Why I no longer follow you on Twitter

I spent 25 years in health care.  I read a ton of alternatives AIDS theory literature, I am an advocate against sex trafficking, I am against abortion, I am Whole Life, I am an Uber Anti-Feminist.  In short there is little that disgusts me or frightens me.

Except snakes. 

And one is not fond of the number of I's in that first paragraph but there it is.

There are also very few things I won't tolerate or block out simply because I find them unpleasant.  But one thing is unnecessary and serves to coarsen out society.  You don't need to re-tweet some liberal idiot's name-calling and profanity to prove what a great and important person you are.  So if you do, you'll find one less follower in your twitter ranks.

Dead Aid: Quick Take Review

Dead Aid: Why aid is not working and how there is a better way for Africa by Dambisa Moyo

Moyo is an economist who has previously held positions at Goldman Sachs and the World Bank.  She knows her stuff.  She is also a native of Zambia.

The book is both an indictment of Western paternalism and an optimistic look towards real solutions to the problem of Africa.  The first part of the book reviews the history of aid to Africa and why it (largely) has done more harm than good.  The second part takes a look at several ways in which not only African countries can help themselves, but how the developed world can help them do it.

The single best action is to stop the aid pipeline.  Moyo shows what many of us have long realized - that the way we help Africa more often lines the pockets of corrupt rulers and their families than it does lift the average African out of poverty.  Giving African countries a deadline for their loss of aid is the first step.

The second step is African countries getting up on their own feet through tools like innovative uses of microfinance, accessing global capital markets, foreign direct investment, incentives for changed behaviour and reframing trading agreements and tariffs.  It won't be easy.  Some African rulers have found the aid game a bit too lucrative to want to let it go.  And western do-gooders will take some convincing to stop handing out the dosh like candy on Halloween.  But, unless we really are racist and think Africans cannot learn a great degree of aid-independence, we must move in the direction Dambiso Moyo points us.

She's not the only voice out there telling this story.  She is, however, one with the wisdom of both worlds.

Let the UnCelebration Begin!

According to my Twitter feed, Ms. Magazine is gearing up to celebrate their 40th anniversary. Now, I'll be honest and admit that I think I have purchased and read all of one issue of the rag in those forty years.  I didn't think I needed to know anything more than its name and that of it's foundress, Gloria Steinhem.  I still think that's all anyone needs to know about whether or not to subscribe or celebrate its forty years of existence.

So I am engaging in an UnCelebration and inviting you to join with me.  The goal is to give $40 (or more) to an organization opposing the the agenda of feminism and Ms. Magazine.  Instead of celebrating 40 years of an anti-woman agenda, I want to celebrate and encourage organizations and individuals that celebrate, support and act as advocates on behalf of women's real equality, rights and protection.  To that end, the first organization I am making a donation to is:

  

Concerned Women for America is the largest public policy women's organization in the country.   Founded thirty years ago by Dr. Beverly LaHaye, CWforA arms women for the cultural battle raging across our land, with the reminder that we protect godly values through prayer and action.  Focusing on six key areas:  the family, the sanctity of human life, religious liberty, education, pornography and national sovereignty, CWforA equips women for prayer and action through local chapters and the work of policy experts in the national offices.  An important part of their work is the Beverly LaHaye Institute, their think tank where my friend, Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, serves as Senior Fellow.

I am UnCelebrating Ms. Magazine by making a donation to CWforA because godly women know prayer precedes action.