blessed britons

By the government’s own figures, 3.8 million children are living in poverty in Britain.

To halve UK child poverty by 2010 would need an investment, between now and 2010, of £3.8bn – and then the same sum again every year: a huge figure, unless one considers... that such a sum, amounts to less than two-thirds of 1 per cent of public expenditure. We shall spend £9bn on the London Olympics before 2012. Last year the nation spent £10bn on champagne and this year the City has found £14bn to spend on bonuses.

— Martin Narey

mad world

Our definition of phantom aid includes aid that is:

- not targeted for poverty reduction, estimated to be worth US$4.9 billion
- double counted as debt relief, totalling US$9.4 billion
- overpriced and ineffective Technical Assistance, estimated at US$13.8 billion
- tied to goods and services from the donor country, estimated at US$2.7 billion
- poorly coordinated and with high transaction costs, estimated at US$9 billion
- spent on excess administration costs; totalling US$0.4 billion.

In total, at least 61% of all donor assistance is phantom aid.

— Action Aid

Real Aid

ethnic cleansing

refusing to intervene

Submitted by antarchi on March 13, 2008 - 00:51.

In 1948, 500 Palestinian towns and villages were abandoned, evacuated or destroyed. More than 70,000 Palestinian houses were demolished. In the Jaffa area, 96% of the villages were totally destroyed. As Jewish forces proceeded with the ethnic cleansing of territories both within and outside the UN-allotted borders of the Jewish state, a British army of 70,000 refused to intervene, despite being charged under the mandate with the protection of the civilian population.

— Mike Marqusee

, in Commemoration and Denial

antarchi's quotes

expropriation and removal of the poor

Submitted by antarchi on June 29, 2008 - 02:33.

In 1895, Theodor Herzl, Zionism's chief prophet, confided in his diary that he did not favour sharing Palestine with the natives. Better, he wrote, to "try to spirit the penniless [Palestinian] population across the border by denying it any employment in our own country... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly."

— Jonathan Cooke

, in Zionism's Dead End

Zionism's Dead End

antarchi's quotes

Occupation by stealth

Submitted by antarchi on June 15, 2008 - 12:08.

Maps showing Palestinian land ownership shrinking from 97.5% to less than 10% of what was formerly Palestine

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moral obligation to intervene

Submitted by antarchi on April 27, 2008 - 12:32.

Two years later, a Commons Select Committee would conclude: ‘Britain had a legal right to intervene [in the Turkish assault on Cyprus], she had a moral obligation to intervene, she had the military capacity to intervene. She did not intervene for reasons which the government refuses to give.’

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free passage to attila

Submitted by antarchi on April 27, 2008 - 12:29.

The reality is that Britain had both the means and the obligation to stop the Turkish assault on Cyprus. After first ensuring Turkish hostility to the Greek majority, it had imposed a Treaty of Guarantee on the island, depriving it of true independence, for its own selfish ends: the retention of large military enclaves at its sovereign disposal. Now, when called on to abide by the treaty, it crossed its arms and gave free passage to the modern Attila, claiming that it was helpless – a nuclear power – to do otherwise.

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an offshore turkish island

Submitted by antarchi on April 27, 2008 - 12:21.

The upshot [of the violence], clearly planned in advance, was the eviction of Greeks from Turkish areas in Nicosia and other cities, and the seizure of municipal facilities, to create self-contained Turkish enclaves: piecemeal partition, on the ground. Its organisers could be sure of British complaisance. The day before the rampage... the new governor, Labour’s future Lord Caradon, had assured its leaders that the Turkish community would enjoy ‘a specially favoured and specially protected state’ under future British arrangements. A few months later, the colonial secretary was publicly referring to Cyprus as ‘an offshore Turkish island’.

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