When considering in or out:

[blightymam]

One thing I have noticed with a lot of these appeals and news items on famine etc, Whilst little "Umbajeh" is dying in her mothers arms from malnutrition, her mother is already pregnant with the next death waiting to happen. A stupid situation. Surely these people need either education or some form of contraception?

If only it was so easy to get birth control...hmmmm.
Have a word with the church on that one, and while your at it, perhaps get lots more docs over there to help with the medical services that many parts simply do not have.

I agree tho, it is a stupid situation, and what can be done about it? Withdraw aid? Would that help?

 

[blightymam]

Water apart, our forebears suffered frequent conflicts, and had little opportunity to better themselves. Did overseas aid relieve that situation back then?

Water apart - is that not everything?
No water, no food.

In many parts of Africa, water is really important in fighting poverty. If you could imagine spending 4 hours a day or more walking to get access to clean water just to survive, it leaves little time to get into trades, make a living etc and to get out of poverty. And when there are times where there is next to no rain fall, they end up in a very serious and dire situation.

 

[Brigadier]

Water apart - is that not everything?
No water, no food.

I was making the point that, water apart, our forebears had to face similar issues that the current famine victims did.

"Just count ourselves lucky that had the fortune to be born where there is water, less war and the opportunities to make a life for ourselves."

 

[Brigadier]

i.e. frequent conflicts, and little to no opportunity to improve one's lot.

 

[blightymam]

I edited my post to explain more why water is v.important regarding opportunities. Sorry, edited it before I saw you had replied!

 

[Brigadier]

No problem.

We "benefit" from being in a country where it frequently persists down!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

So what's your take on it BAS

We went to war in Iraq because Bush was flailing around absolutely desperate to be seen doing something to retaliate for the WTC attack, but even he had the sense (or the advisors) not to attack the actual country who financed the terrorist group and provided most of the terrorists, so they picked Iraq, who were unfortunate enough to have a combination of an unpopular (in the West) despot in charge and were not a scary military proposition and who had natural resources of great interest to the movers and shakers in the US.

Blair went along with it because he is a narcissist who was absolutely desperate to be seen doing something on the world stage, which is where he felt he rightfully belonged.

So between them they cooked up a load of lies about WMD etc and railroaded through an invasion without UN approval.

 

[Doggit]

Oh look - another ***** who believes the lies he is told

Thanks for your take on it BAS, but I did know the real reason, I just stated the crap that was put out to cover it.

 

[Doggit]

S Sudan does not have the option of a Brexit

Actually, didn't South Sudan just do a Brexit from Sudan (to then become South Sudan)

 

[blightymam]

Who should it help? The *****?

What should it help? The debate to change by reasoning the opinions of ***** who did not use that method to form their opinions in the first place? We've seen at least one person here in the last few posts who thinks that it was the EU who made us change our cable colours, and I'll bet I can find people here who think that the European Convention.Court of Human Rights is something to do with the EU.

The ***** bit.
When does calling folk who you disagree with a playground name help?

 

[Ihavenojob]

The ***** bit.
When does calling folk who you disagree with a playground name help?

Because

 

[Brigadier]

Because it was a CEN

I guess we can add you to the list of ***** who didn't understand what he was voting for last year.

The ***** bit.
When does calling folk who you disagree with a playground name help?

On the internet, or in the real world?

 

[JohnD]

The ***** bit.
When does calling folk who you disagree with a playground name help?

Quite right

click on the link https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/foreigners-and-the-nhs.479317/page-3#post-3866545

hmm, let me just check some of the RWRs....

not to mention

***** face?

 

[JohnD]

If only it was so easy to get birth control...hmmmm.

Yes, it's amazing that there are still some primitive countries where religious fundamentalists have such control

The US, for example.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article24566695.html

https://qz.com/892750/donald-trump-...mily-planning-organizations-around-the-world/

 

[ban-all-sheds]

The ***** bit.
When does calling folk who you disagree with a playground name help?

When I need to accurately describe what they are.

This is not a question of a difference of opinion - it is a question of a difference of intelligence, of a recognition of the value of knowledge, of a belief that facts matter.