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Ed Weick makes the point about the 'relief package, I suspect there is a 'global' side to this. The 5 billion is over twenty years, so that’s 250 million a year. For the population of 60 million this works out at £4 per annum per person. Have I got this right? Not a lot, is it? Mind you, Britain is only in this as a 5 per cent partner or nearabouts. Last week the papers here were full of news about the next phase in the enlargement of the EU, to take in about twenty countries as far apart as Latvia and Turkey. In casual fashion there was a hint that African states might become part of the club. None were mentioned; there might be a fifty fifty bet on Egypt but as for Libya I’d say I wasn’t a betting person. Two years ago the wages of people in several countries, such as Malaya, Taiwan, Korea and several I cannot remember, were higher than the wages paid by multinational organisations in Scotland and the north east of England. So, might this debt clearance be part of the globalisation scheme whereby, as Henry says, (if you give people in Africa a fighting chance of improving their lives, they'll work their butts off to see that it happens) which is very true, they will work for a lot less than people in the aforementioned places. In a speech by Tony Blair he assured the listeners that no monies would go to the rackets mentioned, perhaps there are schemes whereby the money is given if, for example, the polite are managed by a large organisation, a multi, like some secondary schools in England. All part of the deal to clear the debt. William Kirk. |