| By John O’Shea
Printed in the Evening Herald, 7th May 2005
Sirs,
Isn’t it gratifying to hear that King Mswati II of Swaziland
will be taking delivery of ten new top of the range BMW’s
for his wives this week?
Swaziland, one of the poorest countries in the world is in the
grip of an AIDs epidemic and has now surpassed Botswana as the country
with the highest HIV infection in the world. More than a third of
the 1.1 million population live on less than a dollar a day, and
the average life expectancy has fallen to thirty; but last year
the magnanimous King spent close to half a million pounds on a birthday
party he threw for ten thousand guests.
Swaziland has an unemployment rate of 40% and one third of the
country is dependant on NGO food supplies: yet King Mswati has ten
palaces, cars worth nearly a million Euros and a private jet.
We have to ask ourselves why we keep supporting regimes like these
through our overseas aid programmes – isn’t it time
governments world-wide come up with an alternative to ensure that
donations get to where they are needed most – the people.
Sincerely,
John O Shea,
GOAL.
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