Italy reneges on G8 pledges to aid Africa

[Brian Foley]

Italy reneges on G8 pledges to aid Africa
Italy has failed to meet its commitments to reduce poverty in Africa and has lost credibility in its relationship with the region, a group backed by high-profile campaigners Bono and Bob Geldof warned on Thursday.

Anti-poverty group ONE, founded by singer and activist Bono, warned that Italy faces being embarrassed at the Group of Eight summit it will host next month.

The G8 – the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia – laid out ambitious plans at a meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005, to increase aid to Africa by US$25 billion a year by 2010, more than doubling the 2004 level of aid to the continent.

"Italy has said it will put Africa at the forefront of the agenda at the G8 Summit. Based on its performance against the Gleneagles commitments, it has no credibility to host discussions of such global importance," ONE said in its fourth annual report.

ONE, which also has the backing of singer Bob Geldof, said Italy has cut development assistance to Africa and is planning more cuts this year.
Italy's Premier, Silvio Berlusconi, appeared to respond to the report's charges during a joint press conference with Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi on Wednesday, calling for decisive action from wealthy countries to help bring Africa out of its misery.

But he rejected the idea that aid should simply continue to pour in, and said leaders in certain African countries had funnelled aid into their own Swiss bank accounts rather than use it to help their people.

Yeah and poor Italins dont need relief from this recession as well, why dont we make Bono and Geldof live on unemployment assistance in Sicily for 6 months, that ought to set their priorities right. Here is another idea why doesn't Italy tell Africa to accept back every African in Italy in exchange for aid.

[Crvena zvezda]

^ No take all the money Bono and Geldof have. Give to a bunch of mico-crit loan issuing charities.

Microcredit-financing of the billion or so dollars they have will do more for Africa then the next 20 years of foreign aid will.

[Brian Foley]

Originally Posted by Crvena zvezda

^ No take all the money Bono and Geldof have. Give to a bunch of mico-crit loan issuing charities.

Microcredit-financing of the billion or so dollars they have will do more for Africa then the next 20 years of foreign aid will.

I am not Italian but it annoys me when you have citizens living in poor conditions and their own goverment is giving aid to other nations. That is what annoys me with Americas overly generous aid to Israel, 3 million homeless in the USA and the nation is spending $6+ Billion a year keeping Israelis in first class luxury.

[Ioannis]

"Aid to Africa" has always been a sham, the people there never receive the money not to mention all the lies about the number of A.I.D.S. victims. Africa was the breadbasket of the world for thousands of years and they have all the natural resources they need as well.

Let them take care of themselves.

[Crvena zvezda]

Originally Posted by Ioannis

"Aid to Africa" has always been a sham, the people there never receive the money not to mention all the lies about the number of A.I.D.S. victims. Africa was the breadbasket of the world for thousands of years and they have all the natural resources they need as well.

Let them take care of themselves.

Aid is ntohing but a scam to get educated Africans to do the bidding of the elites in the west [the same elites who push the immgiration of million of Africans to Europe].

There was a BBC news program about AID in africa, how it's a failure. It was basically exposing what a sham government aid is, how micro-credit financing and the private sector are much better.

Anyways. Durign the program the host went to two unviersities. Asked how many of the students would like to open a business around 10% wanted too, 90% wanted to work with foreign aid.

[Señor Malo]

Originally Posted by Crvena zvezda

^ No take all the money Bono and Geldof have. Give to a bunch of mico-crit loan issuing charities.

Microcredit-financing of the billion or so dollars they have will do more for Africa then the next 20 years of foreign aid will.

This is true; with Micro-Credit at least, you can be sure that the money goes to those who really need it, contrarelly to International Subsidies and foreigns givernments aids

[Señor Malo]

Originally Posted by BrianFoley

Yeah and poor Italins dont need relief from this recession as well, why dont we make Bono and Geldof live on unemployment assistance in Sicily for 6 months, that ought to set their priorities right. Here is another idea why doesn't Italy tell Africa to accept back every African in Italy in exchange for aid.

As much respect and admiration I have for Bono as musician, this seems to proof that many celebrities who go on "charity" organisation do it for satisfy their own need of attrackting Attention and mediatisation rather than because they really care for the people they claim to help; if it was the case Bono & Gedolf should have taken into account, beside the living conditions of many Italians that you have just mentioned, other attenuating circonstancies such as the recent Aquila earthquake which left thousand Italians homeless...
Unless these two celebs' take too seriously the "Give in this World, live in the Next one" motto

[ElDesmadre]

Originally Posted by Ioannis

"Aid to Africa" has always been a sham, the people there never receive the money not to mention all the lies about the number of A.I.D.S. victims. Africa was the breadbasket of the world for thousands of years and they have all the natural resources they need as well.

Let them take care of themselves.

True. If people really wanted to help Africa, they would just leave it alone.

[Deus Vult]

Originally Posted by ElDesmadre

True. If people really wanted to help Africa, they would just leave it alone.

It's things like this that just make me love Glasgow.

[Crvena zvezda]

Originally Posted by ElDesmadre

True. If people really wanted to help Africa, they would just leave it alone.

The better question is does anyone listen to him and Gelfoff.

I remember after they organized the pointless Live 8 concerts a few months later I read ana rticle how Geldoff had to cancel converts because the most tickets he could sell were 500 for a show in Rome <-- the rest there was even less demand.

[Crvena zvezda]

Originally Posted by ElDesmadre

True. If people really wanted to help Africa, they would just leave it alone.

I saw this on tv last night, so I searched in youtube. This is about how much Bono helps the world and the poor.

+ YouTube Video