Why Should The Uk Continue To Give Aid To Corrupt Coutries?

[Gromit]

Reposted for AOG.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2893033/1billion-UK-aid-goes-world-s-corrupt-countries.html

AOG, if you would kindly post your thoughts and perhaps we can stick to answering the question this time.

[-Talbot-]

Take3 ...........ACTION!

I had just posted on take 2 that all countries are corrupt one way or another.
The UK included.

[Gromit]

Not sure all of this is Humanitarian aid. It is not a coincidence that the top countries for aid are the ones where we are sending huge amounts of weapons and ammunition.

We give them a big dollop of cash, and they buy bombs and bullets from us. The UK arms industry employs hundreds of thousands UK citizens, and arms exports keeps people in jobs.

[jno]

I would have thought we have to give aid to Afghanistan, since we invaded them. We have to give aid to Syria because we now think the alternative is worse.

Presumably we could give aid to those countries at the other end of the corruption index, but Denmark and New Zealand dont' seem to need it.

[DTCwordfan]

Aid should be given for due relief, but not to heavily corrupt countries - as most have corruption to some extent - as soon as you don't have a convertible currency, it begins.

If I was in Cameron's shoes I would U-turn on this .8% of GDP pledge and drop the spend back to what it was when he came into office, steering the 4-5 billion into this country, be it roads and transport, NHS improvements (though there's plenty to rip out there - over-management and useless IT), and education/arts. Also some for research projects to keep us at the edge of technology......

[Prudie]

I was about to post exactly the same thing. Surely the point of foreign aid is to help countries improve their lot and those needing that are likely to be corrupt and their people uncared for. Either you don't agree with sending aid at all or you accept the whole package.

If we only gave to non corrupt countries, where exactly could we send it? A monastery in Tibet maybe (or maybe not)??

[THEMOTLEY1]

‘It is a colossal waste of money, which is being done to make lots of middle class worthy people feel better about themselves.’

[Svejk]

If our aid is being spent on weapons, then all the more reason to stop it.
But anyway, when you owe trillions how can you justify borrowing billions to give it away. Will our great-grandchildren have to pay for 'our' largesse.

[anotheoldgit]

Thank you Gromit, but it didn't work for me the first time, so I have no reason to believe it will this time.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/9966743/Were-about-to-find-out-if-foreign-aid-really-does-work.html

/// Take Pakistan, which will get £450 million from DfID in 2014/15, making it the biggest recipient of British aid in the world. ///

/// Still more egregiously, only a tiny minority of Pakistanis bothers to pay tax. In a country with 180 million people, fewer than 860,000 contribute anything from their incomes. ///

/// President Asif Ali Zardari, whose personal finances are famously complicated, set a notable example in 2011 by failing to file a tax return. In that year, 35 out of 55 Pakistani cabinet ministers paid no income tax whatever, along with 251 out of 341 members of the National Assembly. ///

[Svejk]

Ah, it's a cultural thing. That explains a lot.

[ToraToraTora]

we should stop giving aid full stop, charity begins at home.

[bazwillrun]

as ttt said....not a penny should go abroad except in extreme emergencys as and when the happen

[sir.prize]

Allegedly a large portion of the £450million annual aid going to Pakistan is allocated to education. Really?
I quote journalist Louise Mensch: ''Pakistan is a rogue state, a sponsor of terror. They deliberately hid Ben Laden for five years, down the road from a military base. They execute Christians for 'blasphemy'. They are a menace to world peace as they smile at the West while funding Afghan militants. And they have a nuclear bomb.
We need to stop pandering to them and start enacting special rules on immigration from Pakistan. The coffins of Peshawar - and the mealy-mouthed reaction to them - cry out to us to open our eyes.''

Yes it's time to stop their aid.

[jourdain2]

I feel that we should provide aid in cases of emergency (tsunamis etc.) and give huge aid in those cases. Otherwise I would limit aid to the provision of clean water and the means of growing/producing food. I would not send money to a government to do this, but employ British workers and firms. When people have food and water they can help themselves.

For some time I have helped to support a voluntary school in India, but the help goes in the physical form of pens, pencils, paper and volunteer teachers to teach the Indian staff how to teach and best use their resources.

[sir.prize]

I see that the annual aid to India will be stopped this year. Probably due to their economy improving such to allow them to send a space rocket to orbit Mars. Hey, they could sell tickets to Pakistan!

[ChillDoubt]

I asked a similar question a few weeks back:

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1384126.html

[jourdain2]

India is a rich country. The school I help is a voluntary one - they literally scoop 'street children' and orphans out of gutters. They teach them English because in Goa that is a way to get a job. India is rich enough to obviate the need for this, but they spend their money on rockets.

[RandyMarsh]

Just want to point out that there is no Indian rocket around Mars. There is a probe. The whole mission cost less than your average Hollywood blockbuster to fund and sniping at it is poor uneducated form.

[ChillDoubt]

Just want to point out that there is no Indian rocket around Mars. There is a probe.
-----------------------
So how did the probe get there? Big catapult? Picked up a tow off the last satellite launch and drifted in thereafter on a solar wind? One would (correctly) surmise that it got there as a result of a rocket launch.
Furthermore, a Hollywood blockbuster will have a massive return and subsequent profit. I doubt the probe will.
Paint it up however you like, they really shouldn't be undertaking such endeavours while this is happening:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/11227726/India-police-detain-sterilisation-surgeon-after-13-women-die.html

http://infochangeindia.org/poverty/news/54-of-mumbai-lives-in-slums-world-bank.html

[Svejk]

Back in the 70s the then Ministry of Overseas Aid stopped giving 'budgetary aid' because it was being diverted and couldn't be audited. Decades later it was reintroduced because it was the only way to give away such eye-watering sums. i.e. so much money couldn't be tracked and accounted for.
For our Randymarshes who probably think it's 'nice' to give money to these countries, it's not. It hinders local efforts and props up wretched regimes.
In the new year there will be a very interesting case of an Ethiopian farmer suing 'us' for misuse of aid. Suggest you all follow the case, I fancy it will be an eye-opener for some.