A howl for humanity
Bangladesh Cyclone Aftermath 1991
I’m not surprised at the announcement of yet another cut or broken promise by the Coalition government. The news in today’s Observer that it’s going to renege even more on aid commitments than it was going to renege last week is not a shock.
After all, what’s the education of 72 million children, or the death of 21 children a minute from preventable diseases, compared with the need to look really, really tough on the deficit?
The Coalition can clearly now safely set to one side what it said about international aid in its own ‘policy green paper’ as a pre-election lie to the liberal woolies:
The global downturn – which is a hammer blow to the world’s poorest families – makes the need for well-spent aid even more urgent.
All that’s to be expected. This is the Coalition Tories we’re talking about.
What really, really makes me want to howl with frustration is the media-orchestrated public reception to these broken promises, reflected in first few Observer comments:
Oh my God, at last some common sense. We need to look after our own, about time too. Never send money to the Third World, it will just disappear. If you want to help ask them what they need, and then send it via ship or plane. We’ve been sending money for decades, where did it go? …….
Developmental Aid to Africa is a misnomer to rank alongside Tony Bliar, Middle East Peace Envoy.
Many more of the same ilk will follow, on this and other more trolled media sites, and the same old themes will be there: all the money is wasted, development never happens anyway, ’charity begins at home’.
And the usual rightwingers will be right now writing up their own versions of this, just as they have done previously:
We all know there is massive wastage on some of the projects supported by DfID and this must be rooted out.
‘We all know that’. No need for evidence, no need for facts, just rightwing dogma peddled as incontrovertible truth, that all aid is a waste of taxpayer money.
This kind of shite makes me want to throw my computer at the wall in frustration.
It makes me want to howl my own truth, a truth based on actual life – a life in which this ‘wasted’ British aid money enabled me and the people I worked with in Asia and Africa save thousands of lives and improve the lives of thousands more.
Real people, real lives, real deaths.
But my howl of humanity, in support of our aid commitments, cannot be heard over the howling of the trolls of those who claim compassion, but do not know the meaning of the word.
Thank you. As I tweeted recently, there is no such thing as net neutrality whilst organisations and individuals consistently massage net rankings and troll websites with their coordinated comments. You are right to draw our attention to this. The question is: what to do now?
I don’t think I have much to add, but I wanted you to know that there is another person with compassion out here in cyberspace. You’ve made some very good, though sad, points.
Mil – thanks it’s always worth remembering that the views we see spouted may just be made by a very vocal minority before we lose complete faith in humanity.
What can we do about this?
I suspect that there are two things we might do. The first, simply keep the faith, as you suggest. The second, on the basis of such faith, devise websites and online constitutions which bring to the fore the socialising, sharing, supportive and spontaneous elements of humanity at the same time as they background the selfish lynch-mob type attitudes I am sure most of us who don’t generally speak out as often as we might find resistible.
How to do this? Well. The first step is to define the need. Meanwhile, nothing should be all that impossible in such a malleable world as Web 2.0.
Good to hear there is more compassion out there, though – and unashamed of expressing itself as clearly as this.
“No need for evidence, no need for facts, just rightwing dogma peddled as incontrovertible truth, that all aid is a waste of taxpayer money.”
I agree that there is a need for evidence, and that some of these cuts could be very harmful. I’m perhaps sceptical of how much good policy on education in the developing world is doing after reading The Beautiful Tree by James Tooley, but I agree that current “wastage” does not mean that “cutting will improve DFID”.
What I do think is that it’s unfair to characterise the coalition as peddling the idea that “all aid is a waste of taxpayer money”. It was, after all, the Tories who went into the election with an aid spending target, regardless of how it was spent.
ESA medical to be much harsher in time for IB transfer
Dear Subscriber,
We hadn’t intended to publish any newsletters in August, but the latest move by the coalition really does need an urgent response from you if you’re claiming incapacity benefit or employment and support allowance.
Back in April, when new labour was still in power, we warned that the secretary of state for work and pensions had approved plans to make the work capability assessment, the medical test for employment and support allowance, much harder to pass. Our news was greeted with considerable scepticism on many forums and blogs, especially when we warned:
“The shock plans, for ‘simplifying’ the work capability assessment for employment and support allowance (ESA) include docking points from amputees who can lift and carry with their stumps. Claimants with speech problems who can write a sign saying, for example, ‘The office is on fire!’ will score no points for speech and deaf claimants who can read the sign will lose all their points for hearing.
“Meanwhile, for ‘health and safety reasons’ all points scored for problems with bending and kneeling are to be abolished and claimants who have difficulty walking can be assessed using imaginary wheelchairs.
“Claimants who have difficulty standing for any length of time will, under the plans, also have to show they have equal difficulty sitting, and vice versa, in order to score any points. And no matter how bad their problems with standing and sitting, they will not score enough points to be awarded ESA.
“In addition, almost half of the 41 mental health descriptors for which points can be scored are being removed from the new ‘simpler’ test, greatly reducing the chances of being found incapable of work due to such things as poor memory, confusion, depression and anxiety.
looking after and fighting for people here might be a help mind you, ok people struggling in other parts of the world have it just as hard, but since not many people here are interested in my problems I tend to think sod the world.