THE BLOGS
'DONOR FATIGUE' MIGHT BE A SNAPPY NEW PHRASE BUT IT IS VERY REAL.
'Donor Fatigue' is the new term being used by nearly all the world's aid agencies as we stagger from one world catastrophe to another. Since Christmas we have witnessed a massive tsunami, floods in central America, China and Bangladesh, incredible poverty and genocide in Africa, typhoons in Japan and China, two major hurricanes in the southern United States, and now an earthquake that has killed over 55,000 people in Pakistan and in nearby India. People can only take so much, and can only give so much, and the giving has reached incredible proportions as one agency after another wants more and more money to help those caught in up in these devastating acts of nature. It is estimated that just about every person in the western world has given something, be it a few dollars at the local store or a donation by credit card to any one of the dozens of agencies trying to get aid to these stricken countries. But when is enough - enough? The individual is giving but sadly the rich countries who can afford to give are slow to pass on their stated 'donations.' Only about 20% of all the 'promised' money for the tsunami has been 'passed on.' Many countries bragged about '$50 million' but have given only 10% to 20% of their declared contributions. The money that does get into the hands of the aid agencies often sits there for several months - earning very good interest. Some even 're-invest' the money you donate and make hundreds of thousands of dollars on the millions in their coffers. The real problem is - who do they give this money to after it reaches the agencies. There's no one out there to safely handle millions of aid dollars. Look what happened in Africa. The aid got 'lost' in the private coffers of black potentates. It seems we do not know how to handle world crisis, or even our own local crisis. Hurricane Katrina will forever remain a bookmark of racism in the USA. No, don't pretend it wasn't. It was. Remember that. The black poor were left to struggle and die (964 of them) while the worlds most powerful government did not know exactly what to do. Incredible. If we can't or won't help our own how the hell are we going to properly take care of others in other countries. The answer to all this? Well it's not the UN that is constantly told what to do by a selfish America. It has to be a new order, a new approach, and no one, no one gets to rule it or control it. Put in the aid agencies. Make them pool half their income. Have a place where food & aid can be stockpiled, and shipped quickly. A central location of world aid. There's a dozen ways to do it better than we're doing it now. It's about time we got on the job and gave the ordinary 'donor' less responsibility.
James Carstairs, Hamilton, Bermuda. October 17th 2005.
TURKEY WANTS TO BRING ITS MAINLY 73 MILLION MUSLIMS INTO THE EUROPIEN UNION. OTHERS DON'T.
Turkey, with 73 million people, being the most populace of any existing member of the EU has said quite clearly that October 3rd 2005 is the turning point, either accept us as we are, or we walk away. Turkey was promised 'acceptance' into the EU back in December 2004 subject to a few final adjustments of policy. All current members said at the time if all the proper criteria is met then we'll welcome them in. That was then. But that is not now. For reasons no one really buys Austria has withdrawn their support and now object to Turkey becoming a full member. The reasons Austria now puts forward nine months after giving their approval are all minor political ones that were on the table back in December and at which time they had no complaint. The real reason Austria is trying to pull the plug on Turkey is all about race, and religion. Suddenly it has become frightenly obvious that a country of 73 million mostly Muslims might topple the balance of good Christian members and bring to the EU a lot more than economic equality, more like racial in-equality. It's all about racism. It's all about religion. From Christians who in themselves never attend church regularly. And of all the countries to object to Turkey it has to be Austria, where once before an issue of race divided a world, and brought about war. But this is all about the EU, and just how valid it will the EU be now, if they veto the worlds present disrupters of peace, Islam, and tell them they're not wanted. What happens after October 3rd may go a long way towards what happens in our future world.
Ken Seymour, B.C. Canada. October 3rd 2005.
IF THOSE WERE WHITE BODIES FLOATING AROUND IN NEW ORLEANS THEY'D HAVE BEEN PICKED UP AGES AGO.
I'll make this short and sweet, if those were white bodies foating around in the swill and filth of the sludge filled streets of New Orleans they'd have been picked up ages ago. That's a fact you cannot change. There were just too many blacks, too many poor blacks in New Orleans to warrant a quick, decisive, and thorough evacuation of people in the days after the storm hit. History will prove this, because no one in government has the guts to admit it. This storm has made it abundantly clear to all onlookers the world over that white America does not care enough about black America. I shall never forget this. I shall never forgive this. And I shall never be a proud American again.
Harvey Landers, Houston, Texas. September 8th 2005.
HURRICANE KATRINA MIGHT JUST BE THE WIND OF CHANGE AMERICA NEEDS.
One thing Americans are very good at is making the very most of their self-image. They can make great hero movies, great war movies, great animated movies, all about how great they are, and are the very best at looking good, sounding good, and talking good. They love the hype the media makes as it whines its way from one over-stated image to the other. Americans are all about showmanship, talking as they do in that deep, meaningful, politically motivated way, and holding court whenever they can in front of every A to Z station there is in screensville. They took bullshit to its highest form and bronzed it, mounted it, and made endless movies about it, but when it comes down to real life, in the real world, where bullshit has no appeal, they're lost, confused, and totally outplayed.
It's all coming home to them, yet again, and like before it's in their own backyard. A storm hit. It wrecked nearly three states and devastated scores of towns, yet all they did was sit glued to their television sets as image after image came in. Laughing, happy-faced reporters fought the winds, slipping and sliding, as they reported every high wind - 'yes there is a hurricane here.' one idiot said. This went on for a whole day and a night. Then a few reporters zero'd in on the stranded, hopeless, helpless people that littered the cities and towns, and Mary Lou said to Wilbur, 'gosh darn it Wilbur, those poor people look like they're in a heap a trouble.'
On day two, with over a thousand dead, with no water, no electricity, no food, and not a workable toilet anywhere, the man himself, that great war lord who is whacking Iraq because of 9-11, came on screen to say - wait for it, the American public had to wait - 'we're sending in the National Guard to keep order.' He followed up, as almost an after-thought about 'getting help to these Americans.' And as day two ended, and people were dying, and gangs roamed the streets looting and terrorising, America went back to watching 'The Simpsons' and playing video games, you know those games about American heroes doing their stuff.
What you're witnessing now, as the aftermath of hurricane Katrina comes home to roost, is a country out of touch with its people. It's in touch with its protracted Hollywood image, but it's lost its sense of responsibility and its sense of true self. The quick buck, the quick build (see how those matchstick houses collapsed so easily), and the 'God But We Are Good' movies belie the real America, a place where self-image is more important than real image. A place where black Americans still don't warrant the care whites would have been shown had that been an upscale area. And a place where they like to appear damn good but where, when the cards are down and the real challenges face them, it's all about forming task forces and sending in the National Guard.
Katrina blew through a shaky America. It took apart not only the homes and businesses, it took apart a flimsy, badly structured relief program, and a hopeless reliance on a flummoxed media. The media failed to report the real picture. The government failed, and it took a desperate black American woman screaming at a TV reporter to relay the message to Bush that he really needs to hear: 'For God's sake will someone do something.' I hope they learn from all this.
Daniel Moorcroft, Montgomery, Alabama, USA. September 1st 2005.
PLEASE - CAN WE PUT CLOSER TO THE WORD CLOSER - PLEASE
It's a beautiful sunny morning. I'm sitting at the breakfast table eating my toast. Across the room is the TV and I'm watching the local morning news. There's been yet another high speed car accident and the wrecks of two new cars are buckled and bent and lie in bits and pieces all over the road. A blue tarp hides the front end of one of the cars which we know means a mangled body lies trapped in the wreckage. Police, in surprisingly large numbers, place cones, things with numbers on, are flashing cameras, and close by tow-trucks and onlookers surround this ghastly scene. The news now jumps to an interview with the father of the person killed in the crash. It appears the car was stolen by your average mindless video game playing moron who decided to steal a car and take it for a video game type spin, but in this case, his applied video game driving technique does not transfer to reality, and a person lies dead in the car he hit. This baseball-capped dimwit, who has now changed the lives of so many people forever, left the scene in a rush and has not be found.
The TV news people interview the father of the dead driver. Behind him, as he is being interviewed stand his family members, squashed up shoulder to shoulder. Then the father pleads, in stern and choke-filled words, 'would the driver who did this please come forward, so we can have closer.' CLOSER? You mean that when this young punk owns up, goes to trial in a years time and gets 40 hours community service (which he'll not thoroughly complete) and a one year driving ban - you'll have CLOSER? That'll be the END of it. All fair and square. All so that you can continue your life of TV watching and mall-wandering? As before?
That's all it takes? Or did you just want to use that word - 'CLOSER? Like flowers at a roadside death, or ribbons on a tree, the word closer has become a symbol the masses like to use because it sounds really deep and meaningful. What we need to do is 'intelligize' our lives (now there's a new in-word for you!) to enable us to grow up, and treat all these stupid word symbols and catch-phrases with the contempt they deserve. Can't do that? Then I wish you CLOSER with whatever it is you think you're going to close. And I hope it's that easy for you. I close my case!
Brian Smith, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. August 16th 2005.
PLEASE - NO MORE 'FWDS' ABOUT FREEDOM AND LIBERTY.
Have you got one of those well-meaning friends that finds it necessary to 'forward' you all kinds of heart-rending stories about our [ US ] troops fighting in Iraq, and what 'war' and 'freedom' should mean to us all? My email list has a 'fwd' from this friend just about once a week. It is also sent to about twenty other email addresses, not all her personal friends but email contacts she wants to 'fwd' the latest 'God Save America' story to, about the death and destruction Americans are facing, all in the name of liberty.
Her latest is about a young soldier who had a leg blown off and who was returned to the US wondering why he was fighting in Iraq. Her letter went on in that 'teacher to young child' mode, where you can almost hear her soft, slow, sad voice telling us all that we must stand by 'our troops' during these unhappy times because what they're fighting for is 'freedom' and 'democracy' and in the end, we, the 'fighters for liberty' will win.
Will someone please shut these stupid people up. We're in Iraq because we were humiliated on September 11th 2001 by a bunch of fanatical islamic terrorists, and we had to 'get even' and whack someone in return. We couldn't find Bin Laden so we went after that other despot, Hussein. And, we thought it would be an in and out war like 'Dessert Storm' when Iraq invaded Kuwait. But it hasn't been. And it will never be. And us 'getting even' (how dare anyone attack us on our own soil - attitude) has landed the American people in more harm than the terror of 9-11 did. We're stuck in Iraq, losing now close to 2,000 troops killed. For what? Freedom? Democracy? No, don't be naive, we're there out of retribution.
So, to my dear well-meaning friend let me say - get real lady. Do something right for America. Help get us out of Iraq and get Bush out of Washington. But, knowing you the way I do I'm sure you'll keep up your 'fwds' about dead and maimed young American men returning from a war we cannot win, but will die proving that point. And after all, what you have to say to us all feels a whole lot better than the real, hard, honest truth.
Dale Madison, Los Angelas, USA. August 6th 2005.
IT'S NOT WHO KILLED THAT YOUNG MAN FROM BRAZIL - IT'S WHY.
The recnt tragic shooting of the young Brazilian man in London was the result of an aggressive anti-terrorist policy and a lot of mixed signals. It appears that the house he had rooms in was being frequented by a person on the terrorists 'suspect list' and it was being watched by undercover police officers. The man, a certain Jean Charles de Menezes, was on a working visa and, unknown to police watching him, his visa had expired. They thought he was someone else. He looked similar to a bombing suspect. When he left the building he was asked to stop by several undercover officers, but failed to do so. It is known, from those who knew him and worked with him (he was an electrician) that he spoke excellent English. What got him in a panic was the fact his visa had expired and he obviously thought he'd be arrested for that and thrown into a cell with other 'foreign suspects.' This caused him to panic and run, jump the ticket barrier, and run back out into the street with several officers in pursuit. He again failed to respond properly to demands from the police, and was most hastily shot many times by an over aggressive police officer, who might just have been watching too many Hollywood movies and drew his actions from the stylish outstretched gun, the yelling and screaming, with the sad consequence of firing his weapon. One hopes that kind of 'take-down' is not taught, and is indeed nothing but Hollywood & video games influence. Which mostly it is.
Ken Shippam, Brits Abroad British Correrspondent, London.
CANADA'S MEDIA HAS A HUGE CREDIBILITY GAP by Douglas Friers Ph.D. Columbia University
It's been obvious for a long long time that Canada's media has had a credibility gap when it comes to reporting anything about Britain and the British way of life. That credibility gap doesn't come by way of a lack of getting the facts right. They get the facts right, but they choose to alter them, so that the Canadian people are fed a lot of mistruths, misrepresentations, and improper reporting, all it would seem to bring scorn and ridicule upon the British.
Since I first came to teach in Canada in the 1970's I've been aware of this lack of honesty in Canada's media towards the British but have never really been able to find out exactly why. My research into this most angering form of media racism has turned up many possible reasons, some are so naive and childish that I was drawn away from those, my first findings. I sought a deeper meaning. It must run quite deep to have every form of media outlet from Canada's television news such as that of the CBC, Global, and CTV, to their one history magazine 'The Beaver', to a recently made for TV and paid for by the Canadian federal government, 12 hour documentary entitled, 'Canada. It's People,' and with it all misreport and misrepresent Britain's history, Britain's place in the world, and Britain's links to the foundation and the building of Canada.
But why would Canada's powers that be in national news coverage and reporting want to distort the truth? When I taught briefly in British Columbia a free newspaper was put together for High School students to read entitled, 'Youthink,' it being totally financed by the government. Even it reported so many inaccurate facts about British history that I was apalled to see students being fed incorrect and very anti-British propaganda. I raised the matter with my superiors but not one wanted to discuss it or even answer a few simple but direct questions I had. The students are still taught virtually nothing about British historic connections with Canada, and one text book even states quite plainly that world war two began for Canadians when Pearl Harbor was bombed.
The lastest misrepresentations against the British was when CTV's Canada AM reported that British troops were likely to pull out of Iraq next year. That report was a segment of a very misleading newspaper article that stated the US was pulling troops out of Iraq next year, and, British troops would likely follow suit. They deliberately and decidedly left out the major part of the story about the US troops and instead reported only the British part. That one single report that was re-hashed all morning on CTV's Canada AM that morning and just a few days after the first bombs were let off in London on July 7th, tells you all you want to know about some kind of inner racist hatred for the British the Canadian media has. But what does it do to the Canadian people watching and listening and indeed reading such reports? It makes them the most uninformed, media-fed, racist fed, group of people in the western world. The country might be liberal minded but not when it comes to reporting the news.
All my years in Canada I've been aware that there is an undercurrent of utter dislike for Britain and for most of the British who find themselves in Canada. At first Canadians will deny it, then once the discussion gets down to the hard facts you'll see a lot of clenched teeth and hear a lot of misguided information, all garnered from their own newspapers, magazines, and television. If you don't believe me watch their History channel on TV: watch their news reporting on TV: listen to the lady with the bedtime-story voice narrating that long and inaccurate TV series, 'Canada. It's People.' Read their dailies, The Globe & Mail and The National. Get a copy of 'The Beaver.' And finally ask a High School teacher what they're teaching Canadian children these days about Canada's links with Britain. You'll be surprised. Well not anymore, now you have read this.
Douglas Friers. Ph.D.
Columbia University.
If you have any worthwhile and factual comments please send them to me via this website: Britmail@aol.com
c/o Canadas Credibility. (I am not a British subject)
Is there anyone who would like to accurately and provingly contradict the above? We're waiting
"DESTRUCTIVE BUT NOT SOPHISTICATED" by Ken Shippam
The terrorist bombings in London were surprisingly lacking in planning, in preparation, and in basic common sense. Refering back to New York on September 11th 2001 the thing that struck most people about that day was the detailed and coordinated planning it took to bring it all off and the obvious amount of casualties the Islamic terrorists hoped for. The attack was in the planning stages for several years. The training, the timing, and the manner in which it was carried out showed a sophisticated plan of operations that brought about the most casualties and the most possible recognition. But the London bombings seem to have been organised and carried out by a bunch of amateurs with the minds of morons and the planning ability of obvious disfunctional idiots. Sort of like the IRA mortar shelling of No.10 Downing Street years ago where ill-aimed and badly timed bombs dropped everywhere but their targets. In fact my first thoughts were, ah, this must be a faction of the IRA where clever instrumentation of terrorist tactics were never their forte.' But it appears obvious these badly timed bombings (at the end of the rush hour not during) and placed in less than effective stations (Piccadilly Circus Station would have had hundreds of casualties) were the makings and doings of a bunch of one-off, run-for-it extremeists, who make terrorism look more stupid than it already is. As a witness observed on the bus that blew up, 'a young man kept nervously touching (switching on & off?) something in his rucksack,' minutes before he finally switched it on, then closed his eyes, put his fingers in his ears - and prayed to Allah. With Islamic terrorists like this we have nothing more to fear than a few lunatics who live and die without real purpose or worthwhile planning. They can do it over and over again but real life goes on.
"YOU DON'T NEED MAN U Mr.GLAZER" by Henry Sands
Malcolm Glazer is a Jewish-American billionaire who doesn't need Manchester United, doesn't care about its sporting history, caring only about making more money to stash away in his American bank accounts. He's just bought the club for £790 million ($1.4 billion US) and he's still got lots of money left over. The truth is he doesn't even like England, he hates Manchester, the city, and jokes with his Irish contacts about how he's getting 'up the noses' of the locals. His grabbing hands and shonky look is offensive to British sports fans (as that statemernt is to him - works both ways fella) who see his plan for what it is - big money out to make more big money. I hope sincerely the Manchester United fans NEVER EVER give this man peace, and will always jeer this icon of what we British have always hated - the greasy foreigner who comes into OUR country and takes away OUR money and OUR pride. Go back to Disneyland and buy another stop-and-start grid-iron American rules rugby team. You are NOT welcome in Britain. And what's the name of that team you own in Florida? Buccaneers! Pirates! Right on!
"WHY DOESN'T GELDORF PI**OFF." by Robin McWilliams.
The problems of poverty, especially in Africa, are intractable, and not to be solved by gushes of charitable donations at 20-year intervals. It is true that it would take a miracle of disorganisation, greed, and incompetence to do no good with the huge sums of money that will no doubt be donated, but it will not save Africa, feed African children, or make them well. The money will go into that same beaurocratic hole all money to Africa has gone. A few brick houses with new tin roofs, some planting, and all the big 'chiefs' get new cars.
To save the world by going (or listening) to a pop concert is like dropping a one pound coin into a beggers hat. And what better way could there be to transform pop-cultures self-indulgence into a false sense of deep moral responsibility. Whatever else one might say about Bob Geldof's remarkable efforts, he is certainly astute when it comes to mass psychology.
Even in countries at peace, aid on a large scale fosters patronage and corruption. The Nordic countries now admit that it was their aid to Tanzania that allowed the late Julius Nyerere forcibly to remove three quarters of the rural population into semi-collectivised villages. Let's face it the billions of aid quite unnecessarily impoverished Tanzania for decades and produced an economic disaster from which the country is still recovering.
Charity is therefore not what Africa needs. No country grows rich by the grace and favour of another. What Africa needs is good - which is to say limited - government, overseen by the money-givers, as well as more trade. It is likely to get neither, and no number of rock concerts will help to bring them about. And frankly I've truly had it with these rock group freaks who mostly look like rehabilitated drug addicts, telling us, the common working public, that we should cough-up our money for their causes. Why don't you, Bob Geldorf start a company if you're so smart, hire all the rock freaks now bumming fags, and send all the profits - every year not just every 10 years - to these people you care so much about. Beats the BS of marches, do-gooders singing songs, and putting others on a guilt trip.
'SKEWING THE NEWS TO GET CANADIANS TO BOO THE BRITS.' by Leo Cartwright
Watching the early morning news on Canada AM (CTV) on monday (July 11th) I saw the two news presenters talk about Britain withdrawing its troops from Iraq by next summer. They showed footage of British troops in Iraq and made the whole news item seem like we were pulling out under pressure because of the London bombing. I also watch the BBC World news on cable here (Toronto) and saw no mention of this possible troop withdrawal. After I got to work (bank in the financial district) I asked around among my Canadian colleagues if they'd seen the news item and several said yes, and offered their views saying, 'should never let the terrorists win' and another offering, 'can't take the heat eh.' This bothered me of course, but you know how you feel when you know something is not quite right? I did, and I just had to follow up on this disturbing story. I contacted Canada AM several times - no replies. I even rang the offices of the two the national newspapers, Globe & Mail - 'not heard about the Brits pulling out' they said, but had heard of a sunday newspaper report that the US troops were pulling out half their troops by next summer. Ah, I thought, that makes the Canada AM story right out of context, quite untrue, and labels it their usual 'anti-British' related reports. Finally I reached the BBC and got the facts. Yes, a report in a sunday newspaper stated the US might pull out half of their troops in Iraq by next summer, and if they did so then Britain would have to follow suit. The BBC felt the story was not based on enough reliable facts (reading this Canada AM??) and decided not to pursue it. So how come Canada AM (CTV) ran it, well out of context, skewed beyond anything like the real truth and obviously put out to mislead people in Canada? Why? All because of a Canadian media that is all anti-British, racist, and antagonistic, and, how they love to get the Canadian people to sneer at the British. But why? Because the Canadians are furious we British are fighting the war on terrorism alongside the US, whilst they wallow in sour grapes and self-pity. Trying to put my colleagues right on all this after this incident was futile. Canadians want to believe their own distorted news cast, especially if it's anti-British. What a pity they don't watch the BBC Newsworld.
