David Lammy whines on about Africa and Red Nose Day. He is right in one respect; this guilt fest isn’t actually doing very much and it is patronising. However, instead of acknowledging the obvious, he wants to keep giving, just to not patronise those poor Africans and not to stereotype them.
Here’s the thing: Aid simply creates a culture of dependency. You really want to help Africans drag themselves out of poverty? Trade without barriers and tariffs (and to be fair to Lammy, he recognises this). Let them trade their produce on the open market and drag themselves out instead of constantly seeking a crutch from us. And, no, I don’t feel remotely guilty about Britain’s colonial past.
In the meantime, Red Nose Day is something I studiously avoid along with all of the other televised yetanotherthons full of celebrities trying to guilt trip me into handing over the contents of my wallet. Well, I already gave – the state takes round 50% of my money and gives it on my behalf without my consent to charities that are nothing of the sort and are organisations I abhor. Until the state stops stealing my money and giving it to charity on my behalf, I will not give any more.
As for the dreadful TV binge today? I’ve got enough DVDs to watch, such that I can readily avoid the embarrassing spectacle in its entirety. And I will be doing just that.
To see the BBC in full flight over Red Nose Day and the like, it is not only guilt-tripping but also cheap, unthinking television in which ho-hum celebs can be paid for prancing around. Paid by you via the Telly Tax, and offering the Beeb a chance to show brown women in hijabs, again.
If you have the misfortune to watch their dire output, see how many Muslim women get shown. It’s like, you know, really important they appear.
I will be avoiding the whole sickly affair too.
I hardly ever watch television so I won’t be seeing it either.
Outside the EU Customs Union/alleged Single Market, the UK can remove tariff and non-tariff barriers on imports from African economies.
That is the best ‘aid’, reducing cost to UK consumers, increasing availability of products so they can voluntarily buy more of what Africans produce, making both parties richer individually rather than giving millions stolen from UK taxpayers to buy limousines, private jets, trips to Harrods, etc for African rulers + wives and fill their Swiss bank accounts.
+1000, Aid, as the Haiti debacle demonstrated is a corruption fest. We’ve been chucking money at African economies for decades, and the poor buggers are still borassic. Free trade, free of political interference is the way forward.
It might not have occurred to people that Africa is irredeemable. It is tribal and tribalism will ALWAYS win out and defeat the best efforts of well intentioned Europeans who flatly refuse to face up to reality.
These two articles sum it up succinctly – note the date on the second which is linked from the first articles comments:
http://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=9903
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/924795/posts
Looking back with a historical perspective, the Romans kicked the living crap out of the tribal system in Britain (except Scotland) and we have had about 2,000 years to get used to it. perhaps if Apartheid had of continued for a century or so, then the inherent tribalism in South Africa MIGHT have been weakened to such an extent that it may have evolved into a modern state but it wasn’t to be. Unexpected consequences and all that, eh?
I’m beginning to suspect that the public are developing immunity to the pleading of the aid hustlers. I reckon the money is drying up. Note how we are now being bleated at by Brenda Blethyn, as opposed to the usual right-on, public-school, pampered luvvies. Perhaps they thought her image of northern integrity would unlock our wallets, it won’t unlock mine.