Well done David Cameron and the coalition for sticking to the pledge to maintain foreign aid at current levels, and to gradually increase it from 0.56% of GDP at present, to 0.7% by 2015.

Or should we condemn a man, empty on ideas for towing the line?

Overseas aid, in many countries has brought dependency, distorted economies and fuelled bureaucracy and corruption. More or less to the cent, Zimbabwe spends all of its international aid on arms. Many of the weapons & soldiers that international aid pays for is used against its own people.

Pakistan & India have a huge proliferation of nuclear weapons. India even has its own Space Program yet between them, they will get around £650 million in aid from the UK while their people live in poverty. The West have one reason for giving huge sums of money to these despotic countries & it isn't compassion. They buy arms and fight our wars while their leaders, with their heavily greased palms are kept in their place.

Africa is no better off now than it was 50 years ago despite the continent being blessed with a wealth of natural resources. Send teachers, tradesmen, farmers et al but not money. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

itsamugsgame wrote:


Africa is no better off now than it was 50 years ago despite the continent being blessed with a wealth of natural resources. Send teachers, tradesmen, farmers et al but not money. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Much of what you say is true, but let's not see this as a one-sided game.

The US and the World Bank love aid, and not always for the right reasons. Countries such as Ghana have been given aid, but have been given conditions which are calculated to enrich the US and keep the recipient poor and therefore still dependent on aid.

Ghana was once self-sufficient on rice, yet was poor overall. As a condition of receiving US aid, it was obliged to accept US rice imports. These imports initially deliberately undercut the local market, causing a collapse in the entire Ghanaian rice production. A few years down the line, Ghana is now dependent on US imports as well as on US aid... kerchinnggg!

But surely only a small amount of the aid money gets embezzled away, or is used to buy arms and figHt wars. Why would the great philanthropists in the USA be bothering with this issue in such a concerted and consistent way, if the money just kept on disappearing into a black hole, and I can't imagine their interest has a politcal angle to it either.

Of course not, that's why they are monitoring how it is used, and seeing that it gets spent on AIDS drugs, mosquito nets, laptops for school children, cleaning up the water, etc. etc.

It's a bit like the banks really; we could have just let them go to the dogs in darwinian style, and then where would that have left us?

one country has to be the one that gives away more and it's indicitive of the basically generous British spirit.

The UN has said that the cost of one year of the illegal war in Iraq would feed Africa for all time.

One thing forgotten about aid money is that most of it is probably spent on British goods, services or workers so the money may actually stay in Britain.

Thank you Liberals for giving away people´s money without asking
The best aid is that given freely.Remove all foreign aid,and encourage each person to give as they see fit.That would increase the real quality of money given,and stop a small badly supported party like the Libs from holding the tories to ransom on this policy as a condition of their suport.
This has all to do with backroom deals in corrupt party politics thanreal generosity.

Pattaya wrote:
Thank you Liberals for giving away people´s money without asking
The best aid is that given freely.Remove all foreign aid,and encourage each person to give as they see fit.That would increase the real quality of money given,and stop a small badly supported party like the Libs from holding the tories to ransom on this policy as a condition of their suport.

1. EVERY UK government has always given overseas aid.

2. The plan was actually in the Conservative manifesto (long before any coalition was ever mooted)!

itsamugsgame wrote:
Pakistan & India have a huge proliferation of nuclear weapons. India even has its own Space Program yet between them, they will get around £650 million in aid from the UK while their people live in poverty. The West have one reason for giving huge sums of money to these despotic countries & it isn't compassion. They buy arms and fight our wars while their leaders, with their heavily greased palms are kept in their place.

Africa is no better off now than it was 50 years ago despite the continent being blessed with a wealth of natural resources. Send teachers, tradesmen, farmers et al but not money. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

I've never understood the logic in financing these countries (India / Pakistan) - is it simply a "pay off" for other things?

Agree totally with your comments on Africa ....

In The Know wrote:
Pattaya wrote:
Thank you Liberals for giving away people´s money without asking
The best aid is that given freely.Remove all foreign aid,and encourage each person to give as they see fit.That would increase the real quality of money given,and stop a small badly supported party like the Libs from holding the tories to ransom on this policy as a condition of their suport.

1. EVERY UK government has always given overseas aid.

2. The plan was actually in the Conservative manifesto (long before any coalition was ever mooted)!

Not heard that one,but have seen it on the news that it was a Liberal manifesto commitment.I could be wrong on that point,but then so would the numerous press stories(quite believable lol)

True governments have always given aid,but amounts and types vary.Normally it has more to do with supporting our industries than a genuine desire to help.

Pattaya wrote:
Thank you Liberals for giving away people´s money without asking
The best aid is that given freely.Remove all foreign aid,and encourage each person to give as they see fit.That would increase the real quality of money given,and stop a small badly supported party like the Libs from holding the tories to ransom on this policy as a condition of their suport.
This has all to do with backroom deals in corrupt party politics thanreal generosity.

I repeat-you will find that the majority of aid given by all countries is used to pay for goods, services and wages in the giving country.

That is also one of the scandals and misconceptions but that doesn't mean the whole aid issue shouldn't be examined for flaws but it's also why politicians from all parties right and left like to keep it going.

a perfect example is here in Oz but it reflects the majority of aid schemes. Politicians boast every year on the billions of dollars that go to Aboriginal people and in turn help create an atmosphere of hate against them as they are perceived as getting more than others so why are they still in the gutter and drunk ?..wasting our aid !!

Ignored is the fact that 90% of that aid pays for public servant's wages and so on. It's exactly the same in the UK..the books are fiddled so that what appears to be 'aid' is just a cooking of the books.

prove me wrong !