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Surely limiting poverty for
the people is just a short-term fix and that only political
peace at government level will help the people in the long
term?
- Ian, Kirkcaldy
"That's sort of right, but every single country in Africa,
every
single part of Africa is different. All these rules apply
in
difference places. The cancellation of debt is not short
term;
it's long term, because you have generations alive today
who
are paying the debts of their forefathers and by paying
these
debts they're not being allowed to get out of the hole.
As
they're digging, someone else is putting the soil back in
the hole."
"I found myself sitting in Africa thinking, 'how on earth
do you stop people from hating each other?'. Africans have
been taken advantage of forever, by everyone, and probably
it's because they are such nice people, lovely people. In
Scotland we have some common ground there somewhat, we've
been slightly taken advantage of over the centuries because
I think we're quite decent folk. Someone is always going
to take advantage if you have some kind of moral fibre.
Yeah, they need peace, but it's hard to say. They send armies
into places to stabilise an area, to say 'you can't keep
doing this', but I don't think that'll ever happen because
the west have got their finger in every African pie. The
reason why you get cheap milk and cheap bread is because
we're taking advantage of Africa, we're taking advantage
of poor countries. It keeps us fat and it keeps them thin.
We would have to make huge sacrifices. Peace is important
though, because now that peace is in the south of Sudan
it means that aid can actually make a difference."
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