Irelands Overseas AID budget 2011

Cork boy 55 · 2010-09-13 17:39:40

Ireland Overseas aid budget in 2010 is 671 million http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0907/1224278366705.html In the 2011 budget coming up what do you want the minister to do?

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#32 13-09-2010 11:00PM

RATM

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http://www.globalrichlist.com/

and

http://www.financedublin.com/debtclock.php

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#33 13-09-2010 11:21PM

ScissorPaperRock

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starbelgrade wrote: »

You are confusing the effects with the cause.

The causes of 3rd world poverty and turmoil are the destruction of indigenous methods of production, and the subsequent exploitation (which still exists today), the drawing of territorial boundaries which have led to decades of war and conflict, and the fact that their economies are open to international markets, which are not level playing fields.

These causes would exist with or without aid, which has served to alleviate the problems to a certain extent, but not fix them.

What Africa needs is widespread political change, not more money & interference from the West. Until that happens, things will never improve in Africa. They will only continue to deteriorate.

It is not merely an issue of governance. They are interconnected with the west, there is no such thing as closed markets anymore. Be it through investment, transferring expertise and technology in health, agriculture, etc, resources are required to build these countries to a position where their development becomes self-sustainable.

There are a lot of problems with how aid is administered, but it is necessary.

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#34 13-09-2010 11:21PM

tallaght01

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starbelgrade wrote: »

It is no coincidence, that as foreign AID to Africa has increased, so too has poverty & starvation.

.

Well it's not a coincidence, but they have feck all to do with each other.

Irish Aid does't just lob cash at corrupt governments. It funds specific development projects, and has observers to make sure they're completed. We also work closely with the UN etc to collaborate on projects.
That's where you tax money goes.

In terms of charities like GOAL etc, they either help out in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, or are involved in development. Either way, they spend the vast majority of the cash themselves.

You're unlikely to change the whole dynamic of a continent with aid, as you don't have control over war, politics and famine etc. But let's be realistic, there are millions of people alive today because of aid. There are thousands of hospitals, clinics, schools, refuges, orphanages that wouldn't be in existence if it wasn't for our aid. There are god knows how many people alive because of it.

You should see how some of these people live. Imagine your little sister or your daughter having to sell her body to support your family. Or your entire family dying in pain from AIDS because you don't have the $1 per day for the treatment. Or imagine your 9 yea old son or little brother being taken away, along with all of his mates to fight in a war he wants no part of, and the girls being taken away to be used as sex servants for the rebel soldiers.

It's very easy for people to talk about these issues. But look at the uproar every time there's some cuts to our income. Imagine those cuts, but 1000 times worse, and then you might be somewhere close to knowing what's going on. I am flabbergasted every time I hear about people complaining about aid "when I'm stuck here with no job, eating tesco brand bread". And it's one thing that never ever becomes less amazing to me.

I know people think that poor lives or foreign lives are more important than our own, but they're not. Borders are just political boundaries, they shouldn't be human boundaries.

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#35 13-09-2010 11:38PM

starbelgrade

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I agree with ScissorPaperRoc on the causes of Africa's problems - whether in Latin America, Asia, or Africa, the story has been the same: the destabilization of peasant producers by a one-two punch of IMF-World Bank structural adjustment programs that gutted government investment in the countryside followed by the massive influx of subsidized U.S. and European Union agricultural imports after the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture pried open markets.

But charity is a social medicine - two much of it and you create a junkie that can't survive without it. Not enough and the patient dies.

For me Charity begins and ends with relief effort - in the case of a disaster get the lights on, treat the sick, bury the dead, get the water flowing and put the roofs back on and get the hell out.

Aid is easy money. If governments had to rely upon private financial markets they would become accountable to lenders, and if they had to rely upon taxation they would become accountable to voters. Aid is like oil, enabling powerful elites to embezzle public revenues.

There is a better alternative. Governments could find money for development through financial markets, both international and domestic. Historically, the governments of those countries that have successfully developed funded investment by recourse to international markets.

In order to borrow, they needed decent credit ratings; to get the ratings, they had to be transparent and prudent. The discipline of transparency and prudence were as important as the money in promoting development.

Some of the stronger African governments have at last started down this road. There is huge scope for innovations in micro-finance, such as the group borrowing pioneered by the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.

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#36 13-09-2010 11:41PM

bleg

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If we have a drop off in population growth in 3rd world countries then foreign aid may become feasible again.

At the moment though it is just perpetuating an unsustainable population explosion.

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#37 14-09-2010 12:04AM

Son Of A Vidic

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We are a great little country with our foreign aid budget. Surely our duty as a nation first and foremost, should be the health and well being of all our citizens? We are not even able to manage this at the monent, never mind looking after the wider world. Then again, you get all the kudos on the international stage. There's no glory in looking after your own I suppose.

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#38 14-09-2010 08:01PM

Cork boy 55

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I voted to cut by 90% becuase of this

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055956308
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055956308

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