I haven't yet read the whole thread but will add my numbers anyway as I might not get to finish it before the baby starts squawking!
- Yes.
- No, not in any way shape or form, although better practice at delivering it needs to be a priority.
- I know people think it, but to say it like that? Cannot believe he thought it was appropriate, on any level, whether to shock or because he didn't think it through, or whatever.
With regards to the charity giving, I would agree that being somebody worthy of help because you were unlucky enough to be born into horrible living conditions doesn't change whether you are born in Africa, South America, or the UK.
But I think there is a wider point. We can only stop giving, as a nation, when we stop screwing these countries over.
Examples:
During the South Africa football cup, a deal agreed with that needy little company, coca cola, prevented street vendors who normally sell within certain distances of the stadiums from selling there as coca cola had bought exclusive rights to the area, somehow. News story from the time says : "Regulations imposed by football's world governing body Fifa on host countries stipulate that no-one but its commercial partners be allowed trade or promote their products in the immediate vicinity of all World Cup sites." It effectively banned the livelihoods of the street vendors for the duration of the world cup.
Tax avoidance - legal but morally dodgy: "In one case a single - entirely legal - transaction through UK-linked tax havens would have provided $2.2 billion in tax if it had not taken place offshore, according to the Indian government. This is almost enough money to provide every Indian primary school child with a subsidised midday meal for an entire year. In another example, one major mining firm gets 84 per cent of its revenues from Africa, yet has just four of its 81 subsidiaries registered in African countries, and 47 registered in tax havens."
We know it's being done to us in the UK through companies like google and amazon, but we are also helping it happen to developing countries - would they need as much aid if we could sort out these tax issues?
And then the issues we're all aware of. Like the sweat shops using cheap labour to produce clothes. We can't hand people a double whammy, saying on the one hand we refuse to buy clothes at a price which means you get a decent salary because we are poor (although we have medical help and clean water and education regardless...) but at the same time insist that our own poverty means we cannot help. Stay where you are making my dirt-cheap clothes ....
Comparing the reaction of oil companies to their 'mistakes' is interesting. Millions was ploughed into the US after the oil spill there. It's an ongoing issue in the Niger Delta too. Is there any money going to support people whose livelihoods are affected there? Umm, not so much.
So I think if we want to stop aid, then we also have to accept that activities of developed countries are impacting developing countries, in some cases preventing people from getting out of poverty (or even preventing them from earning at all, or being healthy) and do something drastic to sort that out.