£60 million to go to Pakistan

[strawberry17]

The following appeared as a status update on facebook and I got into a very heated debate with some people about it, I'm curious to know what mumsnetters make of it, I have my own thoughts on these statuses but just wondered if I'm a minority in my view.

"The government
announced that they are going to give £60 MILLION to Pakistan. We
have Troops without proper equipment.....Yet we donate millions to
other countries before helping our own first...... 99% of people on
facebook won't have the guts to copy and repost this...!!!!!! WILL
...YOU, I thought charity began at home."

TBH I think its a pretty Vile comment! really hope you didn't post it?

Urgh. Vile. Why do people think this is acceptable? My DH saw the same post on a wall of his facebook friends and he has deleted him.

Oh God thank you thank you I am so relieved, no it wasn't my status and I think it's veiled rascism, not even that veiled really but the people I argued with made me feel there was something wrong with me for thinking it was ok to want to spend money on a country going through this, at the end of the day people have a choice about weather or not they join the services, the people in Pakistan have no choice and have lost everything and that doesn't make me unpatriotic and unsupportive of our troops does it?

couldnt agree more with you all. I have been following this on the news, there are more than 20million people effected, a third of the country is under water (size of the whole of UK to put it into perspective), they have no clean drinking water, no food, no clothes, no homes. Kids cry all day long which causes eye infection alongside tummy bugs because of drinking dirty water & are dying because not enough medical aid has reached them yet! I cried seeing the kids in that state, maybe i felt it more being a mother myself. What must those mums be going through watching their kids in pain & completely helpless to do anything for them.

To people who write such things, why dont you try putting yourself in their shoes, i can guarantee if any1 of us were to be in a such a devastating scenario none of us would even survive a day & yet these people have been under these extreme circumstances for many weeks now!!!!!!!!!!!!!

May god help them in this tough times & may the humanity in all of us wake up.

And if they don't start planting for next year it will be much worse. It will take years.

Personally I dont think this is vile and I think they are right and this is my current FB Status.

Actually why shouldn't this issue be raised?

Mr 10% opened a bank account in 1997 called "Capricorn Holdings" which had 100 million in it... wonder if he's got any more cash now?

Why on earth should my boyfriend be send to Iraq and have to buy his own boots (true) and Mr. 10% doesn't do anything.

Wonder if he'll take 6 mill off that 60? :(

who is mr 10%?

Who is mr 10%?

WTF? Are you serious?

yes i am serious - who is mr 10%?

I have no problem with giving aid in these exceptional circumstances ie the flooding it is the right thing to do, these people need it and our country has an admirable record in responding to such disasters. However I do think the overseas aid question (outside of exceptional circumstances) needs to be addressed. Why do we give aid to each year to countries like pakistan when they spend billions on nuclear weapons. Can anyone give a rationale for that?

What the government gives in foreign aid has nothing to do with poorly equipped troops.

The purpose of items like this with 'repost' are to make the original poster feel important. You also get them with txt msgs, emails and so on.

They are started by immature people who need this boost to their ego and the actual subject is beside the point. They get reposted by stupid people who see 'repost' and think they have to.

Next week you may see "There's a secret plan to kill all donkey's - repost this!"

Of course often it is wrong for politicians to generously give money away when their own citizens need it.

You can make a case for Pakistan because they didn't know they were going to have a natural disaster, but we also give money to people who spent all theirs on bullets to kill their neighbours.

I didn't know who Mr 10% was either, but this is it

WHat posie said.

And I really want to post "There's a secret plan to kill all donkey's - repost this!" on my FB status now.

Well, if their government won't spend their money wisely we need to supplement it. If the government steals it we need to send more than they can steal. Saying "oh well, if they can't look after themselves screw them" is just defeatist.

Why do we give money outside exceptional circumstances? As a foreign policy tool.

Aid is the right and proper way to help any country in need.

However as a nuclear power I imagine that Pakistan could probably afford to repay the aid agencies when the current crisis is over.

As America has done since Hurricane Katrina.

Didn't we give to China? This is a country in the black too!

It's the human thing to do, especially as aid is needed without it these people would not get the right help from their government would they?