Overseas Aid.

[debumblebee]

Seems strange that people still need advice about AIDs.  If you don't know how its spread by now or what it is then you must be a recluse.

[Calimachon]

I now Kevin and used to work his late sister
He is a great guy and does a hell of a lot for charity - is the organiser of the North Coast Challenge 20 mile walk in Sept in which I take part every year. here is a link :
http://www.hast.org.uk/

Thank you moot.

Cali

[Mark Forskitt]

Seems strange that people still need advice about AIDs.  If you don't know how its spread by now or what it is then you must be a recluse.

It's all those 'new' teenagers. There's a fresh lot every year and they all need educating about AIDs and a lot else too.

[rogueelement]

You can lead a Horse to water , but you cannot make them drink.
I am totally pessimistic about Africa as a whole, the corruption is vast,whatever we think we would like to do or can do is insignificant
compared to the absolute unsurmountable mountain of leaders nodding their smiling heads and stealing from their people.
It is beyond our comprehension because we believe if we are kind ,then that will be reciprocated throughout a population. It does not happen. Billions ,Trillions have been poured down the sands of African greed and will continue to be exploited until such time as we are feet on the ground, hands on the cheque book.
In my very humble opinion the best thing happening to Africa is the arrival of the Chinese in search of commodities and offering jobs and a future,neo colonialist as it may be , it is a damn sight better than than the tribalist nonsense ,which makes out crusades against the Muslims look like a schoolfight.
Why when Africa could and should be at the heart of food production do people starve there? why when it has so many resources is it still back in the 1800 s in terms of GDP? The answer is greed and upto about 1950 , I would have agreed it was our greed , but no more .
Africa needs a Ghandi , simple as that , until then ,the potentates, dicators will come crying to the UN about starvation, Aids ,Strife,
and pocket every dollar given to them.
Thats why I say people like Kevin Daly should be in charge of our efforts there. He will work on the ground, ensure the money is spent correctly and will not be afraid.

[Fritz]

How much will Kevin Daly be paid?

[man in the street]

one would like to think, if you were involved in charity work it was for free, or you got free accomodation and food.
mother teressa. thats charity in my book

[moot]

How much will Kevin Daly be paid?

I am not sure if or what Kevin gets paid. What I do know that he goes over himself and helps building whatever they are building for the children. He is a compassionate man and was a special needs teacher in Jersey ( mont a L'abbe ? ) for many years and might still be now
A giver rather than a taker

[Calimachon]

I think that there is probably a need for a CEO of a charity to be paid a reasonable sum to attract them to this sector of work and to compensate for the enormous responsibility the job entails.  They need extra-ordinary skills: 

good networking ability,
usually have to travel a lot depending upon the charity,
have an abundance of diplomacy,
know how to run a campaign,
know how to direct human resources,
plus many others,

whilst remaining totally focussed on the reason for the said Charity's existence.

I know invariably they have the support of a committee or board and if they chose the right staff they can delegate but it is still not an easy task.

It takes a man/woman of a very high calibre and morals, with a very inate feeling of service to mankind, for a person to do this kind of work with little or not recompense.

Just my humble thoughts.

Cali 

[Fritz]

"Little or no recompense",!!!!

Your ,"Avvin a girraffe", Cali.

[rogueelement]

Strangely enough Fritz, some people do not measure wealth by the amount of property , money or other assets they have.
Strangely enough I sometimes think if I had trod a different road , I might be happy sitting in Goa , wearing sandals , long hair and strumming my guitar and watching the world go by , making a living as some sort of part time tourist guide.
Then again , I can,t help thinking that maybe I was just not cut out to be a totally useless **** and that maybe my ideals , to have my own business were not as worthless as those of us from the 60's who wanted revolution, equality , liberation from the "man" and I guess mostly "free love" , originally thought .
I totally admire free thinkers ,sometimes think life could have been oh so different ,but the thing is some are born to work , some are born to think and some either get lucky or have the ability to get on. No one should have to apoligise for their life or where they are today ,Chevalier Blanc put all his eggs in a States Basket  and is reaping the reward, fair play to the guy.I think a lot of us on here have taken risks in our careers and if they paid off , they have done well , otherwise they have folded.
The whole point is millions of people in Africa have not had our choices, our education,or ever been offered any opportunity to move any further forward in life than the next village. Think of as place where life is so fantastically cheap that the deaths of 2 or 3 hundred thousand people annually carries a page 4 byline. Where Aids has infected millions of people ,tens of millions have already died !
what do we get in our papers? 1400 people may die of Swine Flu .Headline reports about the bloody flu , whilst the carnage in Africa continues .It is absolutely tragic that we are so engrossed in our own stupifyinlg petty lives , where we might have to suffer the indignity of a 2% increase in GST, where in Africa the average life expectancy is 36 years of age.Come on guys,this is people we are talking about not Roseing ants!
Overseas Aid is a moral obligation, If you do not understand that , I really despair of how you can have any objectivety about any other question ,where morality is important.
Our Politicians will of course pay homage to the moral issues, bung a few bob in the direction of the "Dark Continent" and will continue to run their lives without reference to the actual requirement that integrity should be their backbone,not expediency.

[Dundee]

Perhaps the EU could help Africa by letting them have their fish stocks back:

"While the demise of marine biodiversity is not a peculiar problem for underdeveloped countries, there are strong reasons to suspect that once abundant fish stocks and marine bio-diversity situated in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of African countries are threatened, and in the not-too-distant future several African countries will face the depressing reality of collapsed fisheries and the permanent degradation of their marine environment. This in turn will continue to adversely impact on food-security and economic development, with coastal communities dependent on fishing being the hardest hit. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has calculated that 200 million Africans rely on fish for nutrition, and 10 million rely on fishing for income.

 

The cause of this crisis is multi-dimensional, with global warming possibly making matters worse. However, there is growing recognition that illegal fishing by large-scale commercial fishing companies (most of whom originate from the EU or Asia) represents the biggest threat in Africa."

 http://www.issafrica.org

the 2005 British Marine Resources Assessment Group, which "provided a conservative estimate that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in Africa could be valued at approximately US$1 billion every year".

"It was estimated that in Somalia the total annual value of illegal fishing in only the tuna and shrimp industries amounted to $94 million. In Angola illegal fishing was measured in the sardine and mackerel fisheries to be roughly $49 million annually, which equates to 21 percent of the total value of Angolan fish exports. In Mozambique, illegal fishing in the tuna and shrimp industry was set at approximately $38 million."

http://www.tve.org/earthreport/archive/doc.cfm?aid=799

[Calimachon]

All credit to you Dundee you know your stuff and do your research.  I had not thought of the impact of that kind of problem globally.  It just takes someone like you to point it out sometimes.

Because of my friend who ran an NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation involving charity for his homeland in Sierra-Leone) I have been invited onto some pretty interesting African message boards in the past where I was definitely in the minority, possibly being the only white person chatting, and reference was made to the fact that they were totally feddup with the do-gooder attitude of sending people over to their lands to build toilets, school blocks etc, etc.  The reason being that the little good that was done was usually by well-healed people who wanted to go off on a jolly and be seen to be doing good but the real help was not forthcoming in the end.  I don't say that everyone felt like that and I might not necessarily agree that is what was happening but it is interesting to know how some people on the other side of the fence feel.

Some felt they were being patronised.  May be some of our organisations responsible for helping in this way may practice a bit more diplomacy in the way the deal with the situation.

This is not my point of view, remember, it is just something I am conveying to you that I came across.

Interesting though isn't it!

Cali

[Chevalier Blanc]

How many of you have noticed that in these starving countries that when you see reports on tv the soldiers are always looking well feed even fat and the ordinary people are starving. We know that most of any aid that goes to countries where war and starvation is coursing the problems that the aid goes to the soldiers to keep the dictator in power. Aid lorries get stopped at the boarder and money is demanded before letting them cross the boarder into their country that needs the aid. So the aid helps to keep the civil wars going. It would be far better if they were given the tools and the knowledge on how to grow their own food and educate them on all things specially birth control and aids. What is so annoying is that if there was oil in these countries the western powers would be there straight away sorting out the bad people. Why go into Iraq because of the oil otherwise Saddam would still be there killing his own people. In a strange sort of way overseas aid is helping to keep dictators in power which is coursing the harm of all the Innocent people and children in the world today. Is there a better answer?