Saturday, July 09, 2005

G8 Conference...

The G8 Conference is over and Tony Blair is trumpeting the doubling of aid to Africa. According to him, they are going to increase aid to $50 billion dollars. That got me thinking. That seems like a lot of money. But is it really? Then I found this...

"Research and Markets: Strong Growth of Pet Industry Set to Continue with American Spending on Pets Nearly Doubling in Last Decade to $34.4 Billion"

According to this article, Americans spend nearly as much on their dogs and cats as the G8 is pledging to help African countries (whose raw resources have provided most of the wealth to those G8 countries). I'm guessing that dogs and cats will at some point pass Africans in amount spent...

6 comments:

StickyKeys said...

I want so badly to be Paris Hilton's dog.

Isn't it sad that that's a fairly optimistic aspiration?

Spending on pets is ridiculous. I understand the need to love your pets, but when insert horrific world condition here is happening, it seems overly excessive to paint your dogs nails in 24 carat liquid gold.

That's just my opinion of course...

Anonymous said...

well we both know that fair trade is the key word , if a country like tansania sells only 20% of its coca and sugar it can make up to 40 billions , they have calculated ( sources the independant ) . so these few billions they are going to hand them to 4 corrupt african presidents . we both know it is a big joke .

just to let you know that i was extremly lucky last week, because i changed at kings cross at 8h41 just 6 mn before the bomb exploded. i was really shaken.believ me, i even kept the tube ticket as a " souvenir"

Lawrence said...

Man, I was wondering about you! Glad to hear that you made it out okay!

Crystal said...

I've heard that statistic before, and Yes it's quite pathetic that Americans spend more on animals than the poor people of the world. Hopefully the Live 8 concerts gave World Poverty some visibility.

Lawrence said...

I think Live 8 was good to bring some light, but I wonder about its long lasting effects. As Afrocentric said, fair trade is so important to success in Africa. What people tend to forget is that Africa is rich with natural resources, but the refining of them tend to be solely in the hands of European companies.

Anonymous said...

he he thx for asking , you heard bombers may be brown or black , good lord i am totally scared , i mean i go to work riding except when i have a meeting i take a cab, because i want to make sure i don't look sweat.