I'm so angry. Why should the Irish have to clean up other's mess

wilson10 · 02-03-2009 09:50PM #1

I'm so angry. The country is going down the tubes & I just heard on the news that Michael Martin while out sunning himsel in Sharm El Sheik has decided to give over 2 million euro of our hard earned money to the fund for the rebuilding of Gaza.
Now I have as much sympathy as the next man for the plight of the inhabitants of Gaza but what about the people who caused all this devastation.
Israel is one of the richest nations in the world and against all the pleadings of practically all countries in the world they continued to pound the crap out of the country, doing billions worth of damage to buildings and infrastructure apart from killing many hundreds of innocent men, women & children.
So why do we have to pay?
Lets hope he comes back with some decent contracts for hard pressed Irish contractors & businesses so that we get something back.

mikemac · 02-03-2009 09:54PM

Over 700 million a year (possibly 900 million?) is given a year in foreign aid.
2 million is but a mere fraction.

As for the devastation while it's terrible that it's the civilians suffer, Hamas brought it on themselves.

AnonoBoy · 02-03-2009 09:56PM

wilson10 wrote: »

So why do we have to pay?

Because we're nice like that.

Yeah yeah - people can't go on holidays and have to shop in Lidl now but at least we're not having the crap bombed out of us.

wilson10 · 02-03-2009 09:57PM

My point is that the jews did the damage so why don't they fix it. They can well afford it.

dresden8 · 02-03-2009 10:00PM

wilson10 wrote: »

My point is that the jews did the damage so why don't they fix it. They can well afford it.

I think you'll find it's the Israelis who did it.

wilson10 · 02-03-2009 10:02PM

dresden8 wrote: »

I think you'll find it's the Israelis who did it.

So what are they? Catholic.

galwayrush · 02-03-2009 10:03PM

It would have provided the cervical cancer vaccination to a lot of our young women here.
:mad:

Hazys · 02-03-2009 10:07PM

wilson10 wrote: »

So what are they? Catholic.

Some of them are Catholic and Muslim too.

Israel = Country
Judaism = Religion

wilson10 · 02-03-2009 10:13PM

Hazys wrote: »

Some of them are Catholic and Muslim too.

Isreal = Country
Judaism = Religion

OK Point taken. Israel is over 80% Jewish, so it's fair to assume that a good number of Jews were involved in the demolition of Gaza.

Daroxtar · 02-03-2009 10:15PM

mikemac wrote: »

Over 700 million a year (possibly 900 million?) is given a year in foreign aid.

Surely we could stop all foreign aid for a year or 2 and sort our own finances out? I mean,thats close to 1billion of taxpayers money given overseas. Bet we wont hear too much about that cash when the govt are announcing cutbacks and increasing taxes

Fratton Fred · 02-03-2009 10:18PM

I womder if German tax payers are saying the same thing about a certain island that has ****ed up it's economy?

mikemac · 02-03-2009 10:18PM

The amount differs every year, it's linked to GDP so naturally it will go down if the economy contracts.

I know they were aiming for 0.7% but they never quite reached that. At it's peak it hit over 900 million in 2007 , not quite sure how much they'll transfer out in 2009.
Irish Aid offices are on O'Connell St Dublin afaik, they'd be the agency dealing with this

cornbb · 02-03-2009 10:19PM

Overseas aid has already been cut quite a bit. Just because we have serious problems of our own doesn't mean we shouldn't help out those whose problems make our problems seem completely insignificant. 2 million euro is a drop in the ocean in the grand scheme of things. 4 and a half BILLION dollars has been pledged by international donors. So how does Ireland's tiny contribution anger you so much OP?

dresden8 · 02-03-2009 10:20PM

wilson10 wrote: »

So what are they? Catholic.

A lot of Jews are not Zionists and do not shoot and bomb Palestinians.

A lot of Christians fund and support the shooting and bombing of Palestinians.

The Dalai Lama is probably cool though.

Gyalist · 02-03-2009 10:24PM

The vast majority of foreign aid is actually spent in the donor country.

Don't believe the hype.

Blackjack · 02-03-2009 10:26PM

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I womder if German tax payers are saying the same thing about a certain island that has ****ed up it's economy?

Britain?.

wilson10 · 02-03-2009 10:27PM

Foreign aid to the victims of natural disasters like drought or sunami is one thing but I have to draw the line at funding the rebuilding of a country deliberately destroyed by a wealthy nation like Israel.

Britain & America put a lot of money into the rebuilding of Germany after WW2.

I haven't heard how much Israel is going to pony up but I bet that it's sweet F all

OPENROAD · 02-03-2009 10:28PM

Blackjack wrote: »

Britain?.

Nope Ireland, and we are likely to be bailed out by the likes Germany if things continue to get much worse.

Mr Quiet · 02-03-2009 10:30PM

galwayrush wrote: »

It would have provided the cervical cancer vaccination to a lot of our young women here.
:mad:

Very true

Nodin · 02-03-2009 10:31PM

galwayrush wrote: »

It would have provided the cervical cancer vaccination to a lot of our young women here.
:mad:

So would the pay off to Sean Fitzpatrick, David Drumm, Dennis Casey, the 500,000 to the FAS 'I'm entitled to 1st class' merchant Molloy, which together probably tops the two million figure in the OP.

How much of her 448,000 for the last few years (per year) of her employ will Gill Bowler have to fork out to compensate for her failure to regulate the bank under her supervision, or indeed any of the rest of them, including the non-regulating regulator? Not a fvckin bean. So whats the bigger disgrace, two million to people with barely a pot to piss in, or two million per 4-5 members of a corrupt layer of society?

wilson10 · 02-03-2009 10:32PM

cornbb wrote: »

Overseas aid has already been cut quite a bit. Just because we have serious problems of our own doesn't mean we shouldn't help out those whose problems make our problems seem completely insignificant. 2 million euro is a drop in the ocean in the grand scheme of things. 4 and a half BILLION dollars has been pledged by international donors. So how does Ireland's tiny contribution anger you so much OP?

Confucius say "Many drops make an ocean"

cornbb · 02-03-2009 10:35PM

wilson10 wrote: »

Confucius say "Many drops make an ocean"

By that logic, surely we can spare one drop out of our ocean of money in order to help the people of a war-torn country.

OPENROAD · 02-03-2009 10:36PM

wilson10 wrote: »

Confucius say "Many drops make an ocean"

True but I would be more angry about not only the wastage in spending that took place here over recent years and the inefficiencies in spending not only then but that are still taking place in this country. Now that really makes me mad.

cornbb · 02-03-2009 10:41PM

OPENROAD wrote: »

True but I would be more angry about not only the wastage in spending that took place here over the years and the inefficiencies in spending that are still in place in this country. Now that really makes me mad.

Yes, we should be looking at tightening the belt and removing the many inefficiencies from public spending rather than consider draconian, headline-grabbing measures like completely getting rid of overseas aid.

wilson10 · 02-03-2009 10:44PM

OPENROAD wrote: »

True but I would be more angry about not only the wastage in spending that took place here over the years and the inefficiencies in spending that are still in place in this country. Now that really makes me mad.

Agree 100% on that score.

Blackjack · 02-03-2009 10:53PM

OPENROAD wrote: »

Nope Ireland, and we are likely to be bailed out by the likes Germany if things continue to get much worse.

Potentially, we're still a good ways off that just yet though, lets not talk ourselves into having to be bailed out.

I suppose Britain will just use printing more money Quantative easing to resolve their own issues.

wilson10 · 02-03-2009 11:07PM

Blackjack wrote: »

Potentially, we're still a good ways off that just yet though, lets not talk ourselves into having to be bailed out.

I suppose Britain will just use printing more money Quantative easing to resolve their own issues.

That sounds like a builder friend of mine who, 18 months or so ago was saying "That f***er George Lee is talking us into a recession". I say to him now "Why don't you ring George Lee and ask him to talk us out of the recession". If only talk would do it.

OPENROAD · 02-03-2009 11:24PM

Blackjack wrote: »

Potentially, we're still a good ways off that just yet though, lets not talk ourselves into having to be bailed out.

Hope you are right but certainly we are in a very bad position certainly compared to other EU countries and indeed I would say even the UK. Time will tell.

Pepe LeFrits · 02-03-2009 11:24PM

In addition in ruining the German economy, I think you'll find we also caused the collapse of Lehman Brothers, AIG, GM, Chrysler, the Icelandic government, the Twin Towers, the Third Reich, the Roman Empire and Sirius B.

Gimme a break.

Oh and foreign aid is one of the few things our government does that is right.

OPENROAD · 02-03-2009 11:31PM

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

In addition in ruining the German economy, I think you'll find we also caused the collapse of Lehman Brothers, AIG, GM, Chrysler, the Icelandic government, the Twin Towers, the Third Reich, the Roman Empire and Sirius B.

Gimme a break.

Who said we did?

nobodythere · 03-03-2009 12:00AM

"What need you, being come to sense, But fumble in a greasy till" - Yeats 1913, some things never change

I'm so angry. Why should the Irish have to clean up other's mess

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