-
IMPORTANT // Please look after your loved ones, yourself and be kind to others. If you are feeling that the world is too hard to handle there is always help - I implore you not to hesitate in contacting one of these wonderful organisations Lifeline and Beyond Blue ... and I'm sure reaching out to our PRE community we will find a way to help. T.
Tony Abbott's plebiscite
- Thread starter Rosy
- Start date
I thought it was a waste of time, all it has done is made the Liberals look like stunt merchants. Even if it came out that the majority of people don't want a carbon dioxide tax, it wouldn't compel the government to change their policy anyway. Only an election can stop it.rosy23 said:
I think that effective government aid is an oxymoron. Aid via non-for-profit agencies is also pretty wasteful, but better than government aid. Overall I consider aid a pretty poor method of helping poor people.Sintiger said:
You are misusing the word aid . Aid is not about handouts . Aid these days is a lot about providing programs that will build long term sustainable development so that communities can build to a level where they are sustainable on their own . Much of the foreign aid provided by countries like australia is dispensed through NGO's as well . In fact AUSAID's rules for providing tax deductibility status specifically dictate that they will not grant it unless the program leads to sustainabilty and real economic development. I know this for a fact because I have been involved directly in applying for such status.Giardiasis said:
Of course some money goes to saving lives , disaster relief etc as well . However the days of the majority of aid being just charity are long gone . If you go to countries where there is a lot of aid being dispensed you will see very few Government employed people and lots of NGO's .
U2 you mean Medicines Sans Frontiers . The issue in some places is that some NGO's refuse to work under the auspice of the UN which usually controls what organisations have responsibilities for what and the geographical areas they have responsibilities for , and that is mostly decided by meeting between the UN and the NGO's . Medicines Sans Frontiers is one of those and when you talk to people from other NGO's they say that MSF can get in the way because they are not coordinated and they can put their people at risk because they are not taking security advice that others get . If that's what you mean , from what i have heard directly from people who have been in Haiti for example , then I agree with you.U2Tigers said:
Don't know about half the time though but it does happen. It can also happen with some religious based NGO's because if you agree to work under the UN control you are not allow to preach or attempt to convert and some won't do that .
Anyway this is not related to Tony Abbott's plebiscite of course .
Sintiger said:
Cheers for the proper name.
And yes thats the main point I was getting across. Security wise they create issues, and definatley make those who are trying to protect others and them a lot more difficult.
Thats not by them being Naive, either, just the way some of them orginisations work.
I'm surprised to hear that. I have a couple of mates who are war/disaster correspondants and get out to disaster areas fairly quickly, especially in remote places. When I asked them which charity would give the most benefit for my buck, they said MSF without any hesitation. Apparently the best NGO when it comes to helping the most in need the fastest with little wastage.
Baloo said:
May be just the ones I have encountered.
In regard to how they go about providing care, I can't judge totally on that.
In my experience though, they caused a lot of issues, in regard to security, which was my concern.
Like I said, the members i dealt with, left a real bad impression.
Security has to be the main priority, in countries that have varying levels of conflict in them, before the care can be given. My encounter had them disregarding Security, thinking they were the most important people there. They were a hinderence.
They are great people Baloo don't get me wrong . There are some incredibly dedicated people who work for that organsiation and many of them are volunteers , they do it for nothing .Baloo said:
I just know from people who have been in Haiti in particular in the last 12-18 months that there have been frustrations with them in the way i describe . I don't think anyone doubts what they do and their commitment , its just the way the choose to operate .
I reckon the best way to help people in need is to let them come here and get a job. I can't be bothered looking up the references now, but I've read that the money immigrants send home to relatives is greater than the aid budget; and since it is going directly to families, it is better targeted with minimal administrative waste.
The GDP of The Philippnes is something like $190 billion and the remittances from overseas workers is in the order of $15-18 billion ( its hard to get an exact number ) . 10% of the GDP .mld said:
A good example of what you are saying . The Aid budget to The Philippines wouldn't be at that level. It comes at a great social cost however as families are split for years .
The Filipinos who work overseas don't get their arms twisted mld , they do it because they want to improve the position of their families at home even though they know what the cost is. It couldn't happen here though because places like Hong Kong , Singapore and various Middle eastern countries where these people work allow them to be paid wages well below the norm which we wouldn't allow. A domestic maid in Singapore or Hong Kong is probably paid around $300-400 a month only.mld said:
I am not making a value judgement on it just stating a fact that our minimum wage laws make that impossible.
Not sure I said that . There may well be jobs for foreign domestic maids here but we just can't pay them $400 a month under our law and as i understand it there are wage guarantees attached to work visas as well . At a higher wage there are less people who can afford them that's all .Giardiasis said:
In Singapore for instance its much easier to have a foreign maid because the total cost may be only S$700 a month after you pay Government levies . That's pretty affordable for a lot of the population .
There is minimum wage in Singapore for FDW. Indonesian Maids are $300 SGD pm. Filipino are officially USD $600 but no one enforces that.
Included in that is lodgings, food, daily necessities etc etc.
It's a bit of an eye opener when you get here. There is now max working hours so quite a few are expected to work long hours and 7 days a week.
Then society starts to have a reliance on FDW. Nearly every man and his dog has one and life becomes difficult without that extra pair of hands. Any attempt to enforce minimum wage or minimum days off a month is met with a massive resistance from the population.
On top of that, all building sites you Bangladeshi labour. Same sort of salary and lv=iving conditions, except they tend to live in the building site.
Included in that is lodgings, food, daily necessities etc etc.
It's a bit of an eye opener when you get here. There is now max working hours so quite a few are expected to work long hours and 7 days a week.
Then society starts to have a reliance on FDW. Nearly every man and his dog has one and life becomes difficult without that extra pair of hands. Any attempt to enforce minimum wage or minimum days off a month is met with a massive resistance from the population.
On top of that, all building sites you Bangladeshi labour. Same sort of salary and lv=iving conditions, except they tend to live in the building site.
