Sports Relief 2012

[blowcushion]

... to wonder how much money has been spent in sending celebs and BBC crews to so many different locations to raise funds??? Do they all do it for nothing? Pay their own way? Just curious ...

Rule- you obviously haven't read the thread and as said in earlier posts,it is easy togain information as to why some people in certain countries remain poor and it isn't just climate.

However without the provision of a welfare state, children are needed,for survival, when the adult is to old/sick etc to work.

In some regions women are counted less than donkeys and would be allowed no control over their fertility, so contraception in most regions is not part of the problem or solution.

I have no objections to celebs using their fame to draw attention to the awful problems, in fact I'm glad they do it.
I just thought that some of the people filmed were not given due respect as fellow human beings.

I agree.

We can now discount anything Rule says. The idea that Belgium, widely thoutht to be one of the worst, cruelest and unenlightened colonial powers, gave all this stuff to the Congo and the people should be lining up to thank them is laughable. If it wasn't so pig-ignorant that is.

Colonial expansion took more than 50 years plus the western world's intervention, debt, the Cold War, which was pretty hot in Angola for example. Support for corrupt leaders, fixing commodity prices, exporting dangerous waste, sex tourism. I think we can afford a little aid.

Those posters who think contraceptives are the answer. Birth rates are already dropping worldwide not just in the West. Two things that help, TV and women's education. So give your money to educating girls if you want to see birth rates fall.

Quite agree MrsTP. Of all the examples of the advantages enlightened colonialism could bring, the Belgians in the Congo has to be pretty much the last you'd pick. They may have spent their last ten years building the odd road and school, but the seventy years previously were spent in the most appalling crimes against humanity and generally fucking the place up.

And yes, fertility rates are falling almost everywhere.

A few roads hardly seems like fair payment.

ifancyashandy - I appreciate your post; am still wondering how much is spent by the BBC on these progs. We were all shocked to find that Terry Wogan received an incredible amount of money for presenting "Children In Need." To be fair to him, he has waived his fee for the last few years (google this, all of you)! I also thought, quite innocently, that National Lottery paid the BBC to present the draws. Am not sure if this is the case - no doubt I will be corrected if mistaken!

All I am saying is that money is mis-spent on presenting these massive programmes. We all want to help the less fortunate if we are able - not a shred of doubt about that!

belgium built infrastructure in the congo to facilitate their stripping the country of its natural resources, not for the love of the people.

if we accept that 50 years worth of aid to africa is a waste, should we not accept that 70 years of 'aid' via the welfare state has been a waste? why are we still helping poor people? after 70 years shouldn't poverty in the UK have been eradicated? should we stop helping people here?