http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14007181 UK pledges 38 million in aid for drought in Ethiopia - I wonder how many footballers will be bought/sold for more during this transfer window?
It is becoming more and more obvious that the rich parts of the world will need to help the poorer parts, as an ongoing and continuous process. After all - as the man said: "We're all in this together"
On a similar theme, I saw the beginning of MOTD Kickabout (or what ever it's called) this week. Last year Didier Drogba gave £3M to the charity he'd previously set up so that they could build and open a new hospital in his home country. Craig Bellamy had also given millions to something but I can't remember what now. And Rob Green climbed Kilimanjaro on some charity scheme. Given until I watched what seemed to be a children's programme I didn't know Drogba had set up a charity, or that Rob Green had climbed Kilimanjaro I don't think the publicity for the charities in question has been the best. Bellamy might have wanted the donation to be semi-private, but Drogba it's his own charity and Green climbing a mountain can only be a publicity thing.
I saw that, Ricardo. Twas a weird programme. Bellamy had given (I think) £500,000 to set up some skill centre in Sierra Leone.
I completely disagree with that, why should the we as a nation and parliment have to start giving aid out to countries when our own finances are in a mess. Lets not pretend that the cuts that have being made are anywhere near significant enough, we are still making a huge deficit yet supposedly we need to give money out in aid. Until we are able to stop living beyond our means, which is nowhere near possibly whilst people complain about cuts, which is even stupider and is not worth debating here.
Just pumping money at a problem rarely resolves it. It usually needs a more structured and ordered plan of attack rather than mere firefighting.
Drogba gave away signing on fees, his Pepsi sponsorship money and all the proceeds of his autobiography and in addition to the hospital he built, he funds the Red Cross in the Ivory Coast and he's hoping to start building schools next. He's a bit of a prat, but there's no knocking the work he does for his home country. http://www.thedidierdrogbafoundation.com/missions.html
Agreed DMD - but this £££ is to keep people alive. Solving their problems is a longer-term process. We can find £millions for Libya (Don't they have oil, or something?), so surely we can find what is, in effect, a quite small amount of cash for humanitarian aid....
This is a very debatable question. Here in Oz the question has been asked as to why, when some pensioners are living on dog food, haven't had fresh meat for yonks (and if they did mange to buy some heavily reduced bargains they can't afford the electricity to cook it), are struggling to survive; our Aborigine people are living in squalid (to say the least) conditions yet refugee's are given free houses, clothes, food and utilities (and are never required to look for work), are we sending billions of dollars abroad?
I can understand that footballers may want to keep their giving private but if more were to go more public with what they do to support the less well off - wherever they are, I'm sure it would show more positive light on the well paid prima donas of the football world
Whether at home or abroad, what so many people need just to survive is peanuts compared to the money that goes around in football with transfer fees and salaries. It makes the figures seem obscene when there are so many in need.
