Africa appeals

[2 GKC]

Significant proportion of donations get pissed up the wall on things like marketing via mail shots.

[gtidriver]

I gave £3 once for a kid to have a blanket, I ticked all the boxes asking for no contact, within an hour I had 2-3 calls asking for more money, I had to be rude to get rid, ive never given to charities since.

[Kawasicki]

Cliffe60 said:

Rich1973 said:

Look at the population of Ethiopia between the 1980s and now. Will tell you all you need to know. There is only one way that it has happened..

The population of Ethiopia was 2m in 1900, though TBF, we ( the British Empire ) killed a lot in the 1800s.
At the moment it is about 115m.
Third world population growth is scarcely and far more serious than climate change .

Tough reading..e.g. hiv/aids is the biggest killer in Ethiopia. Huge childbirth mortality rate.

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/population-deve...

[barryrs]

LeadFarmer said:

TV adverts see to be dominated by 'can you spare just £3 per month...'

Years ago there would just be adverts for RSPCA, WWF etc, but now there are adverts for obscure charities that seem to just pop up, then are never heard of again - spastic donkeys, foreign school girls etc.

I don't give to any.

I always wondered how many donations were required just to cover the cost of the advertisement?

I’m sure I read around 25% of donations/income was required to keep the lights on.

[Jazzy Jag]

I find it hard to reconcile the "send £3 a month to educate young girls and prevent them getting married and having kids" with the whole anti imperialism, the west shouldn't impose its ways on the rest of the world ethos.

Either we respect other cultures customs and practices or we impose our values on them.

You can't have it both ways.

[Esceptico]

As if there weren’t enough threads in NP&E for posters to demonstrate their lack of empathy and humanity, the OP had to start this one.

[Jazzy Jag]

Esceptico said:

As if there weren’t enough threads in NP&E for posters to demonstrate their lack of empathy and humanity, the OP had to start this one.

and, as if by magic, here you are.

[Unknown_User]

Esceptico said:

As if there weren’t enough threads in NP&E for posters to demonstrate their lack of empathy and humanity, the OP had to start this one.

[eldar]

nikaiyo2 said:

Idk 10-15 years ago there was one of the many African crises.

You know where a country can’t feed its population so the BBC send a corespondent and we are urged to give money to help save these poor souls.

I won’t go into exact details but the presidents wife of the country in crisis and her sister flew into London on a private jet to go shopping.

I can remember the Biafran Civil war and mass starvation. among the food being unloaded from the ships was pallets of Johnny Walker scotch to pay the bribes to allow a small amount of the food to reach the starving.

Until corruption is addressed history will repeat.

[DodgyGeezer]

Esceptico said:

As if there weren’t enough threads in NP&E for posters to demonstrate their lack of empathy and humanity, the OP had to start this one.

TBF though what is the answer? The West is criticised for imposing our values on 3rd world countries but then will hoover up every $ sent their way.

There is no question the majority here are far, FAR better off than a lot of people in Africa, but what actually is the best course of action?

[shih tzu faced]

Would certainly be interesting to know what percentage of the £3 actually reaches the desired destination, be it a water supply in Africa, guide dogs, knackered donkeys or the majestic snow leopard.

I get the feeling (with no real evidence it has to be said) that there is a lot of waste endemic in a lot of charities. Possibly not far off local authority type levels. By the time salaries are paid plus numerous other overheads such as premises, insurance, utilities etc not to mention tv advertising budgets, your £3 must surely be down to a few pennies.

I guess once you sign up to ‘just £3 a month’ it then opens up the floodgates and you get bombarded with begging requests.

Didn’t some poor old soul kill herself a few years ago? She gave far more than she could afford to loads of charities and after she died they found an absolute mountain of begging mail behind her front door.

I’m not anti-charity btw, but am selective how and when I donate and don’t feel guilty at all about giving a firm ‘no’ if I don’t like the sound of it.

[SCEtoAUX]

Not to me it doesn't.

[Chicken_Satay]

SCEtoAUX said:

Not to me it doesn't.

What doesn't?

[craigjm]

The problem with these appeals is that they "fix" a symptom of the issue rather than the root cause. Fixing the root cause is much more difficult and takes much more money and resources upfront. Even in the most developed of African countries like South Africa there are serious issues because the government is not run properly. Its not all about corruption, but that is a large element. It is also about incompetence and lack of investment in infrastructure and other basic things. Add into the a history of conflict in lots of African countries and it makes aid very difficult.

[Gecko1978]

DodgyGeezer said:

Esceptico said:

As if there weren’t enough threads in NP&E for posters to demonstrate their lack of empathy and humanity, the OP had to start this one.

TBF though what is the answer? The West is criticised for imposing our values on 3rd world countries but then will hoover up every $ sent their way.

There is no question the majority here are far, FAR better off than a lot of people in Africa, but what actually is the best course of action?

Agree, we have been sending charity to the continent all my life and still we need to buy a man a net etc. My guess is while we send charity we probably also export a lot of other things like arms and policy that fks up Africa.

[BobsPigeon]

It's funny but also partly true.

https://youtu.be/P0q4o58pKwA

[anonymous-user]

gtidriver said:

I had a phone call from my sons teacher a few years back, the teacher had asked the pupils to go off and research poverty in different African countries, my son looked up info on Ethiopia, he was arguing with the teacher that the uk should stop sending money to countries where the government own the national airline.

I must admit my first reaction to the 737 Max crash was , “ bet that was an ancient badly maintained 737 made in the 70s”. Was very surprised that they had the newest plane around.

[Cold]

For just the price of a cup of coffee we can get little Ngubu - a cup of coffee.*

*Milton Jones MTW

[abzmike]

Cliffe60 said:

gtidriver said:

I had a phone call from my sons teacher a few years back, the teacher had asked the pupils to go off and research poverty in different African countries, my son looked up info on Ethiopia, he was arguing with the teacher that the uk should stop sending money to countries where the government own the national airline.

I must admit my first reaction to the 737 Max crash was , “ bet that was an ancient badly maintained 737 made in the 70s”. Was very surprised that they had the newest plane around.

Ethiopia has invested in its airline and main airport in Addis, to create a Central African transit hub, and bring business and holiday traffic to the country. Seems a reasonable idea to me, and having used them they are pretty decent.

[NMNeil]

Someone needs to connect the dots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsCNCr2YngQ