Pink Floyd was still GREAT!!!
Although a bit short. If you want to end something, put Paul M. at the end and then introduce Pink Floyd again. We have heard all what Paul can do, but we're eager to hear what PF can do in a lot more than their 10 minutes!! :-D

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Pink Floyd was still GREAT!!!
Although a bit short. If you want to end something, put Paul M. at the end and then introduce Pink Floyd again. We have heard all what Paul can do, but we're eager to hear what PF can do in a lot more than their 10 minutes!! :-D

My words (almost) exactly! Cut down on Sting (who hasn't evolved since The Dream of the Blue Turtle from 1985) and Paul McCartney, and give more time to Pink Floyd and The Who!! (And Linkin Park!!!)


But it was fun though to see some of the old bands such as Bon Jovi and others. I didn't see anything before about 17.45, as I slept in the afternoon, so I missed the first hours....

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"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

So what are those poor starving bastards over there in Africa going to do with all those big bags of "Awareness" that this entire enterprise is sending out?

-Mr. anon

Yeah, its long! Yeah, its drawn out!

Read it and maybe get a real idea of what the "Real" problem is with Africa. It ain't lack of aid its lack of non-corrupt, honest, ethical leadership of the hellholes over there. So far its been a losing cause.

This is what people should be "AWARE" of.

-Mr. anon
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Cover Story – The Spectator

UK: mHOW AFRICAN LEADERS SPEND OUR MONEY

By Aidan Hartley

‘Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz,’ prayed Janis Joplin, and the Lord obliged. With or without divine intervention, the late Pope had one. So does the Queen. Erich Honecker hunted at night by dazzling the deer in his Mercedes jeep’s headlights until he got close enough to blow them away. Mao Tse-tung had 23 Mercs. Today Kim Jong Il owns dozens, all filled to the gunwales with imported Hennessy’s cognac. Hitler, Franco, Hirohito, Tito, the Shah, Ceausescu, Pinochet, Somoza — they all swore by Mercedes. Saddam Hussein liked them so much he probably had shares in the company.

Today, though, there is one man who is doing more than the Lord himself to buy a Mercedes-Benz for the leading creeps of the world. That man is of course Bob Geldof, the spur to our global conscience. Africa’s leaders cannot wait for the G8 leaders — hectored by Bob and Live 8 into bracelet-wearing submission — to double aid and forgive the continent’s debts. They know that such acts of generosity will finance their future purchases of very swish, customised Mercedes-Benz cars, while 315 million poor Africans stay without shoes and Western taxpayers get by with Hondas. This is the way it goes with the WaBenzi, a Swahili term for the Big Men of Africa.

The legacy of colonialism is a continent carved up by arbitrary frontiers into 50-odd states. But the WaBenzi are a transcontinental tribe who have been committing grand theft auto on the dusty, potholed roads of Africa ever since they hijacked freedom in the 1960s. After joyriding their way through six Marshall Plans’ worth of aid Africa is poorer today than 25 years ago; and now the WaBenzi want more.

Let us take Zimbabwe, where millions of people are starving, 3,000 die weekly of Aids and life expectancy has fallen to 35 years. In 2005 Britain will give Zimbabwe £30 million in aid, making it one of the three biggest donors. The government will say this money funds emergency relief. Try telling that to the hordes of people whose homes have been burned down and bulldozed in recent weeks. Giving corrupt governments money frees up budgets to squander on cars.

As an example of hypocrisy, it is hard to beat the call for ‘clean leadership’ in Comrade Robert Mugabe’s recent address to Zanu-PF’s Central Committee. The old dictator condemns:

‘Arrogant flamboyance and wastefulness: a dozen Mercedes-Benz cars to one life, hideously huge residences, strange appetites that can only be appeased by foreign dishes; runaway taste for foreign lifestyles, including sporting fixtures, add to it high immorality and lust.’

He is clearly talking about the WaBenzi, and their preferred version of the marque, the S600L, a long-wheelbase limo with a monstrous 7.3-litre V12 twin-turbo-charged engine. It’s as powerful as a Ferrari and 21 feet long. Basic price £93,090, but extras could be £250,000 more.

And who is the most notorious Zimbabwean owner of an S600L? Robert Mugabe, of course. Mugabe’s was custom-built in Germany and armoured to a ‘B7 Dragunov standard’ so that it can withstand AK-47 bullets, grenades and landmines. It is fitted with CD player, movies, internet and anti-bugging devices. At five tons it does about two kilometres per litre of fuel. It has to be followed by a tanker of petrol in a country running on empty. Mugabe has purchased a carpool of dozens of lesser Mercedes S320s and E240s for his wife, vice-presidents and ministers.

You may wonder why men like Mugabe did not go for Rolls-Royce, Bentley or Jaguar. The answer should be obvious: whatever their other disadvantages, British cars were associated with imperialism. Look at history and you see that up to the 1960s Mercedes-Benz was ticking along, doing nothing special. Then at about the same time as the ‘Wind of Change’ swept Africa, Mercedes produced the stretch 600 Pullman, a six-door behemoth with a 6.3-litre V8 engine. For Africa’s new top dogs, it was love at first sight. The WaBenzi were born. Idi Amin snapped up three, Bokassa more when he crowned himself emperor in central Africa. Zaire’s Sese Seko Mobutu bought so many that he kept six for his summerhouse on Lake Kivu alone. Liberia’s Sergeant Samuel Doe splurged on 60.

Since those days Africa has been through 186 coups, 26 wars and seven million dead, and the Mercedes has been ideal — both for conveying dignity and for getting out of trouble. I wondered what it was like to drive the old Pullman, so I asked veteran trans-Africa rally driver Anthony Cazalet. ‘You don’t drive it, your chauffeur does,’ he said. ‘Look, it’s a Queen Mum of a car: gentle, smooth, quiet; growls when necessary. Huge amounts of legroom and enormous seats for very big bottoms.’ Cazalet recalls taking a friend’s Pullman for a spin in Nairobi. ‘I floored the throttle and the old girl pulled up her skirt and let rip. Everybody in the car was screaming.’

Of course, not all Africans who own Mercedes cars are WaBenzi and nor am I suggesting DaimlerChrysler are at fault in any way. Thanks in large part to anti-state corruption drives by the World Bank, a middle class of hard-working, talented entrepreneurs has emerged in Africa in the last two decades. Africa’s future depends on these young entrepreneurs, and they want to buy quality cars for the same reason successful Westerners do. As one Kampala businessman says, ‘I am a serious person and I want that to be portrayed even through the car I drive.’ Free trade for Africa would certainly create more Mercedes-Benz owners. The WaBenzi, by the way, loathe free trade. Reduced bureaucracy means less opportunity for graft, and the traditional way of getting someone else to buy your German-built machine.

Take, for example, Malawi’s ‘Benz Aid’ scandal. In the year 2000 Bakili Muluzi was hailed as a paragon of African ‘good governance’ following the demise of Life President Hastings Kamuzu Banda. The Economist rated Blantyre as the best city to live in in the world. Britain promised to increase its aid from £30.8 million to £52.4 million in a single year specifically to help the 65 per cent of Malawians existing on less than 50 pence a day. Malawi’s government celebrated by purchasing 39 top-of-the-range S-class Mercedes at a cost of £1.7 million. In the furore that followed, Clare Short, then international development secretary, ruled out a ban on aid to Malawi, explaining that the money used for the car purchases had not been skimmed off British aid but some other donor’s.

Last year King Mswati III of Swaziland went against the grain. He passed over Mercedes and went for a £264,000 Maybach 62 for himself plus a fleet of BMWs for each of his 10 wives and three virginal fiancées selected annually at the football stadium ‘dance of the impalas’. Imagine if he continues buying BMW for his wives; his dad collected 50 spouses and 350 kids. In May southern Africa’s Mr Toad changed his mind about Mercedes and roared up to his rubber-stamp parliament in a new S600L limo. The total bill for his car purchases alone will be about £750,000, or three quarters of the annual figure for British assistance. Of the £14 million Swaziland gets in foreign aid, £9 million goes on the king’s balls, picnics and parties — and cars. Yet 70 per cent of Swazis languish in absolute poverty and four out of ten have HIV/Aids, the highest rate in the world.

No corner of Africa escapes the WaBenzi effect, including South Africa. Mercedes gifted Nelson Mandela one, and he accepted it. In 2001 the ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni was charged and later jailed for accepting a Mercedes ML320 at a 48 per cent discount in return for lobbying on behalf of DaimlerChrysler companies in the European Aeronautic Defence and Space consortium (Eads). At the time Eads was bidding for huge defence contracts, and Mercedes-Benz unilaterally admitted making dozens of cars available at discount prices. Some 32 officials, including the national defence chief General Siphiwe Nyanda, benefited. Most shocking of all, according to local press reports, President Thabo Mbeki himself had been given an S600L armoured limousine for a ‘test drive’. He kept it for a full six months, only handing it back in March 2001, just as the Yengeni scandal broke.

‘Why target Yengeni alone?’ the opposition’s Bantu Holomisa said at the time. ‘The President himself test-drove a similar one for six months.’ The following year Muammar Gaddafi gave Mbeki an S600L as a present. ANC officials claimed the President was ‘truly embarrassed’, but did he refuse the gift?

One of the most flagrant abuses of ‘good governance’ in Africa today is occurring in Kenya — original home of the WaBenzi. After decades of dictatorship voters in December 2002 swept Mwai Kibaki to power at the head of his NARC rainbow coalition on an anti-corruption ticket. ‘Corruption will now cease to be a way of life in Kenya,’ Kibaki promised. The very first law Kibaki’s parliament passed rewarded politicians with a 172 per cent salary increase. MPs’ take-home pay is now about £65,000 per annum (compared with a British MP’s £57,485 gross) and the Kenyan MPs’ fat package of allowances includes a £23,600 grant to buy a duty-free car, together with a monthly £535 fuel and maintenance allowance.

These grants fall way short of what many politicians actually spend on their official and private cars, Kibaki’s ministers especially. Soon after taking power the government spurned its ‘corrupt’ predecessors’ Mercedes E220 models and upgraded with the purchase of 32 new vehicles for top officials, including seven for the Office of the President. Most of these were new E240s, while the minister in charge of Kenya’s dilapidated roads, Raila Odinga, went for a customised S500 at a probable cost of £100,000. Not to be outdone, Kibaki got himself — you guessed it — the S600L limousine.

How can Kibaki spend up to £350,000 on a car when Kenyans’ average annual per capita income is £210 — less than the cost of a box of decent cigars? His purchase is legal because parliament approved it, but does that make it acceptable when Kenya is on the bones of its arse and demanding more aid?

Ministers say they should be paid so well because it stops them taking bribes. But the British High Commissioner to Nairobi, Sir Edward Clay, last year denounced the ruling ‘Mount Kenya Mafia’ as gluttons who were so overfed they left the signs of their theft in their trail as clearly as if they had puked up. He said, ‘The evidence of corruption in Kenya [amounts to] vomit, not just on the shoes of donors but also all over the shoes of Kenyans ...and the feet of those who can't afford shoes.’

In February this year Clay boldly produced another set of accusations, alluding to the fact that about £550 million has been stolen since Kibaki’s government assumed power two years ago. Kenyan ministers responded by accusing the British envoy of being a white colonialist whom nobody need listen to. Britain is the nasty former colonial power that has just increased aid massively in 2005–06, from £30.5 million to £50 million. Despite the corruption alarm bells going off in Kenya, Blair’s government has ruled out suspending aid.

Does any of this sound familiar? That’s right: by deploying the WaBenzi co-efficient you can see that more aid equals more Mercedes-Benzes. Take a look at Kenya’s 2005–06 budget, read out by finance minister David Mwiraria to a cheering parliament in Nairobi on 8 June. According to the local Daily Nation, the government has allocated £3 million for the purchase of a fleet of new vehicles for the Office of the President. A further £2.9 million has been set aside for the maintenance of the existing car-pool of vehicles. One has to wonder if this expenditure of nearly £6 million, no doubt a lot of it on Mercedes-Benzes and far in excess of the sums involved in Malawi’s ‘Benz Aid’ scandal, has anything to do with the increased aid supply.

Here’s how the WaBenzi get around. Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi have motorcades that can extend a mile long. At the very minimum an African president needs at least 30 cars: the S600L for himself, perhaps a couple more identical vehicles to confuse assassins, outriders, ministers, yes-men and chase cars bristling with guns. Snarling police in advance vehicles force you off the road up to an hour before the big man zooms past. In Kenya, I often wonder how much it all costs, to make the capital city, Nairobi, grind to a halt. When almost the entire city police force is ordered to line the roads from State House to the airport, how many rapes, murders and robberies are perpetrated in the slums?

When you hear Him coming, the back of your neck tingles as the tension mounts. Zimbabweans call Mugabe’s motorcade ‘Bob and the Wailers’ on account of the blaring sirens and flashing lights. Woe betide you if you get in the way. Early this year the Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa visited Mugabe, who picked him up in the five-ton Mercedes and was heading back to the palace when a lowly motorist stopped too close to the motorcade’s path. In Zimbabwe it is an imprisonable offence to make rude comments or gestures in ‘view or hearing of the state motorcade’. This man had done neither, but police surrounded him, viciously beat him and then dragged him away.

Apart from shielding his friend Mugabe from all criticism, Mkapa is one of Blair’s Commissioners for Africa. Mkapa, you might recall, was the president whose police killed a lot of people around the rigged elections in Zanzibar. Mkapa’s sidekick politician Salmin Amour allegedly spent £160,000 on — yup — a Mercedes S600L.

When he’s at home Mkapa has his own motorcade, which in the last five years has been involved in three separate road accidents in which 22 people have died (including a child of three) and 47 others have been seriously injured. Most were pedestrians. Mkapa escaped this road slaughter without a scratch to himself, but no wonder he often chooses to fly in the £15-million presidential jet he used state coffers to buy in 2002. A jet? Not even Blair has his own jet, but Mkapa is just about to have his entire misruled country’s debt forgiven.

Who benefits from aid? Germany gives the East African Union E8 million for the regional organisation’s secretariat in Arusha — and the car park is filled with Mercedes-Benzes. Is Germany giving the money just so that it can get it back while giving a bunch of WaBenzi in suits their sets of wheels?

Aid has not worked. A Merrill Lynch report estimates there are 100,000 Africans today who own £380 billion in wealth. At the same time more than 300 million other Africans live on 50 pence a day. Forget about the gap between north and south. The wealth gap within countries like Kenya is far, far worse than in any other part of the globe.

It doesn’t have to be like this. Africans themselves have always seen the WaBenzi as the symbol of Africa’s ills. The first martyr for the cause was Thomas Sankara, the Burkina Faso president who forced his ministers to swap their Mercedes for Renault 5s. He also made them go on runs. Sankara was overthrown and executed in 1987 by Blaise Campaore, who remains in power today. In 2001 Sam Nujoma of Namibia traded in his Mercedes for a Volvo. He said if all ministers did likewise it would save £550,000 annually. ‘We are servants of the Namibian people,’ he said. ‘It is high time that we start behaving as such.’ What a party-pooper — at least he was until this year, when as part of his huge retirement package he got a S500 worth £80,000 plus two other cars. In 2002 Zambia’s President Levy Mwanawasa went to the airport in a public bus and urged his ministers to do the same. Last year the opposition Ghanaian politician Dr Edward Nasigre Mahama proposed selling President John Kufuor’s Mercedes to pay for children’s education.

‘Get off the corruption thing,’ says Bob Geldof. The point is that nobody has got on to it properly yet. Aid-giving nations pretend to be tough on corruption, while African leaders pretend to change. Aid bureaucrats care less about financial probity than the press releases claiming that an economy is on a positive reform track. They are not helping Africa’s young entrepreneurs. By throwing fiscal discipline to the wind and shovelling aid at Africa, the international bureaucrats will fuel a new renaissance in corruption.

Meanwhile, NGOs refuse to focus on corruption because it’s simply not a priority for them. They blame corruption on Western multinationals. Charities are ideological museums stuffed with socialists and anti-globalisation activists. They loathe private enterprise. I sometimes wonder if they would prefer to see Africans stay poor so that aid workers could carry on doing good works for them.

Western pundits say the WaBenzi still exist because African culture is inherently sick, that black Africans can’t help but admire the Big Men. This does ordinary Africans an injustice. The West needs to help them get better leaders before it increases aid. Make the WaBenzi declare their wealth to their electorates and donors. Name and shame those who drive expensive cars while their people starve. Encourage policies that will create wealth so that the only Africans buying Mercedes-Benzes are honest men and women. Unless this happens Africa’s new aid package will not alleviate poverty, disease and ignorance. What it will definitely mean is more flashy limousines.

Aidan Hartley is author of The Zanzibar Chest, Harper Perennial, £8.99.

Source: The Spectator
URL: http://www.spectator.co.uk/article_pfv.php?id=6283

What An Article!

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www.boincsynergy.com

If all the monies put into Swiss and other off shore bank accounts by the leaders of Africa and their families, which were originally given as "foreign aid" by the developed countries or produced by the diversion of the monies received from the sale of Africa's natural resources, there would be far less poverty in that part of the world. Mobtu Sese Secko of Zaire, as an example pocketed at least 12 billion dollars alone during his life time alone, as a very conservative estimate. When Robert Mugabe took over the reigns of government from Ian Smith of Rhodesia in 1980, his new government bought 45 new Mercedes 450's and a 600 limo right after independance (Smith was driven around in a Peugot) with government funds. Within 60 days, 80% of the 450's were wrecked mechanically, and the limo was rolled by Mugabe's driver right after it was unloaded from a 747 freighter on the way back to the Presidential Palace. I was there in Zimbabwe during 1980 (and for a total of 4 years which many of my team member can attest to having had seen my old passports) and learned all this from a Swiss auto mechanic which worked in the goverment centeral garages.

Africa has been looted by its' own people, albeit with the help of multinational corporations. When they gained independance from their "colonial masters" they were given back land which had functioning highways, railroads, telephone systems, hospitals, radio/televison stations, functioning electrical grids, and complete government infrastructures which they proceded to misuse and loot.

Their culture is against birth control; the women want to practice it, but the men think that it is an afront against their manhood. They consider their children as their old age pension, ergo an average population increase of >8% annually. Then there's the AIDS crisis which is fueled by rampant promiscuity and absolute ignorance despite years of education to the contrary, and governments which are in total denial (Zimbabwe and South Africa come to mind).

And lest I forget, there's also the subject of years of intertribal genocide which is another hidden form of racism which has killed 10's of millions of mostly innocent men, women, and children, and continues to this day in places like the Sudan and the Congo. There probably are not enough people left in Rwanda to kill after that orgy of savage violence.

Let the bands play on and the comparitively small amounts of cash be sent to Africa to help her people; too bad most of it will be squandered or stolen. Not by the white man, but by her own leaders and their cronies. The whole thing is like one huge "Nigerian Letter."

Marie Antionette had nothing on Africa's leaders for the past 50 years nor King Louis XIV (yes XIV, not XVI) of France.

[pre]@ Mr. & Mrs. anon - Your article which you posted only scratches the surface, but is quite accurate.

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Account frozen...

Keith - Would you support the use of force to change the governments in Africa?

I'm well aware of the corruption, so are our elected leaders, they seem quite happy to stand back and let it continue. Tony Blair is no exception, allowing Mugabe and his cronies to create havoc in Zimbabwe.

So, what do you suggest we do? Ignore it and hope it just drifts quietly into obscurity?

Don't we have a duty to try and help, or is it a case of out of sight out of mind?

How about fight it head on? Tie future aid to effective distribution for what it was intended. If that means driving aid down to nothing, so be it. There are plenty of ways to waste money in our own countries, sending millions off to other countries to be wasted is pointless.

With the leadership having a culture of waste, doubling or tripling aid will have only minimal results. Now double the aid to a truely clean administration (1 that puts >75% to sustainable improvement) and inside 20 years, they won't need it any more. That needs to be the goal, to not have to continue proping up these countries.

Here's how my method works:
year 1- this year, message goes out next years aid tied to results
year 2- no major shifts, warn the wasters that either it changes or funding gets cut (offer advice and commend those that have done what is asked)
year 3 thru 20- overall aid funding remains the same, but this year "good" countries are funded at higher levels, those that continue to squander the funds are cut, some effective countries reduce their reliance and are cut-down that way.
year 21 and beyond- "good" countries are now starting to need little to no funding (goal achieved), as their funding is stopped, funding moves to other countries that have been somewhat less effective.

Yes it is competitive, and it is based on meeting goals. What it isn't, is feel-good politics or an annual and un-ending sink hole for money. The status quo hasn't worked, Live 8 has made some steps in the right direction, but it is still calling for very minor changes in this regard.

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Still looking for something profound or inspirational to place here.

Christ, I'm sorry. I somehow lost my Starry-eyed, warm and fuzzies there for a moment.

Christ, I'm sorry. I somehow lost my Starry-eyed, warm and fuzzies there for a moment.

Don't feel sorry about the unvarnished truth. If it's any consolation, remember the African refrain, "Africa for Africans." They have thrown off the "colonial yoke" while behaving like beggars in a Cairo bazaar.

Live 8 was designed to make you feel warm and fuzzy, helping the poor and depressed peoples of Mother Africa. And just like bazaar beggars, their greatest assest is pitching guilt trips.

Business is good...

There are, however, a few exceptions like Botswana.

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Account frozen...

Live 8 was designed to make you feel warm and fuzzy..far from it, it made people feel anger and frustration at the thousands of needless deaths through hunger, poverty and diseases that are curable or preventable.

We don't all see the world through rose coloured glasses.

"Warm and fuzzy" was being used to refer to people that actually believe that they are
making a difference and believe that they are, through awareness, going to make a change.

However well intentioned they are, it is quite naive.


[b]Until the leaders of Africa put their own people ahead of their own personal greed
and lust for power and control; this will be Africa's future, while only getting worse...eventually
hell will look like a vacation spot in comparison.




P.S. No one has bothered to mention how the wild life is suffering...

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Account frozen...

Keith - Would you support the use of force to change the governments in Africa?

Dont even mention that in jest thats all we need another job for inter cops if
i see one more illegal american invaison &*%^*$&**(.

ohh dont worry africa has no oil only diamonds and no american president will
get re-elected on a cheaper diamond bill.

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ohh dont worry africa has no oil only diamonds and no american president will get re-elected on a cheaper diamond bill.

And what are you smoking?

Upstream

Africa is a continent of 54 countries with an estimated mid-2000 population of 805 million people. The upstream oil industry is key to the continent of Africa, with proved reserves of 75.4 billion barrels (7% of the world's total) and in 1998 it produced 7.8 million barrels per day (381 million tons/year) of over 40 types of crude oil. Five countries dominate Africa's upstream oil production. Together they account for 85% of the continent's oil production and are, in order of decreasing output, Nigeria, Libya, Algeria, Egypt and Angola. Other oil producing countries are Gabon, Congo, Cameroon, Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Cote d'Ivoire. Exploration is taking place in a number of other countries that aim to increase their output or become first time producers. Included in this list are Chad, Sudan, Namibia, South Africa and Madagascar while Mozambique and Tanzania are potential gas producers.

Downstream

The downstream oil industry comprises 44 refineries in 25 countries with a total distillation capacity of 3,000 thousand barrels per day which represents 4% of the world total. The major refining centres are in Egypt (19.2%), Algeria (16.7%), South Africa (15.6%), Nigeria (14.6%), Libya (11.6%), Morocco (5.2%) and Kenya (3.0%) in decreasing magnitude of refining capacity (1/1/99) as a percentage of total African capacity. South Africa also has synfuels production. All countries have marketing and distributing facilities. In addition to fuels, Africa has an active lubricants industry which encompasses base oil refining, lubricant blend, distribution and marketing.

Major Players

All the major international oil companies have a presence in Africa, but there are also local African oil companies. Most of the companies issue regular press releases which are a supplement to the news available about their activities and to the investment reports of investment analysts.

The World Bank and other bodies have undertaken studies and produced reports on the African oil industry. In recent years, there have been several conferences devoted to the African oil industry in both the upstream and downstream sectors.
===========================================================================

Back when I was growing up in rural NorthEast Texas (about 30 years ago), there was poverty and starvation all around me. Many of my friends did not have running water or electricty in their 'houses'. Many of these 'houses' had leaking roofs, no cooling in the summer, precious little heat in the winter, and most had dirt floors. The 'toilet' was an outhouse, and the 'bath/shower' was down in the creek. They had precious little food to eat, and virtually no money. Those of us that DID get enough to eat at home usually gave the bulk of our school lunches to the really POOR kids during the school year, so that they would have extra. All too frequently, the school lunch was ALL the food those kids got to eat on school days. So, yes, I have seen poverty and starvation in what was virtually my own back yard.

I moved to an urban area after I grew up. Just like many citizens of the USA, I know that poverty and starvation exists in this world, even today. However, unlike many (possibly most) of them, I was sensitized to its presence around me, in my own 'neck of the woods'. Yes, many people in underdeveloped foriegn nations are going hungry. At the same time, however, many people in my (and YOUR) own backyard are going hungry too.

So, we (those of us with the means to do so) have a choice. On the one hand, we can write checks and give to the large, multinational charities doing work over in the under-developed nations, and HOPE that those charities can buy what is needed and somehow sneak it past the foreign governments that are all too often corrupt... Or, we can (what I do) give in kind to local charities... Or, we can do both.

Several times a year, I buy a few cases of assorted canned food, and take it down to a local food bank (for distribution to the truely needy). In the spring, I will buy a fan (wish I could afford to buy a window airconditioner unit, but I am not THAT rich), and in the fall, I will buy a blanket, and maybe a winter coat. These, I take down to the appropriate local charity for distribution. And for the gift-giving holiday season (christmas, etc.), I will buy and donate a few toys, so that a poor child or two can have at least a LITTLE joy during the season.

Yes, I know that poverty exists in this world. I also know it exists, right in my own neighborhood. I urge those of you that are considering giving money to the large multinational charities to give a part of that money as either cash, or in kind, to your local charities as well. Way too often, they are forgotten in this day and age.

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https://youtu.be/iY57ErBkFFE

#Texit

Don't blame me, I voted for Johnson(L) in 2016.

Truth is dangerous... especially when it challenges those in power.

[quote]ohh dont worry africa has no oil only diamonds and no american president will get re-elected on a cheaper diamond bill.

And what are you smoking?


wow handy figures pity they mean nothing to the topic by no means would an invasion of africa (or part of it) have an efect on the fuel price in america as in iraq that was my point and your own figures point that out, the oil industry in africa is to widely dispersed.
ps 7% of the world total what are joking.

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yes, I know that poverty exists in this world. I also know it exists, right in my own neighborhood. I urge those of you that are considering giving money to the large multinational charities to give a part of that money as either cash, or in kind, to your local charities as well. Way too often, they are forgotten in this day and age.

Having grown up in similar circumstances to what you describe i am humbled by your goodness i had to rely on the kindness of people like you as a kid and this entire topic let alone your statements have shamed me that i dont do more now that i am able.

keep up the good work.

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ps 7% of the world total what are joking.

Joking? No and neither do these players.
All the major international oil companies have a presence in Africa.
The upstream oil industry is key to the continent of Africa and it's financial future.

Go sit down and chill and have yourself an ice cold "Full Sail".

who was not able to look st this

if you have Emule or Bittorrent installed search for

Live8 :)

Greetings from Germany NRW
Ulli

So, we (those of us with the means to do so) have a choice. On the one hand, we can write checks and give to the large, multinational charities doing work over in the under-developed nations, and HOPE that those charities can buy what is needed and somehow sneak it past the foreign governments that are all too often corrupt... Or, we can (what I do) give in kind to local charities... Or, we can do both.

Several times a year, I buy a few cases of assorted canned food, and take it down to a local food bank (for distribution to the truely needy). In the spring, I will buy a fan (wish I could afford to buy a window airconditioner unit, but I am not THAT rich), and in the fall, I will buy a blanket, and maybe a winter coat. These, I take down to the appropriate local charity for distribution. And for the gift-giving holiday season (christmas, etc.), I will buy and donate a few toys, so that a poor child or two can have at least a LITTLE joy during the season.

Yes, I know that poverty exists in this world. I also know it exists, right in my own neighborhood. I urge those of you that are considering giving money to the large multinational charities to give a part of that money as either cash, or in kind, to your local charities as well. Way too often, they are forgotten in this day and age.

Thank you for sharing your personal experiences and your story of kindness towards those that are much less fortunate. It was a very nice post to read.

Honestly, I haven't really given that much to charities in the past. It's a somewhat chaotic world with so many things to do, so it is easy for many people (such as myself) to forget about all of the less fortunate people that are out there.

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"Several times a year, I buy a few cases of assorted canned food, and take it down to a local food bank (for distribution to the truely needy). In the spring, I will buy a fan (wish I could afford to buy a window airconditioner unit, but I am not THAT rich), and in the fall, I will buy a blanket, and maybe a winter coat. These, I take down to the appropriate local charity for distribution. And for the gift-giving holiday season (christmas, etc.), I will buy and donate a few toys, so that a poor child or two can have at least a LITTLE joy during the season.

Yes, I know that poverty exists in this world. I also know it exists, right in my own neighborhood. I urge those of you that are considering giving money to the large multinational charities to give a part of that money as either cash, or in kind, to your local charities as well. Way too often, they are forgotten in this day and age."




You are oh so correct, charity should begin at home. I remember sending US$100 for the Tsunami relief, which I still don't begrudge, knowing that perhaps US$25 of it would reach the victims. Most of the money has been diverted into pet projects of the various nations to improve or create new tourists resorts as an example.

Last year I had saved hundreds of meal comps from various Las Vegas casinos. I took these down to a local mission area, walking around and passing them out to homeless people at random, so they could have a really good meal, rather than the army style slop they feed the poor people. While there are many grifters among the homeless begging for money I am more selective about handing out cash. I saw a very old man in a wheel chair living on the streets asking for money. At first, I only gave him one dollar, but noticed he didn't smell of alcohol, and tried to keep himself somewhat clean. I talked to him briefly and found out he was a vet; I gave him another bill this time, a twenty and went on my way. Just a few weeks ago I met a homeless person wanting money to eat with. I told him I wouldn't give him any money (knowing alot of them use it to buy drugs or booze) but offered to take him into a restaurant and buy him lunch. He greatfully accepted, and during lunch I learned than he was a drug addict who had just kicked his habit. He had no clothes except what he we wearing, so I took him over to Walmart and got him several t-shirts, two pairs of pants, underwear and socks. I've seen him since and he now has employment and is getting his life back together slowly.

I do not do it as a Christian charity since I'm an atheist, but the saying goes, "there but for the grace of God, go I." Putting a check into the mail is a crap shoot, but doing it yourself gives you immearsurable satisfaction, i.e. feeling warm and fuzzy inside.

[b] @ PanMan - that was a real boner about African resources vis-a-vis oil. Nigeria is a major player in OPEC.

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