by frog
Lyndon Hood
For the last week or so since the NZAID shake-up story broke in the NZ Herald Mr McCully has been flitting around Europe. During the time Mr McCully was probably scoffing hors d’ouvres in Paris it has come to light that a $1.95 million a year Pacific aid programme which supports villages across the Pacific in areas like natural resource management has been canned.
While programs devoted to natural resource management get the chop the Government has found millions of dollars to keep Pacific tourism links going – links which the Prime Minister told journalists earlier this week could very well be coming from NZAID’s already tight budget. Now, I enjoy a pacific blue-lagoon-style holiday just like the next amphibian, and maybe we should be assisting our Pacific pals’ tourism industries – but should NZAID’s budget be going to Air New Zealand. This seems a little stingy to this frog and has led our Green Party MP Dr Kennedy Graham to call for some answers from the Minister.
In these tough economic times our Foreign Minister should perhaps heed the advice of the Christian World Service and keep up our commitment to the world’s poorest. This advice also comes from an organisation Mr McCully’s pals from the 1990s were always willing to follow the – International Monetary Fund.
Published in Justice & Democracy | Media by frog on Tue, March 10th, 2009
Tags: Dr Kennedy Graham, Murray McCully, NZ Herald, NZAid, pacific
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
I hope so.
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so do I
Why do we have to pick up these failed economies
we have enough problems to deal with here
most of the aid gets stolen by the dictators or eaten up in fees and expenses getting it to those in need
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“Celebrities have raised millions, but it only served to further corrupt governments with the leaders able to steal money without suffering any consequences for years while at the same time the people have been made further aid-dependent. Today Africa is far poorer than it was 40 years ago.”
Moyo argues that aid has not only perpetuated African poverty, but also worsened it, and thinks it would be a good idea for all aid to be halted within five years…She met Bono the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last year, when they both attended a party to raise money for Africa. ‘I was the only African in the room,’ she said. ”
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/03/06/1235842656963.html
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One of the reasons the heaps of money spent on aid internationally often doesn’t seem to help people in the world’s poor countries is that a lot of governments are already using it to provide business for their own companies, like Murray McCully is proposing, rather than actually choosing the aid projects that will be most helpful for the people they are supposed to be helping.
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What we didn’t get from Labour’s (for god’s sake, the press ran the story too, how about using them?) press release was:
http://scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0903/S00087.htm
Which is not a slam dunk, but sheds much-needed light on the issue.
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Whoops, i mean http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10560249&ref=rss
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Interview with the aforementioned Dambisa Moyo
http://www.standpointmag.co.uk/dialogue-march-09-africa-dambisa-moyo-aid-dependency-colonialism-poverty-corruption
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Couple of interesting short videos about problems to do with patronising liberals treating Africans as victims who need handouts:
http://blogs.nyu.edu/fas/dri/aidwatch/
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I see the trolls are alive and well and couldn’t care less!
Actually this is pretty serious stuff – so serious that EVERY aid agency in NZ is up in arms about it and already petitioning McCully, Key, and English to change their tiny minds and fast before we become the laughing stock of the “developed” world as far as Aid programmes go.
Those interested enough and concerned enough can get more information here http://www.dontcorruptaid.org.nz
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All those who care so much about it might want to do something practical.
Put your hand in your OWN pocket and bank account and donate your OWN money. Surely the Greens can raise $1.95 million. Then funnily enough you’ll learn that people donating tend to want to have some accountability for what it is spent on.
Far more moral than forcing those who are uninterested in paying. Start putting the “me” where you say “we”, and stop relying on nanny state to care for you.
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Libertyscott,
You may not be aware that most aid to the Pacific Islands already comes from the pockets of private individuals. For example, New Zealand’s official aid to Tonga in 2008/2009 is about $NZ 12 000 000. In contrast, remittances from overseas are estimated to be about 200 000 000 Pa’anga (about $NZ 170 000 000; this estimate includes remittances from Australia, NZ and the US, I was unable to find figures just for NZ).
So in other words, people _are_ digging into their own pockets to the extent that “private aid” (i.e. remittances) is much larger than official aid. In this light, NZs level of official aid does look rather stingy, and cutting it even further is … well I don’t know the best word to describe what it is.
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