Censorship

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I was reading this thread and about to contribute

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt198558.html

Only to find it had been locked by a moderator accusing the OP of being VERY offensive.

Is it possible, to stop moderating on such a hair trigger please? It is impossible to have a forum for discussion of PPR topics without raising issues like this, otherwise you may aswell delete PPR, accept the 30-40% drop in traffic and be done with it. Would you prefer that we only discuss how cute babies are with every response being "oh he is so cute!"?

I was about to reply to point out that foreign aid and the people involved in it are learning and adapting from the lessons of the past.

In 2008 when Burma refused access to any foreign aid workers to deliver aid after a cyclone devastated the country (they were demanding money or food be given to the Junta's instead, no questions asked) the international community played hard ball and forced them to back down and let monitors in.

Even though the giving of money/aid to corrupt governments is falling out fashion the current alternative isn't particularly great either. For example watch this presentation at TED from one of the engineers without borders.

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_damberge ... ilure.html

He admits that rolling up to to a village and sticking in a well doesn't fix any long term problems, but again the response to this realisation has been to learn lessons and better coordinate between NGO's and provide things like local training.

I was going to point out that some of the most successful and sustainable ventures involve changing attitudes to women's rights and providing free access to contraception to overcome the Malthus problem. Micro loans to women to start small businesses have a much better chance of being repaid than loans to men, who are much more likely to spend it on booze or guns and then not repay the loan.

I can't point out any of things though because instead of moderating a debate we have a level of censorship that instead sees itself as a moral police force desperate to shut down any mention of anything that might possible stray outside of their own ideological approval zone.

Any chance of a response, or a grown up discussion or is this post just going to get deleted without even bothering to mention it to me again?

it is not surprising to me that you would all have a problem with me applying the rules, considering that you are all violating the rules by having this discussion right now. the irony is killing me. i explained why it was locked in the other complaint thread. this is not negotiable, so i will not debate my decision, but i WILL give further clarification if required via PM. do not continue to break the rules by discussing it publicly. thank you