This is why I refuse to donate(thanks Old Mother from another blog):

http://tinyurl.com/8eurt

The whole Live-8 thing is full of wonderful irony.

One of the main things starving Africans covet is clean drinking water.

To be willing to show her support for Africa, Madonna requires backstage 24 cases of Kabbalah Water for a one day concert.

Oye Vey

More 'aid' to African dictators minus generous 'donations'(in cash) to the foreign political parties who give it , equals large deposits in Swiss numbered bank accounts. Now-is everybody happy?

Answer to Q#1. Thailand used to be called Siam.
What IS missing from a Navel orange? Is it seeds?
An Enquiring mind wants to know!

http://www.bulletsandhoney.blogspot.com
Handy Advice if You Are About to Apply For a Food Aid Job
A few years ago, I read Michael Maren's The Road to Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity and it fundamentally changed my attitude to aid. The book should be required reading for every literate person and I highly recommend it. Peter Uvin's Aiding Violence: The Development Enterprise in Rwanda is just as important a read. Uvin demonstrates how NGOs and other aid organisations contributed to the strength and survival of a Rwandan regime that turned genocidal in 1994. Last, but certainly not least, is Graham Hancock's Lords of Poverty: The Power, Prestige, and Corruption of the International Aid Business which is the classic in this small, but critical genre. Below is a speech by Michael Maren delivered to a group of Cornell University graduate students who were preparing to work in international development during the early 1990s.

More rich bozos giving their free time, of which they have far too much, to convince the poor to give their money, of which they have too little, to massage the egoes of the narcissists at the expence of the reactionists.

The death of rock and roll will not be the music, but the fools who claim membership.

1) Thailand
2) Bono?
3) Kissinger
4) ?
5) ?seeds?
6) ?

Ahem. It always helps to click on the link when I post something "oblique"....

If anyone is feeling any guilt at all for the privilege of living in a relatively sane society and to be able to work your ass off for a comparative pitance ... only to be robbed of most of it by our betters in government (to waste) ... read some Ayn Rand ... You will feel better and smarter!
Nothing will change in Africa ... and really ... does it matter?

"Two decades ago, Sir Bob was at least demanding we give him our own fokkin' money. This time round, all he was asking was that we join him into bullying the G8 blokes to give us their taxpayers' fokkin' money."

Well, I kinda grudgingly like old Sir Bob. And, amazingly, daughter Peaches can actually write half-decent newspaper copy now and then.

Still, I keep thinking of a terrific cartoon in the latest edition of The Spectator which shows an African dictator addressing his people with the words:

"We must do all in our power to help these fading pop stars."

So - what was the price of the first Mad magazine anyway?