Let Them Eat Archives
There seems to be some kind of perception around the G8 that African scientists are living in shacks and begging at the traffic lights.
I mean,how else am I to interpret this incredibly condescending offer from The Royal Society of Chemistry , in smug collaboration with the British House of Commons
Not that the African scientists themselves are feeling condescended to, it appears. One Ethiopian biologist syas that more scientific journals needed to give free access to their papers.
"I would like to call on all publishers of chemistry journals to follow the lead of the RSC to support young chemists like me with their archives so that we can bring the benefits of chemistry to our great continent," she added.
Great. Humble Dark Continent scientists with hands out for more (information) baksheesh.
Rather than handouts, we could probably do with a tad more cooperation between people as a whole.
Perhaps the Europeans are feeling guilty about things like this , hmm?
And Humble Dark Continent scientists can blame White Imperialism . Again.
Round and round it goes.
What gets my dander up most of the time (not a difficult task you’ll most likely agree) is the blatent materialism which has a throttle hold on most of Africa, particularly here where the material is slightly more available to your average crook…err…Joe On the Street.
What’s the first-the very first thing the semi-mythical Emerging Black Middle Class..umm…Joe acquires as a symbol of his arrivist status?
Big bloody petrol-guzzling, atmosphere-fogging car, that’s what.
He attends a Christian Church to feel spiritually like his former betters, dresses like an American Gangsta,consumes masses amounts of resource-intensive fast foods, and trundles to the KFC in a needless cloud of half-burnt petroleum and other oil products.
Hardly a thought is spared to the heavy impact this lifestyle has on the earth.
Not that the entrenched White Aristocracy is any bloody better.
But it puts me in mind of the early days of democracy under the Greeks.
For a while, the masses found that they could vote themselves Bread and Circuses.
Live it up! You only live once!
Screw that for a life philosophy.
Every now and then, I become convinced that, while we may be the only species on earth capable of manipulating our environment, it would be loads better if we could see beyond our immediate desires and stop having more children than we can afford to raise, and stop living like there was no tomorrow and no need to save something for a rainy ecological day.In fact, if we could just cut our numbers down a whole whack…or maybe just learn to live a little more lightly upon the only planet we (so far) have to support us.
I mean,how else am I to interpret this incredibly condescending offer from The Royal Society of Chemistry , in smug collaboration with the British House of Commons
Not that the African scientists themselves are feeling condescended to, it appears. One Ethiopian biologist syas that more scientific journals needed to give free access to their papers.
"I would like to call on all publishers of chemistry journals to follow the lead of the RSC to support young chemists like me with their archives so that we can bring the benefits of chemistry to our great continent," she added.
Great. Humble Dark Continent scientists with hands out for more (information) baksheesh.
Rather than handouts, we could probably do with a tad more cooperation between people as a whole.
Perhaps the Europeans are feeling guilty about things like this , hmm?
And Humble Dark Continent scientists can blame White Imperialism . Again.
Round and round it goes.
What gets my dander up most of the time (not a difficult task you’ll most likely agree) is the blatent materialism which has a throttle hold on most of Africa, particularly here where the material is slightly more available to your average crook…err…Joe On the Street.
What’s the first-the very first thing the semi-mythical Emerging Black Middle Class..umm…Joe acquires as a symbol of his arrivist status?
Big bloody petrol-guzzling, atmosphere-fogging car, that’s what.
He attends a Christian Church to feel spiritually like his former betters, dresses like an American Gangsta,consumes masses amounts of resource-intensive fast foods, and trundles to the KFC in a needless cloud of half-burnt petroleum and other oil products.
Hardly a thought is spared to the heavy impact this lifestyle has on the earth.
Not that the entrenched White Aristocracy is any bloody better.
But it puts me in mind of the early days of democracy under the Greeks.
For a while, the masses found that they could vote themselves Bread and Circuses.
Live it up! You only live once!
Screw that for a life philosophy.
Every now and then, I become convinced that, while we may be the only species on earth capable of manipulating our environment, it would be loads better if we could see beyond our immediate desires and stop having more children than we can afford to raise, and stop living like there was no tomorrow and no need to save something for a rainy ecological day.In fact, if we could just cut our numbers down a whole whack…or maybe just learn to live a little more lightly upon the only planet we (so far) have to support us.
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