We’ve spent trillions here in the U.S. to fight “poverty”. And by “fighting” it, I mean subsidizing it. Of course, we subsidize things like home ownership or college because we know subsidies increase their presence. So of course by subsidizing poverty will…er…
But domestic arrogant hegemony isn’t the point of this post. The international plantation mentality is. It’s a good article, though the writer heaps insufficient poison on the U.N. to suit me.
But you knew that.
It (REDD-ed.) aims to prevent developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America from cutting down parts of their forests.
Hooray! Let the U.N. help you people! Look what it’s done for the Palestineans!
The REDD solution is to pay developing countries not to cut down their trees.
Wrong. The U.N. will pay governments. Country and government are not synonymous. You vertebrate creatures either keep forgetting this, or you let your would-be masters get away with forgetting it.
So, the plan is for a corrupt U.N. to bribe African and Latin American corruptocrats to criminalize tree harvesting by lowly peasants.
Poor country residents need wood to build homes and paper products for schools and hospitals.
Which they now won’t get easily, if at all. Meanwhile corruptocrats have those U.N. bribes to import mahogany, cedar, teak, whatever they fancy.
People in the developing world also often want to clear jungles to make way for more productive agricultural lands so they can feed their people.
They should have picked their birthplace more carefully, then.
In other words, the poor in developing countries have perfectly justifiable economic and humanitarian reasons for cutting down some portion of their forestlands.
Yes they do. This U.N. project will mire millions in sustained misery so that idiots and corruptocrats can pat each other on the back.
The “United Nations” better hope my superpowers keep failing to develop.
Because they’re second on the list, just behind the unconstitutional parts of the U.S. Federal Government.
World's Only Rational Man 
Stuck on stupid. This is as wise as Mugabe taking away the white farmers legacies and giving it to poor blacks that had no effing idea how to farm!! They are not a civil people because they have had to fight for survival and nothing is off limits. They need to be educated first. Good God. The UN is useless.
Wrong there, the farms were taken away and given to cronies as a reward for slavish acceptance and total belief in the party rhetoric. All profits were taken by destroying for maximum short term ( one season or less) gain, or by gross mismanagement and total outright theft.
I wish it was useless. That would mean it’s doing no harm.
Worse than useless, the UN reinforces the worst behaviors so they can keep their projects and budgets forever. The UNWRA, tasked with resettling the palestinian refugees, hires Hamas terrorists as staffers and runs schools that teach the children that when Hamas wins they will resettle in Israel. They are keeping millions of people on their “plantation” and raking in billions of our tax dollars to pay for it.
UN’s programs in Africa are equally crazy – no DDT because that (might) hurt some birds, even though it would save millions from malaria.
They want to repeat Mugabe in South Africa now, see:
http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2011/07/26/the-lessons-of-norway/
I’m sure the UN would approve.
Woops, see you’ve already pointed this out. As far as the DDT goes, God believes each of us is worth “many sparrows”.
The U.N. believes exactly the opposite. Of course, few UN policy wonks live in malaria zones.