Famine in Africa

Discussion in 'General Discussions' started by Lightning, Jul 31, 2011.

  1. Lightning

    Lightning Administrator
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    http://www.dawn.com/2011/07/30/obama-ba ... e-aid.html


    It almost seems like we've always been ignoring these problems, until now, it appears on the news. Like this is the first time there has been hungry children in Africa. Kind of sad, but it makes you think about how lucky you really are...even people jobless, at least you can try to find another one or get help from the government or something. In Africa, you can't get a job even if you wanted one and the government can't afford to even keep the people healthy. Sad topic :(.
     
  2. Commy

    Commy Moderator
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    Non government orgs and charities have been working on the problems in Africa for decades now. It is such a large problem with no short term solution in sight, but that doesn't mean it has been ignored all these time.

    Living in a first world country, we do take a lot of things for granted. Even being able to post on this forum is something a lot of people will miss out on.
     
  3. Lightning

    Lightning Administrator
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    Yes, but do you also know that in charities and those organizations, only ~35% of the money you donate really goes directly to the cause? The other 65% dries up somewhere else along the process. How many billions to trillions of dollars get poured into the cause, and how much of it actually reaches the Africans?
     
  4. Commy

    Commy Moderator
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    Regardless, although a smaller portion of total donations get put to 'real' use, you make it sound like it's nothing at all. 35% of one trillion dollars is still 350 billion. That is still a lot of money being put to use. As for the other proportion of use, you'd hope that it's being used to run the charity. Larger scaled charities can't just be run by volunteers, and those volunteers can't live on nothing. Things such as advertisements and transportation of goods don't come cheaply, so until you can provide a profit and loss statement, don't assume that the money is being wasted.
     
  5. Anfan

    Anfan Level IV

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    According to UNICEF, the top 10% richest people in the world make $3000 USD annually.

    It really makes me realize how spoiled we all are.
     
  6. Virre

    Virre Level IV

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    I'm sorry, but that's a complete load of bull. There are several regulations that must be followed by several of the big charities and organisations. We have something called 90-numbers here in Sweden. This is a major factor in when you decide where you want to donate your money. The organisations that have bank accounts starting with 90- must make sure that at least 75% of the profits are distributed directly to the cause, meaning that a maximum of 25% may go toward administration fees, commercials etc. And no money may be saved for the next year.
    Unicef, Save the Children and 374 other charity organisations currently has a "90-account". In fact, during that asian tsunami, people gave so much money that the Red Cross had a problem making sure to use up all of their money before the end of the year.