Improve vocabulary and feed people.

[Paladin]

I'm not sure I understand the entire concept of the site Wil. Since we aren't donating any funds to play, they are sitting on a huge pile of rice and only giving it to the poor as they can get people to play the game? And then only a few grains at a time?
Seems a bit creepy to me

[Pathless]

Originally Posted by Paladin

I'm not sure I understand the entire concept of the site Wil. Since we aren't donating any funds to play, they are sitting on a huge pile of rice and only giving it to the poor as they can get people to play the game? And then only a few grains at a time?
Seems a bit creepy to me

Heh. Indeed. How about helping to reforest the desiccated land instead of throwing grains of rice at the third world? Restoring some wetlands? Then leaving people be and allowing them to grow their own food and get back to living?

Western civilization is too puffed up and proud, too busy patting ourselves on the back for pittances of quick-fixes. We've robbed people of their lands, cultures, customs, and livelihoods so that we can sit in front of our computers and magically generate rice for the objects of our pity by building our vocabularies. Look at us! Wow! How we love the world!

[Ahanu]

Although it might take awhile, let's see how many sacs of rice we can fill!

[17th Angel]

Originally Posted by Paladin

I'm not sure I understand the entire concept of the site Wil. Since we aren't donating any funds to play, they are sitting on a huge pile of rice and only giving it to the poor as they can get people to play the game? And then only a few grains at a time?
Seems a bit creepy to me

Is it though? Remeber as a child (or reverse the role) And your father would do something, but, make it seem like it was you...? Such as to pretend to be amazed by your strength or intelligence or something? But he was really the one doing it? BUT He gave you this amazing gift, he allowed you to feel soley responsible for it? I see it as a gift.... They are allowing those who perhaps do not have funds available to give the chance to play a part... I see it as nice rather than creepy, allowing many to get involved..... I dunno, I have grown tired of being suspicious and such and rather look to the good side... Good in -everything-.

I am sure, they give every grain of rice they can, but they are allowing you to feel as I said involved... Helping to donate...

[wil]

Originally Posted by Paladin

I'm not sure I understand the entire concept of the site Wil. Since we aren't donating any funds to play, they are sitting on a huge pile of rice and only giving it to the poor as they can get people to play the game? And then only a few grains at a time?
Seems a bit creepy to me

Namaste P-din and P-less,

Heck, I don't know.

They aren't asking for me to sign up for anything, garnering lists, etc.

As for reforesting or establishing wetlands, they may be great concepts, for those with the access, impetus and wherewithal. I'd say the rice guys have their concept that they are running with, maybe when they have more ideas or more funds they could expand.

I believe they believe the clickthru money on the google ads will pay for the rice and they are sending it. I doubt they are sitting on a pile of rice, but they maybe, and then we are paying for shipping.

It seems like a concept to me, virus marketing to get folks to get to the adverts.

I don't know, I'm not good enough at the vocab or have the patience to get beyond 40. But if I can spend a few minutes a day and learn a little and someone benefits...what's not to like?

Am I missing something by not seeing the perceived harm in this?

[17th Angel]

Originally Posted by wil

Am I missing something by not seeing the perceived harm in this?

Why do we have to look for harm in anything? Is it really become that rare to find good with no small prints?

[Snoopy]

If FreeRice has the rice to give, why not give it all away right now?

FreeRice is not sitting on a pile of rice―you are earning it 20 grains at a time. Here is how it works. When you play the game, advertisements appear on the bottom of your screen. The money generated by these advertisements is then used to buy the rice. So by playing, you generate the money that pays for the rice donated to hungry people.

Does FreeRice make any money from this?

No, it does not. FreeRice runs the site at no profit.



and a lot of other stuff on the FAQs link.



s.

[17th Angel]

I think all you nay sayers should hang your heads in shame and go win 1000 grams of rice! :| lol...... Snoop a loop thanks for pointing this out! At least we all now know...

[Snoopy]

Originally Posted by 17th Angel

I think all you nay sayers should hang your heads in shame and go win 1000 grams of rice! :| lol...... Snoop a loop thanks for pointing this out! At least we all now know...

well I think I was only copying and pasting what wil had said in his own words.

s. a loop.

[17th Angel]

Originally Posted by Snoopy

well I think I was only copying and pasting what wil had said in his own words.

s. a loop.

Oh ah, yeah! Straight from the horses mouth though.

[Pathless]

Hey wil and 17th. It is not that this kind of thing is bad, although to me it smacks of parentalism, parochialism, patronizing, and patriarchy. 17th illustrated it himself:

Originally Posted by 17th Angel

Is it though? Remeber as a child (or reverse the role) And your father would do something, but, make it seem like it was you...? Such as to pretend to be amazed by your strength or intelligence or something? But he was really the one doing it? BUT He gave you this amazing gift, he allowed you to feel soley responsible for it? I see it as a gift.... They are allowing those who perhaps do not have funds available to give the chance to play a part... I see it as nice rather than creepy, allowing many to get involved..... I dunno, I have grown tired of being suspicious and such and rather look to the good side... Good in -everything-.

It's a matter of perspective, and I can see it both ways. It is good to give food to those that don't have it. But why don't they have it? Might it be because western civilization continues to impose the western ways of technology before life, the western work ethic, the western gods, the western languages, the western way of looking at everything, onto whomever western civilization comes into contact with?

The interaction between western civilization and the so-called third world is one of dominance. We--not us! No! We would never do such a thing! But the Bushies! and our "forefathers"! Blame them! --we have stripped the world of its diversity and colonized everyone. We plow down rainforests for farming out burgers. Puritans have buried the indigenous people of America alive, stomped on their heads, dismembered and burned them in the name of "God". The feudal lords of Britain enclosed the common land and burnt witches in order to order everything for greater production and consumption, funneled even in those days towards the top level, the elite. Western civilization has cut down life and replaced it with a fascimile, repeatedly, and hands out rations to the waste spaces from behind the computer screens of sterile suburbia.

Am I spoiling your proud self image? I am not sorry. Yes, click and give. I'll do it, too. Yet it's important to recognize it for what it is: another band-aid solution. We need those, for sure, while we fritter and think up better ways to save the world. The wounds are deep. We need more than band-aids, more than even the skin grafts of ecological restoration. What we need is a profound shift in the way we think about and interact with the world. Indeed, it would be good to stop "interacting with" the world as such and realize that we are the world, that we grow out of it like the rice, and that the conditions for our--and the rest of nature's--continued existence are profoundly threatened by western civilization. Without radical change, we will be giving future generations a desert planet, on which they will struggle to grow rice in a landscape of decaying computer parts and rusting cars.

Remember, seven generations. We are not yet thinking of even one.

[Paladin]

Well said Path.
I will also click on the words to help out, but find it a little strange that the very corporations who have raped the third world will throw a few grains of rice rather than own up to what they have done in the first place. So sure, we can all feel wonderful about how we have helped.
Rather than hang my head in shame for nay saying, I hang it in shame for being a party to the mass consumption of goods that have lead to the exploitation of resources better put to use by indigenous people.

[17th Angel]

*You know what, forget it*

Delete this post....

[wil]

While I am perfectly willing to give the US and corporations their due are we not being a little over dramatic?

The US is only a little over 200 years old. And we were quite busy the first hundred years raping, pillaging and plundering our current holdings. So as for the rest of the world we've only been meddling for the past hundred years.

Reading world history or the bible or whatever it seems the rest of the world, those admired easterners in China, India, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, have been quite content to rape pillage and plunder for thousands of years before the US was a wet dream in the eyes of our four fathers.

If we are to look at African history we'd find those lovely indigenous peoples were more than glad to enslave, rape, eat their neighbors.

Add to this folks have been starving in droves the entire time civilization has been on the planet with climate change, drought etc.

All of this well before the dreaded English Empire or the current drop in the bucket, speck of the millenium time the US has been the dominant power.

And NEVER, NEVER before has any of the hordes, the huns, the vikings, the kings, rulers, chieftains of any of those previous sanctimonious wealth grabbing, land raping folks before us ever put up a website for the common man to offer sustenance to countless individuals thousands of miles away completely unconditional love oriented by sacrificially improving their own vocabulary of the official global language by tapping their fingers on plastic whilst sitting in their underwear.

Bottom line, every nation that has had the opportunity to be the big dog on the block, whether in their own neighborhood in the past tens of thousands of years. Or well beyond their borders to creating empires the past few thousand years, never has their been one to give up its mass of personal wealth both inside its area of dominion and beyond to its enemies to the volume and extent that the US has the past hundred years they've been that self proclaimed world police dog.

I agree we've made mistakes, tons of them, baskets full of them, is anyone thinking we should give up all foreign aide today, back out of all UN peace keeping operations, leave Darfur, Somalia, Rowanda, Nigeria, South Korea, .... pull our troops out of everywhere and let whatever bordering nation who wishes to swoop in and rape pillage and plunder have at it as they will?

Or should we continue doing what we can, where we can, and as the new kid novices on the block in this venture be given a little room to make mistakes.

I'm gonna go learn a couple new words.....like

peace

patience

breathe

[17th Angel]

Originally Posted by wil

I'm gonna go learn a couple new words.....like

peace

patience

breathe

Can I come?