And they’re happy to have it. Any US-themed sporting apparel is trés cool in the Third World. They watch the NBA and MLB on TV and they want something, ANYTHING, with a US team logo on it, no matter if it’s a losing Super Bowl team.
This kills the local garment industry where these shirts are distributed. They flood the market with free clothes and the local producers layoff or close up, the local retailers can no longer sell what some charity is giving away. These handouts cause more poverty and pain than they eliminate.
Andy makes an interesting point. This is why The Federation has a Prime Directive in Star Trek not to interfere-even out of charity–with any developing civilization…of course they violated it nearly every week with misguided notions of compassion because they were “One-World-Do-Gooders”.
They also rarley return to these worlds in later episodes to see what their charity hath wrought. Well, you could get out there and say that Khan’s Wrath was a direct result of Kirk’s compassion (choosing to maroon Khan rather than introducing him to the air lock).
Also, Tasha Yar’s progeny returned to vex Picard (as a Romulan, no less) after he sent her back through time in “Yesterday’s Enterprise” to assist the doomed Enterpise C. But that speaks more to the commandment “thou shalt not fuck with space-time”(which they also violated repeatedly) rather than educating the masses about misplaced charity.
What were we talking about again? Oh yeah, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”…” or is it “no single rain drop ever thinks itself responsible for the flood”?
February 7th, 2012 at 10:23 am
And they’re happy to have it. Any US-themed sporting apparel is trés cool in the Third World. They watch the NBA and MLB on TV and they want something, ANYTHING, with a US team logo on it, no matter if it’s a losing Super Bowl team.
February 7th, 2012 at 10:29 am
This kills the local garment industry where these shirts are distributed. They flood the market with free clothes and the local producers layoff or close up, the local retailers can no longer sell what some charity is giving away. These handouts cause more poverty and pain than they eliminate.
February 7th, 2012 at 11:03 am
Andy makes an interesting point. This is why The Federation has a Prime Directive in Star Trek not to interfere-even out of charity–with any developing civilization…of course they violated it nearly every week with misguided notions of compassion because they were “One-World-Do-Gooders”.
They also rarley return to these worlds in later episodes to see what their charity hath wrought. Well, you could get out there and say that Khan’s Wrath was a direct result of Kirk’s compassion (choosing to maroon Khan rather than introducing him to the air lock).
Also, Tasha Yar’s progeny returned to vex Picard (as a Romulan, no less) after he sent her back through time in “Yesterday’s Enterprise” to assist the doomed Enterpise C. But that speaks more to the commandment “thou shalt not fuck with space-time”(which they also violated repeatedly) rather than educating the masses about misplaced charity.
What were we talking about again? Oh yeah, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”…” or is it “no single rain drop ever thinks itself responsible for the flood”?
February 7th, 2012 at 5:00 pm
no good deed goes unpunished.