How much on Ice Cream and Pets when so many starving??

[MamaMaiasaura]

This has arisen again and has been ignored. 35bn spent on pets in America and 10bn spent on ice cream in europe and all that has been requested is 30m. In this day and age why are children dying of hunger?? \link[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4698943.stm\here}

I started a similar thread a while ago but this is such an important issue.

edam - we do here and buy fairtrade when poss.

Well the world is just an unfair place isn't it.

Although I find excess distasteful it is a bit much for the article to complain at people owning pets or eating ice-cream!

Totally with expatinscotland on this one. Not all of us are enjoying lives padded with money and although in this country we are supposed to be all well off damn few are.

I'll have two more 99's and can I have a jack russel in mine, please?

k - it is late and need sleep and take it hd that was an attempt at humour.

It was. My dw will vouch for my rubbish jokes, though.

I always felt this sort of comparisons are futile. I hate when mothers tell their children: you don't want to finish your plate? you should be thinking of the many children in the world that have nothing to eat! as if by eating your plate the other children would do better! there should be better ways to induce people to be more helpful. After all, the fact that I don't buy ice creams doesn't necesarily mean that the money I save in ice cream is going to end up helping people in other countries.

Lets look at some basic facts (which do affect how we live)

UK unemployment - 4.8% (and a welfare state to at least 'help' those on low or no incomes)

Zimbabwe unemployment - between 70-80%
Swaziland uneployment - 45%
Angola - 50%

Inflation rates -

UK - about 2.7%

Zimbabwe - around 200% (although has been as high as 1000% in the last few years)
Swaziland - 5.4% (so not too bad actually)
Angola - around 44%

Add to this fact our children have a free education, we get free health care and a public tranposrt system which can get us anywhere in teh country - I'd say that we're not so badly off as them!

Oh and before you jump down my throat - we've had no income since last December due to attempting to start our own business - so we're certainly not dripping in money - we've been negotiating today with some of the business creditors to ask them to wait until we get our vat returns in next month.

hd - my dp is crap at his jokes too.

Hear, hear QueenOfQuotes !!!
re your post 12:21 AM

was going to say the same the other day but thought I might get some strong negative reactions and kept quiet

it's true: in this country, however poor you are, you will get free healthcrae, free education, financial help through social funds etc etc. none would ever die because of lack of food or medication. everyone has a home (however small), there's clean water to drink and so on.
there is no comparison between life in the UK and these countries.
above all, in the UK everyone has the opportunity to do something with their life. i'm not saying it's easy or that we can all make it big, but we have a choice and hard work is usually rewarded in one way or another.

good post branster.

I used to have loads of dd's to charities, but have cancelled them now as broke . Have got my Rainbow Guides doing fundraising this year though, so made up for it a bit.

The shoes and ice cream deffo went before the dd's, we have one cat who is kept as cheaply as possible and is rescued, there is a rabbit out there at moment but belongs to Nursery, here fore a quiet (!!!!!!) holiday, paid for by them.

I thinkpets to an extent are i mportant for kids, especially AS ones like my DS, to learn nurturing skills in a supervised environment. Don't quite get all the doggy coat / diamante collar stuff.

But Branster yes we are priviledged to have all those things and we are lucky, but i have often gone without food and dh and I wear clothes with holes in so we can afford the 'essentials' for our kids, like school lunches and uniform. DH works so we don't qualify for much, but I'm a student and we have pitifully little left after rent / DH commuting (he can't find local work).

Of course, I would not dream of arguing that our situation is anything like as awful as niger and the like

PeachyClair I agree is not easy for everyone but in this country you have the opportunities at least. I'm confident that you and your family will better yourselves financially eventually (if this is one of the things you really wish for in life, not everyone has the same priorities) adn really wish only good things to come your way especially as you are saying you are both hard working.
when i grew up we really did not have much (my immediate and extended family) in terms of clothes, home appliances, food , pretty much everything. But all the women in the family always made sure every single person they lived with had clean clothes appropiate for the weather and there was always nutritios food on the table. I still don't know how they did it but inventiveness was quite abundednt. My grandmother still makes meals out of nothing and she is an exceptional cook. she barely buys anything from the market because she has very small pension and food is not cheap still, yet everytime she has anyone around, they get fed wonderful food. She still mends clothes for herself and us (if she gets her hands on them!)and economises greatly.
So I can say from first hand experience you can live quite well with not much money. Although now I'm fortunate enough to be reasonably well off, I still apply some of what I saw when growing up in my hopusework, but I don't advertise it around here, taht's all. For example, I would use one less egg when baking a cake (although i could afford to buy 200 eggs and put them straight in the bin -i'm exagerrating of course but just to illustrate), i ahnd wash a lot of my own clothes becasue they actually keep better, I refuse to spend more than £10 on a top (I buy most of my clothes abroad though, so I know there are nice things much cheaper over there), I often mend clothes (but am incappable of doing the socks!), I use sunflower oil for cooking when olive oil is not essential, all sort of silly little things which I do not need to do, but I just carry them around with me from my past. And although I make sufficient money from my work, I always do small things on the side if I can just to earn extra money (like this week I earned an extra £30 odd punds for a fair bit of work actually, which is not a lot for how much we spend in the house, but I got really, really excited about it. But I am fully aware £30 could easily be somebody's weekly food bill for a family of 5. In Rl I don't actually share these things with any of my friends though. I'm not being unkind about them, but most of them appear to be stuck in a world of their own with money flowing everywhere and no real understanding of how it's like not to have much.
Anyway, all this tale is somewhat irrelevant in relation to starving children (and adults!). I cannot begin to imagine how it must feel like that you haven't eating even 1 teaspoon of rice in two weeks. Absoultely dreadful.

Perhaps when one is on a low income in the UK, it is a bit more difficult in terms of integrating, especially where children are involved, becaue let's be fair, children will make comparisons and maybe in some instances parents feel like they want to do all they can so their own children do not feel different from their peers? Maybe I am very wrong here. When I grew up I never experienced this kind of comparisons but I ahve noticed, at least around where we live here in the UK, it seems to be some sort of untold aggreement that you must at least copy what others have, or out do them somehow. Otherwise I don't understand why they're all wearing the same clothes, go to the same places, drive the same cars, and so on. The only different ones appear to be foreigners, maybe beacuse they are loaded and travel a lot so get more inspiration from other places they visist? Total mistery.

I guess the whole pet / ice cream thing is very much a them and us? I know how upset I get when I see programmes like those on the news at the moment about Niger. I can't keep that 'in my head' all the time, or I would get severely depressed, so I guess I make a conscious decision not to dwell on it. BUT as a person who would like to teach race relations to kids, then I am particularly susceptible by nature, not gullible but very sensitive.

Truth is I don't know. How can I spend £120 on food for Christmas when some haven't got a meal? It's not right, it's immoral, but I still do and without thinking about it.

Braxton- Yep you can better yourself you're right, that's why I am going to Uni and Dh is trying (V V slowly as no cash to invest yet!) to start a business, whilst working full time!
Sorry- I got a little over emphatic in my post earlier! just had a bill for the car repairs to find as an emergency! We are on a very restricted budget, studying makes it harder, sn child and resultant bills does too but it'll change one day!. Not necessarily bothered about being rich, but would like to know I am secure if car breaks down / washer explodes.

Don't know why we have this culture of everyone being the same? Varies where you live though in my experience, the poorer the community the greater the sense of sameness- just IME though.

This is something I am definately going to do at Christmas in future. A friend of mine recently sent one of these to the teachers at school; when we have so much the pleasure of giving a wanted and necessary gift far outweighs the fleeting delights a box of chocolates may offer link for gifts which make a difference

I save up any charities I want and then ask my Sis to make a donation in lieu of a gift (it was the refuge last year), so much more enjoyable for me.