Regards, Ivan
Posted on 06/04/2005 12:17:34 AM PDT by MadIvan
A huge majority of Britons believes that pumping billions of pounds into Africa would be a waste of money, a verdict that is a major blow to Tony Blair's crusade to rescue the continent.
As the Prime Minister prepares to fly to Washington on Monday to try to secure American support for proposals to tackle poverty in the Third World, a poll for The Daily Telegraph shows that 83 per cent of people are not confident that money given by the West would be spent wisely.
It also shows that 79 per cent of voters believe that corruption and incompetence were to blame for Africa's problems.
The Government is planning a package of measures designed to reassure the public that taxpayers' money would not end up in the pockets of corrupt politicians. New legislation will allow money smuggled into this country by corrupt former African dictators to be seized and returned to the countries concerned.
Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, hinted at the crackdown yesterday when he told a press conference in Edinburgh that the Government's package for Africa would "combine action on debt, aid, and trade with good governance, transparency, an attack on corruption and the encouragement of private investment".
His pledge follows growing public and celebrity support for the Make Poverty History campaign in the run up to next month's summit of leaders of the world's richest nations in Scotland.
Bob Geldof, who is organising Live 8 concerts in five countries before the G8 meeting in Gleneagles, has called for a million people to march on Edinburgh to press the politicians to do more to eradicate poverty. Yesterday, the Chancellor announced that he would waive the VAT fee for the concert.
Under a proposed deal, money owed to institutions like the World Bank could be written off
Britain is confident of securing a deal with America under which money owed by poor countries to multilateral institutions such as the World Bank would be written off.
However, the poll indicates that many Britons remain suspicious of the way money given to Africa would be spent.
YouGov asked how confident respondents were that donated money would be spent wisely, "rather than being wasted or finding its way into the pockets of criminals and corrupt governments".
More than 80 per cent said they were either "not very confident" (41 per cent) or "not at all confident" (42 per cent). Only 11 per cent expressed some confidence that the aid would not be squandered.
The public's lack of faith in Africa's ability to cure its own ills was also revealed when respondents were asked to identify three factors most to blame for the condition of the continent.
Corrupt and incompetent government was seen as the main problem, with 79 per cent citing it as a factor. More than half of respondents also cited the HIV/Aids epidemic and civil wars.
By contrast only a minority said factors for which the West was responsible - such as colonialism, exploitation by multinationals or protectionist trade policies - were among the principal causes of African poverty.
Fewer than 10 per cent said the continent's problems could not be solved. A majority said Africans could help themselves with assistance from rich countries.
According to Treasury sources, a new law, ratifying the UN convention against corruption, will be implemented under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 in the autumn.
It will give the Government power to seize the assets of corrupt former politicians from overseas in a similar manner to the power that already exists when dealing with suspected terrorists and organised crime.
The Daily Telegraph has learned that several bank accounts, containing millions of pounds, are already being monitored so that they can be frozen as soon as the law is in place. A list of "politically exposed persons" has been circulated to banks and building societies.
The Government also intends to do more to deal with companies that offer bribes to corrupt officials.
Mr Blair wants to force all oil, gas, mining, forestry and fisheries companies to disclose their payments to governments. Businesses that want to qualify for export credit guarantees might also have to demonstrate that they do not offer bribes.
The Chancellor said yesterday that he believed America was now prepared to support his proposal for 100 per cent debt relief for the poorest countries.
"This is not a time for timidity nor a time to fear reaching too high," he added.
"This year is our chance to reverse the fortunes of a continent and to help transform the lives of millions."
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
Duh! It would serve us better to throw dollars in the trash can.
They're right!
We've all seen too much money get lost in the wilds of Africa . City's too.
Well - let's see:
Billions of Pounds (and Dollars) are pumped into Africa - for a wide variety of uses - from feeding starving refugees, so fighting AIDs. Yet for all the money and effort (not to mention dead relief workers and US Military personel), the despots are still mass murdering civilians, cutting off food for refugees, and the AIDs epidemic continues to grow and an alarming rate.
The culture of the area does not incline itself to being helped. There's no need for the despots to "ethnic clense" an area - they are doing it on their own.
If non-taxpayer funded aid organizations want to continue to try to help -more power to them. But the taxpayers of the US (and apparently GB) are tired of flushing money down the toilet of Africa. You cannot help those who don't want to be helped.
Another good idea would be to give money to the "Gang Leaders" in every poor neighborhood in the US. I say we give them the money and then they could distribute it wisely and fairly to everyone. /sarc off
Let's hope Bono gets this news too!
You compare the progress of Asia and even Latin America with Africa and it is shocking. 50 years ago Singapore, Japan and Korea were dirt poor nations recovering from war. Now they are 1st world nations. Malaysia is rapidly moving towards becoming that soon. Even the two giants: India and China are eradicating poverty (albeit slowly
) on their own. Since those two giants can do it on their own, it shows that all that is needed is public gumption.
Oxfam, the African relief NGO, has said the worst thing to happen to the suffering Sudanese was Geldoff's "Live Aid" concert. The Muslim jihadi government took the funds and bought war material to kill the Christian and animist Southern Sudanese. Another do-gooder project that brought death and destruction in its wake. By the way, this week it was announced that Geldoff is planning another Live Aid tour. I guess the tyrants in Sudan are out of cash for bullets.
They will learn.
14 Nations Fail to Stop Human Trafficking U.S. Accuses 14 Nations of Failing to Do Enough to Stop Human Trafficking
By ANNE GEARAN The Associated Press
Jun. 4, 2005 - The United States accused 14 nations Friday of failing to do enough to stop the modern-day slave trade in prostitutes, child sex workers and forced laborers. The countries include Saudi Arabia, Washington's closest Arab ally in the war on terrorism. Three other U.S. allies in the Middle East Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar were newly listed this year as nations that are failing to adequately address trafficking problems. The State Department said the 14 countries could be subject to sanctions if they do not crack down.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=818827&page=1
There's been billions poured into Africa up till now.
What has any of that aid accomplished?
Africans must solve Africa's problems. We can help, but Africa needs to pull itself up by it's own bootstraps, just like everywhere else on the planet.
no worries, we all make mistakes every now and then
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