Floods in Oz
 

Have you seen this on the news, in Queensland - an area the size of France and Germany combined. My heart goes out to those affected.

Her Maj has sent a message of sympathy.

Now when Pakistan had terrible flooding we (the UK) promised $50m in aid.

So far we have promised nothing to Australia, one of our oldest and closest allies. They even speak English FFS.

I wonder why?

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Because Australia is far more able to fund itself.

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So we give aid to a nuclear and space power where a large proportion of the population despise us, instead of to our friends?

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i'd be given f'all to any middle east country at the moment-would quite happily give aid to oz -providing they let anyone born and bred from the uk in to work and live there.

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Don't quite see why we should always be giving money to everyone else, especially when they have plenty of money themselves.

signed

E.Scrooge Esq.

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E Scrooge Esquire, you have missed the point. If you had the choice of helping a friend or a stranger, who would you prioritise?

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Australia is one of the few countries in the world whose economy is in the black, with no debts to anyone else. No matter how much money you throw at countries like Pakistan, they will always be third world and undeveloped, and their population will always be at poverty level. So why do we waste our hard earned tax money on them? I'd rather it went to Australia at times like this, despite them having money of their own because I know it will be well spent and not stolen by corrupt officials

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If we can I think we should help anyone in need irrespective of who they are and whatever their political leanings are. However I would say its about time some other countries got their wallets out of their pockets.

The UK gives more in aid than any other country. The UK gave 4 times more than Germany and a whacking great 14 times more than the USA last year - hundreds of millions of pounds. The largest economy in the world, China, gave a lot less than £1,000,000 last year. If the burden of support was shared fairly it wouldn't hurt anyone's economy.

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We should send them pipes.Then they could pump the flood water from Queensland to Victoria and South Australia where they suffer from forest fires and drought.

And we have to give money to Pakistan to placate the large Pakistani population here and persuade them not to become suicide bombers when on day trips to London.

Re: Floods in Oz
 

+1

The Aussies are already our mates, and will be whether we pay them or not.

Some in Pakistan would take offence that we had the money and didn't help.

Foreign aid is often a bribe. Not right, but just the way it is.

Plus it's worth noting that they are both Commonwealth countries.

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That's taking advantage of a friendship in order to do nothing

So what if they do take offence, it's someone elses turn to throw millions away for no visible effect. What has Pakistan ever done for us or any other country in the world except donate troublemakers and terrorists?

Besides, we don't have the money to throw away. It may have escaped your notice but the British government are having to make huge cuts to services in this country to offset a £90 Billion deficit. Wtf should we be giving away millions when we in this country need the money more than most. The USA seem to survive nicely using this method

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Not saying it's right. Just the way the Politico's will see it.

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Wrong question old bean. That pre-supposes that we have to give money.

When countries have a lot of money themselves but don't choose to spend it on helping their own people, why should we (I) have to cough up?

As Lozzo says, we are effectively broke. Let's borrow a few more billions and give it away, why not? Who amongst us goes to the Bank and borrows money so we can give it to charity?

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Oh I hear you embee my friend... just that with the ridiculous approach we have to foreign aid, then assuming we have a stash to give away, I'd rather give it to a true friend in need than to someone who openly makes no secret of their dislike and who secretly wants to blow us all up.

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Pakistan seem to like spending 'aid' on toys to blow big f***ing holes in India with, they don't need it.
Bit like giving money to a tramp and then seeing him with a can of lager rather than food.

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We in Victoria have had the wettest spring for many decades. Problem now is abundant growth which is now starting to dry out. Extreme bushfire danger but plenty in our dams. As many posts suggest, we're not short of money, the problem up north is how slowly the floods drain because the country is so flat and the weather keeps chucking meteorological records at us, either record-breaking drought, rainfall or bushfires.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/f...-1225979643002

But thanks for the generous thoughts.

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Queensland maybe, but not S. Aus. My ex-wife <spit> lives in Port Augusta and I'd rather see her homeless and destitute than see a penny more of my money go to help keep her alive, unless they pumped the whole lot into her part of Port Augusta and flooded the nasty cow out of her home.

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Lack of money is not the point. I don't think Pakistan is short of money either. It's a question of helping your friends.

Generous thoughts - well we are short of money, so perhaps some in the opposite direction:D Just make sure you give it to the people, not to the government...:smt039

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"Spare us a quid, mister?"

http://chodingworld.files.wordpress....ant-a-beer.jpg

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Lozzo, if it makes you feel any better...I can't see why anyone would move there by choice. It is called "Port A-gutta" for a reason. It is mainly to do with the locals, but the place also stinks. It's not the normal salt air smell, but more like all of the trash, dirty storm water and waste water from sewerage plants on the gulf gets pushed up there and mixed in with high concentrations of salt.

BB, SA has been inundated for most of the year. A lot desert tracks (ie everything north of Port Augusta) have been closed since mid year. The Stuart Highway was even closed briefly near Coober Pedy mid year due to flooding. Lake Eyre is full (happens once every decade or two) and the Cooper is flowing. The Simpson is a sea of colours.
The NT has had major rain in every month this year. A lot of cattle stations could not continue operating past October and finished about 2 months early.
NSW and Vic have also seen good rain. The only state to miss out on exceptional rain has been WA, but they're doing okay.

I believe that we/you should be looking after our/your own first. As pointed out, the Australian economy is in good shape, so should be able to recover quickly without assistance.

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I'd heard this before, and it makes me feel a bit happier knowing she lives in a place like that and I live in sweet smelling civilisation.

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OK so you Aussies are not impressed by my "pipeline" nonsense ideas cos you now have too much rain.How about we give you some ashes to dry up the water?

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Don't give the Aussies any money, they'd only go and spend it on buying a decent cricket team. I hear from the England and Wales Cricket Board that such a team can now be purchased from a variety of sources in South Africa.

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:smt046

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The winner! I like this girl.

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Oh, yes we are! Our genius recently-ousted State government spent $1 odd billion on a pipeline from the parched north of the state to the much wetter coastal south. Needless to say, not a drop has passed its portals.:scratch:
And, we felt it only kindly to allow some valued ashes to be kept for a while longer by our former colonists. All heart we are. (You didn't think we could play that badly if we weren't trying to, did you?):)

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Dont mention the cricket:rolleyes:
I mentioned it once and nearly got away with it.:-({|=

Id wait a month or two and see how Casey does in MotoGP,then start waltzing with that Matty girl.:D

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It has all started again...

Category 5 tropical cyclone Yasi with a 200mi diameter and wind speeds in excess of 180mph is bearing down on the Queensland coast. Rainfall is expected to be in the region of 1000mm as the cyclone passes.
The expected track is SW to WSW once it makes landfall and is expected to diminish to a category 1 storm by the time it hits the NT border with the evacuation of one community in the border area already under way where 600mm rainfalls and severe flooding is expected.

This will be the biggest cyclone recorded in Australia's history.

At home I am expecting storm force winds and flooding rain over the weekend.

Interesting times ahead.

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holly crap...

Thoughts and prayers for all those in affected areas that all stay safe,

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good luck Matt, I hope you and your family are safe. My mum is further down the coast so not expecting too much bother there. Just to put it into perspective, the Queensland coast is many many times longer than the entire UK.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuDyTfvjiX0

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You can hardly Call Pakistan a stranger. It might be a total f*ck up of a country but its a Country that WE created. Its like an bl00dy teenager you may well have created it but you don't really understand it, but its still family.

As for Australia I feel so sorry for them there's more bad weather about to hit them.

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I am 3 days back from a trip to Oz. I was in Queensland, although thankfully managed to avoid the areas affected by the flood. I don't profess to understand much about Australian politics, but I was talking with friends there who did. In answer to Ed's original question, the reason we didn't help them is that they didn't want it. Aid is seldom a case of: Here you go, here's 5 billion, go buy yourself something nice. It always comes at a price, usually in the form of needing to be paid back down the line, or expectations to toe the line in the same direction the donor votes at conferences, etc.

Look at how resistant Ireland were to foreign aid as part of their recent bailout.

Australias economy is doing incredibly well against a backdrop of a world recession. They are very keen not to mess this up. The floods alone have weakened the AUD, taking outside aid would exacerbate this. They are talking about levvying an emergency tax to fund repairs and relief work, rather than accept outside aid.

It is a case of Oz refusing out aid; not a lack of it being offered. I do not think you should read anything into a failing on the UK's part for them not taking our aid...

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Thanks, but I am well away from the worst of it. I don't expect any damage from wind with everything built to cyclone standards and the flooding is an annual event for which we are well prepared.

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poor aussies, hope everyone stays safe out there, its the last thing those guys need

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Warm thoughts for you all.