Government to give £60,000,000 to Pakistan

[changilass]

Saw this posted on face book, and have to say I gotta agree with the sentiment, what do others think?


The Government announced they are going to give £60,000,000 to Pakistan;We have troops maimed & dying through streets with pathetic MOD pensions,people being denied life saving drugs & a HUGE national debt;Yet we donate millions that we dont have to other countries before helping our own.

[shazzap]

Totally agree.

[Alice in Blunderland]

If the government didn't give this money to Pakistan would it improve any of the above mentioned things. :confused

[bagpuss]

Why not tell Mr Osborne to cut off all foreign aid? not the most moral society- but it might help pay back the deficit

[changilass]

Its not that they are giving it to Pakistan that I object to, its that they are giving it to anyone, charity begins at home.

I wouldn't give my last slice of bread to my neighbour if my child was starving.

Why when we are in recession are the governement giving money away to anyone.

[Bazeye]

Were giving a lot more away to the EU.

[Amy-Winehouse]

Saw this posted on face book, and have to say I gotta agree with the sentiment, what do others think?


The Government announced they are going to give £60,000,000 to Pakistan;We have troops maimed & dying through streets with pathetic MOD pensions,people being denied life saving drugs & a HUGE national debt;Yet we donate millions that we dont have to other countries before helping our own.


That is ridiculous, give them nothing. That country is corrupt (sos ours but not to the same point) & harbours terrorists- I dont want my taxes to be spent on a far away foreign country.

Which numpty decided this amount ??

[changilass]

As I already said its not who its going to, its the fact that its going at all.

We need to sort out our own mess afore trying to tackle other's.

[Joboco]

I totaly agree, how can we give away money to other nations when we cant manage hour own national debt.

[Fly]

Totally agree. The USA and Britain are giving the bulk of foreign aid to Pakistan, the wealthy Muslim countries are doing very little to help out. It is long past time we stopped all this hand-outs to those who would stab us in the back as fast as look at us. Charity begins (and ends) at home.

[changilass]

Actually Saudi is the 2nd highest aid giver, Britain is 4th but with the doubling up will be 3rd.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11032312

[ducati]

Foreign policy is complicated, you get back more than you give, in many ways. ;)

[Tubthumper]

If some of our investment managers, business leaders and offshore bankers would pay the tax they're due, we'd all be better off. And if those who choose to live off the state for no good reason would get off their butts, earn a crust and pay some taxes, what a blissful existence we could have.

But let's face it, even considering the upcoming austerity, we'll still live in a world that most Pakistanis can't even dream of, even when they're not up to their necks in sewage-ridden mud, holding their dying children. And how many of them are terrorists?

Hard times ahead for us, and charity begins at home. But letting millions starve and die who could be saved hardly shows a caring society.

[Nacho]

The Government announced they are going to give £60,000,000 to Pakistan;We have troops maimed & dying through streets with pathetic MOD pensions,people being denied life saving drugs & a HUGE national debt;Yet we donate millions that we dont have to other countries before helping our own.

that's just it, we DO have this money, it's been ring fenced and protected by govt to support countries like Pakistan. it's not available to be spent elsewhere.

i understand your objection to giving aid to countries while we are facing massive cuts, but this amount of aid would disappear into our black hole, while in a country like Pakistan, it would provide an amazing amount of support to the people (innocent families and children) who would benefit and will save/rebuild their lives.

as long as the aid is spent correctly ( i.e. not spending Scotland's charitable millions on weddings etc ... see Malawi) i don't have a problem with it.

there's currently a drought and famine in Niger , but this is completely off the radar ... why's that ?

[changilass]

It makes sense I suppose.

A bit like the money for gaelic signs would only be spent on that and not on our roads ect.

Thanks for pointing out the obvious doh.

[Aaldtimer]

It makes sense I suppose.

A bit like the money for gaelic signs would only be spent on that and not on our roads ect.

Thanks for pointing out the obvious doh.

Oh for God's sake! You can trivialise the suffering of millions of Pakistan's people and children dying of starvation and disease with this crap!
You should be ashamed of yourself.
Have you any idea of the extent that these people are suffering?:roll:

We in this country have no idea of the poverty and suffering that these people have to put up with, through no fault of their own, their Government, overwhelmed by the catastrophe, but down to Nature...the excessive Monsoon rains have created a situation never before encountered, and you would have us stand by and just refuse to help?

[_Ju_]

Everyone of us is having a hard time in the current economic sitution. But I wouldn't compare my uncomfort with what so many pakitani are going through. They are not even in the same world to be able to compare.

[Joboco]

So it's OK to give money to a country that help train the Taliban to kill our troops I dont think so.
I have lived and worked amongst these people in the UK and most of them hate our guts.

[ducati]

So it's OK to give money to a country that help train the Taliban to kill our troops I dont think so.
I have lived and worked amongst these people in the UK and most of them hate our guts.

I wonder why?

We have obligations; we are largely responsible for where most Pakistanis live, and the state of their underlying infrastructure. The least we can do is help when there is a disaster.

We are so lucky in the UK; temperate climate, no significant earthquakes, volcanoes, extremes of weather and an infrastructure that is the envy of most of the world.

Wake up and appreciate what you have.

[Walter Ego]

So it's OK to give money to a country that help train the Taliban to kill our troops I dont think so.

Blinkered and short term view of the problems in Pakistan. Extending the hand of friendship works a damn sight better that insulting a whole nation for the actions of a minority group. Perhaps you think all Northern Irish Catholics should be treated as TRIRA sympathisers as well?



I have lived and worked amongst these people in the UK and most of them hate our guts.

I smell bullshit.

I too have lived and worked amongst 'these people' for many years. The vast majority are honest, hardworking respectable people. Why has my experience been so different to your alleged experience?

[brandy]

i have to agree with the op to a point. we need to look to our own first.. how many children in this country are living in abject poverty? just because the majority of us here have loads, it does not reflect the rest of the country.
people tend to be blind to the poverty around us.
i dont really like speaking of this, but at one time i lived in poverty..
when i was just my mother and me.
we had no food, no clothing, no heat, and was evicted during a snow storm once and had to sleep in the car praying the gas wouldnt run out so we wouldnt freeze to death.
i can remember my mother going hungry so i could have something to eat.
i can also remember us not being able to afford heat in the bitter winter, and my mom sitting two chairs in front of the oven and turning it on.. and we would cuddle in front of it trying to stay warm.
i can remember having to go to christian ministries and going thru isles of donated clothing and cans looking for clothes and food because we couldnt buy any.
as a child sams age.. (7) i stood for 6-7 hours in a line with my mother just so we could get cheese, bread, milk and eggs from the social services.
i can remember getting so excited at christmas time because social services also took in donated toys and put them into giant bins and after again standing in line the several hours to get the staples the children got to choose a toy for christmas.
i was 16 years old the first time i ever lived in a house.
i can remember that day clearly..
it was one of the happiest of my life.
i thought that we had won the lottery..
mom was working full time making 20,000 dollars a year and my step dad was working full time making the same.
suddenly we went from having nothing to everything.
we had a tv and cable, i had a room with heat in a real house.
we had a car!
we were stable for the first real time in my life.
i was even able to go out with friends at the weekend,
my mom would even give me 20 dollars to go to the movies and buy pizza! it was heaven!!
but yes i know what poverty is.. and its just as bad here as anywhere else.
ive lived without water, food, power, shelter, clothing that was falling off, too big to small.. and everything else.
so i agree that we should help our own before helping others.
while its a great thought to put out money to help others.. we can not turn a blind eye to our own desprate and needy

[Alice in Blunderland]

I have lived and worked amongst these people in the UK and most of them hate our guts.

I happen to be married to ONE OF THESE people and at this present moment I watch him slog his guts out every day from early morning until quite late at night caring for many no matter what religion, colour, creed whether they have money or have nothing or which country they came from. He sees them all as people in need. I have never heard him once complain I don't want my taxes to go for this I want them to go for that. We handover tax monthly and hopes that those who are trying to run this country do the best they can with said money. Sometimes they get it right and sometimes they get it wrong but underneath it all we are all fellow humans.

As Brandy has shown in her compelling story some of us have truly not felt poverty first hand. Its so easy to sit at home behind our nice computers saying give those people nothing charity begins at home but unless you have truly suffered as these people are suffering, whose fault, is not the issue then surely charity should know no borders.

What next ? Don't support children in other countries, orphanages, elderly, blind.The list is endless once you start.

Who are we to walk past a fellow human in need and judge them ?

To turn a blind eye to people in need no matter what the political situation or country they live in is wrong. Its inhuman.

Yes charity does begin at home we have an excellent state system. Its being openly used and abused by millions of people from within this country and beyond daily! We all have our faults and failings.

This amount of money is a drop in the ocean compared to what bankers wasted last year through pure greed.

[changilass]

[quote=Aaldtimer;764646]Oh for God's sake! You can trivialise the suffering of millions of Pakistan's people and children dying of starvation and disease with this crap!
You should be ashamed of yourself.
Have you any idea of the extent that these people are suffering?:roll:
quote]

I will not apologise and neither am I ashamed for trying to understand why money is going out of the country when it is in such a bad way. I understand the idea of earmarking money for certain issues, but hadn't even though about it with regards this issue, and certainly never thought that we would have so much in reserve when our own counrty is in such a mess.

I am not suggesting we just allow folks to suffer, I just want to know why we feel the need to give so much more than other countries, some of who are in a better economic position to do so,

[Rheghead]

I support the donation to Pakistan's needy. The cost to each of us is only about a blummin £1. These people have nothing and we still have so much in comparison. Have a flipping heart for pity's sake.

[Bazeye]

I support the donation to Pakistan's needy. The cost to each of us is only about a blummin £1. These people have nothing and we still have so much in comparison. Have a flipping heart for pity's sake.

How much of that £1 actually gets to those in need though. after you take off the admin costs etc not to mention what corrupt officials manage to skim off it. Dont know if it was on this forum or another that i read that Foreign aid is given by poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries, which to an extent I agree with. Another thing I noticed was that when Band Aid was on for the starving in Ethiopia, the population of that country was 37,000,000, now a mere twenty five years later it has more than doubled to 80,000,000. If they didnt have enough food then why didnt they learn their lesson. Sorry if that sounds heartless but for me their are enough worthy causes in this country to donate to, for which many shouldnt have to rely on charity in the first place. Charity begins at home. IMO.

[scotsboy]

If we couldn’t afford to give the aid then we wouldn’t. The fact is that nobody starves to death in the UK, even the poorest of the poor in the UK is well-off compared with the standards of those unfortunates in the flood affected areas of Pakistan.

[golach]

I support the donation to Pakistan's needy. The cost to each of us is only about a blummin £1. These people have nothing and we still have so much in comparison. Have a flipping heart for pity's sake.

Have to say I am with you Rheg, I have food in my belly and a roof over my head, what have those poor people got?

[_Ju_]

So it's OK to give money to a country that help train the Taliban to kill our troops I dont think so.
I have lived and worked amongst these people in the UK and most of them hate our guts.

Every german was a Nazi, every English soccer fan is a hooligan, every male is a potential pedophile, every UK citizen declared an illegal war, every blonde is intellectually challenged and drinker an alcoholic as well, I suppose.
If you are going to hold the people of Pakistan personally responsible for the actions of renegades, even if with some complicity of the authorities, then so must every UK citizen be personally responsible for the decisions made by the government we elect. I do not want to be responsible for Blair era decisions.

[Rheghead]

So it's OK to give money to a country that help train the Taliban to kill our troops I dont think so.
I have lived and worked amongst these people in the UK and most of them hate our guts.

Even if most of them hate our guts, I still say they deserve better.