Re: Leading
Quoth TorgoX, via (who else?) the Guardian:
What is this "despite" doing here? There's no obvious -- and indeed, no actual -- connection between leading the world when it comes to helping Africa, and the UN target. It's a target for 2015, one that only five countries have reached, including none of those mentioned in the article. The EU as a whole gives 0.39 percent of GDP currently, and have an additional 2010 target of 0.56 percent, something that many of them probably won't reach.
If the editorialist wanted to be informative and fair, they would have compared the U.S. contributions as a percentage of GDP to the current EU contributions, not to their as-yet unattained 10-year targets, or discussed the lack of U.S. committment to such targets. And of course, the article would have mentioned that the U.S. gives more in dollar amounts than anyone else, which was Bush's point.
[Bush] said America was "leading the world when it comes to helping Africa", despite the fact that it gives only 0.2% of its GDP in overseas aid - well below the UN's 0.7% target.
What is this "despite" doing here? There's no obvious -- and indeed, no actual -- connection between leading the world when it comes to helping Africa, and the UN target. It's a target for 2015, one that only five countries have reached, including none of those mentioned in the article. The EU as a whole gives 0.39 percent of GDP currently, and have an additional 2010 target of 0.56 percent, something that many of them probably won't reach.
If the editorialist wanted to be informative and fair, they would have compared the U.S. contributions as a percentage of GDP to the current EU contributions, not to their as-yet unattained 10-year targets, or discussed the lack of U.S. committment to such targets. And of course, the article would have mentioned that the U.S. gives more in dollar amounts than anyone else, which was Bush's point.
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
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