Monthly Archives: January 2015

Opinion – Millions of pounds of aid money is at risk of falling into criminal hands, warn MPs – Telegraph – John Gelmini

January 31, 2015 By in Austerity, Business Administration, Defense Policy, Foreign Policy, People, Politics Tags: , , Leave a comment

I am afraid I cannot agree that we must tinker at the margins with overseas aid, through zero based budgeting as Dr Alf suggests or that the idea that aid “might run the risk of falling into the hands of criminals” is somehow something new.

We are still in financially perilous times and we cannot afford to be giving £12 billion gbp in foreign aid to anybody, let alone countries like China and India which do not need it and to corrupt African dictators who steal it, waste it on their profligate wives, and mistresses and who waste it on fleets of bulletproof Mercedes cars with Guardsman packages and on non jobs created for relatives. Criminals, terrorists and other “bottom feeders” take their cut of this money through the supply chain and UK civil servants at the Foreign Office and DIFID do nothing.

The aid money should be diverted into programs which up-skill the population and help to increase exports and earn needed foreign exchange.

The evidence cited for giving aid is flimsy at best and bogus at worst as evidenced by the inexorable rise of terrorism and ingratitude that accompanies every pound we give.

Money for corrupt African dictators simply results in demands for more as if “white man’s burden” was a blank cheque to be encashed until the end of time.

I say charity begins at home and that the politicians need to remember where that home is.

John Gelmini

Opinion – Discarding Democracy: A Return to the Iron Fist | Freedom House – John Gelmini

January 31, 2015 By in Business Administration, Defense Policy, Foreign Policy, People, Politics, UK, US Leave a comment
English: Barack Obama delivering his electoral...

English: Barack Obama delivering his electoral victory speech on Election Night ´08, in Grant Park, Chicago. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the sense that in the West we supposedly have freedom of speech, assembly and the right to vote we are free.

We still have many of the rights that were derived from the Magna Carta which is 800 years old today but the US Patriot Act and UK anti terrorism legislation has gradually abrogated those rights as has recent legislation allowing the tax authorities to extract money from a persons bank account without a lawful court order.

We are not free in the sense that certain areas of cities are inadequately policed and police are far too interested in acting as the unpaid tax collection arm of the Government in relation to speeding and traffic violations.

The inadequate policing means that burglars, housebreakers and petty criminals have a field day because with clear-up rates of 25% or 9% via the UK’s Metropolitan Police, crime pays (this is just for reported crime).

For single woman, the old, the disabled, the frail and those unable to stand up for themselves there is no freedom of movement at certain times of the day and night which means effectively no freedom.
Dr Alf asks about President Obama and what in effect has been his legacy.

Examination of his record shows him to be patrician, aloof, dishonest and a lover of very high taxes. People are less free under him and they have less money to boot unless they are top plutocrats already. So overall. we see the gap between those at the top and bottom widening into a yawning chasm in America, in the UK and in all the other places where these policies are pursued.

John Gelmini