Mongolia? But that was a long time ago. And the Russians like them better anyhow.
[QUOTE=DeckApe;187238]Mongolia? But that was a long time ago. And the Russians like them better anyhow.[/QUOTE]
Mongolia is the reason they are as paranoid as you Americans.
It has been my experience that of every dollar spent on foreign aid as shown in this illustration most of it goes into the pockets of the contractors back into the USA with a lot going to pay off the corrupt government on the receiving end. It is a money making scam for the K street lobbyists to reward their friends. and friend s of the poiticians
A country is lucky if they get 10 cents of every dollar the USA sent thru the crony system in the USA. Th other 90 cents stays right back int he USA in a bank account, Foreign aid is a money making endeavor not a public service
[QUOTE=tengineer1;187240] A country is lucky if they get 10 cents of every dollar the USA sent thru the crony system in the USA. Th other 90 cents stays right back int he USA in a bank account, Foreign aid is a money making endeavor not a public service[/QUOTE]
The same is true of IMF loans. Confessions of an Economic Hitman was only allowed to be published because they know that only grouchy old mariners read books anymore. Maybe if they started hiding pokemons in libraries…
To (mis)quote Calvin Coolidge: “The business of America is business.”
[QUOTE=anchorman;187224]Typical. Luckily, there is visibility to each and every invoice that is dispersed from the US government. There is some truth to what you have said but very small in the grand scheme of bi-lateral foreign assistance. Larger geo-political issues are usually multi-lateral functions, support, and assistance toward those agendas.
This of course does not include the tax brakes given to private foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation to help facilitate their good work tax free.
You can find the database here, and maybe realize that there are moral convictions of a nation that drive most aid to poor countries.
http://beta.foreignassistance.gov/
Foreign assistance is aid given by the United States to other countries to support global peace, security, and development efforts, and provide humanitarian relief during times of crisis. It is a strategic, economic, and moral imperative for the United States and vital to U.S. national security.
The first U.S. aid program took shape after World War II when then Secretary of State George Marshall acted to provide significant aid to Europe after the war to assist the continent in rebuilding its infrastructure, strengthening its economy, and stabilizing the region. This led to the creation of several foreign assistance programs in subsequent years to build off the success of the Marshall Plan. The next milestone for foreign assistance occurred in 1961, when President Kennedy signed the Foreign Assistance Act into law and created the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This marked a significant increase in U.S. foreign assistance efforts and USAID became the first U.S. foreign assistance agency whose primary focus was long-term global development to include economic and social progress.
In 2010, President Obama signed the Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development, which calls for the elevation of development as a core pillar of American power in accord with diplomacy and defense for an integrated approach to national security. The directive governs U.S. efforts in support of global development and provides clear policy guidance to all U.S. government agencies managing and implementing foreign assistance.
Today, the U.S. manages foreign assistance programs in more than 100 countries around the world through the efforts of over 20 different U.S. Government agencies. These investments further America’s foreign policy interests on issues ranging from expanding free markets, combating extremism, ensuring stable democracies, and addressing the root causes of poverty, while simultaneously fostering global good will.[/QUOTE]
Wow!! Have you go a job in the US Department of Propaganda?? (Or whatever acronym they like to hide it behind)
PS> I worked indirectly for USAID at one time. I was 1st Mate on a ship chartered by them to carry Texas Long grain Rice on the Vietnam coast.
(Our Vietnamese crew demanded that we supplied them with Thai White Rice, though)
The joke back then was; “USAID. Sponsored be you friendly CIA”
What is all this about Foreign Aid from whichever nation. How does it help those who are dying in the Med right now?
Or those 65 mill. displaced people languishing in camps around the world, surviving on “generous” handout from those same nations that is “talking big” about human rights. Have you tried to eat Human Rights? They don’t hold much nutrition. Even Grass Soup is more nutritious.
But of course it is more important to protect our wasteful way of life in the West then to care for someone in a far away land that we don’t even know, or care who they are.
“0.25 dollar a day” from each of us in Europe and North America only would be enough to house, feed and school the children of all those 65 Mill. people in the camps. (Approx. USD 3.00/head)
But we would rather spend that on building walls to ensure they don’t get to our countries.
Some would even stop rescuing people in distress at sea so they don’t reach our shores. That such a thing is said by fellow seafarers makes it even worse. There have been a unwritten rule for centuries that you assist people in distress, regardless of who they are, or whether they have cause the situation by their on act or stupidity.
Millions are spent to rescue a single handed sailor in the Southern Ocean who is trying to prove something to himself. while we cannot spend a few millions on rescuing misguided Migrants that has been placed in that situation by unscrupulous profiteers?? (In that term I include the money men that finance the smuggling operations)
[QUOTE=ombugge;187256]What is all this about Foreign Aid from whichever nation. How does it help those who are dying in the Med right now?
Or those 65 mill. displaced people languishing in camps around the world, surviving on “generous” handout from those same nations that is “talking big” about human rights. Have you tried to eat Human Rights? They don’t hold much nutrition. Even Grass Soup is more nutritious.[/QUOTE]
Then provide them with transport back to their place of origin and let them eat grass soup.
Before nationalism became a dirty word and protecting one’s own culture was seen as politically incorrect, the hordes would eventually see that they had to take charge of their own destiny and make their country what they want it to be, not just pay some scumbag to turn them over to a “rescue” group for delivery into a welfare state.
Maybe they need to march out of those camps that disturb you so much and change the place they came from. Maybe we in the Western world need to realize that we can’t fix every problem or right every wrong. When stone age cultures allow themselves to be lead into oblivion by religious whackjobs, kleptocrats, and armed baboons maybe it is a Darwinian type of thing. Let’s not import that mentality or let it control our society.
This whole idea that we are somehow not good, or not good enough, people because we don’t open our doors and treasury to the hordes is idiotic sentimentalism. If you feel a compelling need to go help then pack a bag and go help. Our own cultural and economic survival is just as important and just as critical to our nation(s) as whatever it is you feel is so important to those people.
[QUOTE=ombugge;187256]
But of course it is more important to protect our wasteful way of life in the West then to care for someone in a far away land that we don’t even know, or care who they are.
“0.25 dollar a day” from each of us in Europe and North America only would be enough to house, feed and school the children of all those 65 Mill. people in the camps. (Approx. USD 3.00/head)
But we would rather spend that on building walls to ensure they don’t get to our countries.
[/QUOTE]
Donations have already eclipsed what you proposed as the “fix”. Chart below is the 1st quarter of 2016.
As quoted from UN program…
In a complex environment with fast shifting needs and priorities, we depend on donors to provide contributions that can be allocated as flexibly as possible. These allow us to direct funds where they are most needed, providingprotection, shelter, water, health, education and other essentials to millions of refugees, asylum-seekers and statelessand internally displaced people around the world.
Top Donors[TABLE=“class: operationsTables operationsTables2010, width: 406”]
[TH=“class: header, colspan: 2”]2016: Top 10 government donors *[/TH]
[TR=“bgcolor: #F4F5F6”]
[TH]Donor[/TH]
[TH]USD[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR=“class: operationsSubtotal”]
- As at 30 April 2016
Source: 2016 Contributions to UNHCR Programmes
[/TR]
USA
684,833,023
[TR=“bgcolor: #F4F5F6”]
European Union
259,906,118
[/TR]
Japan
157,674,256
[TR=“bgcolor: #F4F5F6”]
Germany
130,008,656
[/TR]
Canada
115,255,394
[TR=“bgcolor: #F4F5F6”]
Sweden
107,995,545
[/TR]
Norway
61,056,954
[TR=“bgcolor: #F4F5F6”]
Netherlands
50,854,574
[/TR]
Denmark
50,732,307
[TR=“bgcolor: #F4F5F6”]
Australia**
45,942,378
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Notable World Wide Corporate donations:
[TABLE=“width: 793, align: left”]
[B]Abbott[/B]
In response to the Syrian refugee crisis, the Abbott Fund has provided a grant of $100,000 to nonprofit CARE, in support of their humanitarian relief efforts. Since the start of the war in Syria, CARE has been providing shelter, food, cash, skills training, WASH programs, and targeted support for women and girls in the areas of health and sexual and gender-based violence in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt, Serbia and Croatia. CARE’s response has reached more than 1.1 million Syrians across the region.
[B]ACE Group[/B]
The ACE Charitable Foundation has made a $250,000 grant to support the International Rescue Committee. ACE employees also donated $30,000. Their contributions were matched dollar-for-dollar by the Foundation. Company response efforts total nearly $310,000.
[B]American Express[/B]
American Express committed $100,000 in aid to the International Rescue Committee. It will also match U.S. employee donations to relief efforts up to $8,000 per employee per year, and will match the contributions of its employees outside the U.S., up to $1,000 per employee for this disaster.
[B]AIDA Cruises[/B]
AIDA Cruises donated a total of 200,000 euros for refugee relief in Germany and Italy.
[B]AirBnB[/B]
AirBnB is providing travel credits to relief workers serving with Mercy Corps and the IRC in Greece, Serbia, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and has vowed to match donations made by the Airbnb community with additional travel credits. The company is also providing financial support to UNHCR and the UN Refugee Agency.
[B]Ameriprise Financial[/B]
Ameriprise Financial promoted and matched employee donations to Global Impact’s Syria Relief Fund. Notably, the company hosted an educational briefing with American Refugee Committee for greater context and history on issue.
[B]Apple[/B]
Apple is supporting 2-for-1 matches of contributions from Apple employees to the Red Cross and other select relief efforts. A public donation campaign has also been made available via the App Store and iTunes.
[B]B3IT Connexions[/B]
B3IT Connexions donated $47,366 to provide tents and food for 5,714 refugees.
[B]Bayern Munich Soccer Club[/B]
Bayern Munich plans to donate $1.1 million to refugee projects, as well as start a training camp for migrant children and teens that would include German language lessons, meals, and soccer equipment.
[B]Bechtel Group[/B]
Together, the Bechtel Group Foundation and employees launched a special campaign to support Syrian families. The month-long campaign began with a $50,000 donation to the International Rescue Committee. The foundation also pledged to match employee contributions to any charity worldwide responding to the refugee crisis.
[B]C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc.[/B]
C&S made a donation made to the World Food Programme that will provide 30,000 meals for Syrian refugee families.
[B]Canadian National Railway Company[/B]
CN issued a $5 million donation to assist Canadian communities with the resettlement and immediate needs of Syrian refugees.
[B]Cisco[/B]
Cisco’s Tactical Operations (TacOps) team supported by the volunteer Disaster Response Team (DRT) from the U.K. and Ireland, Google, and NetHope have installed Meraki-based Wi-Fi networks and device charging stations at more than 17 sites along the migration route in Southern and Central Europe. Through an employee matching program, Cisco has donated a total of $745,000 to organizations aiding in the refugee crisis - including $630,000 worth of equipment to support these deployments and $200,000 in grant funding to NGO partners NetHope and Mercy Corps.
[B]Continental[/B]
The global airline company is extending its existing training programs to refugees, with the aim of helping them earn high school diplomas while participating in paid internships.
[B]Costa Cruises[/B]
Costa Crociere donated 200,000 euros for refugee relief in Germany and Italy.
[B]Daimler[/B]
Daimler raised 250,000 euros through joint employee and company fundraising for relief operations in northern Iraq. In cooperation with Wings of Help, Daimler was able to purchase and deliver tents for 8,000 people, 8,000 blankets, 6 supply tents, 1,000 cooking sets, winter clothing, medicines, and baby food. The company also offered a paid internship program for refugees. The traineeship included work experience, language study, and general job training skills.
[B]The Dow Chemical Company[/B]
Dow mand a $200,000 donation to the Habitat for Humanity International to support immediate shelter needs and relief efforts in 2016. The company also implemented a global employee matching grant program of up to $50,000 throughout December 2015.
[B]Endless Mobile[/B]
Endlesss has donated more than 400 computers to refugee centers in three camps in Jordan.
[B]Ericsson[/B]
Ericsson has supported development of an online family reconnection platform, providing technical expertise, and engaging with mobile network operators, other social organizations and employees to achieve the joint mission to achieve the joint mission of getting 1 million refugees registered on the platform. Ericsson is working with European operators to promote the service to the more than one million people who according to UNHCR arrived in Europe during 2015. The service enables refugees arriving in Germany to reconnect with separated family members. The company has also extended their Technology for Good Employee Volunteer Program into affected regions.
[B]Falcon Trading Corporation[/B]
Falcon Trade Corporation is an official United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee ‘Sponsor’ and the first private sector entity to make a pledge through the UNHCR’s Private Sector Partnership Platform. Donations include desperately-needed household items, child protection, and healthcare services for the benefit of vulnerable Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
[B]FedEx[/B]
FedEx provided a $1 million cash donation to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in response to its international appeal for assistance in countries including Italy, Greece, Serbia, Hungary and Macedonia. Additional relief efforts include: partnerships with Direct Relief and Heart to Heart international to transport large volumes of medical supplies for use in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey providing shelter for Syrian refugees and large volumes of essential hygiene kits for emergency healthcare to refugees in Greece.
[B]GE[/B]
The GE Foundation provided a $1 million grant to the IRC to help displaced children and families in Europe.
[B]GlaxoSmithKline[/B]
To date, GSK and their employees have donated over £2.3m in monetary funds and supplies to the humanitarian response to the refugee crisis. Partners including, AmeriCares, Save the Children, the British Red Cross, UNHCR, LOC Activities, are delivering essential health care products and services to promoting rights and providing safe shelters for refugees across the Middle East and Europe.
[B]Google[/B]
Google has launched multiple aid efforts in response to the refugee and migrant crisis. First donating €1 million ($1.1 million) to humanitarian aid organizations. Google also initiated a donation-matching campaign. Google said it will match the first $5.5 million worth of donations globally until it raises $11 million.
[B]H&M[/B]
H&M Conscious Foundation has decided to donate USD 500,000 to support the organization UNHCR in their emergency relief work, offering refugees food, medical care and shelter as well as migration services.
[B]IBM[/B]
IBM has made numerous grants across Europe in support of the crisis. IBM worked with the German Red Cross (DRK) to develop a solution based on Sahana (open source) to help DRK with information management for a refugee reception center in Mannheim. In Italy, IBM created a mobile and web based application to enable NGO Intrersos’ staff to register migrants and to capture demographic, health status, family, and socioeconomic information by capturing textual and image data . This solution is hosted securely on IBM Softlayer and allows the medical staff to collect and track medical records so that information can be rapidly retrieved and analysed. Other grants and volunteer activities are occurring in Austria, Turkey, France, Sweden, and elsewhere.
[B]IKEA[/B]
The IKEA Foundation started the “Brighter Lives for Refugees” campaign—promising to donate one dollar for every LED light bulb purchased in IKEA stores to help UNHCR light refugee camps. The campaign ran in IKEA stores globally from February 1 to March 28, 2015, and in just two months, IKEA customers and employees around the world raised $11.6 million and sold over one million LEDARE bulbs. Thanks to the Brighter Lives for Refugees campaign, many now have lighting and energy solutions. Since, IKEA Canada has donated $180,000 in furniture and furnishings to local non-profits helping Syrian refugees settle into new homes.
[B]Instacart[/B]
Instacart is giving customers the option to donate food rations to refugee families at the end of their transactions.
[B]Johnson & Johnson[/B]
Johnson & Johnson’s $1.75 million donation will provide for the immediate needs of thousands of children and families in Greece, Italy, Serbia, and Germany. In partnership with Save the Children, the funding will also support the sustainable long-term recovery of impacted communities. Central to this are resilience-building activities, which include educational programing, mental health support and community-building initiatives for the displaced families.
[B]JPMorgan Chase & Co.[/B]
JPMorgan Chase & Co. pledged $2 million from its foundation and employees to provide immediate relief to refugees and help address the humanitarian crisis in Europe. Grants totaling $1 million from the JPMorgan Chase Foundation will support Save the Children, Oxfam, International Rescue Committee and International Medical Corps. The JPMorgan Chase Foundation is also launching an employee giving campaign that will match employee donations dollar-for-dollar to these organizations. Specifically, the Foundation will double donations made by employees up to $500,000 for a total of $1 million in additional support.
[B]Kickstarter[/B]
Kickstarter partnered with UNHCR to create a seven-day fundraising campaign.
[B]KPMG[/B]
The German consulting firm is allowing its employees to receive paid time off while volunteering for humanitarian assistance.
[B]Manulife Financial Corporation[/B]
In partnership with the Community Foundations of Canada, Manulife established the Welcome Fund for Syrian Refugees. Manulife donated $500,000 to seed the Welcome Fund.
[B]Masimo[/B]
Masimo has made commitments to donate $5 million in Signal Extraction Technology® Pulse Oximeters and Pulse CO-Oximeters® and other medical equipment to Jordanian hospitals to help improve patient care for Syrian and Iraqi refugees, as well as Jordanian citizens.
[B]McDonald’s[/B]
The company will donate paid television airtime and access to digital media to promote and help raise money for the World Food Program (WFP). The partnership with the WFP ad slogan garnered attention with “Stop Hunger. Start Peace.” Other companies backign the effort are Burger King, DreamWorks Animation, Facebook, Google, MasterCard, McCain Foods, OMD, Twitter, TBWA, and United Airlines.
[B]Norwegian Air Shuttle[/B]
Through the “Help Us Fill a Plane” initiative, Norwegian passengers have donated more than $130,000 to UNICEF. All donations will be used to send an aircraft loaded with emergency aid and school supplies to help Syrian children living in the world’s second largest refugee camp, Za’atari.
[B]Pearson[/B]
The global educational publisher is planning to spend £1m to help find solutions for Syria’s refugee education crisis and another £500,000 to support two education centers in Amman, Jordan, designed and run by Save the Children.
[B]PepsiCo[/B]
The PepsiCo Foundation donated $500,000 to support the United Nation World Food Programme.
[B]Prepaid Financial Services[/B]
The National Government in Europe has selected Prepaid Financial Services (PFS) to roll out a prepaid payment card program to help National and Local Governments across Europe manage funds disbursements to asylum seekers. Cardholders can receive payments instantly from the Government, eliminating the vulnerability for theft if they carry cash. The PFS platform also offers reporting and auditing tools to monitor if funds are being distributed fairly and according to regulations.
[B]Reactor Core[/B]
In partnership with ReBootKamp, the company launched a coding bootcamp in Jordan with a special focus on serving Syrian Refugees and women. This program was designed to empower students by teaching practical and in-demand computer science skills to transform lives and build community.
[B]Royal Bank of Canada[/B]
Since the global call to action, the RBC has contributed $2.5 million.
[B]SAP[/B]
SAP Middle East and North Africa has donated AED 129,430 (USD 35,238) to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to aid refugees in the region. SAP pledged further engagement at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit with a refugee coding initiative, “Refugee Code Week.” In partnership with the UNHCR and Galway Education center, hundreds of free coding workshops and online training courges will be offered for youth aged 8-24. SAP volunteers are also training to teach coding seminars in participating communities.
[B]SES S.A.[/B]
In partnership with SOLARKIOSK AG, the company created the first-of-its-kind “Connected Solar School” to deliver electricity, education tools, and broadband internet connectivity to an education center within the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan.
[B]Siemens[/B]
Siemens worldwide has extended support through multiple efforts across Europe. At their headquarters in Munich, Germany, the company offered an available 320,000-square-foot commercial space to accommodate up to 200 refugees. At the request of UN Populations Fund, Siemens Medical Systems, Inc., Ultrasound Group provided medical equipment and technical training for tens of thousands of Kosovo refugees in Albania. Siemens AG donated approximately $55,000 in medical spare parts and services to the Macedonian Ministry of Health to help with its refugee assistance efforts. As part of the C4I project - a joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Union- the city of Erlangen and Siemens AG launched a pilot traineeship for highly qualified asylum seekers in hopes to fight rumors against refugees by demonstrating their potential and increasing interaction, alongside providing orientation for refugees within the German labor market.
[B]SOLARKIOSK AG[/B]
In partnership with SES S.A., the company created the first-of-its-kind “Connected Solar School” to deliver electricity, education tools, and broadband internet connectivity to an education center within the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan
[B]Starbucks[/B]
The Starbucks Foundation will donate $75,000 to Save the Children. On a regional basis, the Starbucks Foundation will donate $20,000 to Aktion Deutschland Hilft, an alliance of respected aid organizations leading refugee support in Germany. An additional $15,000 will go to Caritas, which is doing the same work across Austria and other European countries.
[B]Thyssenkrupp[/B]
Thyssenkrupp launched the We Help initiative to help foster a sense of community and promote the long term integration of refugees. As a part of the initiative, the company will create an additional 150 apprenticeship sites and 230 internships for refugees by 2018.
[B]TripAdvisor[/B]
The TripAdvisor Charitable Foundation committed $250,000 to International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Mercy Corps [$125,000 each] for emergency response operations. TACF will match traveler community’s donations up to $5,000 per person, made to the IRC and Mercy Corps with a total cap of $375,000. TripAdvisor is also matching employee donations 2:1 to IRC and Mercy Corps through 12/31/2015 and allowing employees up to five days of volunteer time off at any nonprofit that is tackling this refugee crisis.
[B]Trumpf[/B]
The German based provider of machine tools is working with the German town of Ditzingen to create German language courses exclusively for refugees.
[B]Turkcell[/B]
During the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit, Turkcell signed the GSM Associations Humanitarian Connectivity Charter—of which focuses on ensuring the continuity of communication services, and enhancing the cooperation between operators, governments, aid providers and other stakeholders during humanitarian crises. Turkcell has significantly and permanently expanded Turkey’s communications infrastructure in the cities that are most affected by the crisis. Turkcell serves more than 1.2 million Syrian customers with an Arabic-speaking call center – the only facility of its kind in Turkey.
[B]Uber[/B]
In September 2015, Uber launched UberGIVING as part of a pan-European initiative raise funds and provide needed items for child refugees. Uber will collect items you wish to donate – free of charge – and deliver them to community discount stores or directly to refugees. In the UK, proceeds of all donated items will be used to fund Save The Children’s Child Refugee Crisis Appeal. In the Netherlands, Uber is asking users to primarily donate sleeping bags, which will be sent to the thousands of refugees currently arriving in Greece. In Italy, Uber is partnering with the Red Cross to collect shoes, underwear, and winter gear for children and their parents.
[B]UPS[/B]
UPS serves as UNHCR’s emergency standby partner to transport critical supplies into the hands of refugees around the world. Through the UPS Humanitarian Relief and Resilience program, the UPS Foundation shipped Air shipments of 163 metric tons of relief supplies, including 86 tons of high-energy biscuits, 30,000 blankets, 25,000 sleeping mats and 1,000 solar lanterns. UNHCR will also receive an additional $100,000 in emergency funding. In addition to the UNHCR relief shipments, The UPS Foundation also is aiding The Salvation Army, which will activate $40,000 emergency funding from The UPS Foundation to support Syrian refugees arriving in Rome, Italy, with food, housing and legal advice. UPS operations are also providing local in-kind and volunteer support across Europe. Among these few selected efforts, the UPS Foundation has been supporting relief efforts for Syrian-Iraqi refugees for the past three year.
[B]Visa Europe[/B]
Visa Europe gave a donation of £1m to Save The Children’s Child Refugee Crisis Appeal.
[B]Volvo[/B]
The Volvo Group has donated 5 MSEK to support the work of UNHCR.
[B]Western Union[/B]
The Western Union Company and the Western Union Foundation today pledged a minimum of $1,000,000 to support families and communities most affected by the refugee crisis in Europe. The Company is mobilizing a multi-faceted response leveraging its global network. As a part of the pledge, the Western Union Company will contribute ten US cents per transaction for all consumer-to-consumer transactions originating within the European Union. Similarly, the Western Union Foundation will offer a 2:1 employee match program and a 1:1 match program for Western Union Retail Agents, Western Union Business Solutions clients and Western Union vendors. Grants totaling $200,000 have already been committed to be distributed among their NGO partners, Save the Children, the Red Cross National Societies in Europe, Mercy Corps and Caritas for immediate and localized relief efforts.
[/TABLE]
The Swiss do it right: assimilate or go back.
There’s only one man that can lead the Italian Coast Guard through this crisis
[QUOTE=anchorman;187262]Donations have already eclipsed what you proposed as the “fix”. Chart below is the 1st quarter of 2016.
As quoted from UN program…
In a complex environment with fast shifting needs and priorities, we depend on donors to provide contributions that can be allocated as flexibly as possible. These allow us to direct funds where they are most needed, providingprotection, shelter, water, health, education and other essentials to millions of refugees, asylum-seekers and statelessand internally displaced people[FONT=proxima_nova] around the world.[/QUOTE]
Is this what has been pledge, or what has actually been paid to UNHCR??
[QUOTE=ombugge;187276]Is this what has been pledge, or what has actually been paid to UNHCR??[/QUOTE]
That is historical information from my light reading. UNHCR receives $5-$8 billion annually from public and private donors. Although, my personal donations go to StJude’s Children’s research hospital, as much as I can afford. I do not donate to UNHCR, nor do I plan to.
[QUOTE=ombugge;187076]Where do you get the idea that I support this policy from? I’m totally disgusted by the policy of Norway and other European countries, trying to solve the “migration crisis” by closing their boarder to genuine refugees/asylum seekers by trying to class them all as “migrants”.
These same countries were instigators with the US of the UN refugee treaty of 1951 and the amendment of 1967. They made the statement that the refugee problem after WWII should NEVER be repeated and have been telling countries like Pakistan how to treat the millions of Afghani refugees that have flooded that country for years. Yet, when the problem show up on their doorsteps they cannot handle it.
Lebanon has nearly as many refugees as native citizens, incl. Palestinians that is now 3rd or more generation, as well as newly arrive Syrians. Solution; “Oh, let us buy them off with some money”.
Norway even have a “quota” of asylum seekers to be returned every year, which the bureaucrats have to meet. They have to find a reason to send out the “target number”, come hell or high water.
This incl. unaccompanied children and teens + families with children born in Norway, some of the having been in Norway for several years.
At the same time there are hundreds, if not thousands left in limbo for years while waiting for their applications to be processed by these same bureaucrats. They receive free housing of sort, free food and a small allowance, but are not allowed to work, study or leave the municipality in which they have been placed. You put yourself in that position and let me know how long you would last before you rebelled?
Am I a bleeding heart that doesn’t understand anything? No, far from it. I worked with UNDP in Bangladesh after the Independence war in 1971-72, when people starved to death all around us. I was told; “you have to grow callouses on your heart, or you will not survive here”, which I did.
I was also Captain on a Drillship working in the South China Sea in 1978-80. We picked up over 4000 Vietnamese refugees during that period. In one 28 day hitch in June/July 1979 I picked up 2,200. There were reported to be up to 40,000 people floating around in the South China Sea in the summer of 1979 and all the ASEAN countries refused to accept any more refugees. They are not signatory to the Refugee treaty, but were told by the Europeans and Americans that they had to do so. It took years to get the refugees resettled in those same countries, however. (Yes, America took many)
We watched ships (regardless of flag) making detours to avoid getting close to any refugee boats. We sat there on 8 anchors and could not move, hence we were like a “piece of sugar to a fly”, attracting every boat that could see us, lit up like a x-mas tree at night.
Only Norway guaranteed that they would accept any refugees picked up by ships under their flag, but not many was willing to take up the offer. My ship was under Panamanian flag, but American owned and operated, drilling for an American Oil company, We got NO support from either.
I was also working on and off in Angola in the worst time of civil war (1981 -87) and got to see the suffering of those who were at the blunt end of a proxy war between the Soviets and the US. Not a pleasant sight, I can assure you.
At least the Cubans kept us safe from the American backed rebels, although working for American and French companies. (Don’t let a little war get in the way of business)[/QUOTE]
You made what any reasonable person would believe to be a blanket comment about Americans, and I simply pointed out by posting that link that hypocrisy is a two way street. You sound like a good guy and your efforts to save refugees on the high seas are admirable and well noted. I just don’t cotton to people suggesting that Americans are indifferent to human suffering or that we are the cause of all of the chaos in parts of North Africa and the Mid East. Nobody here is suggesting that refugees be allowed to drown, either. Correct me if I misread your statement.
[QUOTE=catherder;187292]You made what any reasonable person would believe to be a blanket comment about Americans, and I simply pointed out by posting that link that hypocrisy is a two way street. You sound like a good guy and your efforts to save refugees on the high seas are admirable and well noted. I just don’t cotton to people suggesting that Americans are indifferent to human suffering or that we are the cause of all of the chaos in parts of North Africa and the Mid East. Nobody here is suggesting that refugees be allowed to drown, either. Correct me if I misread your statement.[/QUOTE]
You did. I admit that I’m not always impressed with American politics, or all things Americana, but in this case I was actually criticizing Norwegian policy and the WESTERN hypocrisy on refugees/asylum seekers. By Western I mean all the so called “developed” countries, which very much incl. the US, Australia and to a lesser extent, NZ, Japan and Singapore in this context.
That the Angolan Civil war was a proxy war involving the US, with Apartheid SA,and the Soviet Union is an historical fact and that Cubans were protecting American oil installations in the Cabinda enclave and French installation in Angola proper is well known facts.
I did have to grow callouses on my heart, but that doesn’t mean I have lost my sense of what is right and wrong, or agree with Steamer’s views, which is not suited to modern times and reality.
[QUOTE=ombugge;187318]You did. I admit that I’m not always impressed with American politics, or all things Americana, but in this case I was actually criticizing Norwegian policy and the WESTERN hypocrisy on refugees/asylum seekers. By Western I mean all the so called “developed” countries, which very much incl. the US, Australia and to a lesser extent, NZ, Japan and Singapore in this context.
That the Angolan Civil war was a proxy war involving the US, with Apartheid SA,and the Soviet Union is an historical fact and that Cubans were protecting American oil installations in the Cabinda enclave and French installation in Angola proper is well known facts.
I did have to grow callouses on my heart, but that doesn’t mean I have lost my sense of what is right and wrong, or agree with Steamer’s views, which is not suited to modern times and reality.[/QUOTE]
Thank you for the clarification. Now you have given me something to read up on.
[QUOTE=ombugge;187318]… is an historical fact and that Cubans were protecting American oil installations in the Cabinda enclave and French installation in Angola proper is well known facts.[/QUOTE]
That’s a bit revisionist in intent … the Cubans were not defending those oilfields for Chevron or the good old red white and blue, they were doing it because oil was the richest export Angola had and it was what Cabinda wanted to loot.
I was in Pointe Noire in the Congo at the time and as you may know that place was a staging area for Cubans arriving to fight in Angola. It is far from as simple a situation as it is often convenient to present in a fallacious argument in support of unbridled migration of sub-Saharan Africans to Europe. We in the US have a lot to feel guilty about in how we and the European colonial rulers managed Africa but it is not a reason for any of us to commit cultural or economic suicide.
[QUOTE=Steamer;187333]That’s a bit revisionist in intent … the Cubans were not defending those oilfields for Chevron or the good old red white and blue, they were doing it because oil was the richest export Angola had and it was what Cabinda wanted to loot.
I was in Pointe Noire in the Congo at the time and as you may know that place was a staging area for Cubans arriving to fight in Angola. It is far from as simple a situation as it is often convenient to present in a fallacious argument in support of unbridled migration of sub-Saharan Africans to Europe. We in the US have a lot to feel guilty about in how we and the European colonial rulers managed Africa but it is not a reason for any of us to commit cultural or economic suicide.[/QUOTE]
I was there a couple of times in the early '80s. Gulf Oil allowed us 4 beers and 2 cartons of cigarettes twice a week. A Gulf Oil guard (Belgium mercenary)explained that Malongo Terminal was the safest place in Africa as both sides wanted it intact. Interesting times…
Not to split hairs (I leave that to you) but Chevron was not there yet. Gulf Oil was the operator of the Cabinda fields.
Cabinda didn’t want to loot anything, that was the role of Gulf oil. They had been there since the Portuguese colonial days. (FYI: Cabinda is an enclave of Angola on the north side of the Congo River mouth)
I was in Pointe Noire in the Congo at the time and as you may know that place was a staging area for Cubans arriving to fight in Angola. It is far from as simple a situation as it is often convenient to present in a fallacious argument in support of unbridled migration of sub-Saharan Africans to Europe. We in the US have a lot to feel guilty about in how we and the European colonial rulers managed Africa but it is not a reason for any of us to commit cultural or economic suicide.
I was also in Point Noire many times at the time. The official name of the country was; “People’s Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville)” and they did support the Government in Luanda, which was also Socialistic. That Cubans MAY have visited Point Noire at times should not be a surprise to anyone.
Travel to Cabinda for Gulf Oil was via Kinshasa in then Zaire, which was the staging place for US operations and ruled by Mobutu Sese Seko, a US client and maybe the worst kleptocracy ever.
No, it is not the only reason for the migration from Africa, whether for economical or other reason, but that does NOT mean that US or anybody else can set aside their obligation towards genuine refugees, or the obligation to assist people in distress at sea. Please understand the difference between Asylum Seekers and Economical Immigrants.
Can you find a way to separate one from the others BEFORE they reach European shores? If so, please let the world know. If not, we have an obligation to rescue those in distress and try to separate them once the have arrived on our soil.
There is an obligation to accept those who are in need of protection, but not those who are not.
The fact that Europe is in need of migrants to maintain the present level of activity and standard of living appears to be lost in the fog of fear of the unknown and different. Many of those who are arriving are well educated, or have skills that is needed, others are young, trainable and willing to work hard to better their situation.
[QUOTE=ombugge;187341]Not to split hairs …[/QUOTE]
You keep splitting them anyway and keep getting it wrong anyway.
Chevron owned the “Gulf” oil we are talking about, it was not the Gulf Oil that most North Americans know about, it was [U]Cabinda Gulf[/U], a front for Chevron.
And Brazzaville is a long way from Pointe Noire. There is no “may” about it Pointe Noire was where Cuban supplies and personnel staged for fighting a few miles down the road. Have you ever heard of “Operation Carlotta”?
It doesn’t sound like you were ever anywhere near the place