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A comment on 2014 Gates Annual Letter: Myths that block progress for the poor. Parent comment

Re:2014 Gates Annual Letter: Myths that block progress for t... by w1ntermute on Tuesday January 21, 2014 @08:18PM (#7099979)
> Postwar Japan was a different beast for quite a while. Weird Al Yankovic's line "don't you know that other kids are starving in Japan" was what parents used to guilt their kids into eating until Biafra happened.

Sure, but that was largely due to the effects of WW2. Children were also starving in Germany and the UK in the postwar era.

In reality, Japan modernized in the late 1800s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_restoration

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Re:2014 Gates Annual Letter: Myths that block progress for t... by stan_rogers on Tuesday January 21, 2014 @11:38PM (#7100755)
I believe that was implied, otherwise I wouldn't have mentioned "postwar" in response to what Japan was pre-war.
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