Posted on 06/07/2005 9:48:02 PM PDT by traumer
US President George W Bush is set to pledge $674m (£350m) in aid for Africa as part of a joint initiative with visiting UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Mr Blair is in Washington to press for the president's support for his plans to get Africa back on its feet.
Mr Bush has already rejected several key parts of Britain's relief plan - but Mr Blair insisted there had been "significant progress" on a deal.
Aid groups criticised Mr Bush's cash pledge as a mere "drop in the ocean".
Jonathan Glennie of Christian Aid said: "If this is President Bush's only response to the crisis in Africa, we think he cannot be serious about alleviating poverty."
There are certain things we know [the US is] not going to do - UK Prime Minister Tony Blair
The $674m is destined largely for Ethiopia and Eritrea, countries threatened by famine, and for humanitarian needs in other African countries.
This money is part of the US aid budget that had already been announced but had not yet been allocated to a country.
Britain is also expected to contribute money to the cause.
US opposition
The US has also set aside $1.4bn (£767m) requested by the United Nations to address emergency needs.
Nevertheless, Mr Blair recognises that he will not get US support for crucial parts of his three-pronged attack on poverty in Africa - a package of debt relief, increased aid and fairer trade that is the centrepiece of his chairmanship of the G8.
In an interview for the Financial Times newspaper on Tuesday, Mr Blair acknowledged: "There are certain things we know they are not going to do, that we are not asking them to do."
Mr Bush has already opposed UK treasury chief Gordon Brown's plan to use an international finance facility (IFF) to fund vaccinations, funded by borrowing on the bond market, saying he cannot commit the US to future debt repayments.
The US has also refused to agree to give 0.7% of its national income in international aid, a long-term commitment Mr Blair wants from all G8 countries.
"We are not asking them to sign up to the IFF or 0.7% in aid. They are not going to do that and they've made that clear right from the very beginning," Mr Blair said.
Speaking later in Washington, Mr Blair insisted: "We are a significant way toward a deal" on debt relief.
He also said that he would be pushing Mr Bush for more.
"It is important we deal with the situation in Ethiopia and Eritrea, but obviously, there's a lot more that needs to be dealt with...the [Bush] administration itself has made clear that this is not the only commitment."
It's important for Prime Minister Blair to explain the truth to his American counterparts - Professor Jeffrey Sachs
Washington's reluctance to join Mr Blair's crusade against poverty has angered aid groups and development experts.
"The US is not pulling its weight right now," said Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University's Earth Institute.
He said there was "a great myth in the US" that aid was ineffective because of inefficiency and corruption.
"It's a nonsense. Aid works - the problem is it's on such a small scale that it's not commensurate with the challenge," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Oxfam said Mr Blair "must not cave in to US pressure and water down proposals on aid, trade and debt... to lower the ambition at this critical stage, would be seen by many as a betrayal of Africa".
Mr Blair's spokesman acknowledged that battling poverty was "about more than throwing money at the problem".
He played down expectations for the meeting with the US president, saying the visit was part of the preparation for the summit at Gleneagles, Scotland, "not Gleneagles itself".
Stress positive
Mr Bush and Mr Blair are also expected to make a joint announcement on climate change - another British priority for Gleneagles.
The two countries also have different approaches to that issue.
The US favours a technology-based solution to global warming over targets to curb greenhouse gases.
Mr Blair told the Financial Times he was not asking the US "to reverse [its] position on Kyoto. There's no way the Americans are going to do that."
But he said he was still hopeful of a breakthrough.
Wait! What about healthcare!? What about building firehouses here at home!? What about investing in America and in education!?
Hello? Hello? /sarcasm OFF
An idea that's about as mythical as gravity.
" PRESIDENT BUSH: I do. That's why we tripled aid. I see we have got a fantastic opportunity -- presuming that the countries in Africa make the right decisions. Nobody wants to give money to a country that's corrupt, where leaders take money and put it in their pocket. No developed nation is going to want to support a government that doesn't take an interest in her people, that doesn't focus on education and health care. We're really not interested in supporting a government that doesn't have open economies and open markets. We expect there to be a reciprocation -- that's what the Prime Minister talked about.
But, absolutely; it's a great opportunity. And I'm honored to be working with the Prime Minister on this important subject.
Bono's lobbying skills make impression in Washington
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-06-07-bono-lobbyist_x.htm
You rich Americans....
I don't CARE about Africa's "Famine". Who's famine? Mugabe's? Or some other third rate dictator that's stealing all this aid left and right?
if we miss giving africa some aid money this year, I guarantee they'll be here next year too.
I want ALL humanitarian, foreign, emergency and every other type of aid STOPPED. They're bleeding this country white!
What do politico's care about tax money? To them its just monopoly money!
I totally agree, "....ALL humanitarian, foreign, emergency and every other type of aid STOPPED". I also want all non-profit, non-taxpayer NGO/UN/Bono type to STFU until they pay their share of TAXES and/or give their money to these structurally failed countries. We are sick of these idiot do-gooders just flappin' their lips at the USA TAXPAYERS!
George!!!! Get your thievin' hands out of our wallets. We've had enough of your "compassion!"
Money is never the problem.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=africa
Bono doubles as lobbyist for world's poor
Posted on Tue, Jun. 07, 2005
"Brad Pitt is studying closely how Bono works ... as is George Clooney," said Jamie Drummond, executive director of DATA.
DATA - Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa - is a nonprofit group Bono founded in 2002 with Bobby Shriver, the Kennedy nephew and Schwarzenegger brother-in-law who helped the musician navigate Washington, and various activists to increase awareness of the crises in Africa.
---
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=a1gzfe.PH04g&refer=europe
Pleased by Accord
Jamie Drummond, executive director of DATA, a Washington- based advocacy group co-founded by rock-star and activist Bono, leader of the band U2, said his group was pleased by the accord on debt relief and would push for more direct assistance.
"Today's package is a down payment on a down payment," Drummond said. "It's not the big package we're waiting for, that we're expecting and that we're still hopeful of getting next month."
No more money giveaways is something I can agree with. I will go farther than that though. It is evolution/natural selection in action. Helping these people that are so helpless, is a waste of resources. It is money better kept in the earners pockets. I have a hard enough time keeping my children progressing towards responsibility. Why teach them that down and out people, deserve gifts of money from my efforts? Better to teach them that if you allow yourself to fall so low, as to be starving or diseased, you deserve to be eliminated from the gene pool. Now if anyone wants to give freely of their hard earned monies, God be with you, but I won't. My money goes to improve my life and those that I love and live in community with.
Sure am glad we have a conservative in the WH to keep the budget and govt as small as possible......sarcasm off.
It won't be! It'll be charged to the nation's max-out credit card to be payed back with future tax increases.
I believe the President needs a remedial course in U.S. Constitution 101 with required reading and understanding of the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers.
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