Aid To Persecuted Middle East Christians
U.S. Teams Up with Orban’s Hungary
Thomas D. Williams
Breitbart News
Hungary and the United States have partnered in an alliance to assist Christians in the Middle East, helping them “recover from genocide and persecution by the Islamic State”. On Tuesday, the government of Hungary and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) “to increase coordination to help communities in the Middle East recover from genocide and persecution by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).”
According to a statement from the Hungarian government, the agreement between the two nations follows Hungary’s stated strategy of taking assistance “to the troubled spots where it’s needed, instead of bringing the trouble and instability to Europe.” The MOU establishes an “official partnership” between the government of Hungary’s Secretariat for the Aid of Persecuted Christians and the US international assistance agency, the statement said.
In its own separate statement, USAID said that the agreement with Hungary is “part of USAID’s continuing effort to expand its partnerships to help endangered, displaced, and persecuted religious and ethnic minorities return home and restore their communities across the Middle East, particularly in parts of Northern Iraq liberated from the tyranny of ISIS.”
In 2016, the Hungarian government established a Deputy State Secretariat for the Aid of Persecuted Christians, making it the only nation in the world with a department of this nature.
Showing posts with label Foreign Aid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Foreign Aid. Show all posts
Tuesday, 1 January 2019
Thursday, 17 July 2014
Letter from the UK (About an Ethiopian Farmer)
Ethiopian Farmer Sues British Government
- For Sending Aid to Ethiopia
16 Jul 2014, 4:13
Breitbart London
[The history of foreign aid does not make for pretty reading. Like most government initiatives, the actual outcome is far from the original intent. Now an Ethopian is suing the British Government because its aid grants to Ethiopia have cemented a one-man dictatorship in that country. It's to the credit of the UK judiciary that the case is being allowed to proceed. Ed.]
A 33-year-old Ethiopian farmer has become so disillusioned with the way UK overseas aid is propping a “one party state” that he is suing. The man, who has been granted anonymity to protect his family, believes that UK overseas aid helped the Ethiopian government inflict “brutal treatment” on himself and others.
The court papers were filed in Kenya claiming that the UKs £1.3bn donation to Ethiopia is being used to oppress the population. The father of six known as "O" has come in for criticism of his action because his legal fees are being paid by the British Taxpayer despite never having been to the UK.However "O" insists his action is necessary, and has pledged to give any compensation he wins to charity. The exact reasons for "O" bringing the case is unclear but it is known that he was forced from his home and ended up in a refugee camp after he was tortured for trying to protect his land.
Monday, 19 August 2013
The Wisdom of Ages
Bono, Africa, and Aid
Age and experience is reputed to bring wisdom. Sometimes sadly this is not the case. Growing years can cement the foolishness prejudices and simplicities of youth, which makes aged folly all the more ridiculous. But often as people grow in experience, they become more subtle, discerning, and wise. They learn that things are not always what they seem. They realise that truth often lies beneath, not on the surface.
David J. Theroux, writing in The Beacon, gives us an example of the latter.
Age and experience is reputed to bring wisdom. Sometimes sadly this is not the case. Growing years can cement the foolishness prejudices and simplicities of youth, which makes aged folly all the more ridiculous. But often as people grow in experience, they become more subtle, discerning, and wise. They learn that things are not always what they seem. They realise that truth often lies beneath, not on the surface.
David J. Theroux, writing in The Beacon, gives us an example of the latter.
Bono (nee Paul David Hewson) is the lead singer in the rock group U2, one of the most successful rock groups in history. Bono also became a major proponent of greatly expanded U.S. foreign aid and other government programs (including debt cancellation) to alleviate the dire plight in the world of HIV/AIDS, malaria, abject poverty, and other issues.Bono's name and fame is synonymous, not just with U2, but with charitable activities in Africa. He has publicly and passionately taken up the cause of that needy continent for most of his public life. Bono is a professing Christian.
Friday, 5 July 2013
Letter From America (About Foreign Relations Personality Disorder)
Stop using taxpayer money to aid Egypt's Morsy
July 2, 2013 -- Updated 1635 GMT
Supporters of Egyptian President
Mohamed Morsy hold sticks and wear protective gear during training
outside a mosque in Cairo on Tuesday, July 2. Counterprotests erupted
after anti-Morsy demonstrators demanded that Morsy resign and threatened
to march on the presidential palace if he doesn't step down Tuesday
evening.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Rand Paul: Why is the U.S. supporting Egyptian President Mohammed Morsy?
- Paul: I argued that Morsy is not someone the U.S. should necessarily embrace
- He says despite Egyptians' discontent with Morsy, we continue to give him aid
- Paul: What kind of example do we set when we side with the enemies of freedom?
Editor's note: Rand Paul, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from Kentucky.
(CNN) -- On the one-year anniversary of President
Mohammed Morsy's inauguration, tens of thousands of Egyptians marched in
the streets of Cairo in an effort to remove him from office. The Associated Press
described the protesters as "an array of secular and liberal Egyptians,
moderate Muslims, Christians — and what the opposition says is a broad
sector of the general public that has turned against the Islamists."
You would think these
protesters represent an Egypt more favorable or in line with American
interests. Unfortunately, our government supports the current regime of
Morsy and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Friday, 31 December 2010
And Now for Some Good News
Doing International Aid the Right Way
A World Bank research paper has hailed New Zealand's Recognized Seasonal Employer ("RSE") scheme as highly successful and "best in class". The RSE scheme was set up around 2007 as a New Zealand Pacific island aid programme. Normally these things are complete disasters, counter productive, replete with unintended consequences, and more often than not, lead to more dependency of the donee nation. But the RSE scheme appears to be working well. In fact the World Bank says it is the only international aid scheme which is successful.
The programme allows Pacific island nations to send seasonal workers to New Zealand to work in horticultural industries, picking and packing fruit and vegetables. This programme has proved to be a great boon to orchardists and winegrowers--who had lobbied for a scheme such as this. The industry was bedevilled with seasonal labour shortages. Whilst there were plenty of unemployed in New Zealand too many preferred to stay on the dole, rather than work seasonally in orchards.
The World Bank study says that the impact upon the sending Pacific Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu (which formed part of the study) has been very positive.
The programme has been carefully designed to avoid some of the pitfalls of seasonal migrant worker programmes around the world.
Another really good design feature of the programme is that employers are required to exercise an appropriate duty of care to their seasonal workers, not just to ensure they are not exploited, but that some basic services are available to them.
Is such programme easily replicable? Possibly, but we suspect there are some crucial required factors, the absence of which would mean yet another international aid disaster. Firstly, the programme had heavy input from the private sector in New Zealand, where it was clearly meeting an industry need. The industry itself worked intensively with the Labour Department to "get it right".
Secondly, the sending communities often had significant input into who was accredited to go and work in NZ. The communities chose reliable, hard-working, decent citizens who would represent their communities well. This has not been a rights-based programme, but a merit-based programme.
Thirdly, because the participants worked hard--and the labour is physically demanding--they tended to use their earnings with great care. The money was not "easy-come, easy-go".
A World Bank research paper has hailed New Zealand's Recognized Seasonal Employer ("RSE") scheme as highly successful and "best in class". The RSE scheme was set up around 2007 as a New Zealand Pacific island aid programme. Normally these things are complete disasters, counter productive, replete with unintended consequences, and more often than not, lead to more dependency of the donee nation. But the RSE scheme appears to be working well. In fact the World Bank says it is the only international aid scheme which is successful.
The programme allows Pacific island nations to send seasonal workers to New Zealand to work in horticultural industries, picking and packing fruit and vegetables. This programme has proved to be a great boon to orchardists and winegrowers--who had lobbied for a scheme such as this. The industry was bedevilled with seasonal labour shortages. Whilst there were plenty of unemployed in New Zealand too many preferred to stay on the dole, rather than work seasonally in orchards.
The World Bank study says that the impact upon the sending Pacific Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu (which formed part of the study) has been very positive.
The results show that the RSE has had large positive effects on sending households in Tonga and Vanuatu. We find per capita incomes of households participating in the RSE to have increased by over 30 percent relative to the comparison groups in both countries, with per-capita expenditure also increasing, although by less than income. Subjective economic welfare is estimated to have increased by almost half a standard deviation in both countries, and households have purchased more durable assets such as DVD players, radios, ovens, and in Vanuatu, boats.(School attendance rates have gone up due to parents being able, as a result of participating in the work programme, to afford school fees.)
In Tonga RSE households also doubled the rate of home improvement, and in both countries, households became more likely to have a bank account, likely reflecting more formal savings. School attendance rates increased by 20 percentage points for 16 to 18 year olds in Tonga, and community-level effects were generally modest, but positive. Overall these results show that the seasonal worker program has been a powerful development intervention for the participating households, and that the RSE policy appears to have succeeded in its development objectives in the short run.
The programme has been carefully designed to avoid some of the pitfalls of seasonal migrant worker programmes around the world.
Design of the RSE paid careful attention to previous experience with seasonal worker programs around the world, and the resulting policy contains many of the features that are believed to be best practice for ensuring success of seasonal worker schemes and to mitigate the risks of overstaying, displacement of New Zealand workers, and worker exploitation.Clearly "overstaying" risks were a serious problem. Here is how the programme is structured to mitigate these risks:
The risk of overstaying is mitigated in a number of ways: workers may be re-employed in subsequent years, either with the same or a new employer, which can be contrasted with single entry schemes which provide high incentives for workers to overstay; employers are required to pay the costs associated with worker removal from New Zealand if workers become illegal, giving employers incentives to choose workers who they believe will return, and to not be complicit in their overstaying; and competition for places among communities and countries leads to social pressures to not jeopardize future possibilities for others by overstaying and thereby creating a negative reputation for one’s community.Overstay rates are less than one percent--which is extremely low.
Another really good design feature of the programme is that employers are required to exercise an appropriate duty of care to their seasonal workers, not just to ensure they are not exploited, but that some basic services are available to them.
The RSE places special emphasis on “pastoral care”, with employers required to arrange suitable accommodation, internal transportation, access to personal banking services, provision of protective equipment and opportunities for recreation and religious observance. The risk of exploitation is mitigated through regulations stating that workers must not be charged recruitment fees and that employers must pay market wages and offer workers at least a minimum remuneration which depends on the length of the contract.
Is such programme easily replicable? Possibly, but we suspect there are some crucial required factors, the absence of which would mean yet another international aid disaster. Firstly, the programme had heavy input from the private sector in New Zealand, where it was clearly meeting an industry need. The industry itself worked intensively with the Labour Department to "get it right".
Secondly, the sending communities often had significant input into who was accredited to go and work in NZ. The communities chose reliable, hard-working, decent citizens who would represent their communities well. This has not been a rights-based programme, but a merit-based programme.
Thirdly, because the participants worked hard--and the labour is physically demanding--they tended to use their earnings with great care. The money was not "easy-come, easy-go".
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