Should we really be giving aid to Somalia ?

This is a case of deja vous!

In the early 90's the UN... which included many western countries came to the aid of Somalia when there was a very similar situation..ie warlords fighting each other, drought and famine.

They gave huge amounts of food aid, built infrastructure, schools and dug wells.

What did the Somalis do??

They attacked their rescuers....remember "Black Hawk Down?"...they dragged the dead bodies of US service men through the streets of Mogadishu!

The US pulled out along with the UN and all the countries that went there to help.

Twenty years later it's all happening again....this time with the added complication of an Islamic insurgency that so far won't let any aid into the worst effected areas......do you wonder why many countries are reluctant to rush to the rescue.....I can completely understand the slowness of the response!

Yes, it's never ending. We should really think things through as Western Governments end up exacerbating the situation in the long run. I remember Live Aid in the '80s - I was 8 years old at the time - and it was a famine in Ethiopia at the time that all the celebrities were rallying around. I believe that the Horn of Africa region is subject to cyclical droughts. In any case, the only thing that has changed since the 1980's is that the population of Ethiopia has doubled. This could potentially be an environmental disaster.

The goal should be population stabilization with the resources those countries have. Unfortunately, by extending aid, we artificially prop up the population by encouraging more children.

Somalia itself is a major problem. I think Americans would rather see them die than donate to them. For one, they killed our soldiers in 1993. Secondly, they actively engage in international piracy. Thirdly, they haven't been able to cobble together a working government since 1991. So we can't be sure any aid will actually benefit those who need it. Lastly, the are majority Muslims. That's too many strikes...The majority of Americans just don't feel sympathy toward these people at all. I don't know about you Brits.

I just hope our insane government or equally insane religious groups don't decide to import anymore of them into the US.

Considering 'all' aid charities 'take-out' some 70% of donations for their admin costs ie: senior management pension plans/company cars/executives wages etc .......I won't be contributing anything at all.

As you've said - with the 'trillions' of aid handed-out over the years - I'd have thought 'some' of those money donations would have been kept in reserve - where has all that money gone?.

Its just a reoccurring aid demand year after year - for one thing or the other.!!

You said, "They're not doing ANYTHING to help themselves except buying guns and killing each other !"

There's a difference between those who are buying munitions, and those who are dying for want of basic provisions that you and I take for granted. If people are living in a country that is suffering from drought AND are being crushed by a corrupt/incompetent government, then I'd suggest they need MORE help, not less.

You and I flush our toilets with higher quality water than these people are able to drink. I understand that there are political constraints to the amount of help that's available to them, but still - ask yourself whether a starving child needs a meal more than you need a new game for your X-Box. You could feed 100 starving children for the price of 1, pre-owned X-box game. Around 250 for a new game. Another answerer said that 70% of the money goes in admin costs. I don't know where they got that figure from but even if it's true, that's still between 30 & 75 people fed - again, all for the price of an X-box game.

It's more than just a shame, it's an absolute scandal that people are dying of want in a world of surplus.

As regards the birth rates over there, compare that to their infant mortality rates. Birth rates in the UK were very high too not so many decades ago. Ask yourself what you would do in their circumstances. If they don't have lots of babies, then they risk none making it into adulthood. What then? There is no welfare state in these countries. Who is going to look after them in their old age?

It won't be popular, but I'm afraid I totally agree. Enough is enough, when little is being done by their own ruling parties (or should that be Waring parties) to sort themselves out. This current drought, dire as it undoubtedly is, has been going on for years now, not months, and yet they STILL produce babies, without a cats chance of being able to provide for them. Charity now surely has to come with conditions. And one of them being a programme of birth control!!

And if the Americans don't get themselves sorted out financially, the World economy is going to crash in any case - so there simply won't be any more money to pour in that direction - much as the obscenely rich might still help!!!

I was going to until I researched what percentage of the donation went to actual aid. Yes Sir Bob and Bonio have been quiet, perhaps they have realised they cant help save them. I did wonder why we send aid when their own parties wont allow it in. Someone needs to sort them out, but not necessarily us all the time.

they may say the loans to africa amounted to an increase of 23% but if you take the real value of the increases it was 2% so that worked out rather than been an extra 23 pounds for services and improvements it worked out as 2 pounds. in every hundred

Most of the countries with a government got an extra four hundred million dollars. somila got none because it got no government

give birth control accessosries

even if you give aid it will be used in buying arms for piracy

only 10 % or less will reach the target

some just can not be helped

I wouldn't give them the time of day let alone money. Let the muslim countries help them not the soft hearted `infidel' west. Personally, I don't give a flying f what happens to them to be perfectly honest.

Yeah lets give a fortune to Somalia then we can always go tho the IMF to bail us out