Niger - The Money Hole

UPDATE

A reader has pointed out, quite rightly, that I made a mistake of confusing Niger wih Nigeria. Whoops! My bad. Apology for the mix up.

A lot of what I said about the UN and African dictators still applies though.

Thanks for pointing out my mistake. That's what I get for posting at 7am on a Sunday morning.
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The BBC issues another bleeding heart report that is suppose to make you ashamed to have your next meal. This one is about the starving nation of Niger and how very little of the promised aid money has been sent.

The UN says donations of food and funding to help the 2.5 million people facing a food crisis in Niger are finally beginning to arrive.

The UN relief chief says graphic images of starving children have shocked the international community into response.

He said more funds had been received for Niger in the last ten days than over the last ten months.

Before you feel that first twinge of guilt and before you send on cent, Read this.

The scale of the task facing Tony Blair in his drive to help Africa was laid bare yesterday when it emerged that Nigeria's past rulers stole or misused £220 billion. [Yes, Billion]

That is as much as all the western aid given to Africa in almost four decades. The looting of Africa's most populous country amounted to a sum equivalent to 300 years of British aid for the continent.

Former leader Gen Sani Abacha stole between £1bn and £3bn

The figures, compiled by Nigeria's anti-corruption commission, provide dramatic evidence of the problems facing next month's summit in Gleneagles of the G8 group of wealthy countries which are under pressure to approve a programme of debt relief for Africa.

£220 Billion is almost a half trillion dollars! A large part of that money was stolen; why are we not trying to get it back? Surely the cash or assests are lying around somewhere, let's get it back.

And this is a really bad idea.

The UK's minister of international development has proposed that an international humanitarian fund should be set up so that the UN can intervene more quickly.

Look how much they stole from the UN oil for food program - billions.

As for the UN intervening, look at the pathetic UN performance in the tsunami disaster. The relief effort was running fine unitl the UN showed up and everything ground to a halt. To this day tons of needed relief supplies sit on the docks while government corruption siphons off millions in bribes and kickbacks. All under the watchful eye of the UN.

I'm all for helping the needy but this is not the way. The world has to realize that the UN is merely a debating society.

Poverty is not the problem it is a symptom of a problem. The real problem is corrupt governments and dictators. Poverty will not end until they do.

When is the last time you heard the UN call for the removal of an African dictator? Mugabe is currently creating one of the worst humanitarian nightmares and yet the UN's investigation can find no one to blame. Worse yet, Zimbabwe sits on the UN Human Rights Commission!

One last thought. Where do most of the email scams, which swindle millions from people around the world, originate from? Niger.
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