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Feed the goat
When I first heard about the Oxfam idea of giving goats to poor people in Africa I thought 'whaaaat???' And it reminded me of the arguments I've had over the years with development people with tunnel vision. Seems Oxfam still hasn't learned anything, and the dev-trained 'experts' in poverty at Oxfam doubtless thought it was a good idea at the time when, in their brainstorming session, someone came up with goats as a way of helping the poor and getting more donations. The trouble with goats is that they are the single most destructive species on the planet after man, and the cause of desertification since man started herding them for milk, meat and profit. To provide thousands more goats for marginal and overstressed land to 'help the poor' while sounding to the unaware like a good idea, is actually totally crazy. Marginal land will be pushed into desert and the people there will be poorer as a result, unable to feed themselves and dependent like never before on food handouts. Many years ago, with a verdant if not to say overgrown garden, we thought a goat would be a good idea as a pet; keep the grass trimmed. In two weeks, the half grown goat transformed the garden into a desert, devoid of a single growing thing, killing even a young tree by stripping it of bark, the only thing left a clump of nettles, and all this while we were feeding her. After spending hours every day gathering plants from the surrounding countryside and roadside verges, as well as buying food as well for her, we finally gave up and gave her to someone who already had goats, and a vast field to keep them in. Our garden eventually recovered. Presumably no one at Oxfam has ever had this experience, it's all theory to them. Once the truth about goats was revealed by an enviropnmental charity however, you'd think Oxfam would recant, rethink and accept. Oh no. Too arrogant to accept the wisdom of someone with better knowledge, they put up a spokeperson to defend this scheme [which has been a very good earner for Oxfam] who entirely missed the point, and kept insisting this was a good way to help people whose cattle and sheep had mostly succumbed to drought! Failing to connect the death of the sheep and cattle with worsening environmental conditions which could only be exaserbated by goats. Some joined up thinking is needed at Oxfam. They might try training poor people to grow their own food, and suggest a vegetarian diet was not only better for them, but so much better for the planet as well. |
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May, 2012
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