Just to Remind You; $80 Billion is Only A Drop In the BucketThat is, when it's spent on
foreign aid. When it's spent on the military, it's a lot of money. The Times sounds just a bit like Bob Geldof here:
Not a penny more to buy treated mosquito nets to help save the thousands of children in Sierra Leone who die every year of preventable malaria. Nothing more to train and pay teachers so 11-year-old girls in Kenya may go to school. And not a cent more to help Ghana develop the programs it needs to get legions of young boys off the streets.Can you guarantee that the money will be spent on mosquito nets and that those nets will be used to save the children? Or will it just be used to line the pockets of the existing kleptocracy?
John Hawkins was on the conference call with Geldof and
has more on the subject. He hits on the issue which bugs me:
I detest the G8 protesters whom Geldof is encouraging, and come on -- it's a bunch of rock stars playing a concert.Actually it's the first part of that formulation. Geldof has to be aware of the problems at Seattle and Genoa with riots. And yet he is encouraging schoolchildren to take a couple days off and head to Edinburgh for the protests? IMHO, he'll be responsible for any problems that arise.
