Sweden - Rwanda - Arsenal

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

This sort of thing puts (too many) people on auto pilot.
Sweden sends around £20 million in aid annually to Rwanda. Obviously a lot of people are reacting over here, strongly questioning any further aid to be sent when Rwanda then sponsor Arsenal with £30 million. It's the sort of thing which unfortunately makes a lot of people finally jump far right and place their vote there (upcoming elections in Sweden, September).

I'm a bit torn myself. On one hand I don't think the name on Arsenal's shirts will increase anything much. On the other it's lazy to instantly think it's wasted money and even (as some claim) embezzled aid.
One one hand £30 million would go a long way among individuals in one of the poorest countries in the world, on the other £30 million isn't that much in the bigger scheme of things and it's always smart for a poor country to invest long term.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ivides-opinion

Off topic: watched a documentary about Rwanda recently where focus was their middle class. Not the super rich and not the super poor, Many Africans are themselves fed up with either the image of starving child with flies crawling on the eye lid, or the corrup super wealthy being broadcast. When there are millions in Africa living quite normal lives and who don't want to move anywhere. Kigali looked rather amazing from what was shown, and the people interviewed seemed all happy about their situation. Three of the people interviewed were African American who had moved from USA there, not as managers in some subsidiary to an American company. Just moved to get away from what they described as a new problematic USA.

[HeavyDracula]

As with most (all?) foreign aid, that £20m from Sweden, were it withdrawn, would not be replaced by Rwandan funds. Foreign aid pays for shit that foreign government should do but don’t, much like EU-funded stuff here.

[Aitch]

Foreign aid often comes in the form of a juicy contract for one of the donor nation's companies, not as a no-strings bag of cash.

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

Foreign aid often comes in the form of a juicy contract for one of the donor nation's companies, not as a no-strings bag of cash.

That's also true. The American "we'll transfer $200 million, if we get monopoly on all your telecom" kind of deal.

But in all honesty, there still is a lot of times when the money goes to fu** knows what genuinely good. Swedish aid to Palestine for instance, it's well known how a very large chunk is squandered on a few and to Hamas.

[tranmerekev]

I was actually in Rwanda when this was announced. I was on a bit of a random football game trip (saw three games).

There is a burgeoning middle class. In fact where I stayed, which wasn't much better than a shanty town, was below the impressive Convention Centre, the Radison Blu hotel, and several other modern buildings.

https://twitter.com/tranmerekev/stat...12127455793157

https://twitter.com/tranmerekev/stat...13157451112449

I'm not particularity a political person, but I suspect the reason the poor don't have a voice, and are rarely seen (I encountered no beggars except kids at a game way down south) is because the President is very much an authoritarian. Or worse perhaps, if those who know more would care to say? He's been in charge for 18 years, and his tenue doesn't look like coming to an end any time soon.

As many are saying about the Russians, the people of Rwanda were amazingly friendly. Maybe I stuck out a bit, obviously, but so many people stopped me in the street to ask what I was doing there, and often the conversation turned to football which they love.
I got lost a few times, and people couldn't do enough to help. Even taxi drivers don't rip you off.
Contrast to my first trip to Africa a few months earlier, where I was pick pocketed and refused entry to the Final of African Nations Championship, despite having a ticket.

I actually had a chance meeting with the president of a top flight club in Rwanda, who gave me some club souvenirs, gave me a lift to the game, and the best seats in the house, then after the match drove me the 30-40 minutes to my next destination of Huye, where I watched another game the following day.

The place is as hilly as f*ck, so can be quite tiring, and though I am loathe to visit anywhere twice, so probably wouldn't go again, even though there was things I never got round to seeing, I would definitely visit Africa again.

[G-Man]

That's also true. The American "we'll transfer $200 million, if we get monopoly on all your telecom" kind of deal.

But in all honesty, there still is a lot of times when the money goes to fu** knows what genuinely good. Swedish aid to Palestine for instance, it's well known how a very large chunk is squandered on a few and to Hamas.

Is there evidence that money to Gaza (which is what I presume the reference to Hamas is meant to indicate) is "squandered"?

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

Is there evidence that money to Gaza (which is what I presume the reference to Hamas is meant to indicate) is "squandered"?

It's been plenty about it in Swedish media. One example is aid money used to pay a monthly salary to convicted terrorists. Hassan Salameh, the brain behind several suicide attacks killing 46 people in total, is one example.
Swedish aid to Palestine, by the way, is double per capita compared to what the next country (Somalia) on the list gets.

[G-Man]

How exactly does Hamas get that alleged salary to a man held in an Israeli high-security jail for 20+ years? Could it be the Swedish press you read are organs of pro-Israel propaganda? I know Israel are campaigning against Swedish aid for Palestinians on ground that some funding goes to a university of Gaza, which has ties to that region's elected government.

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

They hand it over to his family.
That's about how deep I want to go into things right now. I'd link the articles but they are in Swedish and if anything these, organs, have been writing/reporting much more against Israel than pro.
I'm getting in mood for the game so don't feel like getting into anything longer debating Palestine's innocence and Israel's guilt or the other way around. Which tends to be where they end up. Another time, G.

[G-Man]

Hmm, let's defer this then for after the game.

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

Let me only throw this here, which I'm sure you already know of. It's Wikipedia so read it how you wish.
But let's carry on after the game.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palest...y_Martyrs_Fund

[G-Man]

So that fund would also cover the families of the hundreds of people murdered by IDF snipers ion the past couple of months.

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

Yes, I believe so. One doesn't exclude the other.