Posted on 02/05/2012 9:09:14 AM PST by MBT ARJUN
India's Finance Minister referred to the financial aid given by Britain to his country as nothing more than 'peanuts', it is claimed.
It is also claimed that Pranab Mukherjee and other Indian ministers tried to reject the money - around £280million a year - from the UK in 2011, but the British Government 'begged' them to take the money.
The Sunday Telegraph claims that the Indian government were disposed to reject the money in April last year, because of the 'negative publicity of Indian poverty' highlighted by the aid.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2096628/British-foreign-aid-India-tells-Britain-dont-need-peanuts-offer-us.html#ixzz1lWkmhZjq
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Some of the best burgers I’ve had were in India - in Bangalore, to be specific: a small chain of locally-owned restaurants by the name of Ice & Spice. I believe the burger patties were made of lamb, and as most Australians like it - no pickles! Fresh cucumber slices, instead, and everything freshly prepared right in front of you.
About a dollar and a half for a sandwich, freshly-fried chips and a drink (with real sugar, not HFCS).
If we get 4 more tears of Obozo we’ll need the foreign aid!
What I am up on are the vagaries of multiculture. This and the confining to mediocrity in the minds of the British bureaucrat of the average English working class Joe. Coupled with the stories of the louts.
A good word for Indian people, Absolutely the lowest crime rate per capita in Canada and I think the same in the United Kingdom. Austrians and Germans running a close second here.
Well, we British left some marvellous buildings in India, plus statues of Queen Victoria (chuckle(. I hope these two countries can get their act together.
Is it possible we're making it sound a little too sinister? It's not much different than offering India a sale price or a rebate on the planes, except in this case India is getting the rebate up front and is being asked to use the money to help malnourished Indians. I'm not a lawyer, so maybe there is something terribly wrong with it that I am overlooking, but I simply fail to understand why it is so bad.
As an American, I'm sick of giving tons of taxpayer money to a bunch of perpetually ungrateful foreign countries. So my sympathies almost automatically are with the Brits here -- and I'm not a big fan of Britain nor someone who hates Indians. I'm about as impartial as a person can be.
I have — or had — “friends” who have asked me for money and then got all indignant about it when I didn’t offer them as much as they thought I should. Which always struck me as ridiculous. It’s my decision, not theirs. Beggars can’t be choosers, etc.
I wonder if this little eruption has more to do with the bitterness some Indians still feel toward Britain over the British Raj?
So? Take a look at the situation from India’s viewpoint:
There was a fair and open bidding contest, involving a couple of high- altitude tests. The British plane displays sub-par performance in critical areas, and you want India to take an existential risk to support British jobs, just because they’ve provided what amounts to a very meagre amount, per-capita, as a deal-sweetener in disguise?
A couple of years ago, India sent aid and aircraft to America during the Katrina debacle. Would you be comfortable with the idea that India might have gained political influence in the American government because of the aid?
Charity in the expectation of returns is never true charity.
Pride is a vice and only in moderation does it have a positive aspect. It is good to have pride and ownership. It is what makes people keep order and maintenance to a society. But in excess it becomes arrogance or causes people to loose perspective and rational thought. It becomes something which demagogues exploit to seize power, to stir one group up against another. Of course you can also suppress pride, and this is a forced modesty which isn't good either.
Other aspects that are exploited by those that lead social movements and politicians are race (Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton), sex (Feminist movement), socio economic class (the leftist / socialist types with their age old scream for class warfare), national origin (The Irish and how they were singled out years past) and religion (Iran / Saudi Arabia etc), a few aspects that you also dabble into.
Hitler spoke to German pride in the 30s: http://www.youtube.com/verify_controversy?next_url=/watch%3Fv%3D26Mxy-9Sqb4 But obviously it's a racist conspiracy against you, and you have your pride now. I'm happy for you.
No, but worthless twits (or much worse!) are.
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/10/11/rec.giuliani.prince/ [Note the date]
Who would have thought that the ultra liberal Obama gets knee deep into defense deals as in Brazil? Money talks, that's what this is all about. Who would have thought that German Social Democrats (usually near pacifist and anti defense and arms exports) get heavily involved in arms deals with Saudi Arabia?...
Perfect example of a politician exploiting the contemporary “mood” of the people.
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/10/11/rec.giuliani.prince/
$10,000,000 is still money and who says that this prince had any intent other than to help, as we slap him in the face?
I recall wondering the same at the time. But that was before I realized what Saudi Arabia truly is.
Agreed. Over half of all the poor people in the world live in India and China. Let them spend their own money on their poor.
You're jumping to conclusions. I don't "want" India to do anything. Never said I did.
Look at it this way: Suppose I'm a manufacturer who sells widgets for $100 each. My competitor sells his for the same amount. My widgets are inferior to his. So I put mine on sale for $95 so that I can make a profit and remain in business.
Have I done something wrong?
No, I, Mr. Widget seller, have done absolutely NOTHING wrong. If you, Mr. Widget buyer, think buying my widget poses some kind of existential threat to you, then you would be a fool to buy one from me to save a lousy five bucks.
But DO NOT try to blame me, Mr. Widget buyer, for your stupidity, greediness and lack of moral fiber, as evidenced by your inability to make a sound decision (especially when you believe your very life hangs in the balance) just because someone dangles five smackeroos over your greedy, grubby little out-stretched fingers. That's your failing as a person, not mine.
Anyone worthy of the label 'capitalist' understands this stuff implicitly. Socialists don't. It's buyer beware, not damn the seller.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/article2863252.ece?homepage=true
The only “bitterness” here is that manufactured by sensationalist rags like the Daily Mail which first played up the aid issue after the Eurofighter lost the fighter contract when logic would dictate that there was no issue at all. And then started peddling the Peanuts argument after another British paper led with it.
If there was bitterness in India, India wouldn’t have had the kind of strategic ties with the UK as illustrated in the article I’ve linked above. The net worth of arms purchases for the UK from 1950-2010 was 15 billion USD; the corresponding figure for France was 4 billion.
I remember that incident very well.
Nice example. but you missed one thing. The discount wasn’t upfront at the point of sale. It was Mr. Widget seller knocking on my door even before I went to the market to assess the different widgets with a free gift claiming he was making door-to-door gift deliveries. The gift was a key chain that frankly I didn’t need or want and I told him so. Then Mr. Widget seller says “Oh keep it anyway, you may need it if you buy a new car”. I say “well, since you insist” and I keep it. I gets lost in my pocket and I frankly don’t know what I did with it. Then I go to the market and hey, look who’s there but the friendly Mr. Widget Seller. He waves at me and I greet him but move on to look at widgets. He shows me his, and naturally I look at them closely. If all things were equal, I might be willing to pay a little extra even since the widget seller was so friendly but since they are not, I politely let him know and pick the widget from the grumpy old fellow at the corner who doesn’t greet me but has good widgets at a good price.
If now Mr. Friendly Widget Seller throws a tantrum, whose fault is it?
This is from the article.....
“Sources in Delhi suggested British officials begged India to accept the aid. One commented: ‘They said British ministers had spent political capital justifying the aid to their electorate.They said it would be highly embarrassing if [India] pulled the plug.”
Have you ever had a case with your “friends” where you had to beg them to take your money even if they didn't want to? And were they indignant? If yes, then they had every right to be so.
“I wonder if this little eruption has more to do with the bitterness some Indians still feel toward Britain over the British Raj?”
Indians dont gives cr@p about the Raj. This eruption had to do with Brits losing $20 billion contract.....to who? The French! The Brits presumed the “aid” would make Indians more amenable to giving the contract to the Brits. That didn't happen.
Ignorance is what blinds people more then pride. India's problem is not lack of money but proper governance, distribution, bureaucracy, enormous size, lack of infrastructure, health education. Is India doing anything about it? Plenty! But it will not be fixed overnight. One thing India is not running short of is money.
I am ok with my national pride and other vices. You maybe a holy man, I am not. But I am not ignorant either. The examples of social movement (race, sex, class) only tells me there are some “pride” you agree with and some you are fearful of.
Actually we do. Take away the Indian (Hindu/Sikh) businesses in the UK, and there is a huge hole. Take away Indian NHS staff and the NHS suffers.
As a fellow Briton, I have no problem with and admire the Hindu and Sikh population in the UK. The two communities are hard working, law abiding people who believe in education, betterment, law and order and hard work. And as another poster has posted to you, where would Britain have been in two world wars without Indian troops?.
p.s a Britain without Indians?. a Britain without curry?.
Unthinkable.
LOL.
Lamb Madras and Pilau rice!
Food of the gods indeed.
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