Quote Originally Posted by Virulent View Post
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Funniest part of this article: "Many children are happy making some money from selling the animals to the markets, but they keep some for their family," Ly Marong, an agriculture official

Happy? I'm sure they're thrilled...

Foreign nations and aid groups have pledged 1.6 billion euros of aid for Cambodia over the next 7 years. While they'll probably default (which is normative for foreign aid - I wish I could treat my drunken, late night pledges to the ACLU like that), it actually doesn't matter, because Cambodia is Transparency International's 13th most corrupt nation in the world. Any aid that does get sent will be sold and confiscated, and eventually find its way into the g-strings of Cambodian prostitutes. This is not substantially different than the outcome if the foreign diplomats would just come to Cambodia on vacation themselves.

Bonus fact:
70% of Cambodia was covered in rain forest in 1970. Now its 3.1% <source>
Well, im a little confused i guess. In general it seems to me to be a very practical solution to a given problem. The people need food. The people are willing to eat rat. There are rats that need disposing of to save grain stores. It seems to me like a double win in a sad situation- increasing food with an available meat supply and decreasing rat population to save food the rats would eat or ruin otherwise. (And with the forests cut down they likely are over run with rats.)

im sorry for them that things are so bad and i would wish better options for them, for anyone.

If no help will reach them then what else is there to do but sympathize and respect the people's efforts to not starve? They're doing what they can with what they have. It's certainly not a laughing matter.

Perhaps im seeing it wrong..?