tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post7847646288051073947..comments2024-02-06T16:17:25.826+00:00Comments on THE GRØNMARK BLOG: Dumb and dumber: John Major talks bollocks about foreign aidScott Gronmarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-68506329265212328292011-10-16T14:32:00.286+01:002011-10-16T14:32:00.286+01:00According to to-day's DTelegraph [10 June] doc...According to to-day's DTelegraph [10 June] documents from the French Fraud body [OCRDGF] published in Le Monde the embezzlement of public funds in countries like Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea continues on an industrial scale.<br /><br />One example. Teodoro Obiang, son of EG's President and current African Union President, spent [in Nov 2009] Euros 12m on 7 Ferraris, 4 Mercedes, 5 Bentleys, 4 Rolls Royces, 2 Bugattis, 1 Lamborghini and 1 Maserati. In 2011 he bought another Lamborghini and Maserati for Euros 1.5m [perhaps he wrote the originals off?]. At the same time Obiang bought Euros 18.5 worth of artworks from the Yves St Laurent collection to decorate his Malibu mansion and Parisian apartment.<br /><br />To-day's Spectator [Barometer Section] also also gives examples of how overseas aid is spent:<br />- £350,000 to help Ugandan bamboo farmers switch to other crops<br />- £200,000 for the National Taxpayers Association in Kenya's Rift Valley<br />- £ 2.7m to Moldova to "develop a medium-term expenditure framework to help balance its budget".<br />- £89m to help establish crab fisheries in Zanzibar. [That's a lot of crab sticks. Why don't they throw in Hellman's Mayo plant?]<br /><br />I won't crack my Clair Short joke. It would be ungallant. Although she does have a face like a slab of condemned veal.<br />Friday, June 10, 2011 - 08:19 PMSDGnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-52120901433045697722011-10-16T14:31:41.176+01:002011-10-16T14:31:41.176+01:00I am not inconsiderably disappointed and I have ma...I am not inconsiderably disappointed and I have made a note to that effect in my yellow spiral-bound notebook from Rymans with the world's timezones in the inside front cover revealing that all of India is 5½ hours ahead.<br /><br />Having supplied the missing data in SDG's post it seemed to me by now that we would have heard his Clare Short joke even if it is best left unsaid.<br /><br />Geronimo was an Apache, of course, whereas Ms Short looks more like a Comanche to me.<br />Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - 11:47 PMJOHN MAJORnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-67244942290705327032011-10-16T14:31:12.030+01:002011-10-16T14:31:12.030+01:00I once directed a live talk show in some Northern ...I once directed a live talk show in some Northern craphole featuring Clare Short. It won't surprise you to learn that this modern Mrs Jellyby was stunningly horrible to everyone. It always struck me as odd that someone who was always droning on about our responsibility to children in Africa, and how horribly callius and uncaring all Tories were, should have put her own son up for adoption. If I remember correctly, when he eventually identified her as his mother (poor bloke!) he turned out to be a Tory-voting solicitor.<br />Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - 10:15 PMScott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-9024653521253973262011-10-16T14:30:55.428+01:002011-10-16T14:30:55.428+01:00DfID – department for international development
Cl...DfID – department for international development<br />Clare Short<br />Monday, June 6, 2011 - 02:49 PMDMnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-24338464648041782182011-10-16T14:30:38.233+01:002011-10-16T14:30:38.233+01:00Obviously, not an entirely original suggestion, bu...Obviously, not an entirely original suggestion, but would it not save large sums of money [and reduce bank profits] in terms of legal and administrative fees if the 0.7% of our GDP ["ring-fenced"] were paid directly to the accounts of Mercedes-Benz, Parisian "haute cuture" conglomerates like Chanel or to various Swiss clinics specializing in "Treatment for Cannibals and the Murderously Insane". Otherwise, does any interference by [sorry, I have forgotten the latest acronym of this government department. Like my latest savings bond] mean that it will be syphoned off to Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe. Or am I being terribly naive? I voted Tory in the belief that this crap would be cleared up.<br /><br />I am desperately trying to remember the name of that ghastly woman - lock-jawed, looked like proud Geronimo - who ran this disaster under the last lot in order to make a cheap joke. Better left.<br />Monday, June 6, 2011 - 02:39 PMSDGnoreply@blogger.com