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351 points perihelions | 7 comments | | HN request time: 1.259s | source | bottom
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phendrenad2 ◴[] No.44535175[source]
I think this NPR article is too quick to put a positive spin on this. They have made a nice little story here with a happy ending. Farmers had blackened turmeric -> they used a random yellow die they found -> massive lead spike in everyone's bloodstream -> Americans came in with a xray gun and saved the day -> no more lead in the blood.

But if you ascribe even the slightest but of agency to any of the non-Americans involved, you have to wonder if this problem will come back.

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abeppu ◴[] No.44536177[source]
> But if you ascribe even the slightest but of agency to any of the non-Americans involved, you have to wonder if this problem will come back.

From the article:

> And recently they are celebrating some big news on the lead fighting front: This week, UNICEF and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a new $150 million initiative to combat lead poisoning.

Americans have disassembled USAID. The agency of Americans is also contributing to this reccuring.

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ericmay ◴[] No.44536827[source]
> The agency of Americans is also contributing to this reccuring.

I’m going to push back very, very hard on ascribing any sort of blame on anyone other than those who are committing these acts. Least of all the American taxpayer, regardless of whether or not dismantling USAID is a good idea.

If the rest of the world is so helpless that all hope depends on Americans to solve even problems such as this and it’s our fault for not doing so, then I don’t want to hear a peep about us taking any other actions in the world that we deem just. You can’t have it both ways.

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steveBK123 ◴[] No.44536881[source]
Right, I'm 100% against the dismantling of our foreign aid programs, USAID included..

However, the world playing both sides of the coin on "US World Police" being bad when it does stuff but also bad when it doesn't do stuff is part of how we end up where we are.

It's a minuscule part of our budget, but an easy sell for right wingers to say "well the world isn't grateful for it and its all a bunch of waste so we are killing it" then get if not majority support, less than 50% disapproval.

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1. Gud ◴[] No.44536939[source]
This argument makes absolutely no sense.

You can be against empire x taking action y while being positive it’s taking action z.

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2. ceejayoz ◴[] No.44537288[source]
The world lets us take action y (which they don’t necessarily like) because we do a lot of action z.
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3. Gud ◴[] No.44537381[source]
No, the US imposes its will on the rest of us by having an awesome arsenal and an eagerness to use it.
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4. ceejayoz ◴[] No.44537466{3}[source]
The carrot and the stick are both handy. Soft power can make the difference between grumbling and active rebellion.
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5. jamiek88 ◴[] No.44537952{4}[source]
Yes and we are voluntarily throwing away our soft power.
6. AlecSchueler ◴[] No.44541303[source]
You can also be against American hegemony and include USAID in that while recognising that suddenly stopping it without any attempt to pivot towards a better balance makes no sense for anyone in the world.
7. datavirtue ◴[] No.44541394{3}[source]
You forgot freedom and dignity. There is one source for that in the world, the US.

You can flail all day but you won't be able to point to another power that preserves that chance for everyone.