Should the UK Government be giving 'aid' to Uganda?

[birdie1971]

Our Government has pledged to give hundreds of millions of pounds in aid to Uganda over the next ten years.

This is a country which plans to impose a "gay death penalty"...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8427066.stm


And a country where human sacrifice – specifically children – is apparently widely practised and while not approved of by the Ugandan Government, they do not wish to prosecute those individuals who have confessed to murdering many, many children.

WARNING! Before clicking on the link below, be warned that the article contains some pretty disturbing material regarding child 'sacrifice'...

http://news.bbc.co.uk...newsnight/8441813.stm


Should the British Government continue to give money to this nation?

[jno]

That makes sense, Newsdesk - there are plenty of people in Brighton who could reasonably be sacrificed if they wanted to cling to their old ways, especially those with 4x4s.

[mollykins]

People with 4x4 are laughing at people with tiny electric cars in this weather at the moment.

[sp1814]

My initial reaction wa'esTes, withdraw all funding - because if we don't we're giving tacit approval to a policy that most in the UK would (I hope) find abhorrent".

But then I read this on the link:

"An assembly government spokesman said the project was to directly help the Mbale region and that withdrawing funding would affect the "ordinary" people there, rather than the Ugandan government, which does not receive the money."

Which gives me pause for thought...

[cazzz1975]

"People with 4x4 are laughing at people with tiny electric cars in this weather at the moment"

no they're not, they are just having a well earned break from the attitude they normally get from the anti-4x4 brigade.

[jno]

yes, the aid is for Ugandans rather than Uganda.

[birdie1971]

I know that in theory the aid is for the people, not the Government. And that's fine in principal but I'd be very interested to hear about that mechanism works.

How can £70 million per year of aid get to the normal Ugandan people while simultaneously bypassing all Government departments? I fail to see how that is possible.

[sp1814]

birdie1971

I can't find mention of £70million in either article. I can only find £75,000(?)

[sp1814]

In answer to your question ("How can £70 million per year of aid get to the normal Ugandan people while simultaneously bypassing all Government departments?"), some donors give money directly to non-governmental organizations (N.G.O.s) through commercial banks, not the central bank, and the government is unable to control it.

Aid money began to flock here as Uganda became a “good country” in the eyes of donors, he explains. Uganda has long been a darling of the African continent, cutting its H.I.V./AIDS rate from 24 percent in the 1980’s to six percent, while its neighbors infection rates are out of control. It also privatized its economy, achieved high economic growth of 6 percent, and slashed poverty from 56 percent to 38 percent over 10 years.

More of the above from http://www.worldpress.org/Africa/2074.cfm#down

[birdie1971]

Sp1814 - “I can't find mention of £70million in either article...”. You clearly haven't read either article very well then.

From the first link...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8427066.stm

“The UK government is not withdrawing the £70m in aid that it gives every year to Uganda”



Your link is that states, “... some donors give money directly to non-governmental organizations (N.G.O.s) through commercial banks, not the central bank, and the government is unable to control it. They also channel money through government coffers.” is about as woolly as you can get and completely fails to address the main question.

This is a country that knows it has hundreds of child murderers that have murdered hundreds, maybe even thousands, of children between them (the witchdoctor called Polino Angela in the article confessed to murdering upto 70 people!).

James Nsaba Buturo, Uganda's Minister of Ethics and Integrity(!) [on the specific matter of punishing these child murderers] has said, “To punish retrospectively would cause a problem...”

So we have a Government that is aware that some of its citizens are murdering kids on an almost industrial scale but don't think they should punish these child killers because it. “... would cause a problem...”


And we are giving aid to this country!?