African drought.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....pia-risk-cholera.html

Why does Britain need to dish out a further £52m worth of aid on top of the £13million donated by Britons to the DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal launched only a week ago, plus the annual amount we already give in aid to Africa, and the amount we are obliged to donate via The United Nations.?

How much are the wealthy countries of Africa giving from their Gold and Diamond mines?

[emmie]

that is your opinion, and i beg to differ.

[notasyoungasiwas]

I have just read this and I am with you 100% AOG. We don't have enough money in this country apparently to care for our elderly, care homes shutting all the time and those that don't shut, residents being abused. Heating bills constantly rising and Cameron (despite saying otherwise pre election) cutting the winter fuel benefit. How many of our elderly will die again this winter or choose to keep warm rather than eat (disgusting!!). I feel we give enough aid abroad and more money should be spent here on the elderly. And I am not racist, I donate monthly to Save the Children for children and babies in Africa. I think enough is enough.

[joeluke]

Charity begins at home

[evil__sheep]

i would guess it's because most reasonable people realise 2 things 1. that where they are born is a complete "accident" 2. they can put themselves in other people's shoes and realise "there but for the grace of god" etc

[karenmac60]

Well said sheep

[emmie]

I was born into Britain, at a time when the country was in the doghouse,
austerity measures were in places, and most of the families i knew and grew up with were relatively poor, so we may be well off now, and i don't think that is for the majority, but we do remember hard times.

[NOX]

With the greatest respect Em, no-one in Britain in the last 50 years has been dying of lack of clean water etc. I myself was born into grinding poverty in West Belfast but that is certainly nothing approaching what the poor people in Africa have to endure- it's not a relevant comparison at all.

[boxtops]

I agree nox - none of our children are dying because there is no food or water, and none to be had anywhere.

[Wrongn3mber]

I think that many people with the wrong attitude would benefit from going to some of the worlds poorest places to see how they live and most of these people would gladly share the last of their meagre scraps with a visiting stranger as has happened many times to me and others as many of these people have core community spirit and values that we are sadly lacking in the west.

[New Judge]

All this is very true, but it misses the point. I’m not talking about the whole of Ethiopia (as has been suggested). I’m talking about the parts of Ethiopia and Somalia where the UN estimates that some 10m people are at risk because of the latest drought and where even camels are dying.

The remaining seventy-odd million people in Ethiopia are either unwilling or unable to assist their compatriots and once again it falls to the wider world (though not that wide, it has to be said) to come to their aid. I am not particularly proud of continually sustaining these lives in conditions that are harsh and unbearable and which would lead to prosecutions were you to keep animals in those conditions in the UK.

I will repeat, that part of the world (not Addis Ababa) is uninhabitable. Parts of Ethiopia are punctuated by huge rivers and water and food are not problematic. But parts of it experience the highest year round temperatures on Earth and among the lowest rainfall and it is those parts that should be depopulated. If the Ethiopians will not do that themselves it serves no purpose for us to continually provide emergency aid so that even more children can be born, live a wretched short life and die a horrible death.

[Wrongn3mber]

Thanks trigger :)

[Gromit]

New Judge,

It might not be leafy Surrey, but Ethiopia has been habited for 400,000 years. The earliest humans lived in this area. People sometimes have to live in dangerous areas. There are millions of people living on the San Andres fault and eventually thousands will be killed. But when that catastrophe does unfold it does not mean we should ignore the survivors and dismiss them for living in a bad place.

[TheTruthHere]

Nox // no-one in Britain in the last 50 years has been dying of lack of clean water etc.?

Every winter plenty of old folk die from the cold.

[Gromit]

TheTruthHere,

About 20 people a year die of Hypothermia in the UK. Every old person get a winter weather payment of £250 (£400 for a couple). Those 20 deaths should not be occurring because the old people are getting financial help. Unfortunately, they, for some reason are not using the money to keep warm.

[TheTruthHere]

I thought you had to be 65 or over at what age can someone get this winter fuel payment

Do the people aged 59 or 60 etc not feel the cold in this country
Swap the sun and no water for cold and no heat

[tigerlelly]

I've just come back to this post from earlier.
Trigger - perhaps us oldies are less inclined to throw money at this problem because we are rather cynical about it; taxes and charitable donations have been going to Africa for decades and nothing changes.
As I said before mere money does no good. I've lived in Africa and have seen the state of things. In the short term these people need water and food; in the long term their wealthy and corrupt Govts. need to get off their well-fed ***** and formulate a plan for wells, irrigation and etc. Maybe some desalination plants. Somewhere like Canada which always has a glut of water should, with financial help from other countries, be sending tankerloads of water. The money is diverted by Govts. and food and aid packages are frequently hi-jacked and sold on the black market. The problems are nothing to do with anything our ancestors did or didn't do and all down to the unforgiving climate of that continent, in which case perhaps there really is no final answer.

[Gromit]

TheTruthHere

// Do the people aged 59 or 60 etc not feel the cold in this country //

Everyone feels the cold, but someone of 59 should not be dying of hypothermia (and none have). They are still of working age so can offord to keep warm.

[TheTruthHere]

Sorry Gromit i see what you mean anyone under 65 should be working so they don't count

A short bus ride from your Greater Manchester Home i can show you a family who in the winter months are in bed around Eight thirty every night trying to keep warm.