HOW TRUE.
We're "broke" & can't help: -
Our own senior citizens, our own deserving troops, our orphans and the homeless
etc . . . etc. . . etc. . .
In the last few months alone we have provided aid to: -
Haiti - again!,
Chile ,
Turkey ,
Greece ,
Pakistan – yet again. . . amongst others
Our pensioners are living on a fixed income, receive no aid, or get any breaks, while our
government and religious organizations pour Hundreds of Millions of ££££££'s and tonnes of food ALL to foreign countries!
We have thousands of adoptable children who are shoved aside
WHY . . . .
To make room for the adoption of foreign orphans!!!!!!!!!!!
Great Britain - a country where we have: -
Homeless without shelter, children and adults going to bed hungry, elderly going without 'needed' medication, the mentally ill without treatment -etc, etc.
YET...................
They are requesting donations for the people of Pakistan . . .
A country that trains British Muslim extremists how to BOMB & KILL us!!!!
A country that ploughs millions into its nuclear programme!!!
A country with hundreds of millionaires who do sod all for THEIR own countrymen!!!.
The same country that has passed laws so these rich people don't pay ANY taxes!!!
The same country where most of the aid sent DOES NOT reach the ones in need!!!
...and we have - Yet AGAIN . .
TV stations that are spouting WE are letting these people down!!!
Whilst OUR ships And OUR planes (laughably some are Military ones)
All lined up to fly and crammed full with:
Our food . .
Our Bottled Water!!! . .
Our New Tents . .
Our New Clothes . . .
Our New Bedding . . .
OUR NHS Doctors & Nurses
And OUR medical supplies . .
Whilst UK cancer patients are denied life saving drugs!!!
And some of our OWN - from children to pensioners - go to bed hungry!!!
Imagine if the *GOVERNMENT* gave US the same support they give to other countries.
Received today by email from a pal in the U.K.
Discuss!
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I don't see anything to discuss.
'Charity begins at home.'
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As our foreign policy has peed off half (at least) of the world, we now have to buy our friends.
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HM Government will do its own sweet thing whatever party/parties are in power. Let's remember that whilst the personalities in the Cabinet may have changed last May, the people in the Ministries have not. Realpolitik is rarely palatable but it's the way of the world.
The things in that list that concern me, I do something about locally - donating to local homelessness charity (NOT filling begging bags that come through the door). If I actually had enough free time to be of use to them, I'd volunteer.
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I don't know the detail about all the countries mentioned but I'm seeing a typical internet chain letter seeking to rouse feelings n the bas on conflating selective factoids. The aid to Greece, prevention of economic collapse, is not of the 'water & blankets' variety listed lower down.
Haiti is the victim of it's own history and a natural disaster of epic proportions. The case for humanitarian aid is, I would have thought, unarguable.
Pakistan; another victim of history and this time a history for which Britain has major responsibility. By any rational economic measure it's people are very poor. Parts of it are ungovernable and it seems split by religious and clan/tribal affiliations. Threatened by a bigger nuclear armed neighbour, India, it's hardly surprising it feels the need to match weaponry. The theory of assured destruction kept the peace in Europe for any years; is it different in other parts of the world?
Turkey is another place on the frontier of national conflicts that threaten to turn global; not surprising it gets help.
Chile I would have thought can stand on it's own feet. Other than technical aid to. for example the miners or humanitarian help in a disaster situation what aid are we providing it.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sun 9 Jan 11 at 15:55
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So you are not coming back then?
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Isn't some of the 'aid' for some countries a pseudonym for 'ensure the exertion of political will' ?
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No disrespect to you landsker for posting it but this is a spam/chain letter type thing doing the rounds of e.mail. blogs, facebook etc at the moment.
I never read this sort of thing... just delete... and often give the sender some grief for passing it on in the first place.
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>> Haiti - again!,
>> Chile ,
>> Turkey ,
>> Greece ,
>> Pakistan – yet again. . . amongst others
I wonder why you left out Ireland?
Anyway, there's no such thing as a free lunch - I suspect aid comes with strings as well.
Last edited by: Chris S on Sun 9 Jan 11 at 16:45
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There are some countries which deserve it, but if a country has the money to develop and make a nuclear bomb yet calls for aid for a natural disaster which happens on a regular basis in that country then its got its priorities wrong, and so have we if we send money to it...
I'm with Swiss Tony on this one...
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From my recent experience of working for the NHS I think it highly unlikely that we are sending any meaningful number of staff, at any level, to work abroad. A brief inspection of a list of surgeons, consultants and other front line staff, in my area, shows that a signifigant %age of them come FROM somewhere South or East of Suez.
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I think foreign aid has always been more about buying influence than buying food for the starving.
The audit trail appears non-existent and I suspect as much money is creamed off this side by shady middlemen as is creamed off when it reaches the foreign country.
I would not form a judgment either way on the strength of the OP's email.
As others have said, it is typical of the sort of dross often circulated around the internet.
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To be fair to Landsker, he hasn't passed an opinion on this but put it up for discussion.
Clearly there's always a debate about where limited resources go, but what appears above is just rabble rousing distortion. If I was having a discussion, I wouldn't start from here.
The fact is that we do "owe" the developing world. Our money sucks out their most educated people as the Penguin has pointed out, and their resources still come to us very cheaply - based on the cost of extraction rather than reflecting the value we can add.
Sure there's corruption and waste - but that's not a reason to do nothing.
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I was privileged to be at a presentation the other day from one of the consultants from Imran Khan's hospital in Pakistan
www.shaukatkhanum.org.pk/
I usdually glaze over when meetings turn to clinical talk but it was so interesting hearing of how the money was raised, how people are means tested to ensure that if they can pay they do, and if they can't then they get free treatment. This is the only cancer facility for the whole of Pakistan and the hospital wass built to USA and UK standards and incorportates a whole load of our processes (including the Liverpool Care Pathway for anyone who knows the terminology).
There was obviously problems with the political side due to Imran's standing in that area but the work they do, and service they provide, is second to none.
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Makes a change from "dont buy Esso Petrol"
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>Sure there's corruption and waste - but that's not a reason to do nothing.
Exactly, how much do we send in Foreign Aid to French farmers?
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Troupes of monkeys have a system of cooperation allowing the group to prosper although even within that they have a hierarchy and some monkeys are more priveleged than others.
They are all however, sworn enemies of the neighbouring groups of monkeys and will fight with them over territory and food.
Millions of years ago, some monkey-like creatures began evolving into what we now know as humans. The basic behaviour pattern and predisposition to nurture their own and do battle with and subjugate their neighbours remained though.
Eventually, some of the smarter ones worked out that cooperating with a wider group was to their mutual advantage. Despite this, the power seeking ones just used this new behaviour to their advantage by using the larger stronger grouops to overwhelm and subjugate the smaller weaker ones.
In time this led to countries, empires and attempts at large territory domination. Even some of the very smart monkeys couldn't help their natural tendency to use their strength and power in exactly same way as their primitive forbears.
Sadly, some of them still believe this is the natural way. They call their efforts glorious and have invented terms such as honour to disguise the embarrasingly primitive nature of their endeavours.
Some really smart monkeys are quite disillusioned by this but they hope that in the fullness of time their views will be held by the majority and all the monkeys can just get on with living peaceful lives.
But they're not holding their breath.
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>Some really smart monkeys are quite disillusioned by this but they hope that in the
>fullness of time their views will be held by the majority and all the monkeys can just
>get on with living peaceful lives.
And the other really, really smart monkeys have realised that a foundation built on "Why can't we all get along?" will be as stable as individual members of the Euro.
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Farrago of extreme right nationalist xenophobic piffle.
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...Farrago of extreme right nationalist xenophobic piffle...
Is it? I'm beginning to warm to the guy.
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>> I'm beginning to warm to the guy.
Implicitly racist too.
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...Implicitly racist too...
I guess that's as good a definition of xenophobic as any.
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>Is it? I'm beginning to warm to the guy.
Aw shucks!
Thanks Iffy but I think AC was referring to the content of the original post, not me.
I should also tell you that although I like you as a friend, it could never go any further than that. Sorry..
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>> Farrago of extreme right nationalist xenophobic piffle.
>>
I thought it was a Daily Express editorial, myself.
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If the argument is that there is so much corruotion and waste in Foreign Aid that we should not give any, how come BAE have got away with bribery for years and there are a whole load of MPS not in jail?
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>> If the argument is that there is so much corruotion and waste in Foreign Aid
>> that we should not give any, how come BAE have got away with bribery for
>> years and there are a whole load of MPS not in jail?
>>
>>
Anyone who thinks that our country is not corrupt is on the wrong planet.
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>> Anyone who thinks that our country is not corrupt is on the wrong planet.
>>
Compared with many, we are squeaky clean, even nowadays.
Where else in Western Europe would our friend Mr Chaytor have had his collar felt for what he did?
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...Where else in Western Europe would our friend Mr Chaytor have had his collar felt for what he did?...
And where else would a little person be able to get a judge arrested for a dangerous dog?
Not just arrested, but also charged and convicted.
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>> ...Where else in Western Europe would our friend Mr Chaytor have had his collar felt
>> for what he did?...
I think the question is why there weren't a lot more collars felt.
Here's a world corruption index.
goo.gl/EFG2i
The UK has got worse I think - I'm pretty sure we were well in the 8s a few years ago.
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www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/european_community_finances_2008.pdf
Chart 3.1.
Table 3.2.
Oh, and that's the Treasury's figures, direct cost of contributions only.
Last edited by: FotheringtonTomas on Mon 10 Jan 11 at 09:45
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A disgrace! - swiss tony
