wrote in message
oups.com...

1. Whats the odds of the above happening? Multiply the number of deaths
by the odds.

Probability 1.0 ... That's the deal with third-world countries. Since nobody
bothers with cause of death and barely counts dead people, we cannot quote
odds.


2. Now how many lives could such a machine save? How much food that was
going to spoil could be made to last long enough to feed people? How
many lives could that food be expected to save in Africa?

A Negative Number, It will go the way it always does:

Vital Parts would be stolen immediately and food would pile up and spoil
outside waiting to be irradiated. After many months new parts will arrive
under armed escort, but the contract of the engineer responsible for fitting
them, will have expired. Nobody else knows what to do and there will be an
election in the donor country anyway so the issue will not make it past even
the personal letters in any media.

Meanwhile the local government would declare that it was a conspiracy of the
Whites/Jews/Christians/Opposition/USA to keep the food away from the people
while selling the spoiled food in opposition areas causing disease and
malnutrition there. Eventually the UN would send some more dry food, which
would end up on the market and push more local farmers out of business
increasing the need.

I wonder if all this "saving lives" business is not simply delaying the
point where Africa will start to deal with it's own problems, instead of
being bailed out by "the west" time after time (and whining about that too).