Readers’ Response: ‘Charity begins at home’

Charity starts at home. But that’s not where it should stop, particularly as one of the wealthiest countries in the world whose previous colonialist and foreign policy actions have caused untold amounts of international damage.

There is nothing new or clever about blaming foreign aid for our financial problems at home. It is simply a scapegoat used to skirt around real issues such as tax evasion and avoidance, as well as an unfair and unequal government budget. It also helps to pursue a damaging agenda that suggests the UK should be an international actor but take no responsibility for its actions. On the whole, foreign aid is very carefully and stringently paid out.

The claims of aid “funding the superfluous and the opulent” are quite simply false, which just a few minutes of background research would show instead of taking everything the Daily Mail (not known for its hard-hitting and reliable investigative journalism) as fact. One of the most ridiculous claims is that “one Hamas master bomber has been given more than £100,000 – by contrast, people in our country struggle to eat”.

It also helps to pursue a damaging agenda that suggests the UK should be an international actor but take no responsibility for its actions.

This has come solely from a Daily Mail article with no evidence to support it, and has been called “simply incorrect” by the Department for International Development (DFID). How about the claim “foreign aid funds a BBC Somali radio drama with tips on how to become an illegal immigrant in Europe”? The show mentioned is part of a BBC Somali Service youth project that includes, among other things, this drama.

It is a project that gives a voice to young people in Somalia, allowing them to discuss and portray the opportunities and struggles they face. To me, this sounds like an incredible use of foreign aid to encourage and promote the future prospects of Somalia.

To me, this sounds like an incredible use of foreign aid to encourage and promote the future prospects of Somalia.

He is calling a show unnecessary and potentially harmful because it is a drama in which someone is given advice for how to break the law. Well then, the motives of any drama, thriller or murder mystery should be called into question. Is there any mention of some the other amazing projects funded by DFID? Of course not. We are not told of the £37m spent on campaigns against FGM, no word of the £205m spent on primary education.

When 62 people own the same amount of wealth as the bottom 50% of the world, to victimise those being given foreign aid highlights just how fucked up the system we live in has become.