On 15th of March there was a big conference in Helsinki about aid for the undeveloped countries. President Tarja Halonen and a former president Martti Ahtisaari both stated that the Finnish output financially should be bigger.
The President of Finland Tarja Halonen and Former President Martti Ahtisaari (Suomen Kuvalehti) Now the goal is by the year of 2015 to fulfill those goals. The Secretary-General of Unicef Finland Kotoaro emphasized that the 0.7 percentages is not much for the Finnish government, it’s only worth of building 80 kilometers of new highway. On 26th of March the government will publish next years aid budget.
Both presidents want to improve women’s education and position in the third world countries. President Halonen has always been activist of the women’s rights and in the conference she said how in some countries girls are discriminated from the day they have born because of their sex.
This conference has been the whole week in Finnish media coverage and it has raised a lot of conversation whether this is a good time to discuss about helping other countries when Finnish people are worried about their own problems due to the financial crisis.
As our former president and Nobel peace- price winner Ahtisaari said: “Politics is a matter of will. I hope that we will find it in this case.”
As our former president and Nobel peace- price winner Ahtisaari said: “Politics is a matter of will. I hope that we will find it in this case.”
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It is interesting discussion - how will the developing countries manage who depend so much on rich donor countries.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think, is it right time to donate money to the developing countries? Have you or anyone from your group heard how other countries are dealing with the issue, are they cutting the budgets?
Oh, I just came across this article from WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123784321938717821.html#mod=europe_opinion
ReplyDeleteRight to the topic.
Thank you for the Wall Street Journal link! :)
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot projects in underdeveloped countries, which couldn't work anymore without the aid help. I agree with Tarja Halonen, that to have a good and balanced country especially (women's) education is important. If we now start to pull back our help, the relapse in those countries would be dramatical. I believe that we shouldn't only give a financial support, but also to show a good example and not to abandon poor people when we're having a bit of problems...
Also if to consider that there are atleast 1.5 billion people without a clean water/food, Finnish people with our good social security system shouldn't be worried compared to the people who are literally struggling for their lifes.
I agree that the topic is interesting and would like to discuss about it with our group members on Friday.