New Flying Africa Tax To Be Asked For!

Biggins

Starting next January, whenever you buy an airline ticket at a travel agency or online, there'll be a new question to answer before you hand over your credit card: Would you be willing to donate $2 to help fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa?

According to Time mag (HERE) it will be come applicable across Europe as well as America.
Do you think its a touch too far and a bit hardnecked or is it a good thing?

It bad enough we get mugged out on the streets by the minority aggressive collectors - now even across shop counters, we'll be plagued!
The places where we are asked/pressurised to fork out is getting longer yet again - thats my main concern.

patrickc

whos asking for the money as in what charity?, and more to the point how much of the money collected will go to Africa.

if they said 2 euro to help various charities at home, like homeless ones etc I'd defo consider it

Charity does start at home

BraziliaNZ

I don't know what to think about this, I've read some articles saying foreign aid is destroying Africa? is it?

Biggins

Short quote from the lengthy article (link above)

The scheme, the idea of a small United Nations agency, is backed by the travel industry and heavyweights of international aid such as the William J. Clinton Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It will be formally announced in New York on Sept. 23 on the fringes of the U.N. General Assembly, and accompanied by a marketing blitz. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, are expected to participate in the launch, as well as the chief executives of the three companies that have made it technically possible: Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport/Galileo, who run the reservation and ticketing systems for most of the world's airlines. Barring any last-minute technical or legal hitches, the scheme will rollout in late January

The initiative is the brainchild of Philippe Douste-Blazy, a former French foreign minister who is now a U.N. undersecretary charged with finding innovative ways to finance projects.
...Recipients will include the U.N. childrens' agency UNICEF, and the Clinton and Gates foundations. As well as targeting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, the money will also be spent on improving maternal health and reducing child mortality.

mathie

Ah sure you can just say no like when I get my pay cheque I just .... oh hang on.

patrickc

Biggins wrote: »

Short quote from the lengthy article (link above)

they can keep it where it is tbh non existent

genericguy

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

I don't know what to think about this, I've read some articles saying foreign aid is destroying Africa? is it?

yes, many africans have been killed or orphaned by aids.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Where's Degsy?.

.

BraziliaNZ

genericguy wrote: »

yes, many africans have been killed or orphaned by aids.

I said "aid" smart ass

super_furry

Don't see how anyone would have a problem with it. If you're spending hundreds or even thousands of euro on a flight then a VOLUNTARY donation of $2 isn't going to break the bank.

CreepingDeath

Meh, let natural selection run it's course.

BraziliaNZ

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

I said "aid" smart ass

And what the heck would foreign aids be anyways

Euro_Kraut

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

I said "aids" smart ass

Anyway, I don't see the problem. Its voluntary and there is no need to feel bad if you don't donate. Its not possible to contribute to every charity.

Mossy Monk

Would I donate €2 to a big black hole where the money will mostly be given to the CEO of some charity in the form of a bonus. No, I wouldn't donate.

ShooterSF

To be fair it's voluntary. As long as they ask I don't mind. "Eh, no thanks." is pretty easy to say. God help anyone though that charges me it without asking though.

Euro_Kraut

ShooterSF wrote: »

God help anyone though that charges me it without asking though.

Thats not going to happen.

ShooterSF

Euro_Kraut wrote: »

Thats not going to happen.

That's fair enough so. It's not a big deal then. I just have had some horrible experiences in certain restaurants that add donations onto your bill unless you ask them to take it off.
If it's opt-in rather than opt-out then it's harmless.

Neamhshuntasach

If they show me a photo of someone with the 2 euro i donated in their hand i'll do it everytime. I mean who's responsible for delivering the aid and are they getting my full 2 euro?

tallaght01

IN fairness, this is a very very good cause.

I'm probably biased because I do a lot of HIV work. But that money makes a huge difference. I know there's always this stuff bandied about how all the money goes into a black hole, or it goes on "admin". But that's mostly smoke and mirrors.

IN fact the agencies which will benefit from this have changed the face of HIV in developing countries in the last 10 years. I know people say progress hasn't been made. But that's not true. Phenomenal progress has been made.

But the reality is still that we have 33 million people infected. (90% of those are in poor countries). Those people mostly die within 10 years, and their kids get orphaned. In a HUGE proportion of those cases, the girls in these families, who are often very young, have to turn to prostitution to feed their siblings. They often catch HIV themselves in this line of work.

It costs about 100 dollars per year for the drugs that can make these people live a long and healthy life, and to provide for their kids. It's bloody expensive for 33 million people, but it's happening, albeit slowly.

Imagine how Biggins would react if kids with HIV patients in Ireland were dying in their droves, or having to sell themselves for sex to make enough money just to feed their siblings.

Sure we have problems in Ireland. But let's not kid ourselves that A) They're anything like the problems these people have or That 2 euro on the cost of a flight is going to make any difference to anyone's financial situation.

mikom

Biggins wrote: »

Would you be willing to donate $2 to help fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa?

Who will be fighting AIDS?
Will it be in the form of a celebrity boxing match with Lucy Kennedy as host?
Paul Martin vs aids in Africa....... the new rumble in the jungle.

Hrududu

You can't move in a big city without being asked for money every single day. Is it going to get to the point where every transaction we make will also include us being asked for donations?

Gone West

tallaght01 wrote: »

IN fairness, this is a very very good cause.
////
A) They're anything like the problems these people have or That 2 euro on the cost of a flight is going to make any difference to anyone's financial situation.

Good post.
Hes right. Just shut up and pay your 2eur, bring a bottle of water from home instead of buying one in the airport. Thats 2eur right there.

Its pretty fucking scabby to argue about just 2 bills (for teh blecks with HIV in africa) when youre spending much more on the cost of flying around the place.

ShooterSF

FuzzyLogic wrote: »

Good post.
Hes right. Just shut up and pay your 2eur, bring a bottle of water from home instead of buying one in the airport. Thats 2eur right there.

Its pretty fucking scabby to argue about just 2 bills (for teh blecks with HIV in africa) when youre spending much more on the cost of flying around the place.

Bollox. Have you tried bringing a bottle of clear liquid you claim is water from home onto a flight? Anyway's my money is my money. What I spend it on is my concern. I respect Tallaght for his work and he is doing good but I'd rather give the 2 euro to the Simon Community than to fight aids in a continent full of catholics who as such don't believe in the use of condoms.

Eoin

Biggins wrote: »

Would you be willing to donate $2 to help fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa?

So say "No", and drama over.

Gone West

People get worked up and angry over such a thing? Its just a proposed voluntary contribution. No need to get angry ya know!?

ShooterSF wrote: »

Bollox. Have you tried bringing a bottle of clear liquid you claim is water from home onto a flight? Anyway's my money is my money. What I spend it on is my concern. I respect Tallaght for his work and he is doing good but I'd rather give the 2 euro to the Simon Community than to fight aids in a continent full of catholics who as such don't believe in
the use of condoms.

Drink it in the airport, it was just a simple example of what 2 euro really gets you in an airport.
Water is free on flights anyways :pac:

Some people I guess, don't consider themselves above others (because of location of birth or religion/etc), and others are just plain old scabby.

So hang on to those 2 euros brother!

mikom

FuzzyLogic wrote: »

So hang on to those 2 euros brother!

Will you give 2 euros a-piece to each of the following areas if asked on every flight as well?
Barbados, Belize, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Haiti, Republic of Moldova, Russia, Thailand.

MagicMarker

ShooterSF wrote: »

Bollox. Have you tried bringing a bottle of clear liquid you claim is water from home onto a flight? Anyway's my money is my money. What I spend it on is my concern. I respect Tallaght for his work and he is doing good but I'd rather give the 2 euro to the Simon Community than to fight aids in a continent full of catholics who as such don't believe in the use of condoms.

kumate_champ07

genericguy wrote: »

yes, many africans have been killed or orphaned by aids.

hasnt the population increased drastically since Geldof tried to save them? *edit, increased so much they cant afford to feed this new larger population.
alot of the aid money was used to fund tribal wars.

its stupid to give money away and expect people to know what to do with it and also to expect governments to spend it on their own people when they have complete control/power and dont have to

ShooterSF

FuzzyLogic wrote: »

People get worked up and angry over such a thing? Its just a proposed voluntary contribution. No need to get angry ya know!?

Drink it in the airport, it was just a simple example of what 2 euro really gets you in an airport.
Water is free on flights anyways :pac:

It is? Damn ryanair getting me again.

Some people I guess, don't consider themselves above others (because of location of birth or religion/etc), and others are just plain old scabby.

I don't consider myself above others based on location or religion. if they don't bug me I won't bug them. I just offered the point that trying to defeat a sexually transmitted disease in a continent that has a high proportion of populous that believe in catholic teachings and therefore do not believe in protecting themselves from the disease is a bit of a waste. hell their governments even persuaded themselves that the anti-hiv drugs were bad!

So hang on to those 2 euros brother!

I will. I'll stick it in the condom machine in the airport toilets;)

ShooterSF

MagicMarker wrote: »

Ok. I'm not sure where you are confused and maybe I'm wrong. If I am could you tell me where my logic is wrong rather than post a non-descript smilie?

1- A large percentage of the African populace is Catholic
2- Catholics do not believe in the use of contraception.
3- AIDS can be transmitted by unprotected sexual intercourse.

As I said it's just an issue of wasting money due to people's beliefs. I would have the same concern if jehova's witnesses were given expensive alternative treatments to blood transfusions paid for by taxpayers'money.

walshb

Another African scam by Western chancers. Seriously, there are folks with nothing to do but sit around and think up clever little ways to make money, all in the name of the poor African. We had it with jersey day, Goal mile, send a goat or bees to Africa, adopt a child is El Salvador, build houses inn shanty towns and so on and so on, and now this. This one has actually been considered for quite some time as far as I know.

Morlar

Travel agents are not our moral conscience this is nowhere near their job, the presumptiousness of this is staggering.

tallaght01

walshb wrote: »

Another African scam by Western chancers. Seriously, there are folks with nothing to do but sit around and think up clever little ways to make money, all in the name of the poor African. We had it with jersey day, Goal mile, send a goat or bees to Africa, adopt a child is El Salvador, build houses inn shanty towns and so on and so on, and now this. This one has actually been considered for quite some time as far as I know.

Presumably you're being sarcastic.

But to address the points made in the post below.I have learned over many many years that I won't change the mind of people like you. But for the benefit of other people, let's look at what you're saying.

ShooterSF wrote: »

Ok. I'm not sure where you are confused and maybe I'm wrong. If I am could you tell me where my logic is wrong rather than post a non-descript smilie?

1- A large percentage of the African populace is Catholic
2- Catholics do not believe in the use of contraception.
3- AIDS can be transmitted by unprotected sexual intercourse.

As I said it's just an issue of wasting money due to people's beliefs. I would have the same concern if jehova's witnesses were given expensive alternative treatments to blood transfusions paid for by taxpayers'money.

The HIV epidemic is also rampant in non catholic parts of Africa, and in non-catholic countries. In fact the biggest epidemic you'll see int he developed world are in London, Sydney and in Black America. Not exactly catholic strongholds.

India has a massive HIV problem.

BUt let's just look at the countries with the biggest HIV problems in Africa.

Botswana: 70% are christian. Mostly non catholics.

Lesotho: Only 45% of the population are catholic.

South Africa: 8-10% are catholic.

Swaziland: Don't know the numbers, but the majority are not catholic.

I just get really sad when I see people trying to trivialise a problem with non truths. It's so much more complex than that. I'll happily chat to anyone on the biology+medicine forum about the HIV epidemic, because I don't wanna get too technical here.

But the HIV problem in Africa is minimally affected by the catholic church.

walshb

So, because my post is ridiculing these scams that means it has to be sarcastic?

No, it's honest and how I feel.

tallaght01

walshb wrote: »

So, because my post is ridiculing these scams that means it has to be sarcastic?

No, it's honest and how I feel.

Fair play if you really think that you have any kind of knowledge to back up what you've said.

My guess is that you have no idea about the work of any of the groups named as benefactors from this money.

Professey Chin

Deleted User wrote: »

And what the heck would foreign aids be anyways

Unprotected "insert nationality of choice here" sex?

ragg

Having sex outside marraige is a far bigger sin then using contraception. If they were such good catholics they wouldn't be sleeping around. If they are going to break one rule what not break the other??
Its a horribly uninformed & ignorant opinion that is levied against the church

tallaght01

ragg wrote: »

Having sex outside marraige is a far bigger sin then using contraception. If they were such good catholics they wouldn't be sleeping around. If they are going to break one rule what not break the other??
Its a horribly uninformed & ignorant opinion that is levied against the church

Not to mention the massive effect shagging prostitutes had on the early stages of the epidemic in most african countries :P

ShooterSF

tallaght01 wrote: »

The HIV epidemic is also rampant in non catholic parts of Africa, and in non-catholic countries. In fact the biggest epidemic you'll see int he developed world are in London, Sydney and in Black America. Not exactly catholic strongholds.

India has a massive HIV problem.

BUt let's just look at the countries with the biggest HIV problems in Africa.

Botswana: 70% are christian. Mostly non catholics.

Lesotho: Only 45% of the population are catholic.

South Africa: 8-10% are catholic.

Swaziland: Don't know the numbers, but the majority are not catholic.

I just get really sad when I see people trying to trivialise a problem with non truths. It's so much more complex than that. I'll happily chat to anyone on the biology+medicine forum about the HIV epidemic, because I don't wanna get too technical here.

Ut the HIV problem in Africa is minimally affected by the catholic church.

Fair enough. maybe bleeding hearts crying out about the church's actions effecting Africa had me over estimate the populace's membership. I am right in saying that some of their governments did actually fight against giving their people anti-hiv drugs though am I?

ShooterSF

ragg wrote: »

Having sex outside marraige is a far bigger sin then using contraception. If they were such good catholics they wouldn't be sleeping around. If they are going to break one rule what not break the other??
Its a horribly uninformed & ignorant opinion that is levied against the church

Let me say that nothing, NOTHING should be levied against the church. They are entitled to their opinions (ludicrous that they are). It is their followers that should have opinions levied against. Although I accept that maybe the level of catholicism in the areas were over-estimated in my mind.

tallaght01

ShooterSF wrote: »

Fair enough. maybe bleeding hearts crying out about the church's actions effecting Africa had me over estimate the populace's membership. I am right in saying that some of their governments did actually fight against giving their people anti-hiv drugs though am I?

Yea, there's some truth in that. Most African countries will take as many drugs as you can give them. BUt while I was working in south africa, and 70% of my patients were dying if HIV, their government was telling us that the drugs were useless. This was patently wrong. But it was all about the cash. They were really really expensive back then. They're still pricey enough at $100 per person per year. But there are now no governments that are against the drugs. Thank god, coz the drugs are one of the most important factors in preventing the spread of HIV. They were pretty dark days in south africa.

arybvtcw0eolkf

CreepingDeath wrote: »

Meh, let natural selection run it's course.

There's never been a man caught in a whirl pool who didn't cry out for a life buoy!.

.

Quint

eoin wrote: »

So say "No", and drama over.

Exactly, click no and keep your €2, end of problem. Some of the responses here you'd think this was a huge problem! Those guys in Africa have it easy, some may be 3 years old with hiv and no parents, but we have an extra button to press when buying a flight otherwise we'll lose out on €2!
Big fecken deal!

walshb

Yeah, but this is just the start. Wait and see, before long the heads will be trying to make this a legal requirement. The issue isn't the paltry 2 Euro, it's the genuineness of the matter. Is is sincere and real, or the same old ego trippers exploiting Africa Africa Africa.

The Geldof's and Robinson's and Bono's will be lobbying to make this
legal, and they won't bloody stop at 2 euro either. The rich and well off are the great at spending other peoples money and you can bet, it's the well off who have come up with this scam. If they had their way, they'd be importing Africans here and evicting us from our houses to make way.

Euro_Kraut

walshb wrote: »

Yeah, but this is just the start. Wait and see, before long the heads will be trying to make this a legal requirement. The issue isn't the paltry 2 Euro, it's the genuineness of the matter. Is is sincere and real, or the same old ego trippers exploiting Africa Africa Africa.

The Geldof's and Robinson's and Bono's will be lobbying to make this
legal, and they won't bloody stop at 2 euro either. The rich and well off are the great at spending other peoples money and you can bet, it's the well off who have come up with this scam. If they had their way, they'd be importing Africans here and evicting us from our houses to make way.

Welcome to my ignore list. Life is too short to have to read crap like this.

walshb

Euro_Kraut wrote: »

Welcome to my ignore list. Life is too short to have to read crap like this.

Damn, I'm so upset now!

ragg

ShooterSF wrote: »

Let me say that nothing, NOTHING should be levied against the church. They are entitled to their opinions (ludicrous that they are)

Fully agree, complete load of ****e - just that particular accusation is unfair