Author Topic: Should we send aid to Australia?  (Read 9320 times)

xetog

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Should we send aid to Australia?
« on: Jan 01, 2020, 06:48:19 PM »
Some years ago we agreed with other nations to give a set % of our GDP as foreign aid (0.7% I think).  This year that will come to over £14.5 billion.  The Government department responsible have problems finding suitable causes upon which to lavish this cornucopia of cash, but manages to dispose of it just the same to worthy causes like China and India with huge national incomes and their own space programmes.  I might also add that few of those nations that agreed the 0.7% do actually meet that target.

Having watched the terrible events in Australia unfold in recent weeks and the losses sustained by ordinary Australians would it not be a good idea to spend some of the money rebuilding their homes?  I would suggest a straight £4bn off the top of our budget would not be missed and would be most gratefully received by those stricken by these disastrous conflagrations who are mostly after all our distant kith and kin.  Just imagine what that sum would do for their morale and our international relations.

Having voiced my opinion to several people, one young lady lawyer said that it would be illegal under our international agreements as the recipients of our aid must be poor, but since we are amongst the few countries that observe the rules on expenditure should we not decide who we spend it on and who is poorer than someone without a home and in constant life threatening danger?

Mike.X
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Hugh

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Re: Should we send aid to Australia?
« Reply #1 on: Jan 01, 2020, 07:05:19 PM »
The money given to India and China should be diverted to Australia.

richmond62

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Re: Should we send aid to Australia?
« Reply #2 on: Jan 01, 2020, 07:16:13 PM »
What you should ask yourself if whether Australia sent Britain aid during the recent horrible flooding.

xetog

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Re: Should we send aid to Australia?
« Reply #3 on: Jan 01, 2020, 07:34:09 PM »
There is help for most of those in the UK and relatively little danger to life and although serious cannot it be compared with the fires in Australia. I have the greatest of sympathy for those in my own country and the few who have lost their lives, but it does not compare with the scale of the disaster in Auz.

Mike.X
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richmond62

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Re: Should we send aid to Australia?
« Reply #4 on: Jan 01, 2020, 07:39:54 PM »
I am aware that the Australian fires and their effects far outstrip the effects of floods in England.

But the Australians have never demonstrated any intent to help.

Goingtoseed

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Re: Should we send aid to Australia?
« Reply #5 on: Jan 01, 2020, 07:51:59 PM »
The money given to India and China should be diverted to Australia.

Don't be silly. The level of poverty in Australia is no where near that of India and China.
I'm not saying that there aren't wealthy people in those two countries but the vast part of those countries have people living on almost nothing.

Goingtoseed

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Re: Should we send aid to Australia?
« Reply #6 on: Jan 01, 2020, 07:53:27 PM »
There is help for most of those in the UK and relatively little danger to life and although serious cannot it be compared with the fires in Australia. I have the greatest of sympathy for those in my own country and the few who have lost their lives, but it does not compare with the scale of the disaster in Auz.

Mike.X

There would be a lot less during the disasters in this country if only people took responsibility for themselves by way of say insurance.

zoony

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Re: Should we send aid to Australia?
« Reply #7 on: Jan 01, 2020, 08:17:09 PM »
What you should ask yourself if whether Australia sent Britain aid during the recent horrible flooding.


  Not the best criterion I ever heard for helping someone in need..
"Listen to the wind, it cleans the mind."

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richmond62

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Re: Should we send aid to Australia?
« Reply #8 on: Jan 01, 2020, 08:19:29 PM »
Not the best criterion I ever heard for helping someone in need..

No: you are right.

But Australia is a rich nation, unlike the aforementioned India and China.

xetog

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Re: Should we send aid to Australia?
« Reply #9 on: Jan 01, 2020, 08:29:28 PM »
I assume you are kidding Richmond.  China is the worlds 2nd richest and India will overtake the UK within 5 years.

Mike.X
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richmond62

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Re: Should we send aid to Australia?
« Reply #10 on: Jan 01, 2020, 08:31:35 PM »
The Communist Chinese are keeping a large number of their population in poverty.

The Indians are not the most wonderful people at distributing their wealth.

Both of those enormous nations have awful infrastructures.

xetog

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Re: Should we send aid to Australia?
« Reply #11 on: Jan 01, 2020, 08:45:38 PM »
That is true, but should we send them money so that they can keep their populations in penury? The poor in both countries are kept that way so that they can produce cheap goods that undercut those produced by our own people, If we stopped sending money perhaps their elites would have to give up a little of their ill gotten gains to pay their workers more, or face revolution.

Just a thought.

Mike.X
If you want to control peoples thoughts, first control their words.

biglouis

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Re: Should we send aid to Australia?
« Reply #12 on: Jan 01, 2020, 08:50:07 PM »
We should stop sending money anywhere and spend it on policing and the NHS.
Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the blind obedience of fools.

zoony

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Re: Should we send aid to Australia?
« Reply #13 on: Jan 01, 2020, 08:56:42 PM »
I'd rather be poor in rural China or India than in Chicago or Liverpool..
"Listen to the wind, it cleans the mind."

"Never use money to measure wealth, son"

                                           cowboy wisdom.

mick607

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Re: Should we send aid to Australia?
« Reply #14 on: Jan 01, 2020, 09:00:22 PM »