To no longer give a stuff about the third world

[Flashman]

We face an Avalanche of info about the third world that we should give them x amount each month - but now I find myself not being able to give a stuff. I know that one death is tragic but 100,000 is just a number. It seems to me that any money sent does not go to the right place anyway, and just encourages a dependency. I am sure that I read the only thing keeping Robert Mugabe with any foreign reserves is the fact that people living outside Zim send money in.

apathy is what kills people...

money is nothing without political will

what an . . . erm, interesting first post.

Send me some money, Flashman, and I'll make sure it goes to where it's needed in Nigeria with not a penny spent outside the remit. You could choose from...

A) A maternity hospital where a bed consists of a wooden plank, the pharmacy contains two bottles of Benylin, a few packs of Dioralyte and some chloroquin anti-malarials, the only stethoscope is held together with sticky-tape and there is no sterilising equipment.

B) A motherless babies & children's home, where abandoned little ones are cared for by nuns.

C) A Blind Foundation which trains the visually impaired in computing skills with which they can then earn a living.

D) The Beach School foundation, which has already built two schools and is embarking on a third so that children from stilt villages can have an education.

E)F)G)H) and a million other 'good causes'.

I'm ready and waiting for your cheque.....

my landlords live in Uganda just now. he was a teacher and headmaster who is there training teachers and headmasters and also teaching science with VSO.

they live on a college campus and could put ANY funds to great use and i can guarantee it will go right to those who most need it - they're desperate for supplies to teach with, in particular, and, as food prices are on the rise, to buy food for the children in the schools.

CAT me for details - they're got paypal set up.

Flashman I am just too to post.

If we all gave up caring about the "third world" what would happen then? It's partly down to your western consumption and greed that the "third world" is as poor as it is...

Like Sue says, send your money here to me in Kenya and I can put it directly to some good use.

"I care, i just happen to believe we should sort our own problems here at home out before we start throwing money at other countries."

haha, I just love this argument. You see as long as we "ignore" the problems in these countries and instead of sorting out the problems here first then we will CONTINUE to get an ever increasing number of aslyumm seekers, and economic migrants wanting to come here to improve their lives or in the case of the former to escape persecution....

You can't just "leave" the 3rd world problems and sort out our own first - it just doesn't work that way!!!

A friends husband went with his church group to Uganda. They did essential repairs and built a toilet block for the school.

Inside the school the children that were sponsered from abroad, got a 'proper' dinner. The others sat on another table eating a very basic meal.

Thankfully those men weren't as pathetic as you and your apathy, and now ever one of those children get a good meal. Probably their only one of the day.

every

Big difference between not giving to charity and not giving a stuff about the 'third world'.

my landlord was feeling homesick after a holiday abroad, but said it all went away they second they were arriving back in the village where they live and the children were running alongside their motorbike waving and giving them two thumbs up and calling out their names.

as he put it, 'over 30 years in the education system in the UK and i never had that happen!'

I agree, stuffitllama. Sometimes aid can kill local businesses/farms, who can't produce grain or clothing for 'free' or for very little. It's a very complex subject and 'feeling' won't necessarily improve conditions. What's needed is a very rational examination of the problems and a medium- or long-term plan.

sorry I still can't get the past the blatant inaccuracies, and lack of understanding in the OP..........shot himself in the foot if he wanted to start a debate IMO.

Imagine a TV debate where the opening debate contained a glaring mistake in the "facts" given for the argument - would rather kill the debate wouldn't it.......

Compassion fatigue only works assuming there was any in the first place.

Two things not a first post / thread - and perhaps in hindsight not the most articulate point I will make, but I feel these days I am totally dehumanised to it all - it has just become figures - 150k dead in China, oh - and 200k gone in Burma (and i don't need someone to point out the figs are wrong they are just off the top of my head as I remember,

I think that I would say that I became first aware of Aid and such in 1894 I would have been 8 with live aid and we heard much about it then - we did collection at school to help - but everything still remains the same. Do we carry on for ever - will anything imporve? Oh and yes i can accept the pain and suffering of one - just on a huge scale - no I really can't is that psychopathetic?

And yes perhaps some people would ahve been happier if my ancestors had not come but thats life.

Of and the opening comment about Zim having to get foreign reserves from what people send in was on the BCC - i will try and find the link.

well they'd have a job in - I know for FACT (personal fact) that most of the money that is sent to Zim is via methods which the government is trying to STOP - as they don't get their hands on it - and the recipients are getting their cash at black market rates......

wow 1894 - you must be very old

Everything does not remain the same. The countries that were poor and suffering then are not the same. I am old enough to remember when collections were made for South Korea- they are not exactly asking for help now. India is another country where building up education and infrastructure has really worked. Of course, that hasn't all been from aid, but some of it has.

In fact, if you want to know how old I really am, I can remember my parents sponsoring a disabled child in Austria (Cory totters of to enquire whether the Red Cross could do her a zimmer frame).

The fact that natural disasters happen does not prove that the inhabitants of a place are feckless. In fact, some of those disasters are caused by the greenhouse effect and that is something we all have a hand in.

During the floods in this country last year there were collections to help victims. They won't go on being victims forever.

Spend some time over there and then gives us your views, until then I for one don't give a stuff what you think.

I missed out the fact that I was addressing my post to the OP, but then I suppose you all guessed

that kiva micro loan link is brillaint. thanks for the info

Squiffy - if you don't care what I think - what is the point of posting a reply - that would suggest that you do care what I think! If you really did not care just think cock and move on - and further I have tried to clarify the op!

How sad flashman that you have become so dehumanised desentisised by probably watching too much tv I expect.
I dont tend to give money to charity but both dh and I are pretty active in campaigning and raising awareness of human rights issues in these 3rd world countries.

Perhaps if you got off your arse and actually did something contstructive to help you'd feel a little better.

oops - excuse the spelling - sticky keyboard.