Do you acknowledge problems in other countries or just your own?

I dont' have a single problem helping other countries, but when our own country here needs alot of help and we are to busy giving our money and resoucres to other countries that there isn't enough left to help us, that is what angers me. New Orleans has not come close to being "back to normal" 2 years after Katrina, homeless people, problems all over the place, but lets make sure we get several million to some other country instead. Why is a homeless person in some other country more needy than a homeless person in USA? There are tons of hungry people, hungry kids, health problems right here in our own back yard, but there is no money to help them casue it is being spent to help people in some other country. Why can't we help ourselves?

I refuse to buy items that I know were a result of someone else's suffering. I saw blood diamond, it was disturbing. I think everyone has a moral responsibility to be informed about things and make the right choice, like not buying diamonds that were mined on peoples blood. Not buying clothes that were made in sweat shops with child labour. Not buying furs for fashion.

I don't think its right. My mother used to be in International Development, contracting to the State Department and the World Bank. They helped third world countries with teaching fisheries, sustainable agricultural development, family planning (needed in aids ridden places where they're not educated and don't stick to their partners but sleep around the community). We heard of a lot of places with strife, political and religious - connected in a lot of places. Like in Sri Lanka and India, with the muslems and tamils, Israel with the jews and muslims etc. I also tagged along to Africa (her favourite place is the Ivory Coast) one year as a teen to Senegal and Cape Verde and the problems in these countries made me realize that many of the things we complain about here her petty and small. It made me even appreciate trees and water as her company was in CApe Verde because they'd be in drought and it was like a moonscape. I guess we can all help by, as you say, not buying certain items and sharing information as you have so eloquently done.