Vocal Voices

the Govt of Sierra Leone says that 3.3 million dollars given in the fight against EBOLA---is unaccounted for !!! what a surprise

The corruption in these places is staggering.
Sometimes I think they may as well set fire to the money; at least they'd have a warm fire then.

I keep going back to this: if we are to give aid it should always be in the form of goods or services or personnel and they remain ours on a, sort of, permanent loan basis. We should never, ever, give money.

Say there is an earthquake and we send 2,000 tents, those tents remain ours. I know that we will never get any back and that, over time, they will fall to pieces, but until such time as they are written off they remain on our inventory.

It's why Mrs S and I always supported Water Aid. They went over there with materials and they used the local labour with their skills to create water infrastructure which allowed the locals to support themselves.

Until they started doing this in India. I don't mind when the country is basically unable to do this for themselves. I do mind when it is a country in the space race sending probes to Mars. I must remember to write to them and le them know whey all the others are suffering because of their decision.