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THE DEPARTMENT OF Foreign Affairs has announced that it will send €2 million in aid to the Central African Republic.
The money will provide life-saving emergency assistance to civilians affected by the ongoing conflict in the Central Africa Republic (CAR).
The funding will be used to provide food, water, shelter and healthcare to the worst-affected communities.
The junior minister at the department Joe Costello said that the money will be used to help the 700,000 people who have been displaced by the violence in the country, with about a quarter of a million who are displaced in another country.
“The ongoing conflict in the Central Africa Republic is having an appalling impact on the civilian population, who were already extremely vulnerable. Reports of widespread human rights violations including killings, rapes, kidnappings, and recruitment of child soldiers are very disturbing, as are increasing reports of sectarian violence.
“It is vital that all parties respect international humanitarian law, that civilians are protected, and that humanitarian access is provided for UN agencies and NGOs working in Central African Republic.”
The funding announced by Costello will be provided to a UN-administered fund. The fund will enable the UN to support aid organisations to reach two million people with food, water, shelter, healthcare and education.
Costello added that he will be monitoring the situation in South Sudan with a view to assistance.
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Or we could not? I mean we had Trocaire boxes in 1st class and im 30 now and its not gotten any better. Maybe its time to stop throwing money at this problem, as that is clearly not working, and find a different solution?
Most of the execs of these so called charity orginasations are on €100k+ annually
I had trocaire boxes in first class and I’m a lot older than 30. Nothing changes in the heart of darkness. Killing, raping, is endemic. Our 2 million will change nothing just like the trillion than has gone to Africa in aid in the last 40+ years has achieved nothing. We must still hand over the borrowed money though, so Costello and his ilk can hold their heads up at UN and NGO cocktail.parties.
I heard that in 2014 Troicre are issuing boxes in Africa with pictures of Irish kids on them
Best to clean your ears out and get a sense of humour while your at it my man
WWF annual income: £400 million.
Koni is at it again….
Maybe its time to stop throwing money at this problem”
Maybe if the West and in this case France stayed away – and let them settle it themselves . We had a similar experience with UK – but we got our Freedom – and now e are a Free people enjoying the benefits of Neoliberalism – and not a corrupt politician in sight – truly wonderful .
From AJE
”The Central African Republic was in a sorrow shape in 1960 when it became nominally independent from France and had to overcome several inherited liabilities. Although France was no longer in charge of the territory, nevertheless, it pulled the strings from behind the scene.
France continued to have significant role in CAR military affairs and often called the shot, directly or indirectly, through its military capabilities, including local allies. Another key factor was that the local elite appeared to have no clue of their onerous national responsibilities as many of them were poorly educated and beholden to the former colonial master. Rather than transform colonial structures in order to serve the local population, the elite mismanaged the inherited system and made it even worse; while exploiting the country’s resources for their own ends.
Liberation did not bring freedom and accountability. Instead it ushered in a new form of authoritarianism whose cruelty went beyond imagination. This order was best represented by the self- proclaimed Emperor Bokassa who ruinously reined from 1965 to 1979. Bokassa was replaced by another coup which French Commandos in the country assisted. More coups followed until the last year when a rebel movement overthrew the government. France, for its part, has always acted behind the scenes. Most recently, it sent troops to stop the conflict that is ravaging the country; a conflict whose genealogy goes back to France.”
full article
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/12/central-africa-crisis-cherchez-la-france-201312217213133232.html
Yes Jim, thats why I said “find another soloution”, you cut part of the sentence out >_>. Im not saying “don’t help them” or “don’t look at the reason” as, Margaret said a trillion and how many years later is it still war, famine, death? But money has clearly not made the impact we hope it does, the irish are generous, they will give and give and give, but at some stage it has to have some sort of visible impact. I never said other factors weren’t the cause infact that was the point of my comment, there are somethings money can’t fix.
Koni is sooo 2012
I like it,very smart
2500 people in Ireland queued for food parcels in the rain wind and that was just in dublin how about our positions looking after our own people with our money
We need a Self Preservation Society.
where is all this fn money comming from. do we the people not have a say where all this money is given. am sure all the workers are all well payed at the top anyway.
I know, lets lots of Africans move here instead then we could monitor the money we spend on them, oh wait that has happened and is continuing oh well no doubt in a generational or two we ll have our version of the Central African Republic. Race is nothing but a social construct…I believe!
More money we don’t have , and will only end up in warlords hands to feed his army.
We obviously do have as we just sent it.
Yes I have no confidence at all that this money will actually go to those it was intended to help. Life is cheap in Africa. Guns are not.
Its too easy to spend other peoples (tax payers) money. More waste here yet again. Joe and the gravy train gang have no concept of how hard it actually is to earn money in the real world. Unlike normal people he, his wife his sister in law etc have secure incomes for life via suckling from the public tit (tax payers wallets). I would cancel all foreign “aid” and reduce taxes so individuals would have higher incomes and therefore they could choose to donate to whatever cause they liked. Instead of the choices being imposed on them.
Agenda 21 is working as ‘wealth’ is transferred from us to the ‘Third World’
Wealth in Africa- yes, without the people of course, as the real wealth is its minerals, etc.
I have no problem helping out other nations but
Let’s sort Ireland first
More money wasted on corrupt African countries.
I hope the aid genuinely goes to civilians and not to combatants
Hope isn’t good enough.
We are a bankrupt nation. where are we getting all this money to through to corrupt African countries. Sort out our own mess first. Believe me there are Africans out there rich enough to sort out their own problems. I am sick listening to Africans going on about being colonised. We colonised no one
Sadly, no as we learned from so many charities in the past. The vast majority goes in administration. How much went to poor of Africa under Geldof? That is worth research before people allow their servants TD’s to give any of our money away.
What a joke this is.
I’d like to see them do the same if it was the other way around.
Highly doubt they would.
Charity starts at home.
And gets shipped abroad
I like to think charity starts where it’s needed the most, but that’s just me.
Is this on top of the 600 million we are borrowing to send over to Africa every year, meanwhile back in Ireland homeless ness is on the rise but no money for it.
Better spent at home, we’re not doing bad, feeding and housing too many africans here already with little thanks
Feed our own people before others countries please.
Nobody in Ireland is starving to death or drinking cholera infected water so…we have! Horay! Send it away!
Our own people. The three most disgusting words in the English language when used in this context.
Thanks to Irish ‘tin pot’ charities as some knucklehead has described them, Irish people are not starving. There have been enough articles on the Journal to show that this is reality.
Here come the do-gooders/hippies to defend a nation that wouldn’t give a sh!t about them if the tables were turned
What makes you think they wouldn’t?
Maybe you could tell us of an African charity that looks out for non Africans, cares for the environment, cares for animals etc, but, I wont hold my breath.
Africa is a continent made up of many countries, some worse off then others. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of charities across africa in different countries that aid people and causes in other African countries.
And I’m sure if the tables were turned as suggested above they’d set up plenty more to help those worse off in ireland.
What about the hungry and homeless peoples in Ireland? How you can say no to them while the ministry of foreign affairs pay €2millions for guns. You have to know the money will never arrives to the right places. It’s just wasted money.
Reminds me of a American dad joke
.
He can’t look after himself properly-
He’s like a big baby – or Africa
Reminds me of a American dad joke”
considering the US attacks on Africa this is a very bad joke indeed . Ever hear of Africom?/
rom Nick Turse article
” the U.S. military is deploying its forces far beyond declared combat zones. In recent years, for example, Washington has very publicly proclaimed a “pivot to Asia,” a “rebalancing” of its military resources eastward, without actually carrying out wholesale policy changes. Elsewhere, however, from the Middle East to South America, the Pentagon is increasingly engaged in shadowy operations whose details emerge piecemeal and are rarely examined in a comprehensive way. Nowhere is this truer than in Africa. To the media and the American people, officials insist the U.S. military is engaged in small-scale, innocuous operations there. Out of public earshot, officers running America’s secret wars say: “Africa is the battlefield of tomorrow, today.””
full article
http://mondediplo.com/openpage/the-pivot-to-africa
have a look at the number of US bases in Africa – they are there for humanitarian reasons – yes ??
.
What a load of old raméis.
What a load of old raméis.
– u don’t like facts then
Charity begins at home
It shouldn’t. It should begin with those who need it most.
Whats the name of the African welfare system?
European Union!
Nah, its Irish dole, thats the jackpot. F*** all dole in most EU countries anyway and everyone knows it.
It’ll be used for Fighter Jets. It is after Xmas afterall. Bargains to be had.
and air fares to get here, just a visit, just for a few weeks :/
Check out eko Atlantic City under construction now in Nigeria. It’s going to be a millionaires paradise,with hundreds of millions being pumped in. I bet you 99% of the investors don’t give a crap about Africa’s poverty. Meanwhile ordinary people around the world are expected to sort the problem out. While Africa’s rich fat cats sit back and laugh
Charity should begin at home.giving money to Africa for years and still worse than ever
no matter how much money you throw at the problem, it goes out the other end. They keep having too many babies over there and even here you see it, they have no notion of stopping, poorly educated ok but c’mon its not that hard to be careful.
As long as it’s put to proper use this can only be a good thing. We can’t use bad practices in the past as an excuse simply not to give overseas aid
don’t take the risk, do not send a penny, sleep soundly.
It’s put state charity to a referendum so that our politicians can explain when they at their New Years cocktail party that the Irish taxpayers wish to choose their own charities.
I served there and chad in 2008/09 in a EUFOR peace enforcing mission.we were ultimately pulled out in the end because it was to vast and too dangerous.very harsh climate also.maybe a change of approach is needed instead of throwing money at it because in my experiences in that region it’s not making it’s way to the people who really need it.
Why throw money when grenades are at hand !
Bankers love these disasters whether its man made or natural. The lend money at interest to countries which in turn donate it.
It would be nice if someone donated 2 million to me. Filthy Africans
took the words right out of my mouth…… we can’t afford to pay our own countries debt, and they want to give more away. …… give them the email addresses of all these African people who keep sending us mails telling us they have 100,000,000 they want to give to us for nothing more than providing a bank account number !!
Ugggh, the comments here are depressing. First off the money is going to a “UN-administered fund”, not some tin-pot Irish charity with 100k bonuses and whatnot. It’s going to the fecking United Nations who, ya know, have a fairly good record with this kind of thing. And secondly this “we can’t afford it”, yes, yes we can. We are an extremely wealthy Western nation, 2 million is literally nothing to us but it’s a massive help to hundreds of thousands of Africans. And third this “Sur’ Africa is crazy like, it’ll never be fixed”, well yeah if you got your way it wouldn’t be. How is it that the continent is supposed to stabilise without international assistance exactly?
Some of the UN ‘officials’ pull in more than €2 million a year in ‘consultancy fees’ and directorships. Agenda 21.
The UN – the people who brought you the Oil For Fraud programme, peacekeepers trafficking women for prostitution, and the Security Council sitting on its hands for years while the Janjaweed killed or raped everything in South Sudan. I’d rather our charity efforts be run by the board of the CRC, frankly.
As to the last point, name a country which got out of poverty through foreign aid or charity work.
Well said BO, good to hear the voice of reason here, these small minded, knee jerk journal comments are so depressing
BO, if we are a very wealthy nation as you have said why are we borrowing millions of euro from the EU fund every year.
Sod the spineless UN & 3rd world countries!
because we sold our sovereignty to the EU and now cannot create our own paper money based on our own resources- which are limitless, by the way.
Since the end of WW2 we have been hit with the media slowly telling us white people are the worst people in the world and why not? white guilt is a marketing tool, crafted to suit a once Christian people . Fill us with intolerable guilt, then offer atonement through racial and National self-abasement, (uh-oh he said race and Nation) Just like selling deodorant, once you’ve convinced people that they stink, the product sells itself. Yes we “need” to look after the welfare of Africans just like we “need” African immigration into Ireland. A larger agenda is at play here and one that does not cater to our long benefit.
@David Aspd – Excellent post.
Is that the same UN that went to Iraq to help the poor locals , that the USA , Israel and uk just veto at will
Is that the Central African Republic of Mosney
Why? JUST SEND MORE AMMO SO THEY CAN KILL EACH OTHER QUICKER.
Enter the “how many hospital beds” brigade in
5…
4……
3………
Take a bow you are the first !
Have you needed a hospital bed in the last year or two Mitch ?
Have you been starved & burned from your home because of a civil war in the past year or so Larry?
Good argument there mate.
Zulu Dawn is on Channel 5 now..how long is that war going on?
So have you Mitch ?
How about helping those in Ireland first before helping another country
Charity is Africa is not working.
The Government should use this money to help it’s own citizens first before even thinking about pledging it to other countries. This amount of money would surely go a long way in helping our own who are homeless or living in poverty.
Where’s the money coming from?
WTF
Could we not have used this money to top up SOMEbody’s salary?
700,000 displaced? Not tryin to be a (un+ here but how many of our own citizens have had to emmigrate? Shouldn’t the money be spent helping our own citizens before trying to help others?
People on this comment section make no sense. Aid to countries like CAR is basically just to keep the people alive it doesn’t magically fix the social and political state of a country so expecting it to is naive and unrealistic.
Its about time
have your say