U.N slams aid 'double standards'.

The U.N pointed out the rather obvious double standards in the distribution of aid to Iraq & Africa.

"How is it we routinely accept a level of suffering and hopelessness in Africa we would never accept in any other part of the world? We simply cannot let this stand,"

"As much as I don't like it, I cannot escape the thought that we have a double standard"


news.bbc.co.uk...

Iraq's problems are of our making in this war...so of course we are going to clean up our own mess...

If they'd (Africans in third world conditions) concentrate more on making farms instead of babies, they just might pull themselves out of the mess they're in...

Sam Kinison said it best....."MOVE TO THE FOOD! We have deserts in America...WE JUST DON'T LIVE IN 'EM!"

I hope for your sake you are kidding Garzok.
Otherwise you have just shown breathtaking ignorance.

Africa does have a lot of poverty, disease and suffering. The governments there are corrupt and horde the wealth whilst the people starve. The U.N. could have initiated African aid anytime it wished to, why make an issue now? Kofi Annan is African, he could have made African needs a priority long before this. What�s stopped him?

When I was in Johannesburg, I watched the South African Parliament debating on T.V. They got so bogged down in petty issues that nothing could be resolved about serious issues.

My friend who lives there says that South Africa is a communist state. Whether that�s just a figure of her speech or actual fact I�m unsure. But I did see terrible poverty, desperation, men standing around on streets aimlessly; the crime rate is very high, AIDS rate is highest in the world.

I do have compassion for the suffering people in Africa, but at some point Africa must become self-supportive by instituting programs to develop their resources and marketable goods. The U.N. can assist with that, but it�s best to empower African people to become independent and not reliant upon foreign aid.

Natural disasters are beyond human control, unless mismanagement of the water, soil or resources is down to human error. Starving people should not be allowed to die, if that can be helped. But I am still left wondering how much of Africa's misery has come about by the African's own choices and actions.

Johannesburg Summit 2002 Link

hence the comedian reference....

But what I really meant to point out, is that it isn't a double-standard so much, as us being more concerned with solving a humanitarian crisis of our own making....

The US has budgeted 15 billion US dollars for aid to Africa. granted its for food a medicine not for warlords so i doubt they will count it. I know they don't have opprotunities to do it over there so my heart goes out to them all but we have all these do-gooder environmentalist over there saying that to modernize the villages would detroy their culture. hell, they are living in poverty and drinking filthy water and they hold this meeting 2 miles away from this in a big swanky hotel with full-time catered food. The best they can get and 2 miles away these people who they say would be hurt by electricity and capitalism are drinking out of mud puddles! Then they get pissed at Bush because he refused to attend!! I could not go there either and eat lobster while they starve 2 miles down the road! Instead, Mr. Bush is send 15 billion. Guess he just didn't care for the company.

�The environmentalists try to inject guilt into people for consuming, as if consuming by itself causes destruction to the environment. There is no truth to that. You have the wealthiest countries on earth with the best looked-after environment. Poverty, not wealth, is one of the biggest threats to the Earth's ecological health. Look at the environmental destruction caused by poverty. They have no money left to reforest, they have no money left to prevent soil erosion, and there is no money to clean their water after they make it dirty. It's that kind of arrogance that is coming from a movement that is basically white upper-middle class and is saying that it's neat to have Africans with no electricity. They are mainly political activists with not very much actual science background who are using the rhetoric of environmentalism to push agendas that are more political than they are ecological.�

-Patrick Moore, head of the environmental advocacy group Greenspirit, and a former founding member of Greenpeace. Moore left Greenpeace in the 1980s after becoming disillusioned with what he considered the group's radical approach to environmental concerns.

Once the Western World cancel African debt, then they'll have a chance to drive themselves into a more prosperous position.

Did you realise that some poor African countries spend more on debt than they do on health and education combined?

It's also the case that there are plenty of corrupt governments in Africa... it's difficult to see what to do with this. Really, the people have to want to change the government, and until they're not worrying about starvation and aids, that's not going to happen.

Agreed, and we have to get all these people out of their way to evolve into the modern world. We were once primitive too and there is nothing that says we or they should stay that way. Our culture changes and its a good thing. i don't think it would be bad for them to change a culture full of ignorance and poverty but some think its neat that they are that way.

hey and there are a lot of people in the western world that spend more on debt than medicine too. No one is cancelling their debt either. But I think that all my country sends is aid which is not required to be paid back. Once they get a business community established, if they ever get the chance, then we'll wheel and deal with them but for now, its a pityful case over there. Aids is running wild, yet they have known for a while what causes that.

is incurred by the warlords fighting each other over dustbowls...it's pretty ridiculous... Until those governments change, nothing else will either... Those few who do rise above it, get educated, then leave and never come back...furthermore causing a "brain drain" effect.

So much of Africas' poverty and suffering is down to corrupt government officials. Many groups of people there arm themselves and fight against their own governments, because they know that. What's the point of sending more aid for corrupt government officials to steal and re-sell on the black market at inflated prices?

The African's in power are abusing their own people!

It's a shame and very tragic, but greed and the need to control other's is a part of the human condition. Until fair leader's with compassionate hearts come to power, things more than likely won't change. Then sadly, those types of leaders are the same one's who usually get assassinated because of the greed of others.

Why do we help the Iraqis but turn a blind eye to Africa?

The answer of course, is many reasons. First, there is the simple fact that the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, though initially caused by Saddam, is worsened by the war we intiated...so, in good faith, we must aid here. Second, it goes into all of the other reasons for this war, both stated, and not stated.

Originally posted by deepwaters

It's a shame and very tragic, but greed and the need to control other's is a part of the human condition. Until fair leader's with compassionate hearts come to power, things more than likely won't change. Then sadly, those types of leaders are the same one's who usually get assassinated because of the greed of others.

I couldn't agree more.