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demi
Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Location: London
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Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 1:13 am Post subject: Pathetic Americans |
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America donates more to Africa....
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Impressed by all this, in April the US Government announced that it wanted to join in. It would give WFP nearly $20 million over three years to help fund an expansion of the programme so, from 2008, 650,000 Malawian children get a daily mug of porridge at school. At the same time it announced similar schemes for Kenya, Cambodia, Guinea and Pakistan - a total spend of $85.9 million. WFP applauds the deal. 'It's a massive donation and a huge boost to the government of Malawi's school-feeding programme,' the organisation's country director, Dom Scalpelli, told me. |
BUT...
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The problem is - though WFP left this detail out of their press release - that the US grant came with a condition: it had to be spent on American CSB to be bought from American farmers and put in American ships to be transported to Malawi. According to WFP, the cost of buying, transporting and packing the annual 8,000 tonnes of US CSB will be $812 a tonne. SIR, which will buy about 3,600 tonnes of Malawian CSB - likuni phala - this year, expects to pay around $320 a tonne (distribution costs add another 5 per cent). Simply, if the American money was spent in Malawi, it could feed nearly two-and-a-half times as many schoolchildren.
The price of shipping and administration - and it is US law that American companies are used for packing and shipping 75 per cent of American food aid - puts the cost of the US-sourced CSB at absurdly high levels. Only a third of the money granted for food aid actually goes on food - the rest is transport and administration. The US Congress's Government Accountability Office has criticised the system, saying that a $10-per-tonne cut in shipping rates would enable the feeding of 850,000 more people. Indeed, Malawi would have done better if the US Government had written WFP a cheque for cost of shipping and administering the grant, and not sent any American food at all.
In 2003 America provided 56 per cent of all the food aid in the world. But an indicator that the richest nation's motives are not entirely charitable is that, throughout those years, America's food aid volumes increased massively at times when prices in the US were depressed - up to 20 per cent of American cereals production goes abroad as food aid when the market is down, but when domestic prices are high this figure falls to just five per cent. In 1993, when global food aid reached an all-time high of 17.3 million tonnes (in 2005, the last year for which there are complete records the figure was 8.25 million tonnes), US prices of staples like corn and rice were at historic lows. |
Shameful
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/story/0,,2086227,00.html |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Location: I walk along the avenue
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Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 1:44 am Post subject: |
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Jesus, Demi. A troll really should vary the routine now and then.
I hope that my American friends will give Demi's tired schtick all the attention that it deserves, and that the post you are now reading will be the last one on this thread. |
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cosmo

Joined: 09 Nov 2006
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Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 1:50 am Post subject: |
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I see your point, demi.
USA food aid should be diverted to UK, where over 25% can not afford basic necessities.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Who gives and who gets in the world of food aid
In 2005, 93 countries or territories received a total of 8.25 million tonnes of food aid. More than half of it went to sub-Saharan Africa.
Givers
United States - 49% of the global food aid deliveries
European Union - 18%
China - 7%
Japan and the Republic of Korea - 5% each
Canada - 3%
Australia - 2%
Recipients
The eight main recipients in 2005 shared 50 per cent of the food aid deliveries
Ethiopia - 13%
North Korea - 13%
Sudan - 11%
Uganda - 4%
Eritrea and Bangladesh - 3% each
Top 1960 recipients
India, Poland, Egypt, Pakistan, Brazil |
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demi
Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Location: London
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Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 1:57 am Post subject: |
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USA food aid should be diverted to UK, where over 25% can not afford basic necessities. |
Errr....
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A shocking 37 million Americans live in poverty. That is 12.7 per cent of the population - the highest percentage in the developed world. |
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1712965,00.html
The important bit is......
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the highest percentage in the developed world |
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ChuckECheese

Joined: 20 Jul 2006
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Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 1:59 am Post subject: |
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cosmo wrote: |
I see your point, demi.
USA food aid should be diverted to UK, where over 25% can not afford basic necessities.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Who gives and who gets in the world of food aid
In 2005, 93 countries or territories received a total of 8.25 million tonnes of food aid. More than half of it went to sub-Saharan Africa.
Givers
United States - 49% of the global food aid deliveries
European Union - 18%
China - 7%
Japan and the Republic of Korea - 5% each
Canada - 3%
Australia - 2%
Recipients
The eight main recipients in 2005 shared 50 per cent of the food aid deliveries
Ethiopia - 13%
North Korea - 13%
Sudan - 11%
Uganda - 4%
Eritrea and Bangladesh - 3% each
Top 1960 recipients
India, Poland, Egypt, Pakistan, Brazil |
That's one cool avatar.. Fart out! |
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cosmo

Joined: 09 Nov 2006
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Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 2:13 am Post subject: |
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demi, sorry but u got Alzheimers, my friend.
This has already been de-bunked and de-baited.
When R U going to Japan?
I propose we start a collection for demi to go on a ferry boat ride.
I'm in for 5,000 won, anyone else want to contribute?
http://www.oxfamgb.org/ukpp/poverty/thefacts.htm
How many people in the UK live in poverty?
Just under 1 in 4 people in the UK � or nearly 13 million people � live in poverty, according to the latest figures.
This includes nearly 1 in 3 children (almost 4 million).1
Eighteen per cent of children go without two or more items that the majority of the population says are necessities,
such as adequate clothing, toys, or three meals a day.3
One in five non-working families on low or moderate incomes reported being unable to afford some basic food items on most days.
What kinds of poverty are people living in?
One recent survey showed that about 6.5 million adults go without essential clothing, such as a warm waterproof coat, because of lack of money.
Over 10.5 million people live in financial insecurity: they can�t afford to save, insure their house contents, or spend even small amounts on themselves. About 9.5 million can�t afford adequate housing � heated, free from damp. |
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Tiger Beer

Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 4:19 am Post subject: Re: Pathetic Americans |
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demi wrote: |
America donates more to Africa....
Quote: |
Impressed by all this, in April the US Government announced that it wanted to join in. It would give WFP nearly $20 million over three years to help fund an expansion of the programme so, from 2008, 650,000 Malawian children get a daily mug of porridge at school. At the same time it announced similar schemes for Kenya, Cambodia, Guinea and Pakistan - a total spend of $85.9 million. WFP applauds the deal. 'It's a massive donation and a huge boost to the government of Malawi's school-feeding programme,' the organisation's country director, Dom Scalpelli, told me. |
BUT...
Quote: |
The problem is - though WFP left this detail out of their press release - that the US grant came with a condition: it had to be spent on American CSB to be bought from American farmers and put in American ships to be transported to Malawi. According to WFP, the cost of buying, transporting and packing the annual 8,000 tonnes of US CSB will be $812 a tonne. SIR, which will buy about 3,600 tonnes of Malawian CSB - likuni phala - this year, expects to pay around $320 a tonne (distribution costs add another 5 per cent). Simply, if the American money was spent in Malawi, it could feed nearly two-and-a-half times as many schoolchildren.
The price of shipping and administration - and it is US law that American companies are used for packing and shipping 75 per cent of American food aid - puts the cost of the US-sourced CSB at absurdly high levels. Only a third of the money granted for food aid actually goes on food - the rest is transport and administration. The US Congress's Government Accountability Office has criticised the system, saying that a $10-per-tonne cut in shipping rates would enable the feeding of 850,000 more people. Indeed, Malawi would have done better if the US Government had written WFP a cheque for cost of shipping and administering the grant, and not sent any American food at all.
In 2003 America provided 56 per cent of all the food aid in the world. But an indicator that the richest nation's motives are not entirely charitable is that, throughout those years, America's food aid volumes increased massively at times when prices in the US were depressed - up to 20 per cent of American cereals production goes abroad as food aid when the market is down, but when domestic prices are high this figure falls to just five per cent. In 1993, when global food aid reached an all-time high of 17.3 million tonnes (in 2005, the last year for which there are complete records the figure was 8.25 million tonnes), US prices of staples like corn and rice were at historic lows. |
Shameful
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/story/0,,2086227,00.html |
ALL FOREIGN AID works like this. ALL.
Any western country (or Japan) or whoever who 'gives money' does the exact same thing. It ALWAYS goes back to their home countries corporations. ALWAYS.
I've always been pleased that the U.S. DOESN'T give as much in foreign aid as $ of DGP as most other western countries do.
Most development is the same way. World Bank decides to build a dam in Laos for example.. almost all of the contractors come from western countires to do this.. the engineering companies, the forestry consultations, the local impact situation consultants, the 4x4 vehicles, the large expat community to do this.. the 3rd world country foots the bill in one way or another.
ALL DEVELOPMENT and ALL AID money works the exact same way everytime. |
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Pligganease

Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Location: The deep south...
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Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 4:33 am Post subject: |
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Pligganease wrote: |
First, demi wrote: |
ok:
A shocking 37 million Americans live in poverty. That is 12.7 per cent of the population - the highest percentage in the developed world. |
Next, cosmo wrote: |
http://www.oxfamgb.org/ukpp/poverty/thefacts.htm
How many people in the UK live in poverty?
Just under 1 in 4 people in the UK � or nearly 13 million people � live in poverty, according to the latest figures.
This includes nearly 1 in 3 children (almost 4 million).1 |
Amazingly, demi again wrote: |
I repeat:
A shocking 37 million Americans live in poverty. That is 12.7 per cent of the population - the highest percentage in the developed world. |
Which is it?
a. demi failed math, and doesn't realize that 20-25% is higher than 12.7%.
b. demi can't read and failed to understand that he was getting ruined.
c. demi doesn't think the UK is part of "the developed world."
d. demi is an idiot.
e. all of the above. |
Here... Aren't you tired of losing arguments, Demi? |
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ChuckECheese

Joined: 20 Jul 2006
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Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 12:37 pm Post subject: |
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Pligganease wrote: |
Pligganease wrote: |
First, demi wrote: |
ok:
A shocking 37 million Americans live in poverty. That is 12.7 per cent of the population - the highest percentage in the developed world. |
Next, cosmo wrote: |
http://www.oxfamgb.org/ukpp/poverty/thefacts.htm
How many people in the UK live in poverty?
Just under 1 in 4 people in the UK � or nearly 13 million people � live in poverty, according to the latest figures.
This includes nearly 1 in 3 children (almost 4 million).1 |
Amazingly, demi again wrote: |
I repeat:
A shocking 37 million Americans live in poverty. That is 12.7 per cent of the population - the highest percentage in the developed world. |
Which is it?
a. demi failed math, and doesn't realize that 20-25% is higher than 12.7%.
b. demi can't read and failed to understand that he was getting ruined.
c. demi doesn't think the UK is part of "the developed world."
d. demi is an idiot.
e. all of the above. |
Here... Aren't you tired of losing arguments, Demi? |
Damn, demi.... Are you just going to take that?  |
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The Bobster

Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 2:12 pm Post subject: |
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Just took a glance, but this looks like a sort of suckass sort of thread ... you guys think you're the first in the world who ever wanted to say something bad about America? You're, like, amateurs, you know, pikers ... there must be classes in this somewhere, and you should enroll. Cuz it's obvious you just don't know how. |
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cangel

Joined: 19 Jun 2003 Location: Jeonju, S. Korea
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Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 1:35 am Post subject: |
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God Dam-n pathetic Yanks. Next time don't give those starvin' punks a freakin' cent!! |
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Adventurer

Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 8:23 am Post subject: |
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I did read somewhere, I believe on the BBC, that you are more likely to rise out of poverty in the U.K. and Canada than in the U.S. I am not sure how they measured that, but there are more social supports for those who are impoverished in say Canada when compared to the U.S. There are various reasons, however, for the amount of poverty in the U.S. It is not simple economics. There are historical and cultural reasons, and it is very complicated. |
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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 8:26 am Post subject: |
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Adventurer wrote: |
I did read somewhere, I believe on the BBC, that you are more likely to rise out of poverty in the U.K. and Canada than in the U.S. I am not sure how they measured that, but there are more social supports for those who are impoverished in say Canada when compared to the U.S. There are various reasons, however, for the amount of poverty in the U.S. It is not simple economics. There are historical and cultural reasons, and it is very complicated. |
The measure you are speaking of is called "social mobility". The survey is very controversial, but The Economist spoke of it favorably. That said, the Canadian/UK and American experiences with immigration (the Americans get hundreds of thousands of poor uneducated Mexicans while Canada and the UK get skilled, legal immigrants) is apparently enough to explain the differences between the states.
All over the world, the increasing "return on education" is making inequality more strong. |
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