To not much care about the rest of the world but care deeply about the UK

[CatieBlanket]

It's a mess out there, always has been and, let's be honest, always will be. When we intervene we tend to make things worse (Afghanistan, Iraq to name but two). The new governments end us as corrupt as the ones that were overthrown. Aid money is, on the whole, squandered. Billions of £ & $ & € of it

A significant minority of men just love to kill indiscriminately. The others love to oppress women.

The situation in the Middle East is unsolvable and the poverty in African too vast for us to deal with.

I'm actually becoming immune to hearing about hostages being beheaded and suspect many of us are, hence ISIS new method of murder by immolation.

So let's concentrate on righting the wrongs of our island. Sort out the NHS, get people into work, look after the vulnerable, stop domestic violence and child abuse, build decent housing for people who live here?

AIBU (Labour supporter, by the way before, anyone accuses me of being UKIP)

'One of the reasons modern-day Germany is so successful is precisely because they haven't wasted time, effort and money getting involved in wars here there and everywhere since 1945. '

I thought both Germany and Japan were banned from being actively involved in any military interventions after WW2 for a number of years. So they focused on home issues.

Nicely put TSW. I too have seen a lifetime of famine and war. All the money that we put in seems to have no effect - the same problems arise again and again. It is even worse when help is thrown back in our faces as 'colonialism'.
We need the UN to people ahead of states. They need to step in when a country is failing.

Gosh OP, I actually don't blame you at all, and I'm from one of the countries that would absolutely rely on the UK if Armageddon was upon us.

So with something like ebola - which doesn't actually know what country it's meant to be in and doesn't obey border controls or anything like that - you'd just say, "oh screw that, that's the rest of the world," right?

You realise that's ridiculous, I hope.

did you know, for instance, the uk-french redrew the middle east on the back of a menu (sykes-picot agreement).
we as a country/empire are at the root of a lot of these problems
not so much knight in shining armour as trying to correct earlier mistakes
m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25299553
this link explains how you end up with trouble if you divide regions up with a ruler and pencil, paying no attention to traditional tribal areas or current agreements, behind the backs of the inhabitants

This article investigates the sort of thing I was talking about, JFR.
Ebola crisis in neighbouring countries, and why Liberia is doing better than Sierra Leone.
foreignpolicy.com/2014/12/10/sierra-leones-ebola-epidemic-is-spiraling-out-of-control/

IME people who say they want to fight poverty/opression/inequality/whatever at home before they tackle it abroad are just looking for a polite way to say they have no intention of putting their hand in their pocket/doing anything for anyone but themselves, ever. I've never known anyone actually care on a geographical basis alone.

Oh and is just a stupid and lazy way of dismissing a problem we contribute to every day. For example, did you realise that many African countries are actually extremely wealthy - it's what happens to that wealth that is the issue.

^^ That pretty much confirms that it is too vast for us to deal with...

"this link explains how you end up with trouble if you divide regions up with a ruler and pencil, paying no attention to traditional tribal areas or current agreements, behind the backs of the inhabitants"

"I've never known anyone actually care on a geographical basis alone."

Interesting juxtaposition.

YABU.

The World is your home and what bit of it you happened to land on is no more than a stroke of luck.

TheChickenSituation no it doesn't. Dealing with the fair distribution of wealth is much easier than creating wealth where none exists. Maybe there won't be a soluntion tomorrow or the next day but things can get slowly better.

Slavery was once a huge problem, now its smaller. Cancer once killed all those who got it, now it doesn't, maybe one day deaths of this kind will be rare. Bit by bit by bit.

Saving a handful by giving to comic relief and digging a few wells is not going to change anything.But improving things in the UK would at least be something

That is a breathtakingly horrible stance to take.

I'd imagine the mothers of children who are saved due to vaccines are grateful that they are one of the handful. As would you be if you were in their shoes.

Bizarre OP really. I work in Social Care and constantly budgets are being cut. I find it hard to have sympathy for foreign aid when I see people in dire circumstances here who need support, safe environment to live, adequate food, access to basic facilities. As long as I am told that there isn't money for these people I will also believe that there isn't money for foreign aid either. Individuals are welcome to support foreign aid but our government should not give £28 million pounds A DAY to foreign aid what people in this country go hungry.

purits it stands - tribal lands were about a shared culture/language/values/trading areas/access to natural resources/systems of government (which existed even though those with the pen and the ruler ignored them). It was never just about ground.

"Immune to hearing about hostages being beheaded"-YABU

Cherrie - I don't know how you can say my OP is bizarre when your post agrees with what I am saying

Why are shared culture/language/etc important in Africa but not here. I thought the modern way was all for multiculturalism?

I find your op really sad.

Its one thing to not want to spend money on foreign aid, quite a different thing to 'not much care about the rest of the world' and 'to be immune' to hearing about hostage deaths.

Not only do you have no compassion, you seem to have no intelligence, if you genuinely don't get that we live in a global community. Everything you have, everything you do, is powered from overseas. Our wealth, in this country, nowadays, comes largely from overseas. We ARE affected by what goes on elsewhere, whether you like that or not.

And in the words of the great philosophers - "if you tolerate this, your children will be next..."

Are you talking about aid in your OP? Or military intervention? WHAT do you mean?

It seems like you just mean you don't want to hear about other countries - so you'd prefer not to see it on the news?

Or do you mean we shouldn't send aid to other countries? Because we should just look after UK people - natives? Immigrants? Tax payers? Or just anyone currently in the UK?

Or do you mean that we shouldn't send the military to other countries at all - that they should just be for home defence?

I just don't understand your point of view - it just reads as though you think the problems of the world are too big to solve, so you simply won't think about them.

I'm incredibly sad for you, OP.

Well, just linking ISIS be headings with focusing domestic issues really then mentioning you are a labour supporter. It seems to me that all political parties support foreign aid but they are made up of affluent types who certainly don't see, hear or care about the people I see.

But they are important here and my argument is that we share culture, language and trade (to give just 3 examples) with many areas outside the mainland UK. Which is why it's strange, imo, for the OP to limit her 'caring' to this island.

If it wasn't for the internet we'd be unaware of most of the atrocities in the world and all the better for it.

As for this...

Care or don't care about whatever you like.

I do care about what happens in these countries in poverty and chaos. If us lucky rich Western countries started giving the UN the power to do its job then I think we would all be in a much happier world.

The UK isn't immune from trouble in other parts of the world. War and poverty cause refugees. Disease spreads. A lot of foreign policy is essential selfish. It's motivated to fix other parts of the world so their problems don't spread.