Cambridge Chat (previously New Cambridge Students Entry 2004)

wooo *dances* i got a first in my physics paper, which I thought went really bad! I'm feeling much better about being at cambridge now i think...i wish the formal was tomorrow cos i'm in the mood to party atm!

wooo *dances* i got a first in my physics paper, which I thought went really bad! I'm feeling much better about being at cambridge now i think...i wish the formal was tomorrow cos i'm in the mood to party atm!

how do you make poverty history??

redistribution of wealth.

(I know that makes me sound very left wing but I originally typed "give all the poor people money" and I thought, 'no, that wouldn't work. That would lead to spiraling inflation and more poverty, which would be ironic.')

Step 1 - wiping clean of third world national debts.

Did you know that the USA spends more on pornography per annum than the total national debt of Africa?

take out a "p.e.v" and put in an "h.i.s"

redistribution of wealth doesn't usually reduce poverty =|

wiping 3rd world debt is good I reckon. what about eliminating trade barriers between 3rd world and 1st world?

the fact that the USA spends more on pornography than africa spends on servicing debts doesn't say that much, it's not like producing and selling Hot Rods IV results in some africans starving to death.

redistribution doesn't really seem sensible though, because again, you having an MP3 player doesn't mean that somebody in africa can't have medical care. the reason people in africa don't have medical care is because they're undeveloped. so they need to develop. this is not going to happen through wealth redistibution.

I thought it was a cute statistic! It odes show how one side of the world gaily enjoys itself quite oblivious to the cares of the other. Perhaps the UN could introduce a porn tax, or something.....

Everytime I think about something like this I start to feel sickeningly guilty. I get urges to donate my computer to starving children. Redistribution seems fair when you look at how much we in the west have compared to thrid world countries. OK - mine's an average two-bed room house:
four TVs
two computers
four radios
three CD players
two DVD players
two video players
two audio tape players
MP3 player
Walkman

Average Kenyan home:
no electricity

Argh! I'm a bad person!!!

no, no - it's all because I'm a bad, bad, spoiled girl. *beats self with electrical appliance*

but surely it's a little unfair to just sit back and say - "OK, guys, develop. We did." ?

no, no - it's all because I'm a bad, bad, spoiled girl. *beats self with electrical appliance*

but surely it's a little unfair to just sit back and say - "OK, guys, develop. We did." ?

that's the spirit perhaps if you chopped off a limb, africa's situation might improve

hm, well, no I don't think that's unfair, I think it's unfair to say "okay guys, develop, only, we're going to protect our own farmers from your evil, more efficient farmers by avoiding trade with you."

Seriously though, simply give people money doesn't do much good. What do the Chinese say about fish and fishing? You give a man a fish, you feed him for one day; you teach him how to fish, he can feed himself. It's the same principle.

You lot didn't just develop. You lot invaded China. And that's you got rich

hm, well, no I don't think that's unfair, I think it's unfair to say "okay guys, develop, only, we're going to protect our own farmers from your evil, more efficient farmers by avoiding trade with you."