Anti-Aid
Starvation is horrible: the
bloated belly, shriveled organs,
sunken cheeks, vacant eyes, ringing
void in the brain, and helpless
lethargy that characterize it can
only evoke our pity, especially
when it strikes its weakest prey:
children. Genocide is also sickening:
the sullen lines of clammy
bodies filing into the shower baths,
the protoplasmic blobs writing
under a blanket of napalm, the
mutilated corpses bulldozed into a
mass grave - especially when it is
practised upon a defenseless minority.
These things make one sick
with despair and hopelessness;
make one want to sooth one's
anguish by dropping a few pennies
in a box to feed the children, end
the genocide - for then one can say
he has done his part to aid his
fellow man, has demonstrated his
concern, compassion, existential involvement
(!).
But - lets not fool ourselves.
There is already enough food and
transport for that food available to
Biafra if the Biafran government
would accept it. Piling up more
tons of food to rot will not help the
Biafran children; it can only ease
our aching egos (this is, of course,
directed towards the few who care:
most of us really couldn't care less
if a few more niggers starved or
not). So, let us end this UNICEF
force - shipments of food abroad
can neither help the Biafran children
now, nor solve the "third
world's" food/population crises in
the long run. Let those who care
rather re-direct their concern towards
a permanent solution to
these problems - otherwise they
will continue to recur in the future
as they have for centuries in the
past. What kinds of solutions? An
end to imperialism, long term
economic development, unification
of oppressed peoples, the overthrow
(nonviolent, if possible) of
repressive institutions (such as our
"Military/Industrial Complex") or
syndromes (such as the jingoistic
attitude fostered by those institutions),
etc. Participation in "Aid
Biafra" type drives is like taking on
acid trip: it may be pleasurable,
but it solves nothing; indeed, both
can be counterproductive insofar as
they may permanently remove one
from the realm of reality and place
one in a world of egoistic illusion.
