White saviours? We’re just doing what’s right
I AM appalled at the attitude of Labour MP David Lammy to those of us who have given money to charities that help people in Africa. Several years ago, my then wife and I were holidaying in The Gambia and made friends with a security guard who introduced us to a headmaster who then showed us around his school. We noticed there was no running water for the toilets or taps. When we asked him why, he told us they couldn’t afford to have it set up. When we discovered it would cost just £200 to have the water connected in the school, we gave him the cash. This was not a case of White Saviour Syndrome, but us being in a position to resolve a situation that was unhygienic for young children. Since then, my wife and I divorced and she later married a Gambian and set up a charity called The Jallow Foundation, The Gambia. Singlehandedly, she has supported women in outlying districts to form self-help communities by making and selling soap and clothes, arranged for villages to be trained in first aid by the local Red Cross, organised sponsorship from British citizens to pay for children to have an education and funded malaria prevention. When she Willoughby and Phillip Schofield, have to shout over the racket.
The audience at home and around the rink should be allowed to hear the music and the contestants be allowed to concentrate on their moves in relative peace.
Surely occasional spontaneous applause to show appreciation of a particularly good move would be far more valuable.
tiNa haWes, Northampton.
Clean up our city
THERE is much talked about cleaning up our seas and our countryside, and rightly so, but what about our cities?
Glasgow is one of my favourite cities on earth but on several recent visits I have been appalled by having to step over human bodies stretched out in sleeping bags in the city centre in the middle of the day.
After a wonderful evening of music at our lovely Royal Concert Hall, I was again shocked to see street sleepers spreading discovered sick and pregnant women were dying because they could not get to the nearest medical centre in time, she raised the funds to buy a vehicle to be used as an ambulance. It is self-financed by being used as a taxi when not required as an ambulance. All this she has done without any government help. Every single penny she has raised has gone into the charity, with no CEO taking a huge salary. We are bombarded with adverts on TV by charities urging us to donate regularly to help children in Africa. Yet according to David Lammy, we must be suffering from White Saviour Syndrome if we do this. Should we stop donating to charities and ignore fund-raising events such as Comic Relief? I think I know what would happen if we did.
r. taYlor, stubbington, hants. WHY should David Lammy apologise for the shortfall in the Comic Relief Appeal? The real reason not as much was raised as in previous years is that people like me are tired of the constant stream of appeals. All too often charity money is spent on admin and salaries. We all fund Britain’s foreign aid programme through taxation.
B. JeNKiN, swadlincote, Derbys. out their sleeping apparel under the portico at the hall’s main entrance, ready for a night’s sleep.
Goodness knows what the many foreign visitors to the hall thought that evening.
The pavements are covered in blobs of chewing gum which seems to get worse on every visit.
It must be assumed that people open their mouths and spit out their gum whenever they are finished chewing.
This is a disgusting social problem and I have no idea how you educate people to respect their city. I recently returned from Singapore, where the streets and pavements are pristine.
I recently wrote to Jackson Carlaw, MP for Eastwood, suggesting a campaign to clean up Glasgow but as yet have had no reply.
Come on Glasgow. Let’s preserve our lovely city!
mYra GiBsoN, by email.
True savings
PuTTInG aside how utterly offensive Boris Johnson’s comments about child abuse survivors like me have been, why is he talking about wasting money when that’s what this Government is doing?
What really is a ‘malarkey’, as he put it, is the unwillingness to tackle this huge issue. It has been left unchecked for generations.
Think about the trillions in savings the Government would benefit from if it stops trauma by funding treatment for survivors?
Huge savings would be made in the areas of criminal justice, homelessness, addiction and healthcare, fostering and adoption, benefits and domestic violence services.
Name and address supplied.