BBC have not, as far as I am aware, publicised another recent abuse of your money from the Foreign Aid budget. I was listenening to LBC the other day and discovered that this year, we gave Rwanda Sixty-Four million pounds, taxpayer pounds, your money for which you have worked in Foreign Aid. Now then, what did Rwanda do with that gift. I expect they duly said thank you as there is much hunger, poverty, poor sanitary conditions and premature deaths in the country to spend it on.
Upon receipt of the monies given, The Rwanda government, under the Leadership of Paul Kagame, decided to sponsor Arsenal FC and gave the club a whopping thirty million pounds of that sixty four million pounds in a sponsorship deal. This means that Arsenal FC will this year have the words Rwanda written on its shirt and maybe the odd logo around the ground. As I see it, we taxpayers have just given a billionaire owned football club thirty million pounds. As if this was acceptable. Don’t they have enough money. I don’t even support Arsenal, but I’m giving them money and so are you.
When I see something that so obviously doesn’t look right, I always try to consider the counter argument. Will this marketing of Arsenal FC promote the country of Rwanda, enough to in time receive a financial return equating with that of thirty million pounds. It is difficult to quantify, but I doubt it very much. It has to said that if I was considering giving money via a charity to a Rwandan appeal, I would refrain from doing so, because I would think that here is a country that has enough money if they afford to give thirty million pounds money away to Arsenal FC.
The other thought I had was, should Arsenal FC have accepted this money from the Rwandan government. Is this the image that British clubs should have? Taking money from a starving, impoverished third world country. The Arsenal supporting Mr Kagame had the choice of either feeding the starving and providing providing health services or giving the money to Arsenel FC. He chose the latter. Where does that put Arsenal FC from a moral point of view. Should they have accepted that money? I’m not so sure they have done. Where are the BBC journalists? Why are they not asking Arsenal FC to respond in accepting this money?
The BBC have found nothing wrong with this, they clearly don’t see this as an outrageous abuse of peoples taxes.I cannot see it on any BBC web page. This is a national scandal yet is being ignored by our national broadcaster. Taxpayers work hard for their money and it is being thrown away and into billionaires pockets, like the owners of Arsenal FC.
But then doesn’t this sum up the BBC, they take from the poor through the license fee, and feed the rich- Gary Lineker, but then pretend to be on the side of the downtrodden whilst being selective about what and how to report something, so as to not imbalance or threaten their position through the medium of brainwashing. Quite clever really when you think about. Geobbels on stilts if you like.
On BBC websites and BBC news we currently have the unedifying diet of the incessantly mawkish Grenfell grieving and Raheem Sterling’s tatoo. Aren’t you proud of our national broadcaster? I’m not. These days it really is sinking to new depths, just as I thought they couldn’t sink any lower.
Finally,I see there is growing support for more money being allocated to the NHS. On the surface this seems fine but how on earth could I trust the government to allocate my hard earned taxes wisely. Are they financially competent. Not on any evidence I’ve seen.
The overseas aid taxpayers give away is one of the most offensive things the uk Government has done . 13 000 000 000 a year at least of borrowed money .
And the people moan about the lack of social care funding . Please .
Foreign Aid is theft – full stop. Whilst there are… homeless people in this country; people living in sub-standard housing; people unable to obtain appropriate medical treatment in a timely manner; kids going to school hungry; thousands of pensioners dying of hypothermia each winter because they are forced to choose between ‘heat or eat’ …then the policy on foreign aid must be ‘Not one penny’. The misappropriation of taxpayers money on so-called ‘foreign aid’ should be regarded as a criminal act, with those responsible for it one day called to account.
Just heard a really thick and silly piece on Grenfell this morning on Radio 4.
Andrew O Hagen has done a great piece of writing in the London Review of Books, abut the media being largely to blame in creating an appalling narrative that blames local Tories. But let`s the Greens, E.U and Labour off scot-free.
And May and Javid are up to their necks in dropping the Tory Councillors off the tower, just because they were shit scared and thick. As if we`ve not learned that recently.
Mishal had not read the article, nor had she had a researcher to give her simple questions. O Hagen had to correct her in really big charges of corporate manslaughter being wrong.
Appalling, really was.
She then let some purring huckster from black Lawyers trash and patronise all O Hagen had found out over a year of real journalism.
She never even asked him a question, just let him smear O Hagen as not being a lawyer , basically-and BAME lawyers are yet to clean up so would he STFU, the clever oik?
Our BBC eh?
Would recommend you listen, read his report on the LRB. And compare with how shallow, pre-packaged and bloody stupid the liberal elite are these days.
How and when did the BBC turn into this idiocy?
Whats the connection of the Grenfell to this Arsenal / Foreign Aid budget thread ?
The mods should send you to watch an England game as punishment for going off topic
Sorry Eddy, don`t know what I was thinking.
Maybe my old hippie self wished to connect it all.
But got 60 likes….thus far, which is more than I normally get.
Might repeat this multitasking fluffiness again.
Are you the bloke in “Love Thy Neighbour”?
Wronged
Brilliant post .
Glasgow Rangers were demoted for financial problems , can Arsenal ( a club I liked ) be subject to an enquiry ?
The government have also just given the Hamas government in Gaza £15million in ‘aid’
That should buy a few rockets and missiles from Iran to help exterminate these pesky Jews
I don’t think 30 million pounds is that much money. Isn’t that the average weekly wage of top Arsenal players? (Only half kidding.)
Google scratched its collective head when I asked it to find a BBC article on Rwanda’s sponsorship of Arsenal. Eventually it grudgingly came up with an obscure BBC Africa site but couldn’t or wouldn’t even link directly to the info, forcing me to scroll back down through two days and about the length of a football field only to find a few lines of a tweet on the subject.
So, yes, this issue really doesn’t seem like a major priority for the BBC. I guess it’s the old BBC reluctance to voice the slightest criticism of an African country.
However, Google had some success in directing me to radio Today. At 1 hour 33 minutes in
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b42plg
John Humphrys attacks the spokeswoman, Clare Akamanzi of the Rwanda Development Board, in a manner that nearly had me falling off my chair, even talking about torture and human rights, as if that has something to do with football (although I guess watching a goalless draw could be regarded as a form of torture).
Humphrys does seem to have pet causes which get him really exercised, but it’s a first for me to hear a BBC person treat a black woman with scant respect.
Clare Akamanzi held her end of the wicket up pretty well (oops, sorry, I know we’re talking about football) but in the end she got quite defensive and appeared to hint that Humphrys is in the company of racists because of his criticism of Rwanda.
I regard this as a unique moment in the history of the BBC – a veteran broadcaster attacking a black African woman over the policies of her country and in turn being categorized as part of an unspecified group antagonistic to black people.
I’d pour myself a drink but I have to go to work soon.
(Edit: I have to retract. Another John, this time Simpson, did a similar thing several years ago in a documentary on the deterioration of Johannesburg. He was criticized by infuriated ANC officials, who openly called him a racist.)
How the US and Rwanda have fallen out over second-hand clothes
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-44252655
interesting article about how Rwanda and other African countries textile trade has been decimated by second hand clothing donated by the west.
And the East African Community (EAC) are banning their import.
No doubt upsetting the rich ‘charities’ in the west.
It’s the bBBC so it’s has to have an anti Trump slant.
Not the real culprits – greedy people who buy far too many clothes, then get a warm feeling in their tummies donating 50 pairs of jeans to ‘charity’.
So the message is clear: stop foreign aid, and like me get by with just one pair of socks.
This isn’t the best of threads
The UK government – in your name – is spending £13 billion a year ( that’s over 4 BBC’s) and more of taxpayers money on projects which are meant to improve the lives of people who do not pay UK taxes living in other countries .
HMG uses the “5th richest country in the world crap “ to justify itself .
Yes day in and day out al beeb reports on so called poor families and others who can’t make ends meet .
You do the sums because for me it doesn’t add up . This subject is more important that whether Al beeb stuffs the tv and radio with immigrants and foreigners and non whites just to fuck whitee like me off.
The other lot – commercial tv – would be happier doing a sick Grenfell griefathon sponsored by Kleenex tissues .
Rant done
‘This isn’t the best of threads’
Still touchy over anyone trying to help you I see. Never mind.
It was meant to be informative, comments were optional.
I disagree, my football club are really struggling for money, the fact that taxpayers are indirectly providing funds to a wealthy football club, incidentally with whom they have no allegiance seems wrong.
We should not be allowing recipient governments to make decisions on monies we provide for Foreign Aid. They cannot be trusted. Should you need to contact your MP about the subject this is one example of many abuses. Albeit this, as far as I am aware, the most recent.
No news other than LBC has reported it. It examplified the abuse of funds commited to Foreign Aid and how bodies like the BBC are not reporting its abuse. The subject is so politicised.
Most people on this site know that we spend 13billion each year on Foreign Aid, you failed to mention that it is ring fenced.
Yet another ridiculous decision made by Theresa May.
I’m disappointed to see some acrimony between you and FU2 . I think it’s due to a misunderstanding .
I think FU meant ‘ this isn’t the best of posts ‘ meaning his own , not the thread in general . Your original comments were spot on and FU seems to agree with you .
I hope you can both be charitable and not feud over a misunderstanding .
Nibor -many thanks. Got to say I’m surprised. What. I meant. Was the lack of responses. The issues are too big for internal feuds .
Isn’t Arsenal Corbyn’s team?
I am suspicious…
I think you will find that Corbyn is an arsenal.
Pronounced arse anal, Jerry.
How much did Arsenal score in the football?
Arse and nil
How many times has Corbyn won an election?
Fuck all
Arsenal is a team made up of many third worlders, perhaps its a conscience thing for them… However with the sacking of Arsene Wenger they may well need a magic Rwanda.
This thread takes me back several years to a BBC interview of Amnesty International’s then Secretary General, Irene Khan of Bangladesh. Dunno who the interviewer was, but he was most upset about the huge payout she was going to get (or had already got) on exiting Amnesty – something close to a million pounds.
He said Amnesty relies on small donations from ordinary people (I assume he also donated and regarded himself as one of them) and questioned how she could justify walking away with an amount like that.
Seems to be taking the BBC a while to understand that the third world can be every bit as grasping and greedy as the first – and that the third worlders, so to speak, often dip their fingers in the cookie jar with more success.
(Edit: On reflection it does strike me as a bit odd that a BBC employee would complain about others unjustly enriching themselves at the expense of ordinary people.)
They could still buy a fair few pangas with what’s left.
And… what a difference we have all made through venting our ire, ie absolutely nothing, complaints to the BBC result in refusal to acknowledge the race or religion of paki gang rapiists, while white film producers and actors who touched someone’s leg are pillorried in the press for weeks ? hmm lets maybe talk to the 12 year old rape victims ? BBC seems to have no interest whatsoever about 12 year old gang rape victims, but . an actress who had her knees touched well it is headline material
And that is probably why TR has failed time and time agian, moron football idiots oh my team is better than your tean and we can beat you up, etc etc 12 year old brains within adults the perfect excuse the muslims need…..