With over 8.5m HIV sufferers, South Africa was one of the first countries to experience the consequences of the US freezing foreign aid.


news.sky.com/story/tears-and-panic-as-im...outh-africa-13304449


About 175 countries receive the aid from America - and many have depended heavily on it for years. Initially, the freeze is for 90 days.

What does America get in return?

It's mad that HIV/AIDS is still rife in SA. It's a very beautiful country but very risky even for the natives. I wouldn't mind staying in an all-exclusive resort in P.E. if holiday resorts don't feel like a prison. Same faces, people lounging in the sun not doing anything and twats fighting over loungers like they own the damn things. The hotel owns them! It's like a prison when inmates fight over TVs.

I used to go every few years to S.A. but I haven't been back for well over 10 years.

Green Man wrote:
What does America get in return?



Why should it get anything? You do realise GM it is actually impossible for everyone to be well off? To be "well off" others have to have less than you.

In return for axeing USAID, I expect that the USA and the rest of the world will get more HIV and AIDS and who knows what else.

Jo wrote:
In return for axeing USAID, I expect that the USA and the rest of the world will get more HIV and AIDS and who knows what else.

Many diseases the UK wiped out are now returning like some 80s pop bands.

HIV/AIDS will probably come back like the old days due to unprotected sex and many sharing heroin syringes.

Like JK and Hedda, I was in America in the 1980s and seeing discarded syringes for heroin use and crack pipes on the streets became the new normal in everyday life. I am sure JK and Hedda saw many down and outs injecting themselves in their legs in broad daylight whilst they were covered in human shit. H can make you lose control of your bodily functions.

Getting chatted up by old poofters and seeing male prossies in daisy dukes, holding a tub of lube was almost an everyday thing.

If I were giving away millions of US tax dollars abroad, I would want to know what the taxpayers, are getting, Wyot. I would also want to know what I am getting in return.

Green Man wrote:
[quote]Jo wrote:


If I were giving away millions of US tax dollars abroad, I would want to know what the taxpayers, are getting, Wyot. I would also want to know what I am getting in return.

Yes me too GM. But linking to Jo's point how do you measure what you are getting?

If you have Trump's world view (separatist, closed, threatened, scared, self interested) you just believe you are losing money. You just look at a spreadsheet. You are also unable to appreciate that humanity is global and linked.

And even leaving aside the question of charity and humanity, he of course can't see that it is in the interests of the American people to support world health.

Trump said he is putting "America First" that means it's citizens. Imagine if the UK stopped sending money abroad for space programs, bombs, ammo, bribes and nukes.

I do believe in giving people a hand up, not a handout unless they really need it. It's like a crack addict asking for money, now I give him money for crack or I could offer him help to give him a second chance in life and be his mentor. Which is more charitable in my book, as it will be my time and resources I will be using - not money that I worked hard for.

When I owned a pub, if I knew some punters who were signing on and I had an opening, I would ask them if they wanted a job. Many accepted the offers, but many also refused.