Austerity Measures.

[Tony Wilding]

all aid should be stopped, Uganda had theres stopped last week for corruption

[John Pruden]

to get aid{food medicine} to any of the starving before food goes on the truck first thing is a large wad of cash to pay any boarder check points guards money talks out in Africa India Pakistan they don't care who is starving as long as they get their cut. so much for your fellow man.jp

[robpage]

In India the Dalits ( The Untouchables ) , are denied aid by the Indians themselves and when aid is given it is by mugs like us , the Indians themselves disregard these people , Our aid will by pass these "Lowest of the Low " . We do spend too long trying to be fair , when others in these countries do not give one iota about THEIR poor . I have seen , as many here will have done , American rice going rotten in cargo sheds , because there was no backshees to the shipping agent or the local customs men , I heard that Mr Geldorf was fooled into thinking that he was feeding the starving when the money was supposedly going to buy more guns to shoot the starving with , a fact he vehemently denies . Oxfam , save teh Children , and te rest will bombard our screens with adverts over Christmas , whilst we tuck into our turkey , of starving kids with flies walking all over their little hungry faces , i think never mind filming them , feed them !.

I listened six months ago on World Service to an ex aid worker , who had been part of the international relief effort in several countries , state that there are a lot of organisations duplicating the same jobs in relief , these organisations have well paid executive teams . The Americans have a site called Charity Navigator that publishes the facts and figures Charity Navigator - America's Largest Charity Evaluator | Home like the salaries of the Chief executives of the charities as below

This is an example of what they publish

10 Highly Paid CEOs at Low-Rated CharitiesFor charities to be successful, they need talented, experienced leaders. Those leaders command significant salaries. But CEOs who command high salaries should also get the most out of the organizations they lead. The leaders of these 10 organizations are taking high salaries at the expense of spending dollars on the charity's programs. Despite receiving more than $200,000 in annual pay, these CEOs run organizations that devote less than 60% of their budgets to their programs and services. That means that at least 40% of your dollars are going to such costs as fundraising and administration, including the salary of the CEO.

Rank Charity Salary
1 American Heart Association $602,529
2 YWCA USA $357,280
3 B'nai B'rith International $339,885
4 Detroit Symphony Orchestra $303,813
5 Riley Children's Foundation $299,684
6 George Bush Presidential Library Foundation $289,308
7 Defenders of Wildlife $288,616
8 Alzheimer's Foundation of America $287,576
9 National Foundation for Cancer Research $278,363
10 The Parrish Art Museum $266,371


I really wish we had something similar here , I think some of us might get a shock

[Tony Wilding]

Am afraid Charity has just become a business now, has created many Millionaires, Live Aid, Band Aid and many others collect Billions and Billions every year, to save the Children, but the situation never improves, there is never a breakdown on how it is divided and spent, thats without the Billions in Goverment Aid that disappears. most of the African countries that have millions starving are down by the head with AK47 Rifles and RPG,s, the amount of money collected for Africa should mean hunger, and starvation do not exist there.

[Louis the Amigo]

Hi shipmates, Hi Ivan First hand knowlege is allways the best, but no one can stop the wars and fighting for many Africans /asian tribes / warlords is they way of life? We in the west {not only the U.K }make and sell weapons to any country/group/despot who has the funds to buy them? You have a good point if they spent the A.I.D money on food /hospitals/ roads /schools e.t.c. many poor innocent people would not be in dire need, but as we all know the people in power live in palaces' with swiss bank accounts full of charity/A.I.D. money and the poor live on the streets/ sheds/ mud huts with tin roofs unless this is stopped nothing will ever change. Hi Captain Kong A.I,D money is given by all western countries countless billions over 50+ years As you know in business many contracts are never sign on the dotted line or get cancell due to many reasons, When the twin towers evil terrorist attack happen on our U.S.A. friends I was lucky I bought a order for the U.S.A. for american football jumpers all made in Pakistan, 100% cotton which was cancelled for a knock down price here U.S.A. sell them for $39,95c each, sold them all in a week, good profit for myself ?but not good for the factory or workers in Pakistan? But the arms business is very cut throat, many millions of $ £ in one contract back handers are part of it, maybe the russian had a bigger funds to grease the wheels in India? Who knows? Charitys like ****** aid and a few others fund terorrist groups across the world they have been caught a few times, so I would not give them a penny!!!! [ What you say is right they only give to they own people its in the Koran} the table sura 40] I have an english one.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Rob your #13, the salaries do not surprise me at all, as you will see from my #9 I was closely involved with Aid programmes, virtually from 79 to 86 and then later with my own company in West Africa. There are things that go on I cannot put into print because of possible libel laws etc, which I could not afford to defend. Suffice to say that any celebrity who thinks that their showboat stand money wasn't diverted to purchasing arms etc is certainly living in cloud cuckoo land. Not only do celebs further their own careers on these stunts they ruin years of good work prior to their visits and put the efforts of the UK,EEC and USA donors back a few years in getting these people to be self sustaining. Ethiopia used to export cattle to the Indian sub Continent many years ago until politics ruined the old age farming methods. I oversaw the discharging and distribution of over 200,000 tonnes of fertilisers into Assab over a number of years and it was beginning to bear fruit. These shipments were interspersed with food aid which were appreciated but the indigenous peoples wanted fertilisers and farming tools, all this was going on quietly behind the scenes. Then along come so called celebs, no doubt full of good intentions, but obviously haven't done their homework properly with their 'so called aid' and the recipient Government saw a way to gain publicity and money out of this.

This monetary gain was instituted after the sailing of the celeb donor ship, by increasing port dues and steverdoring rates by 1000% and then more later, because as the Government then "allegedly" said, you cannot stop sending Aid now, as the eyes of the world are upon you. The net result was that the money that was being spent on fertilisers and food was directly affected and dramatically reduced to pay for the increased charges, because the aid budget covered chartering ships, port dues and commodities. The celebs interference in politics had the opposite result in what they thought they were achieving, the net result was the people got less food and fertilisers and the Government got more money to purchase arms from the port charge increases.

The same thing went on in other places and I'm afraid that a lot of Consular Offices close their eyes to it, mainly because they are instructed to, or become too jaded to fight the system. This attitude is not restricted to the main donor's Consuls but to many of the others also. There was many a time I had sought Consular help on a weekend only to be told sorry closed until Monday, when I pointed out that people don't stop starving at weekends I was met with indifference, but you soldier on.

I must say that Ethiopia was the only place where we had none of our equipment stolen and the stevedores were hard workers. Also it is a very good place to lose weight, but the shortage of water when working with fertilisers has a detrimental effect on the skin, especially when there is insufficient to get washed for a couple of days. Cannot brush against anything these days without the skin breaking open, a result of constant fertiliser burn in those years. The ships carrying the commodities would not give us fresh water as they could not replenish it. Sometimes got some from the Soviet ships, I suppose being called Ivan helped, there-in lays another tale.

[Colin Hawken]

#7 John this happens on every 31 day month that begins on a Friday or Saturday. It happened last October.I believe the next one is March 2013.

[Jim Brady]

A very interesting post Ivan i suppose most like me thought Bod Geldof and Band Aid and the like did a good job for a worthy cause.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Captain Kong]

Has any one thought that by saving all these millions of people from starvation will then start another round of trying to feed all the extra millions of people who are now multiplying by the millions.
The world is grossly overpopulated, I am speaking Collaterily of course, just numbers as an example of the future.
By curing Malaria alone, it is reckoned that five million lives per year will be saved. In twenty years that is then one hundred millions of extra people who by then witll be breeding , If they have five kids per couple that will be two hundred and fifty millions extra people on top of the one hundred millions making 350 millions, in only 20 years, and then more and more. That is only by curing Malaria, Curing all the other diseases in Africa and the east, many many more millions of people will be breeding and multiplying. The earth is not big enough to accomodate them let alone Feed them . The earth does not have the resources to feed them, this includes Everyone all around the globe. All these people will be on the move across the earth to find a better land, ........
Next we are going to need a massive nuclear war to dispose of all the human race. because they cannot control themselves. Where does it all end?????
It is time to leave this life soon.
Cheers
Brian.

[happy daze john in oz]

Band aid, live aid etc. The only ones to benifit are the promoters of this. You get all the pop stars looking good, not for the benifit of those they claim to support, but rather for their own publicity.
There was an article on the net Tuseday which claimed Cameron is to cut all aid to Indai as they are no longer in need of it. Any truth in this?