For those who are unaware the Bongo Bongo controversy began when Godfrey Bloom MEP refereed to the countries receiving foreign aid as 'Bongo Bongo Land'. Obviously as one would expect he was instantly labelled as racist by the likes of the Guardian and our increasingly left wing TV stations. Firstly one of the main reasons this can't possible be a racist comment, is that fact that people of all different colours, creeds and religions receive foreign aid from Britain and the EU. Argentina with a predominantly white population are one of these countries receiving foreign aid off the EU, which makes Argentina a part of Bongo Bongo land in the eyes of Mr Bloom , who are the same race as himself and he is hardly the kind of man who seems self loafing.
Secondly Bongo Bongo Land connotes images of poor, undeveloped countries where people still live in tribes and do the activities such as banging drums. However I do not believe Bloom was using this phrase to suggest that the European race is superior to others, more likely he used it to make a point about how little has changed for the average person in Africa despite all the aid they have received over the last 50 years. These types of places seem a million miles away from to the average British citizen and Blooms comment highlights this fact that the British voters don't feel responsible for these people by using a fictional place that connotes distance from Britain.
Worryingly despite Mr Bloom bringing the debate of foreign aid into the public eye the main stream press on the whole have avoided covering the debate. What I want to know is why British taxpayers are sending a Billion pounds a month abroad in foreign aid (not including our contribution through the EU) when we have no idea what it is being spent on and it appears to be making very little difference to people lives. I certainly don't remember voting to give 1 Billion pounds to Nigeria over 5 years when they have a space program, nor to India who have more fighter jets on their aircraft carriers than we do and certainly not for Nguema Mbasogo to buy himself a new Paris flat. Too make matters worse we continue to give aid to Pakistan despite the fact they own nuclear missiles and almost certainly didn't do enough to help find Bin Laden, how can someone hide in a state of the art house, without a telephone and internet and not draw suspicion to the authorities. Even worse is the fact that the EU give foreign aid to Argentina who spent it on new warships, in spite of their recent warmongering and the real possibility they may one day be used against Britain.
All this may be well and good in times of prosperity, but when there are people in Britain being refused drugs that can enhance their lives, children being charged £9 000 just for an education and some people are being forced to use food banks it is completely unacceptable to waste such vast sums. Now I not advocating cutting spending aid completely as we do have a duty to look after our fellow human beings, I simply feel a much smaller amount given to charities would do far more good than large sums being paid to corrupt governments. Further more like Mr Bloom has highlighted it is unacceptable for countries to expect us to feed their poor. while spending money in upgrading their military that is often used to consolidate their power and oppress the people the money was supposed to help. This applies even more so to the more wealthy recipients of foreign aid, such as India who are likely to have 242 000 millionaires by 2017, Now considering that figure is measured in US dollars. imagine how far that money would go in India, Now I'm by no means a communist and don't believe in total redistribution of wealth, but it is clear taxes need to be raised in order to significantly improve their infrastructure.
Ryan Kelly
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