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Aid for the poor. (Read 12153 times)
mozzaok
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Aid for the poor.
Jun 30th, 2010 at 11:44pm
 
As a Melbournite, I got to hear a great deal about the efforts to help the conjoined twins, Trishna, and Krishna, who were brought here by a very caring lady who hoped to see them receive medical treatment not available in their country of birth, Bangla Desh, where their chance of survival was very slim.

Quote:
Hugo Gold is the head of the RCH ethics committee. It is his job to help decide whether saying no is actually the right thing to do.

"There's always that crunch question: What would you do if they were your twins? That's unfair . . . I've got five children."

His ethics committee members face a decision they've never made before and may never have to make again.

If they decide to try to separate the girls, the outcome will be uncertain at best. So what is in the best interests of the children? It's an operation medicos describe as being in the discretionary range.

"So if it was discretionary, whose discretion was it? They have guardians, one Catholic, one Muslim and the biological parents were Hindu," Dr Gold explains.

Then they worry about how long it will all take.

A condition of their visa is that they can be cared for at the RCH without depriving Australians of the opportunity to be treated.

In the end, it comes down to this. No matter what the visa says, Victoria has an obligation to try to help Trishna and Krishna.

One million dollars, $2 million. The decision is clear - we will have a go no matter what the cost.

That quote is from
Krishna and Trishna: The untold story

    * RUTH LAMPERD and GRANT McCARTHUR,


http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/krishna-and-trishna-the-untold-story/story-e6...

Now of course everyone is absolutely overjoyed that everything has gone so well for these little girls, but the questions that concern me are those concerning how we choose who to help, and who not to.
The money spent saving these girls could have fed and provided healthcare for hundreds, possibly thousands, of other kids in Bangla Desh, or any other Third World country for that matter, but we never heard their names, or saw their pictures.
These lucky conjoined twins got to Australia through the extraordinary efforts of Moira Kelly, who has dedicated her life to helping the sick and the needy in all parts of the world, and as someone who has seen more suffering than most people could imagine, she was especially moved by the plight of these conjoined twins.

It would be unfair to be unkind, or negative about someone as caring, and giving as Moira Kelly, but I cannot help but wonder what emotions drive a person to make the choices she did.

She may have considered the fact that so many children suffer and die from lack of proper care, all around the world, every day, and knew that despite the herculean efforts of people like herself, the fact is that the first world just does not care enough to do anything much about it, but if she could get these kids to Australia, if she could get them enough publicity, she could make people care enough to save them, and that is an example we could all take heed of.

I cannot help but consider that if we had had the choice of just spending a large amount of pre-allocated money, then aid would have been spread around that would have helped lots of needy children, but these girls would have died, and we would never have known they even existed, but that was not the case here.
When people heard of their plight, so many people showed that they did care about others in need, and offered help in many ways.

It makes me a bit ashamed that I do so little to help the poor people of the world.
I guess I am a lot like so very may others, who do not have to try too hard to forget the millions who are suffering, and dying.

So while we all can talk about what is the wisest, most effective way to spend our Aid dollars, Moira Kelly is living the example of the little hummingbird who drops his single drops of water on the forest fire, while all the other animals stand around discussing how to fight it, or even if it is worth trying, and replies to their mocking of his efforts by replying, "I am doing what I can."

I think the world needs more Hummingbirds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHtFM1XEXas
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Amadd
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Re: Aid for the poor.
Reply #1 - Jul 1st, 2010 at 8:41am
 
Quote:
It makes me a bit ashamed that I do so little to help the poor people of the world.
I guess I am a lot like so very may others, who do not have to try too hard to forget the millions who are suffering, and dying.


Who would trun their back on a dying child? And who would donate funds to a cause that will ultimately render your own as slaves, as impoverished as those who you now think that you must donate to?i

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Re: Aid for the poor.
Reply #2 - Jul 1st, 2010 at 9:30am
 
Quote:
Who would trun their back on a dying child?


Third worlders, apparently.

Quote:
There’s an ugly secret of global poverty, one rarely acknowledged by aid groups or U.N. reports. It’s a blunt truth that is politically incorrect, heartbreaking, frustrating and ubiquitous:

It’s that if the poorest families spent as much money educating their children as they do on wine, cigarettes and prostitutes, their children’s prospects would be transformed. Much suffering is caused not only by low incomes, but also by shortsighted private spending decisions by heads of households.

That probably sounds sanctimonious, haughty and callous, but it’s been on my mind while traveling through central Africa with a college student on my annual win-a-trip journey. Here in this Congolese village of Mont-Belo, we met a bright fourth grader, Jovali Obamza, who is about to be expelled from school because his family is three months behind in paying fees. (In theory, public school is free in the Congo Republic. In fact, every single school we visited charges fees.)

We asked to see Jovali’s parents. The dad, Georges Obamza, who weaves straw stools that he sells for $1 each, is unmistakably very poor. He said that the family is eight months behind on its $6-a-month rent and is in danger of being evicted, with nowhere to go.

The Obamzas have no mosquito net, even though they have already lost two of their eight children to malaria. They say they just can’t afford the $6 cost of a net. Nor can they afford the $2.50-a-month tuition for each of their three school-age kids.

“It’s hard to get the money to send the kids to school,” Mr. Obamza explained, a bit embarrassed.

But Mr. Obamza and his wife, Valerie, do have cellphones and say they spend a combined $10 a month on call time.

In addition, Mr. Obamza goes drinking several times a week at a village bar, spending about $1 an evening on moonshine. By his calculation, that adds up to about $12 a month — almost as much as the family rent and school fees combined.

I asked Mr. Obamza why he prioritizes alcohol over educating his kids. He looked pained.

Other villagers said that Mr. Obamza drinks less than the average man in the village (women drink far less). Many other men drink every evening, they said, and also spend money on cigarettes.

“If possible, I drink every day,” Fulbert Mfouna, a 43-year-old whose children have also had to drop out or repeat grades for lack of school fees, said forthrightly. His eldest son, Jude, is still in first grade after repeating for five years because of nonpayment of fees. Meanwhile, Mr. Mfouna acknowledged spending $2 a day on alcohol and cigarettes.

Traditionally, a young man here might have paid his wife’s family a “bride price” of a pair of goats. Now the “bride price” starts with oversized jugs of wine and two bottles of whiskey.

Two M.I.T. economists, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, found that the world’s poor typically spend about 2 percent of their income educating their children, and often larger percentages on alcohol and tobacco: 4 percent in rural Papua New Guinea, 6 percent in Indonesia, 8 percent in Mexico. The indigent also spend significant sums on soft drinks, prostitution and extravagant festivals.

Look, I don’t want to be an unctuous party-pooper. But I’ve seen too many children dying of malaria for want of a bed net that the father tells me is unaffordable, even as he spends larger sums on liquor. If we want Mr. Obamza’s children to get an education and sleep under a bed net — well, the simplest option is for their dad to spend fewer evenings in the bar.

Because there’s mounting evidence that mothers are more likely than fathers to spend money educating their kids, one solution is to give women more control over purse strings and more legal title to assets. Some aid groups and U.N. agencies are working on that.

Another approach is microsavings, helping poor people save money when banks aren’t interested in them. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the most powerful part of microfinance isn’t microlending but microsavings.

Microsavings programs, organized by CARE and other organizations, work to turn a consumption culture into a savings culture. The programs often keep household savings in the women’s names, to give mothers more say in spending decisions, and I’ve seen them work in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Well-meaning humanitarians sometimes burnish suffering to make it seem more virtuous and noble than it often is. If we’re going to make more progress, and get kids like the Obamza children in school and under bed nets, we need to look unflinchingly at uncomfortable truths — and then try to redirect the family money now spent on wine and prostitution.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/opinion/23kristof.html
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Amadd
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Re: Aid for the poor.
Reply #3 - Jul 1st, 2010 at 9:53am
 
Quote:
Third worlders, apparently.


Pretty much what I was alluding to Imperium.
"There but for the grace of God go I"
..or "There but for the surrendering of sufficient funds go I".

You don't throw away what you have put your heart into, else it always meant nothing.
Is it more important than a life of a child in a far off land?
Much justification is required if you want to think about those things, but trying to save the world may ultimately destroy the world as you know it.

We're not very well designed to be world saviors, but many think that they can do it, and many are forced by the oppressive guilt of the moneymakers to give it a crack, whilst the moneymakers scoop in the rewards for themselves.







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Re: Aid for the poor.
Reply #4 - Jul 1st, 2010 at 12:57pm
 
Mozz, your post brings to mind a parable that I love. You may find it silly, but I think it's important enough to share.

Quote:
Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.

One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so he walked faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.

He came closer still and called out "Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?"

The young man paused, looked up, and replied "Throwing starfish into the ocean."

"I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?" asked the somewhat startled wise man.

To this, the young man replied, "The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they'll die."

Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, "But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can't possibly make a difference!"

At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, "It made a difference for that one."

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Re: Aid for the poor.
Reply #5 - Jul 1st, 2010 at 1:02pm
 
Imperium, that's why it's important to look at how aid is distributed. I read an interesting (but long) NYT article that last year that addresses this.

Here it is if you want to read it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/magazine/23Women-t.html#
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Re: Aid for the poor.
Reply #6 - Jul 1st, 2010 at 3:09pm
 

giving aid to the poor is counterproductive.

the west has helped africa for decades, it's worse than ever.
more overpopulation, more wars, more starvation, more diseases.
more pople have suffered due to the assistance.
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Re: Aid for the poor.
Reply #7 - Jul 1st, 2010 at 5:31pm
 
Sprintcyclist wrote on Jul 1st, 2010 at 3:09pm:
giving aid to the poor is counterproductive.

the west has helped africa for decades, it's worse than ever.
more overpopulation, more wars, more starvation, more diseases.
more pople have suffered due to the assistance.


So true.
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Re: Aid for the poor.
Reply #8 - Jul 2nd, 2010 at 6:59pm
 
The cost of leading edge or experimental surgery must also be weighed against the benefit to future generations who will benefit from the knowledge and experience gained, and those who will benefit directly as the procedure becomes cheaper. It's like complaining that we test cosmetics on stray dogs.
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Re: Aid for the poor.
Reply #9 - Jul 2nd, 2010 at 7:00pm
 
Sprintcyclist wrote on Jul 1st, 2010 at 3:09pm:
giving aid to the poor is counterproductive.

the west has helped africa for decades, it's worse than ever.
more overpopulation, more wars, more starvation, more diseases.
more pople have suffered due to the assistance.


What matters is the form that the aid comes in. Just because someone is on the other side of the world does not mean you can't help them.
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Re: Aid for the poor.
Reply #10 - Jul 2nd, 2010 at 10:04pm
 
freediver wrote on Jul 2nd, 2010 at 7:00pm:
Sprintcyclist wrote on Jul 1st, 2010 at 3:09pm:
giving aid to the poor is counterproductive.

the west has helped africa for decades, it's worse than ever.
more overpopulation, more wars, more starvation, more diseases.
more pople have suffered due to the assistance.


What matters is the form that the aid comes in. Just because someone is on the other side of the world does not mean you can't help them.



Especially if aiding the one on the other side of the world is a salve to your conscience for ignoring the one next to you.

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Re: Aid for the poor.
Reply #11 - Jul 4th, 2010 at 11:15am
 
No-one in Australia is suffering from lack of money. If you can't get money off our government there is something wrong with you. There are no needy people 'next to me'. You have to go looking for them, and beat all the others (eg the salvos) to them.

On the other hand, there are plenty of people who are genuinely suffering, from malnutrition, preventable diseases etc, who have the everything they need to lift themselves out of their situation (eg intelligence, ethics, drive) - except for money.
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Re: Aid for the poor.
Reply #12 - Jul 4th, 2010 at 11:24am
 
What have they done with the money that has been sent to them for the last decade or five? Does it keep slipped down behind the sofa or what? No amount of money will lift them out of corruption and hatred for each other.

You can't buy fraternite, brotherly love, or human solidarity at least, which is what the Africans and Indian singularly lack for each other. That's why they are expecting it from westerners because they cannot expect it from each other.





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Re: Aid for the poor.
Reply #13 - Jul 4th, 2010 at 11:25am
 
Quote:
What have they done with the money that has been sent to them for the last decade or five?


There are plenty of success stories Soren. Obviously you need dedicated people on the ground to make sure it isn't wasted or stolen, but there are enough of those too.
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Re: Aid for the poor.
Reply #14 - Jul 4th, 2010 at 1:02pm
 
Soren wrote on Jul 4th, 2010 at 11:24am:
You can't buy fraternite, brotherly love, or human solidarity at least, which is what the Africans and Indian singularly lack for each other. That's why they are expecting it from westerners because they cannot expect it from each other.



You honestly wouldn't have a clue what keeps most people in these countries alive.  The national motto of Kenya is 'Harambee', and the spirit of Harambee is alive and well throughout Africa, much more so than in the West.

Ask just about anyone in Australia from one of these countries. They typically support a huge extended family. The same applies to people within most of Africa. Anyone with a decent job there finds themselves in a similar position.

The word Ubuntu is about seeing, recognising and sharing humanity with others. It's an IsiZulu word, but you'll find equivalents all over Africa.

You might know it as a free Linux distribution, an operating system that is superior to Windows, has had many of its features copied by Microsoft, but is not sold commercially.
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