What is Digg?124 Comments
- thatsmyaibo, on 10/11/2007, -27/+142I've grown to hate msaleem. He is an arrogant prick. Go to his profile and read his blog and every ***** thing he finds gets to the front page. Then he brags about his digg popularity (that and a dollar can buy you a bag of chips) and talks about how he has to trim his friends list...wow. An American hero. I bury his ***** as lame now.
This is from his blog.
"today is the second time in 2 months (the first time was in the middle of may) that i’m trimming down my friends list on digg. the first time i took the list down from 550 to 150. since then i have added a few people and the goal this time is to get it from 167 down to 100.
what are the rules? well if you haven’t dugg any of my stuff for at least one week, then we aren’t really friends, are we?" - thatsmyaibo, on 10/11/2007, -1/+53Well there used to be a time where anybody could get a story to the front page. Now it's the same few people. After reading a ton of stories submitted by msaleem, I looked into his blog (which is linked to his profile) to get some idea. After reading about his gloating on how he is part of the digg 500 and how you're only his friend if you digg his stories, I wanted to voice my opinion. I, frankly don;t care if you agree with my comment or not, but I want more diversity on this site like it was a year or two ago.
- Akaji, on 10/11/2007, -3/+48Ooh, drama on Digg! *grabs some popcorn*
- cambrown99, on 10/11/2007, -9/+51Actually, I think Bono has been very forthcoming about progress in Africa. Take a look at the Brian Willams interview from about a year ago (I think it's still up on iTunes).
I know Bono is an easy target because he's an egotistical rock star, but I think he's the real deal when it comes to this. - atdigg, on 10/11/2007, -7/+37"What percentage of the African population would you say dies in war every year? What share of male children, age 10 to 17, are child soldiers? How many Africans are afflicted by famine or died of AIDS last year or are living as refugees?
In each case, the answer is one-half of 1% of the population or less. "
1% means one child out of every 100, 0.5% means 1 out of every 200, this is a HUGE number of children affected by all those bad things. Would people in US or in general Western world accept that 1% of their kids be killed by gun violence, would they accept that 0.5% be eaten by wolves?
What in you small brain makes you think that 0.5% of kids is negligible amount? - cyberdork, on 10/11/2007, -0/+27The author complains about oversimplification of the African problems and tries to make his point with his own oversimplifications.
But in one way he's right, people should look at Africa's problems in more detail. I think first of all we should realize that we are talking about an entire continent with dozens of countries, hundreds of ethnicities, half a dozen climate zones, and mind blowing differences in regional economic development. Each country has it's own problems. So talking about Africa, as if it's one big country with one type of people, suffering from the same problems doesn't really help. - chris9902, on 10/11/2007, -2/+28As Chris Rock said yesterday "I think LiveEarth will solve global warming like LiveAid solved world hunger"
- relaxeder, on 04/17/2009, -0/+21"My friends list on digg"
LOL - quomen, on 10/11/2007, -1/+18Wow you guys are all really into this digg thing ay?
- Nick519, on 10/11/2007, -0/+14i agree -- i just watched this interview with brian williams from the itunes store, and bono clearly says many, many times that there is a ton of progress happening in africa. he says that other countries view africa not as a charity case, but the next business frontier, and he feels that america needs to step it up and join it now, or we'll miss out. and it's also very clear that bono KNOWS people think he's an egotistical prick, but he doesn't let it get to him -- he jokes about it several times in the interview.
- weeble, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11I've been to Africa many times, and even lived there for a while. Are there problems... definitely... are they as bad as everyone makes out... yes in places.... but the VAST majority of the continent is populated by extremely resourceful and happy (albeit poor) people who are some of the most giving and hospitable people you will ever meet. Most.. yes, most lead a reasonably comfortable life. They live in nice homes (often a lot nicer than any home you would get in western Europe or North America). They drive cars, they have internet access. They all have mobile phones - even the poorest seem to have mobile phones.
If it was possible for me to move back, I would. It is a beautiful part of this planet.
Now the other side..... the governments are run by greedy ruthless idiots who are there only to fill their offshore bank accounts. The corruption is astounding. The people in a position to make their country wealthy and powerful are way too busy raping the resources to give a flying hoot about the impact they are having. The result... countries are made poorer, wars continue, millions are killed.
The only way I can see it being fixed is to STOP sending aid to the countries that really don't need it. The whole teach a man to fish thing. Instead of handouts, educate people so they can do things for themselves... then Africa can make the long slow and painful recovery. - DeathJux, on 10/11/2007, -0/+10Are you aware that the Sahara is located in Africa?
- mwayne, on 10/11/2007, -3/+13http://www.kimdutoit.com/dr/essays/essays.php?id=P82
Let Africa Sink
May 26,2002
Kim du Toit
When it comes to any analysis of the problems facing Africa, Western society, and particularly people from the United States, encounter a logical disconnect that makes clear analysis impossible. That disconnect is the way life is regarded in the West (it's precious, must be protected at all costs etc.), compared to the way life, and death, are regarded in Africa. Let me try to quantify this statement.
In Africa, life is cheap. There are so many ways to die in Africa that death is far more commonplace than in the West. You can die from so many things--snakebite, insect bite, wild animal attack, disease, starvation, food poisoning... the list goes on and on. At one time, crocodiles accounted for more deaths in sub-Saharan Africa than gunfire, for example. Now add the usual human tragedy (murder, assault, warfare and the rest), and you can begin to understand why the life expectancy for an African is low--in fact, horrifyingly low, if you remove White Africans from the statistics (they tend to be more urbanized, and more Western in behavior and outlook). Finally, if you add the horrifying spread of AIDS into the equation, anyone born in sub-Saharan Africa this century will be lucky to reach age forty.
I lived in Africa for over thirty years. Growing up there, I was infused with several African traits--traits which are not common in Western civilization. The almost-casual attitude towards death was one. (Another is a morbid fear of snakes.)
So because of my African background, I am seldom moved at the sight of death, unless it's accidental, or it affects someone close to me. (Death which strikes at strangers, of course, is mostly ignored.) Of my circle of about eighteen or so friends with whom I grew up, and whom I would consider "close", only about ten survive today--and not one of the survivors is over the age of fifty.
Two friends died from stepping on landmines while on Army duty in Namibia. Three died in horrific car accidents (and lest one thinks that this is not confined to Africa, one was caused by a kudu flying through a windshield and impaling the guy through the chest with its hoof--not your everyday traffic accident in, say, Florida). One was bitten by a snake, and died from heart failure. Another also died of heart failure, but he was a hopeless drunkard. Two were shot by muggers. The last went out on his surfboard one day and was never seen again (did I mention that sharks are plentiful off the African coasts and in the major rivers?). My situation is not uncommon in South Africa--and north of the Limpopo River (the border with Zimbabwe), I suspect that others would show worse statistics.
The death toll wasn't just confined to my friends. When I was still living in Johannesburg, the newspaper carried daily stories of people mauled by lions, or attacked by rival tribesmen, or dying from some unspeakable disease (and this was pre-AIDS Africa too) and in general, succumbing to some of Africa's many answers to the population explosion. Add to that the normal death toll from rampant crime, illness, poverty, flood, famine, traffic, and the police, and you'll begin to get the idea.
My favorite African story actually happened after I left the country. An American executive took a job over there, and on his very first day, the newspaper headlines read: "Three Headless Bodies Found".
The next day: "Three Heads Found".
The third day: "Heads Don't Match Bodies".
You can't make this stuff up.
As a result, death is treated more casually by Africans than by Westerners. I, and I suspect most Africans, am completely inured to reports of African suffering, for whatever cause. Drought causes crops to fail, thousands face starvation? Yup, that happened many times while I was growing up. Inter-tribal rivalry and warfare causes wholesale slaughter? Yep, been happening there for millennia, long before Whitey got there. Governments becoming rich and corrupt while their populations starved? Not more than nine or ten of those. In my lifetime, the following tragedies have occurred, causing untold millions of deaths: famine in Biafra, genocide in Rwanda, civil war in Angola, floods in South Africa, famine in Somalia, civil war in Sudan, famine in Ethiopia, floods in Mozambique, wholesale slaughter in Uganda, and tribal warfare in every single country. There are others, but you get the point.
Yes, all this was also true in Europe--maybe a thousand years ago. But not any more. And Europe doesn't teem with crocodiles, ultra-venomous snakes and so on.
The Dutch controlled the floods. All of Europe controls famine--it's non-existent now. Apart from a couple of examples of massive, state-sponsored slaughter (Nazi Germany, Communist Russia), Europe since 1700 doesn't even begin to compare to Africa today. Casual slaughter is another thing altogether--rare in Europe, common in Africa.
More to the point, the West has evolved into a society with a stable system of government, which follows the rule of law, and has respect for the rights and life of the individual--none of which is true in Africa.
Among old Africa hands, we have a saying, usually accompanied by a shrug: "Africa wins again." This is usually said after an incident such as:
a beloved missionary is butchered by his congregation, for no apparent reason
a tribal chief prefers to let his tribe starve to death rather than accepting food from the Red Cross (would mean he wasn't all-powerful, you see)
an entire nation starves to death, while its ruler accumulates wealth in foreign banks
a new government comes into power, promising democracy, free elections etc., provided that the freedom doesn't extend to the other tribe
the other tribe comes to power in a bloody coup, then promptly sets about slaughtering the first tribe
etc, etc, etc, ad nauseam, ad infinitum.
The prognosis is bleak, because none of this mayhem shows any sign of ending. The conclusions are equally bleak, because, quite frankly, there is no answer to Africa's problems, no solution that hasn't been tried before, and failed.
Just go to the CIA World Fact Book, pick any of the African countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi etc.), and compare the statistics to any Western country (eg. Portugal, Italy, Spain, Ireland). The disparities are appalling--and it's going to get worse, not better. It has certainly got worse since 1960, when most African countries achieved independence. We, and by this I mean the West, have tried many ways to help Africa. All such attempts have failed.
1. Charity is no answer. Money simply gets appropriated by the first, or second, or third person to touch it (17 countries saw a decline in real per capita GNP between 1970 and 1999, despite receiving well over $100 billion in World Bank assistance).
2. Food isn't distributed. This happens either because there is no transportation infrastructure (bad), or the local leader deliberately withholds the supplies to starve people into submission (worse).
3. Materiel is broken, stolen or sold off for a fraction of its worth. The result of decades of "foreign aid" has resulted in a continental infrastructure which, if one excludes South Africa, couldn't support Pittsburgh.
Add to this, as I mentioned above, the endless cycle of Nature's little bag of tricks--persistent drought followed by violent flooding, a plethora of animals, reptiles and insects so dangerous that life is already cheap before Man starts playing his little reindeer games with his fellow Man--and what you are left with is: catastrophe.
The inescapable conclusion is simply one of resignation. This goes against the grain of our humanity--we are accustomed to ridding the world of this or that problem (smallpox, polio, whatever), and accepting failure is anathema to us. But, to give a classic African scenario, a polio vaccine won't work if the kids are prevented from getting the vaccine by a venal overlord, or a frightened chieftain, or a lack of roads, or by criminals who steal the vaccine and sell it to someone else. If a cure for AIDS was found tomorrow, and offered to every African nation free of charge, the growth of the disease would scarcely be checked, let alone reversed. Basically, you'd have to try to inoculate as many two-year old children as possible, and write off the two older generations.
So that is the only one response, and it's a brutal one: accept that we are powerless to change Africa, and leave them to sink or swim, by themselves.
It sounds dreadful to say it, but if the entire African continent dissolves into a seething maelstrom of disease, famine and brutality, that's just too damn bad. We have better things to do--sometimes, you just have to say, "Can't do anything about it."
The viciousness, the cruelty, the corruption, the duplicity, the savagery, and the incompetence is endemic to the entire continent, and is so much of an anathema to any right-thinking person that the civilized imagination simply stalls when faced with its ubiquity, and with the enormity of trying to fix it. The Western media shouldn't even bother reporting on it. All that does is arouse our feelings of horror, and the instinctive need to do something, anything--but everything has been tried before, and failed. Everything, of course, except self-reliance.
All we should do is make sure that none of Africa gets transplanted over to the U.S., because the danger to our society is dire if it does. I note that several U.S. churches are attempting to bring groups of African refugees over to the United States, European churches the same for Europe. Mistake. Mark my words, this misplaced charity will turn around and bite us, big time.
Even worse would be to think that the simplicity of Africa holds some kind of answers for Western society: remember "It Takes A Village"? Trust me on this: there is not one thing that Africa can give the West which hasn't been tried before and failed, not one thing that isn't a step backwards, and not one thing which is worse than, or that contradicts, what we have already.
So here's my solution for the African fiasco: a high wall around the whole continent, all the guns and bombs in the world for everyone inside, and at the end, the last one alive should do us all a favor and kill himself.
Inevitably, some Kissingerian realpolitiker is going to argue in favor of intervention, because in the vacuum of Western aid, perhaps the Communist Chinese would step in and increase their influence in the area. There are two reasons why this isn't going to happen.
Firstly, the PRC doesn't have that kind of money to throw around; and secondly, the result of any communist assistance will be precisely the same as if it were Western assistance. For the record, Mozambique and Angola are both communist countries--and both are economic disaster areas. The prognosis for both countries is disastrous--and would be the same for any other African country.
Africa has to heal itself. The West can't help it. Nor should we. The record speaks for itself.
Copyright 20022003 Kim du Toit. All Rights Reserved. - TomRemixed, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9He's easy to target because of all his ridiculous sunglasses.
I agree though. Bono is doing some great things for the people of Africa. I don't see why everyone on digg thinks he worthless. While things like Live 8 and Live Earth are just excuses to get a bunch of bands together and sell some albums Bono is doing much more than that. - pintomp3, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8the main problem isn't aid or lack of aid, it's our farm subsidies. africa has great resources but isn't allowed to compete on a level playing field.
- str3ama, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10"Bono goes to Africa: Distributes Relief Aid and Copies of Latest Album"
- BrandonMills, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7How does crap like this consistently make the Digg frontpage?
Not all "aid" sent to other countries is bad. Just ask the people in Africa living off HIV medications right now, and the many people who still can't get them because there aren't enough to go around. I wouldn't consider that a 'bad cause' or a 'waste'. - atdigg, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8Actually that's incorrect too, people who want to help Africa, including Bono, always point out the progress because otherwise people will not donate... people don't want their money to go to a black hole, they want their money to make a difference.
- 1longtime, on 10/11/2007, -5/+12Your logic is oversimplified. ...and calling an entire continent of people "stupid" is just ridiculous.
- helinism, on 10/11/2007, -9/+15Any site with a social aspect to it will have its own self-styled celebrities amongst the contributors. That's pretty much unavoidable, whether the contributor welcomes it or not. Burying every item submitted by a contributor simply because you feel they are arrogant sounds more like a personal vendetta than anything else. If you feel you can do better, then its up to you to do so. Otherwise, just sit back and enjoy the content submitted by others.
- EmileVictor, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6I've been here a while and I can tell you that little has changed. There has always been a group of top diggers who have enormous control over what goes on the front page, with or without the "top user list".
- tehbored, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5OK, this is kind of stupid. Africa isn't a country (though I've known many nitwits who thought it was), it's a continent. That means it has different countries with different policies, and different statistics for famine, AIDS, etc. While it's true that there has, in general, been a lot of improvement, we must remember to focus our efforts on the places that need them most.
- dutopia, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5I wouldn't agree with some of the wording you used, but i have to say i never thought about it like that. Interesting... :)
- pilot3033, on 10/11/2007, -4/+8Nobody said it was negligible, the author was simple pointing out that we sell Africa short in terms of the progress they are making.
You get further with honey than you do vinegar. - aschocobo, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6...i wish i could digg you twice.
- Cenobite, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Sheesh, and I only have one digg friend: my girlfriend. And only because I made her sign up.
- nelwa, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I live in South Africa, and I honestly have to agree 100% with everything Kim said. Just let us all kill each other ;)
- notque, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3http://tools.google.com/gapminder/
- GawtMilk, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Hate his singing, love his ideology and good-willed nature. He's a millionaire rockstar, so people are obviously going to find faults with him...but he's a great guy.
- halavais, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Did you read the Wikipedia article? It basically suggests that the book is faulty. Even if you accept that the book is correct, the authors have conceded that there is no clear causation: low GDP probably leads to low IQ: so, if you want to make Africa smarter, you should seek increases in GDP.
- cyberdork, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3"They have more natural ressources than any continent on earth"
Right there you have the answer to why we want them to stay depended on us! The worst thing that could happen to the developed world is if African countries start demanding reasonable prices for their natural resources. - JettaMan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3But in the West we have this impression that *everybody* is having these problems. We need truth to make proper decisions, and the truth is that it is not 100% of everyone in Africa, it is 0.5%. Nothing wrong with pointing out the truth.
- hbweb500, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Have you ever read Cry, The Beloved Country?
- crushfan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3... But there're no -so-called- hot latino dudettes. :(
I'm still watching anyway. *hand me some popcorn please* - allarise, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4While I'm sure there is progress being made, the fact is ***** is still REALLY bad over there, and to be honest, I don't necessarily want stories like this washing complacency over the western world.
- MasonDigg, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I agree, .5% of a billion is still 5000000. I don't think Bono or anyone is underreporting the problem when there are as many as 120,000 child soldiers. The only complaint might be that you can't group all of Africa together, but the places that have things bad have things VERY bad.
- childermass, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Wow, that's almost logical, but not quite. How do you propose that "they" just get going? Africa may be rich in natural resources, but because of trade barries and protectionist policies by Western nations, many trade options are not available to these countries. In addition, yes, we give them money, but it's about how we give them money that's the problem. If you give money to a crook, in the name of "development," of course it's not going to be spent wisely. There are lots of initiatives now that are making tangible progress in Africa, from disease eradication, to microfinancing, though the latter is more popular elsewhere, to self-sustaining eco-friendly development projects. It's not about leaving Africa alone, it's about learning how to better engage Africa to make the money spent more effetive. More money needs to go into the hands of people who can use it, rather than in the hands of the governments.
- Scrud, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Africans as a whole are not making money off us. The people making all of the money are either the corrupt leaders or the foreign companies who come in and take all of their *****.
- GunsGermsSteel, on 10/11/2007, -3/+5Author's making the same mistakes as those he's criticizing. Africa is a big, complex nation. South Africa isn't having the same problems as Zimbabwe.
- crushfan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2That was a nice read. Almost a weblog article. I, for no reason, need to thank you. *echoes: thank you*
- rangerBravo, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Maybe you should read some of the comments above about how our interference and aid is really not helping much. It just encourages corruption and no forward progress. If the West really cared we would invest in Africa and hand out minimum aid
- justinjohnson, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I fully agree, I had a professor from Africa and he went back every summer and would constantly tell us how he was happy in Malawi. They didn't even imagine that there was anything better, so they were more than happy to continue to live as they did.
Now, after coming to America and seeing all the things here, his entire family in Malawi has cell phones and a car. It seems like they aren't in need of anything. I don't understand our need to bring and entire continent out of "poverty" if they are happy living as they are. Who are westerners to say that the only way to be happy is to live in an overdeveloped, materialistic society. I know I'm often disappointed with the status of our country and sometimes think life would be so much better if I just lived on a farm and did some hard labor for a while, instead of sitting on my computer posting comments to digg. - OnlyShawn, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2...stopping sending aid to governments may, in all honesty, do what you want. Foreign aid allows corrupt governments to stay in power, because they use the money to pay off their cronies. Less money given to the leaders will allow rivals to take power from them... some discussion of this available on the podcast here:
http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2007/02/bruce_bueno_de.html - heffae, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Have to love statistics it's a great way to lie while telling the truth. In South Africa 21% of people have HIV and 0.8% die from AIDS a year. In the US 0.5% have HIV and 0.00005% die from AIDS a year. When you look at it in comparison to US rates it becomes apparent that it is a MAJOR problem. And South Africa is far from the worst of the African countries. Couldn't find any US numbers for some of the other statistics but I would guess things like number of child gorilla soldiers in the US is close to 0%.
FWIW the numbers are from the CIA world book. - thatsmyaibo, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I rarely submit stories and I have been on the front page. It's not that big of a deal. I just want more diversity on the front page instead of constant stories by the same users. I had a chat with msaleem and apologized for my personal attack (with I agree was childish), but I still believe something needs to be fixed with the digg algorithm and the manipulation of friends lists to accommodate front page diggs in a short amount of time. I don't actually hate the guy, in fact after talking to him he was rather pleasant.
- OnlyShawn, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2...how many things about your comment do we have to refute for the whole thing to be wrong? Well, one will suffice, as the rest of what you said is some of the most foolish nonsense I've ever seen.
IT'S THE LA TIMES' OPINION PAGE. Opinion.
Do you have any idea of what's going on in Africa? Have you read anything about it? Have you done any research about how the economics of foreign aid can keep a corrupt government in power? Have you looked at any of the public choice theory that applies to this, showing further how foreign aid helps 3 out of 4 of the groups involved--the donor country government, the donor country constituents, and the receiving country government. The receiving country's citizens are NOT helped by foreign aid.
There can be no economic growth in Africa until corrupt governments are removed, and property rights are introduced, allowing foreign investment to reasonably believe that they will be able to do business in Africa without having their assets seized by the governments or necessitating bribes for every single thing that they try to accomplish. These negative incentives to business growth are what have kept resource-rich Africa behind other countries with far fewer natural resources.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110003831
http://digg.com/health/For_God_s_Sake_Please_Stop_the_Aid - KIERANMULLEN, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Bono leaves Ireland to avoid taxes where poverty is higher than in almost any other developed nation
http://digg.com/business_finance/Bono_Tax_Avoider http://www.slate.com/id/2152580/ - bIuebonics, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2did you not read the ***** quote from the guy the OP gave?
- giveer, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Articles like this are detrimental to the process as a whole, I'm sorry to say - The last thing Africa needs is a reason for Western Culture to not be '*THAT* concerned' about Africa..
It's always amazing how often people will post articles about how LITTLE someone ELSE is actually doing...meanwhile... well, you get the picture. - GawtMilk, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2This is a dumb story...it's talking about percentages, which mean far less than overall numbers. Oil companies make ten cents for every barrel of oil they sell. For $70 a barrel, that's a very small profit if you look at it with percentages, but that doesn't mean they aren't making a metric assload of money.
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