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The Forum > Article Comments > Foreign aid: moral imperative and national interest > Comments

Foreign aid: moral imperative and national interest : Comments

By James Dryburgh, published 28/5/2012

If our government won't meet our foreign aid responsibilities, perhaps individuals can.

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Enlightened and proactive communities and voters can shape the culture and priorities of their elected representatives and the Australian Government in support of greater foreign aid to address the unmet needs of the poor in our Asia Pacific region and beyond. It can not be left to politicians to manipulate the aid budget just to achieve a surplus.

Diaspora communities in Australia play an important role in helping reduce poverty across the globe by sending money, goods and in-kind support to their families and friends abroad. This form of giving needs to be encouraged, celebrated and recognised by society and by the Australian Parliament.

For the last 100 years, the Macedonian diaspora in Australia has been providing all types of monetary and other forms of assistance to Macedonia and to other parts of the region where Macedonians live and have not waited on the Australian Government to provide assistance even though a strong case can be made that as Australian taxpayers they can demand at least some scholarships to be available for talented and needy young Macedonians.
Posted by Macedonian advocacy, Monday, 28 May 2012 10:49:02 AM
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Foreign aid is an international crime, keeping developing communities in poverty. With the exception of humanitarian relief for disasters, it should be abandoned. With free trade, light regulation and low taxes, poverty will be eliminated within a generation.
Posted by DavidL, Monday, 28 May 2012 11:36:42 AM
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We see the total mismanagement of money here in Australia by our current Government. That is why foreign aid had to be cut.

Generalisations such as 'History is also on the side of the moral argument, showing that one place is generally wealthy at the expense of another.' is unhelpful. The huge untapped wealth stored up in many African nations leaves many in poverty. Generally it is corrupt and incompetent Governments as well as tribal mentality in these places that keep these people poor. Look at the billions poured into local aid in NT/QLD/WA and yet you still see great poverty. Very few Australians would object to giving to those less blessed than us however it is nice to give from generosity rather than guilt pushed upon us by social engineering.
Posted by runner, Monday, 28 May 2012 2:34:12 PM
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Macedonia is in Europe Yes/No! Then why do they need financial aid!!
Posted by Kipp, Monday, 28 May 2012 6:19:24 PM
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< The Federal government had committed to increase foreign aid from 0.35 per cent to 0.5 by 2015-16. The recent budget included the postponement of this commitment for a further year. >

Yeah. ‘Committed’, my bum!

We should be contributing the UN long-recommended 0.7% of GDP.

< Those who believe our aid contribution should be increased may also deeply disapprove of how the money is distributed and the conditions placed on recipients. >

We need to make sure that it is right sort of aid, directed at the implementation of sustainable societies, particularly the reduction of the birthrate in many countries, and at the causal factors of refugeeism….and at emergency aid in times of disasters.

There SHOULD be conditions placed on it. Strong conditions that the recipient countries do all that it can to further these causes.

<< Yet, most of us could easily divert 0.5 per cent of our own annual income and chose exactly where it goes. >>

Well, we should always be free to make contributions of this sort. But it shouldn’t be used as an excuse for our government to not contribute a reasonable amount that a developed country should be contributing.

< Nor can we rely on governments to act from a moral imperative, institutions don't have morals, only individuals do. >

Oh I think we CAN expect and demand that our government act from a moral perspective.

The trouble with individual morals and aid contributions is that they are all over the place. There are lots of different charities out there. Lots of them are not really addressing the baseline problems but are only dealing with the symptoms.

So as well as personal contributions, we need well-directed government-implemented aid programs.

Good article James.
Posted by Ludwig, Tuesday, 29 May 2012 9:56:37 AM
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Ludwig you've got to be kidding. Give even more money to those monkeys in suits at the UN, what are you thinking?

If NATO had not stepped in, after 4 years of monkey business by the UN, the slaughter in Bosnia would still be going on.

Move your view to the middle east & you have the monkeys, still trying to type out the works of Shakespeare, & doing just as well as usual. Unless someone else steps in the UN will kill thousands in Syria, by remote control as usual.

I feel sick every time I see these useless excuses for diplomats pontificating on TV. Hell, those in power in must be trembling in their boots. The monkeys are threatening to wag a finger at them.

Give more money to the UN, bull dust. What we should be doing is to help move the whole organisation to the ends of the earth, then push it off.

About the only thing Gillard could do to get me to vote for her is withdraw from the UN, & cancel all treaties we have been stupid enough to sign. Of course I still probably wouldn't vote for her, unless the other lot looked like rejoining. She has taught us well to lie.
Posted by Hasbeen, Tuesday, 29 May 2012 10:56:48 AM
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Hasbeen, did you read my whole post?

Big proviso – there should be strong conditions placed on our aid, so that we can be assured that it is being used wisely. And the moment we see that it isn’t we should be willing to withdraw it.

Whether our aid be provided through the UN, through organisations outside of the UN or bilaterally with various countries is not important to me, just as long as it is vigorously overseen and directed at the right sort of things, as outlined in my last post.

Yes the UN has its problems. But I don’t take your hardline view that it should be done away with. It is at least in theory a wonderful organisation.

We should be pushing for reforms to it, as a fundamental part of making sure that our aid money is properly utilised.
Posted by Ludwig, Tuesday, 29 May 2012 11:32:32 AM
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There was a sad documentary on Niger the other night. People are
hungry and the UN wants more money to feed them all. They pointed
out that the average woman has around 7 kids to feed.

Sad as all this is, all it will achieve is to produce even more
women with 7 kids to feed, unless food aid is tied to family
planning. All you are doing is increasing the problem for future
years. This just not seem to sink in with the UN, or perhaps its
the Vatican influence at the UN, which is part of the problem.
Let them send their billions, the Vatican Bank is overloaded as it is.
Posted by Yabby, Tuesday, 29 May 2012 12:12:10 PM
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Sponsor a child like Lily.

Gorgeous kid. Doesn’t that ad pull at the heart-strings.

But is that the right sort of aid, or is just addressing symptoms, or worse; exacerbating the problems as Yabby says.
Posted by Ludwig, Tuesday, 29 May 2012 1:39:07 PM
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Ludwig, mate, the chances of getting any control over how our aid money, once the cheque is signed, is about the same as the chance of those UN monkeys typing Shakespeare.

Yes mate, the UN was a good idea in 1945 too. How damn long do you want to give it to achieve even some of it's promise.

Having watched how our aid money was wasted by idiot bureaucrats in Papua New Guinea, I'm afraid I have no rose coloured glasses left.

Now they could give it to you & me to administer, but are you sure you are not corruptible, once you get your hands on all that mullah? If you ever worked for government I'm afraid you must be infected, by the waste bug.

I guess that just leaves me. So just give it to me, no matter what I do with it, it will be better than those monkeys would do, & I really do need to see if the latest Ferraris are any better than those I raced years ago. At least I won't buy guns with it.
Posted by Hasbeen, Tuesday, 29 May 2012 1:40:49 PM
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Well, that was the ad that appeared on this thread.

And then as soon as I posted, the ad changed!!
Posted by Ludwig, Tuesday, 29 May 2012 1:41:30 PM
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Aaargh, that damn 4-posts-in-24-hours thing! I can fiiinally post again on this thread. Yaarhoo!

Well Hasbeen, if our aid money can’t be well spent, I’m with you. We should hold onto it.

But we should be doing our damnedest to find ways of making it work. Then we implement or assist projects only where we’ve got confidence of good management and effective outcomes.

In fact, that is probably a very good way of utilising our aid. Rather than spreading it thinly amongst many projects and countries, we should perhaps refine it to just a few and really properly financially facilitate them.

But let’s just remember the priorities; family planning / population stabilisation / sustainable societies and the causal factors of refugeeism, which are not really separate things when it comes down to it. And disaster relief.
Posted by Ludwig, Wednesday, 30 May 2012 10:07:45 AM
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Ludwig, you may recall we sent either HMAS Manoura, or Kanmmbla to Indonesia with both their earthquakes. The first time, the big tsunami, they were welcomed by all who needed help.

The second time, when their "big men" had not run away, we were not welcome. The big men wanted to control who got what, & did not want our navy getting in the way of them exerting their authority.

We were told, "You go home, just send money".

Can you imagine how pissed off our sailors were when we could not manage to send either ship to help our own, after our cyclone. With places like Cardwell right on the beach, our amphibian capacity was what was needed.

It is certainly a strange country where the calls for foreign aid are louder than any to help our own.

I wonder if it can be that many have good prospects of profiting from foreign aid work?
Posted by Hasbeen, Wednesday, 30 May 2012 5:24:16 PM
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Hasbeen: We were told, "You go home, just send money".

Actually that was the UN advisors. (ANZC Days are great aren’t they) I was talking to a half Colonel & a few of his officers that were there at the time this happened.

What happened was, The UN flew into Jakarta & took 3 months to setup in one of the expensive Hotels there. After 3 months they arrived on the scene & "ordered" the Australian Navy & support staff to leave as they were the ones with the expertise to handle disasters.

I believe after that there were some diplomatic exchanges & the Navy had to leave. (politely, of course) After that Aid was directed by the UN Staff & as Hasbeen says some "Bigwigs" from Jakarta. The people were fairly much left up to their own devises after that. The Local People then got angry with Australia for abandoning them. Go figure.
Posted by Jayb, Saturday, 2 June 2012 2:36:18 PM
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