Can You Help Others

[roverfj1200]

.. p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; } Hi people




There is a lot of disasters happening right now Haiti and the tsunami in the philippines.




I know that things are tough here as well but maybe you could make a small donation to the fund you like..




Cheers

 

[Bribie G]

Donated to the NZ Earthquake fund recently. With Red Cross etc online it's very easy to slip them a few dollars. I think we should help our near neighbours, good karma in our region. However I do feel a bit peeved about some regimes that regard foreign aid and charitable donations as an excuse to divert their budgets into yet more armaments - look at some African Countries etc.

 

[manticle]

http://www.msf.org.au/

 

[FNQ Bunyip]

International aid is a total con ,, if you want to help help at home with the salvos or cancer ...

I spent 2,1/2 years in southern africa front line states , aid does not help these people , it helps the the corupt leaders... I've seen first hand US aid being sold under gaurd by ak47 , I've seen hungry starving people shot dead trying too STEAL aid ... I've bought AID relife tractors to use on privet comercial farms ...


Beware Australia , if you think we have a lot of boat people now , I think in the next weeks and months we will see a huge increase of INDO refugees , the volcanic fall out that is not getting much press here is going to be huge.. Its on our door step and nothing is being reported localy , WHY???

 

[bum]

Beware Australia , if you think we have a lot of boat people now

What if I don't? What if I don't think we're doing anything to fulfil our international obligations in regard to refugee intake?

And I'll be damned if I'll donate to any charity that is designed to help middle-class majorities in affluent nations.

 

[goomboogo]

Its on our door step and nothing is being reported localy , WHY???

What news media are you viewing? There's been daily coverage; including updates on the movement of those displaced.

 

[Hatchy]

International aid is a total con ,, if you want to help help at home with the salvos or cancer ...

I was with a girl who lived in a salvos place for a while, I'll never donate to them again. Yes, they put people in unfortunate positions under a roof but it seemed to me that they didn't actually help anyone, just tried to help them find god. After 12 months of going to that place it was the same people with the same problems except they could quote scripture.

There was a bloke who used to collect for the salvos at the pub I used to drink at & my workmates thought I was tight for not donating until I had a chat with him one night after asking him if I could buy him a beer. Apparently the people in salvos places only have problems because they haven't found god.

I know that some people will find that offensive but I'd rather have someone come live at my place & help them get on their feet than see them in a salvos place getting god jammed down their throat.

What if I don't? What if I don't think we're doing anything to fulfil our international obligations in regard to refugee intake?

And I'll be damned if I'll donate to any charity that is designed to help middle-class majorities in affluent nations.

Maybe if we took in our fair share of refugees we wouldn't have as many boat people. Lets not forget that this country was founded on people who weren't invited rocking up here in boats. I don't donate cash to the refugee association but they seem to find a use for things that I don't need any more & good on them I say, my brewery is built on odds & ends that other blokes didn't need any more.

 

[FNQ Bunyip]

I was with a girl who lived in a salvos place for a while, I'll never donate to them again. Yes, they put people in unfortunate positions under a roof but it seemed to me that they didn't actually help anyone, just tried to help them find god. After 12 months of going to that place it was the same people with the same problems except they could quote scripture.

There was a bloke who used to collect for the salvos at the pub I used to drink at & my workmates thought I was tight for not donating until I had a chat with him one night after asking him if I could buy him a beer. Apparently the people in salvos places only have problems because they haven't found god.

I know that some people will find that offensive but I'd rather have someone come live at my place & help them get on their feet than see them in a salvos place getting god jammed down their throat.

I also don't like the god bothering side of any organiation , however the salvos do great work with bush fire relife or disaster help localy , had plenty of sandwiches and cups of tea from salvos in disaster responce time s.. was thinking more along the short term help rather than ongoing inercity street people getting a bed and feed every day for years and years ..

 

[FNQ Bunyip]

What if I don't? What if I don't think we're doing anything to fulfil our international obligations in regard to refugee intake?

And I'll be damned if I'll donate to any charity that is designed to help middle-class majorities in affluent nations.

And what if I think we are doing plenty and should stop taking all these illegal arivels , they pay to get on leaky boats if they can get that cash they can do it the right way ,go too the UNHCR or what ever and apply .. this country will not handle a big population , the last drought almost broke the east coast , add another 5 or 10 mil and see what happens with the next one ...

 

[pk.sax]

I won't comment on boat ppl, but salvos and the like. It totally depends on who was the face of said organisation to you. We were helped out by a kind neighbour who volunteered with the vinnies and knew the financial stress we were getting under after coming to this country. He organized simple help and helped us stop the bleed of the precious little cash left. Never any word from him or anyone about religion. I've been a bit in touch with ppl from vinnies every now and then, colleague at hospital was a volunteer too and I've found they don't try to take any sort of advantage or push any bibles to anyone. It's a damn sight better than the door to door bible knickers who pretend to be interested in your troubles and jump at the first sign of a grief you have and offer you god in a pamphlet. I hope it's what they (vinnies n all) practice even with emotionally wrecked ppl.

 

[pk.sax]

* bible door knockers

Not knickers.

 

[goomboogo]

add another 5 or 10 mil and see what happens with the next one ...

Are P&O now bringing people seeking asylum? Maybe 'The Allure of the Seas' has been reassigned. It carries over 6000 passengers so only about fifteen hundred trips should get us up around the 10 million mark.

 

[bum]

And what if I think we are doing plenty and should stop taking all these illegal arivels , they pay to get on leaky boats if they can get that cash they can do it the right way ,go too the UNHCR or what ever and apply

I hope you understand that I am not attacking you but a broad idea which is widely held, Bunyip, but this whole idea of "queue jumping" is completely and utterly imbecilic. Do you understand what it means to be a refugee? If you're fleeing persecution you can't be seen to be hanging out down at the Australian Consulate, then hang about for the few years it takes for the Australian government to get around to finalising your application. If your problem with the situation is one of ethics in regard to the idea of these arrivals being "illegal" then allow me to put your mind at rest - Australia is a signatory to numerous international treaties compelling us to consider all such arrivals for residency based on their own merits. So there is nothing "illegal" about it at all. The only illegal part about it is the people making a business of moving these people about in horrific conditions for extortionate amounts of money (never been entirely sure why peoples' desperation causing them to find this money always makes people here assume that boat people are wealthy. Seems kinda stupid to me. Wealth is power - who of these boat people do you think is running from positions of power in established systems?). Also, nobody is suggesting we bump up our population by a quarter to half of our current figures - that point is ludicrous on your part.

 

[barls]

my personal belief on the boat people is that once you cross 2 international borders you are no longer a refugee. but before anyone jumps up and down i actually have been out there on the front line defending our borders not once but at least 7 times and i was never posted to a patrol boat.
as for international nationals disasters how much aid have the sent our way when we had the really bad bush fires or floods.

 

[bum]

How much have we donated to victims of California bushfires Pretty much equal to our own)? Oh, nothing? Why is that? Because they're in an affluent country? Yeah, fair enough.

Ridiculous. Charity is not an investment. We should not expect a return.

 

[stew.w]

i think you will also find most actual illegal immigrants fly in and just dont leave, the amount that come in on boats is very small in comparisson.

 

[manticle]

my personal belief on the boat people is that once you cross 2 international borders you are no longer a refugee. but before anyone jumps up and down i actually have been out there on the front line defending our borders not once but at least 7 times and i was never posted to a patrol boat.
as for international nationals disasters how much aid have the sent our way when we had the really bad bush fires or floods.

Who? Haiti? The entire nation could maybe afford to offer a pair of secondhand shoes to one Australian family.

How many times has a homeless guy offered you $2?

I'm not sure I follow either argument. The boat people thing is a smokescreen that comes up every election time to cover every other shit thing that whatever current government has got wrong. Minimal people come here on boats, most get intercepted and sent to detention centres. Easy scapegoat - might as well pick on the disabled.

Anyway this thread was meant to be about donating to charity. Don't like the charity, don't donate, don't believe in the cause, don't donate. Pretty simple. I'm not sure what boat people has to do with anything.

 

[bum]

I'm not sure what boat people has to do with anything.

They were brought up in the natural course of conversation and nothing about their discussion prohibits the discussion of charity.

 

[manticle]

I'm not sure what relevance they had when they were first brought up though.

Thread summary:
1. OP: Haiti and some other countries have had some bad things happen. Would you like to donate something to help?
2. Early response: Aid is often misused in African countries and therefore I recommend spending charity donations at home
3. Addendum: There's a lot of boat people and might be more if we don't watch out.

As with current political discussions, the real issues seem to be missed due to demonisation and scapegoating.

 

[Silo Ted]

And what if I think we are doing plenty and should stop taking all these illegal arivels , they pay to get on leaky boats if they can get that cash they can do it the right way ,go too the UNHCR or what ever and apply .. this country will not handle a big population , the last drought almost broke the east coast , add another 5 or 10 mil and see what happens with the next one ...

this country was founded on uninvited foreigners arriving by boat. whats to say the aboriginals didnt think that european settlement would blow out the population? if you accept the white history of australia, then its hypocritical to get the shits about others arriving here by boat to make a better life for themselves

at least the afghanis arent slaughtering us and taking over the country by by force