From The Telegraph
I do not believe that charity should begin at home. I believe that the plight of sub-Saharan Africa is an affront. What I say is that the kind of charity doled out by the overseas aid budget is often fundamentally ill-directed, or worse.
Looking at the figures I discover that, over the last five years for which data are available, Britain has given £8.7 million in development aid to Singapore, whose gross domestic product per capita is the fourth highest in the world, and 46 per cent higher than our own.
Over the same period, other recipients of British development aid have included Slovenia, Malta, the Czech Republic and Hungary, all highly developed First World countries, fellow members of the EU, and two of whom are even in the euro. In the last year for which figures are available, Britain also gave £380,000 in aid to the enormously wealthy oil sheikhdom of Saudi Arabia.
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Read the full article on The Telegraph
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To whom? The government?
“Britain” NOT “Britian”!!
Moderating Editor: Thanks!
before the british governor left singapore after grantin independant..they looted our resources/treasuries as part of the colonisation rules…
…………………….
if the british says they did compensate us for the past misdeeds as a gentleman would do..i tend to believe the british..
where it goes..i believed can be under temasek inc other expenses accounts for all we know…
what? so little?
that just about covers the annual salary for our PM + maybe half of MM’s.
We Need More! ;)
woohhaa .. skeleton out of the closet … see what change will bring hhhmmmm ..
There is a difference between giving the money to Singapore and giving the money to a bunch of people that “shared” it among themselves.
Democracy — 2 wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner.
What was the type of development aid? It could be for joint/international venture for anti-piracy; tsuinami warning system; retrofit of our naval base to accommodate their nuke warships(?); maybe even to buy more Airbus instead of Boeings.
The bigger question for Singapore is: Did Singapore really need to give BILLIONS to the wealthy foreign banks, courtesy of TH?
Singapore Inc. has invested VERY heavily in China, Vietnam, India, Thailand, blah, blah… over the past 2 decades. Why these monies were not invested into local companies (i.e. minus the GLCs) or to develop some home-grown niche sectors? We could have developed some new sectors by now if the critical amount of seed money was channelled inwards so we don’t have to rely heavily of foreign investments. (Hope everyone read the ST article: First World country but not First World wages?, May 15 2010, p.A38-A40). Only recently does some emphasis appears to be given to our SMEs, though sceptical how long that “drive” will last.
It is morally UNACCEPTABLE for Singapore to CONTINUE to receive such aid…
I am ashamed that our Leaders still had the gall to “accept” such Development Aid.
It tells me the Singapore Government Political Leaders are just plain GREEDY and morally bankrupt.
They should immediately apologise to the British People and volunteer to return the so called “Development Aid” they took.
>>Britain has given £8.7 million in development aid to Singapore..<<
The West gives aid in this manner. The recipient has to spend it on buying British goods or spending it on hiring British firms or organisations.
This is typical of aids given by the WEST.
Welfare mentality is not to be encouraged.
Maybe what they referred to as “aid” is actually the cost of running the British Council English classes. Usually the money goes right back to the businesses from their home country.
only some parts of welfarism is not encourage, not all parts.
please wake up, there are homeless and poor in all society, even oecd countries.
we don’t want thailand’s rich and poor divide, nor china’s or india, or indonesia, or malaysia, the list goes on, etc, etc
properly, it wasnt enough to cover the pay of all the ministers.
Excuse me! Are you sure?
Does Singapore really need 8.7 millions of pound from the Britain when Temasek Holding and GIC can affort to lose multi-billions of dollars, in a very short span of time, due to deffective investments, without even any single sign of social unheavel?
The real question is where has the money gone?
Where is it now or spent on what?
The best answer is with solid accounting evidence accessible to us.
This aid is in exchange to keep Singapore remaining democratic country if not we may turn communist in no time, since the rise of China.
Very sick to hear that we receive so much aid from Britain and yet our government donate to disaster-stricken countries only in the high tune of S$50,000.
This is a money obsessed government,no?
Payback time.
The colonial master feels guilty that it has taken so, so, much from Singapore for more than a century that it’s now timely to return, once and for all, some crumps back.
We are against welfare, but collecting
it is OK.
Then it will benefits the poor n needy.
And gahmen can carry on and say they don’t encourage welfare state, WHILE the poor n needy are looked after.
So called “development” aid often comes with strings attached — usually buying defense equipment from the donor country. For all you know it went to paying for those Warthog vehicles they bought for Afghanistan fighting.
I’d like more details about this.
Britain is the US’s lapdog. It doesn’t matter if it’s money doesn’t go to its people. It’s priorities are different.
I’m not going to complain if the British want to give me 8.7 million pounds.
Unfortunately it does not come to me … have to work on that. :)
That is a lot of free money. The next question is, where did it go to? Charity is out of the question because they have been crying shortage of fund. To Singaporeans is another out of question because PAP said Singapore is not a welfare state. Now….the answer is closer to the recipient of GPB9 millions – either to the lowest level of cans picker or highest ivory dweller. You guess.
You want to know the answer? simple, just vote the papies out and all the answers will be out in the open, just a matter of time.
Maybe it’s part of the rent for the Sembawang listening post shared with the Yanks and Aussies, or UK submarine/warship docking & provisioning fee at Changi. Of course, they can’t call it rent or docking fee so “developmental aid” is vague enough.
Well ! where does all the British pounds gone to, given to S’pore. Ahem !
Who are enriching themselves ?
For clarification on this issue, you may want to check out my latest blog:
http://asiancorrespondent.com/the-asia-file/britain-did-not-give-aid-to-singapore