will be a reduction in the tax rate from.1977 in 2015 to .1878 this year, which is about 5% reduction in the rate. The total Levy including Debt service is down over 100,000 from last year. This is great news for the people of Will County who are fed up with increasing property taxes.
 
There are no raises outside of the cost of living adjustment calculated in the budget, and includes an increase of 6 to 7% for Health Insurance. Commissioners recognize the need to cut spending.
The budget does not include growing the Forest Preserve with land purchases, or taking out bonds for capital projects at this time. Expanding government is not what the people want in these economic times. People are losing money they have to spend in light of increased health insurance, taxes, fees, and cost of products. Taxpayers want less government spending less money.
Reserves are something Tuminello takes seriously. He feels they are for emergency situations only. He formed a plan to eliminate use of all reserves by 2018. Currently the Districts Reserves are nearly 9, 000,000.
 
2015 Tuminello Fundraiser
In 2014 the Board of Commissioner’s approved an Early Retirement Package, reducing staff at the Forest Preserve. A total of 8 full time employees have been eliminated saving around $600,000. Remaining employees were given more responsibility so staff wanted to give pay increases, some as high as $12,000. Some Commissioners were appalled. There was talk of paying the chief of police for the Forest Preserve more than the Will County Sheriff. Tuminello proposed no raises, which was supported by all the Commissioners. This was a huge win for the taxpayers.
In the real world employees take on more responsibility without raises, and private sector employees don’t have the best benefits at very low cost to employees. If a job was posted in a newspaper for any type of work at the forest preserve there would be lines of people trying to apply for great pay, greater benefits, and no layoffs.
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Once bonds from 1999 for land purchase are paid we will have a substantial reduction in the rate on debt obligation portion of the tax bill of up to about 30%.
There will be no reduction in public safety, closing of facilities, or reduction of hours.
This is a model for all taxing bodies to follow.
Steve Balich

Tax Burden hurts disposable income

Proponents of property-tax hikes in Chicago say the city’s property taxes are low and residents can afford to pay more.
What they fail to mention is that, compared to other major cities across the U.S., Chicago’s property taxes are 10th highest for residential properties and the third highest for commercial properties.
Tax-hike proponents have also failed to acknowledge the multitude of other local taxes that already make Chicagoans the most-taxed residents of any major city in Illinois.
Though Mayor Rahm Emanuel is crying poor, but the city’s budget shows Chicago has never had more money to spend. In fact, the city has over $1 billion in additional revenue today when compared to what it would have if Chicago’s revenue had grown at the rate of inflation over the past 20 years.
Chicago relies heavily on myriad taxes and fees. One of the most painful for residents is the city’s sales tax, which is slated to become the highest in the nation on Jan. 1, 2016, when the rate jumps to 10.25% from 9.25%.
 
In addition to the city’s burdensome sales tax, Chicagoans face more than 30 additional taxes and fees. Here are some of the most egregious examples:
 
Before the Chicago City Council votes to raise taxes even higher than they are today, it must address the imbalance in the city’s fiscal situation by focusing on the other side of the ledger. The City Council must find ways to reduce expenditures and reform the way Chicago operates. Moving new city workers into 401(k)-style retirement plans and opening up city contracts to find additional reforms is a vital first step in that process.
 
Ultimately, the city needs to look for ways to deliver governmental services more efficiently and to reduce the tax burden on its residents.
Ted Dabrowski
Vice President of Policy

House Benghazi hearings: Too much too late

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House Benghazi hearings: Too much too late
Posted on October 26, 2015 by Ron Paul Views: 923
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House Benghazi hearings: Too much too late
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhrkN41HFw4
 
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives called former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to appear before a select committee looking into the attack on a U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012. The attack left four Americans dead, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens.
As might be expected, however, the “Benghazi Committee” hearings have proven not much more than a means for each party to grandstand for political points.
In fact, I would call these congressional hearings “too much, too late.”
Four years after the U.S.-led overthrow of the Libyan government — which left the country a wasteland controlled by competing Islamist gangs and militias — the committee wants to know whether Hillary Clinton had enough guards at the facility in Benghazi on the night of the attack? The most important thing to look into about Libya is Hillary Clinton’s emails or management style while secretary of state?
Why no House Committee hearing before President Obama launched his war on Libya? Why no vote on whether to authorize the use of force? Why no hearing after the president violated the Constitution by sending the military into Libya with U.N. authorization rather than congressional authorization? There are constitutional tools available to Congress when a president takes the country to war without a declaration or authorization. At the time, President Obama claimed he did not need authorization from Congress because the U.S. was not engaged in “hostilities.” It didn’t pass the laugh test, but Congress did next to nothing about it.
When the Obama administration decided to attack Libya, I joined Rep. Dennis Kucinich and others in attempt to force a vote on the president’s war. I introduced my own legislation warning the administration that “the President is required to obtain in advance specific statutory authorization for the use of United States Armed Forces in response to civil unrest in Libya.”
We even initiated a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia asking the courts to rule on whether the president broke the law in attacking Libya.
Unfortunately, we got nowhere with our efforts. When it looked like we had the votes to pass a resolution introduced by Kucinich to invoke War Powers Resolution requirements on the president for the use of force in Libya, Speaker John Boehner canceled the vote.
Why were there no hearings at the time to discuss this very important constitutional matter? Because the leadership of both parties wanted the war. Both parties — with few exceptions — agree with the ideology of U.S. interventionism worldwide.
Clinton defended the State Department’s handling of security at the Benghazi facility by pointing out that there are plenty of diplomatic posts in war zones and that danger in these circumstances is to be expected. However, she never mentioned why Benghazi remained a “war zone” a year after the U.S. had “liberated” Libya from Moammar Gadhafi.
Why was Libya still a war zone? Because the U.S. intervention left Libya in far worse shape than it was under Gadhafi. We don’t need to endorse Gadhafi to recognize that today’s Libya, controlled by al-Qaida and ISIS militias, is far worse off — and more of a threat to the U.S. — than it was before the bombs started falling.
The problem is the ideology of interventionism, not the management of a particular intervention. Interventionism has a terrible track record, from 1953 in Iran, to Vietnam, to 2003 in Iraq, to 2011 in Libya and Syria. A real congressional hearing should focus on the crimes and mistakes of the interventionists!

Western Women at risk from Shariah

British Peer Warns Shariah Courts Allow Muslim Men to Marry Multiple Wives and Have ‘Up to 20 Children Each’

Baroness Cox, a member of Britain’s House of Lords, warned Friday that British recognition of Shariah-guided arbitration panels is leading to discrimination against Muslim women, calling the phenomenon “religiously sanctioned gender discrimination.”
Baroness Cox attends a photocall for 'Honour' at The Mayfair Hotel on March 31, 2014 in London, England. (Neil P. Mockford/Getty Images)

Cox, a longtime critic of radical Islam, warned that as a result of the acceptance of Islamic law panels, some Muslim men in the U.K. have been able to practice polygamy.
“My Muslim friends tell me that in some communities with high polygamy and divorce rates, men may have up to 20 children each,” she said.
Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported that Cox would like to close a legal loophole which she believes allows Shariah courts to discriminate against women.
In her address to the House of Lords, Cox said one Muslim woman told her, “I feel betrayed by Britain. I came here to get away from this and the situation is worse here than in the country I escaped from.”
Under the 1996 Arbitration Act, Muslims in the U.K. are permitted to turn to arbitration panels to resolve disputes according to Shariah law.
“The rights of Muslim women and the rule of law in our land must be upheld,” Baroness Cox said.
Her proposed bill called the Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill “will strengthen the position of vulnerable women who need protection from exploitation,” she said.
“It will ensure that all such women, whatever sect or creed, get the help they need to enjoy full lives,” she added.
The Daily Mail reported that Lord Sheikh, a Muslim peer, warned that some Muslims believe the bill would “demonize” their faith.

“Shariah councils do not obstruct or attempt to influence proceedings where issues such as domestic violence are concerned,” Lord Sheikh said.
“There is widespread concern” that the bill “seeks to demonize Muslims … by giving an incorrect impression of our values,” he said, according to the Daily Mail.
Labour Party Baroness Donaghy supported the bill.
“We cannot afford to go backwards and tolerate a situation where any woman is living in fear and isolation,” Donaghy said according to the Telegraph.
Men attend the first Friday prayers of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan at the East London Mosque on June 19, 2015 in London, England. (Rob Stothard/Getty Images)
“More needs to be done. This is not confined to Shariah law or Muslim religion. These parallel laws which discriminate against women have existed and may still exist in other religions,” she added.
Baroness Cox authored a report this past spring titled, “A Parallel World: Confronting the Abuse of Many Muslim Women in Britain Today,” which warned the acceptance of Shariah panels undermines the concept of equality under the same law for all.
That report also raised concerns that female Muslim immigrants might be pressured by their families to use Shariah courts to settle disputes.
“Refusal to settle a dispute in a Shariah forum could lead to threats and intimidation, or being ostracized and labeled a disbeliever,” the report warned.

Life begins at conception said Dr. Ben Carson

When Ben Carson Is Pressed on His Anti-Abortion Stance, He Quietly Throws Down a Challenge to Those Who ‘Would Like to Kill a Baby’

During Ben Carson’s “Meet the Press” interview that aired Sunday, host Chuck Todd asked the Republican presidential candidate about abortion.
“Does life begin at conception?” Todd asked. “I believe it does,” Carson answered.
Image source: YouTube
Todd came back with a query about which individual has greater rights when the abortion issue comes up — the mother or the unborn child.
“In the ideal situation, the mother should not believe that the baby is her enemy,” Carson replied, “and should not be looking to terminate the baby.” He went on to say that while mothers’ protective instincts for their babies are stronger than anyone else’s, expectant mothers are being told that “that baby is their enemy and that they have the right to kill it.”
“Can you see how perverted that line of thinking is?” Carson asked.
Todd then asked Carson if someone should have the right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy; the former neurosurgeon replied “no.”
“During slavery — and I know that’s one of those words you’re not supposed to say, but I’m saying it — during slavery, a lot of the slave owners thought that they had the right to do whatever they wanted to that slave,” Carson said. “Anything that they chose to do. And, you know, what if the abolitionist had said, you know, ‘I don’t believe in slavery. I think it’s wrong. But you guys do whatever you want to do’? Where would we be?”
Carson also offered what appeared to be a cutting remark aimed at abortion proponents: “I’m reasonable person, and if people can come up with a reasonable explanation of why they would like to kill a baby, I’ll listen.”
Carson added that he “would love” to see Roe v. Wade overturned. He said he’s against abortion in cases of rape or incest — given “the many stories of people who have led very useful lives who were the result of rape or incest.” In regard to when the life or health of the mother is at risk, Carson said “that’s a extraordinarily rare situation. But if in that very rare situation it occurred, I believe there’s room to discuss that.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz-CaZn4CvE

An Irishman's opinion

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Article written by Kevin Myers, certainly a different point of view. Should be read and reflected on by everybody, in the scope of geopolitics.
 Kevin Myers (born 30 March 1947) is an Irish journalist and writer. He writes for the Irish edition of the Sunday Times, having previously been a columnist for the Irish Independent and a former contributor to The Irish Times, where he wrote the “An Irishman’s Diary” opinion column several times weekly. Until 2005, he wrote for the UK Sunday Telegraph.
His articles criticize left-wing opinion and the “liberal consensus”, sometimes incorporating hyperbole,sarcasm and parody.This essay recently appeared in The Irish Independent:

Somalia is not a humanitarian disaster; it is an evolutionary disaster. The current drought is not the worst in 50 years, as the BBC and all the aid organizations claim. It is nothing
compared to the droughts in 1960/61 or 73/74. And there are continuing droughts every 5 years or so. It’s just that there are now four times the population; having been kept alive by famine relief, supplied by aid organizations, over the past 50 years. So, of course, the effects of any drought now, is a famine. They cannot even feed themselves in a normal rainfall year.


Worst yet, the effects of these droughts, and poor nutrition in the first 3 years of the a child’s life, have a lasting effect on the development of the infant brain, so that if they survive,
they will never achieve a normal IQ . Consequently, they are selectively breeding a population, who cannot be educated , let alone one that is not being educated; a recipe for disaster


We are seeing this impact now, and it can only exacerbate, to the detriment of their neighbors, and their environment as well. This scenario can only end in an even worse disaster; with even worse suffering, for those benighted people, and their descendants. Eventually, some mechanism will
intervene, be it war, disease or starvation.


So what do we do? Let them starve?  What a dilemma for our Judeo/ Christian/Islamic Ethos; as well as Hindu/Buddhist morality. And this is beginning to happen in Kenya, Ethiopia, and other countries in Asia, like Pakistan. Is this the beginning of the end of civilization?


AFRICA is giving nothing to anyone outside Africa — apart from AIDS and new diseases. Even as we see African states refusing to take action to restore something resembling civilization in Zimbabwe, the Begging bowl for Ethiopia is being passed around to us out of Africa, yet again. It is nearly 25 years since the famous Feed The World campaign began in Ethiopia, and in that time Ethiopia’s population has grown from 33.5 million to 78+ million today.  So, why on earth should I do anything to encourage further catastrophic demographic growth in that country?  Where is the logic? There is none.


To be sure, there are two things saying that logic doesn’t count. One is my conscience, and the other is the picture, yet again, of another wide-eyed child, yet again, gazing, yet again, at the camera, which yet again, captures the tragedy of children starving.


Sorry. My conscience has toured this territory on foot and financially. Unlike most of you, I have been to Ethiopia; like most of you, I have stumped up the loot to charities to stop starvation there.  The wide-eyed boy-child we saved, 20 years or so ago, is now a low IQ, AK 47-bearing moron, siring children whenever the whim takes him and blaming the world

because he is uneducated, poor and left behind. There is no doubt a good argument why we should prolong this predatory and dysfunctional economic, social and sexual system but I do not know what it is.

There is, on the other hand, every reason not to write a column like this. It will win no friends and will provoke the self-righteous wrath of, well, the self-righteous hand wringing, letter writing wrathful individuals; a species which never fails to contaminate almost every debate in Irish life with its sneers and its moral superiority.


So be it. But, please, please, you self-righteously wrathful, spare me mention of our own Irish Famine, with this or that
lazy analogy. There is no comparison. Within 20 years of the Famine, the Irish population was down by 30%. Over the equivalent period, thanks to western food, the Mercedes 10-wheel truck and the Lockheed Hercules plane, Ethiopia’s population has more than doubled.


Alas, that wretched country is not alone in its madness.
Somewhere, over the rainbow, lies Somalia, another fine land of violent, AK 47-toting, khat-chewing, girl-circumcising, permanently tumescent layabouts and housing pirates of the ocean.  Indeed, we now have almost an entire continent of sexually hyperactive, illiterate indigents, with tens of millions of people who only survive because of help from the outside world or allowances by the semi-communist Governments they voted for, money supplied by borrowing it from the
World Bank!


This dependency has not stimulated political prudence
or commonsense.  Indeed, voodoo idiocy seems to be in the
ascendant, with the president of South Africa being a firm believer in the efficacy of a little tap water on the post-coital penis as a sure preventative against AIDS infection.  Needless to say, poverty, hunger and societal meltdown have not prevented idiotic wars involving Tigre,

Uganda, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea etcetera. Broad
brush-strokes, to be sure.  But broad brush-strokes are often the way that history paints its gaudier, if more decisive, chapters. Japan, China, Russia, Korea, Poland, Germany, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the 20th century have endured worse broad brush-strokes than almost any part of Africa.  They are now — one way or another —
virtually all giving aid to or investing in Africa, whereas Africa, with its vast savannahs and its lush pastures, is giving almost nothing to anyone, apart from AIDS.


Meanwhile, Africa’s peoples are outstripping their resources, and causing catastrophic ecological degradation. By 2050, the population of Ethiopia will be 177 million; the equivalent of France, Germany and Benelux today, but located on the
parched and increasingly Protein-free wastelands of the Great Rift Valley. So, how much sense does it make for us actively to increase the adult population of what is already a vastly over-populated, environmentally,devastated and economically dependent country?


How much morality is there in saving an Ethiopian child
from starvation today, for it to survive to a life of brutal
circumcision, poverty, hunger, violence and sexual abuse, resulting in another half-dozen such wide-eyed children, with comparably jolly little lives ahead of them?


Of course, it might make you feel better, which is a prime reason for so much charity!
But that is not good enough. For self-serving generosity has been one of the curses of Africa. It has sustained political systems which would otherwise have collapsed.  It prolonged the Eritrean-Ethiopian war by nearly a decade. It is inspiring Bill Gates’ program to rid the continent of malaria, when, in the almost complete absence of personal self-discipline, that disease is one of the most efficacious forms of population-control now operating.  If his program is successful, tens of millions of children who would otherwise have died in infancy
will survive to adulthood, he boasts.
Oh good: then what? I know, let them all come here (to Europe) or
America or Australia!

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