Stop Wasting Money on Foreign Aid

The pictures from Egypt are remarkable. Nothing has really changed there since the 1950's. People are still poor, the country is run by a brutal dictator, and we continue to meddle into their affairs. Egypt has been called the cradle of civilization. If they are the cradle, why haven't they grown up? It is amazing to see the people rioting in the streets, shaking their fists, throwing stones at tanks, while a few camels and horses are running through the streets. Am I watching a Lawrence of Arabia movie?

I was watching the action the past few days with my better half, Linda Dandy, and we wondered why the Middle East is so screwed up. Here are a few of our simplistic observations:

> When you are run by a brutal dictator or theocracy, you will never have a stable economy.

> If natural resources are scarce, particularly food and water, good luck.

> Intense heat and sandy front and back yards, with no lakefronts,  contribute to the mind-numbing boredom of life.

> The women are treated like crap and the men all have high testerone levels. Show us a country that treats its women like second, third or slave-like citizens and we will show you a country in the dark ages. Love the ones you are with instead of  longing for the 76 virgins in the next life.

> They spend too much time hating the West and the Jews and too little time on improving their own economic plight.

> When you have high illiteracry, poverty, unemployment, heat and too much sand, you become a breeding gound for discontent and terrorism.

The solution? Turn off the TV....nothing will change for the Cradle of Civilization. This country, once the most advanced in the entire world, has been stuck in neutral for hundreds of years. There is not much we can do to help countries that refuse to help themselves. Let them figure their problems out without any foreign aid from us.