How much aid do we give to India?

[Churchill]

Another win for the 'only look at the latest page of the thread' approach.

Who are you accusing of that? Personally I've read the whole thread, the original article as published on the BBC website this morning and formed my own opinion based on d000hg's past behavior - so do one you sh!t stirring twat!

[Churchill]

Why are they even going to Mars? Can we not internationally to just let one agency go rather than duplicating effort and wasting billions?

And then only one approach is used to solve problems with key knowledge restricted to certain countries/organisations?

Not good IMO.

[Old Greg]

Who are you accusing of that? Personally I've read the whole thread, the original article as published on the BBC website this morning and formed my own opinion based on d000hg's past behavior - so do one you sh!t stirring twat!

I didn't explain fully. That's what I do now. It's great because you skip past all the on topic discussion and cut straight to the abuse. Thank you for illustrating.

[vetran]

During the potato famine in Ireland, which at the time was a part of the British Empire, the British government funded expeditions to the Northwest Passage and into the jungles of the Congo; meanwhile, British citizens were dying of starvation. Now OK, Britain was not recieving foreign aid AFAIK, but the Indians could quite reasonably claim that exploration is a part of development and may deliver economic benefits further down the line, just as Britain's explorations in the north and in Africa did.

Personally I think it's a bit of a spurious claim in this case, but the Indians could argue they're just following the example of countries which went through their technological development earlier.

Or having suffered 24 previous instances of potato crop failure before the new American strain of Blight arrived the government could have bought grain as Sir Robert Peel did, the Irish could have diversified crops or the Government could have requisitioned Irish Grain crops as it did in earlier famines but that was unpopular with Irish Landlords because they lost money.

Of course the British just wanted to starve the Irish out we are known for that sort of thing

Its easy to blame the government but it is normally more complicated than that.

[Scruff]

Wow - I can't believe the vitriol being delivered in this thread? Is it really necessary for people to get so angry?

[Churchill]

Wow - I can't believe the vitriol being delivered in this thread? Is it really necessary for people to get so angry?

Stick around.

[Old Greg]

Or having suffered 24 previous instances of potato crop failure before the new American strain of Blight arrived the government could have bought grain as Sir Robert Peel did, the Irish could have diversified crops or the Government could have requisitioned Irish Grain crops as it did in earlier famines but that was unpopular with Irish Landlords because they lost money.

Of course the British just wanted to starve the Irish out we are known for that sort of thing

Its easy to blame the government but it is normally more complicated than that.

Or perhaps Ireland could have stopped being a net food exporter, but that might not have suited the interests of the landlords and merchants.

[Old Greg]

Is it really necessary for people to get so angry?

I hope so.

[mudskipper]

The trouble is, if you stop the aid, then the little bit of help that genuinely needy people get will come to an end and the people working at the bottom end in those luxury hotels will lose their jobs. Sure I think it's a strange set of priorities for the Indian government to run a Mars mission while there are tens of millions of Indians struggling for something to eat, put a roof over their heads and get basic healthcare, but foreign aid and the abuse of aid isn't such a black and white issue as some people in politics and the meejah would have you believe.

Indeed, and if you stop the aid, it's not like the Indian government are suddenly going to think "Tulip, we'd better not spend that money on the Mars mission now".

[Ticktock]

the Irish could have diversified crops