Malvern College Conference Questions
Malvern College Sixth Form Conference
27 April 2009
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Questions generated by student discussion groups
These are all the questions set down by each of the discussion groups. They are intended to show the range of concerns expressed from the groups and are set down in the order in which they were written. Some of them were selected for discussion by the panel. Hopefully at least a few of these questions will generate some reactions and responses. As a set of questions they indicate the concerns that young people have about contemporary issues of world development.
Group Orange 1
1. Can we be sure our money is going to the right causes?
2. Is there a danger of a country becoming too dependent on another country’s aid?
3. How are we going to fund aid if we are in a recession with lots of debt?
4. Is it better to get rid of corruption, inform people about it, and spend money on that first, rather than giving aid if there is corruption and it will be abused?
5. Why allow corrupt nations to join the EU?
6. These countries have to repay debt from when developed countries lent them money to grow, so surely they will spend aid on paying back those debts?
7. How can we stop the people who do the trafficking?
Group Orange 2
8. How efficiently do corrupt countries actually use money from aid organisations?
9. How much power do Western countries have to tackle corruption in developing countries?
10. Does decreasing poverty decrease corruption?
11. What are aid organisations doing - what can they do - to increase the “attention span” of Western countries?
12. What sort of education is offered? (eg vocational, etc)?
13. Has the malaria situation improved?
14. How useful is volunteering? And where is it most beneficial (eg schools, hospitals, etc)?
Group Blue 1
15. There are simply not enough resources for everyone to live like the UK or America for example. Do you suggest that the Western World lower their standard of living in order to raise the standard of living in undeveloped countries?
16. Is technology a force for good or evil in the fight against corruption?
Group Blue 2
17. How to make sure money goes where it needs to go?
18. How to prevent military government from intervening with aid funds?
19. Is democracy always the best form of governance?
20. Why don’t pharmaceutical companies produce drugs and sell to poor countries?
21. Is it more important to give money to establish functioning government than improving living conditions?
22. Does government aid cause corruption?
23. Is there cooperation between NGOs, and also NGOs and government aid?
24. Is it better to send actual goods or money?
25. Is education more important than giving aid?
26. How can you be sure aid is used for sustainable long-term development?
Group Green 1
27. Do countries welcome aid?
28. Are statistics at their lowest levels now following an increase in charitable work?
29. How can we make a difference?
30. How do we decide which countries to help?
31. Is it a viable method to simply depose dictatorships to counter corruption?
32. Is it not better to teach people to be dependent on themselves rather than simply give them what they need?
33. How much responsibility should the Pope take for the AIDS/HIV problem?
Group Green 2
34. Is there any programme to change the mentality of the individuals involved in corruption and sexism - both aid givers and receivers?
35. Is the HIV/AIDS epidemic showing any signs of subsiding after all the aid contributed so far?
36. Do you think we should be focusing on our own economic crisis (credit crunch) before trying to solve the situations in other countries?
37. Do you think debt-relief has achieved anything?
38. Do you find it hard and/or dangerous working alongside people who are corrupt?
39. Do you think that colonisation has caused Africa’s problems?
40. Do you think we as a country feel responsible for the issues in Africa, so that we feel like we have to solve it? - is this why most aid is Africa-oriented?
Group Red 1
41. World population is increasing, but you are trying to save lives at the moment. How do you want to deal with the problem of scarce resources, i.e. less resources per person?
42. Is private charity help more efficient than governmental help?
43. How can individuals help except from spending money?
44. How do you deal with conflicts caused by political or cultural differences?
45. Isn’t it more important to help poor people in our own country before helping other people?
46. If you want to implement an anti-corruption policy you need to tak to local governments, which are probably corrupt as well, so what is the incentive to cooperate?
47. Is it worse to offer bribes or to receive them?
48. Football clubs buy and sell players; is that considered to be human trafficking?
Group Red 2
49. How can tribal borders be moulded to national borders?
50. Should aid not just be increased, but the countries providing it should be smarter - i.e. only providing aid to non-corrupt countries?
51. What percentage of UK GDP do you believe should be spent on international aid? And what would need to be cut?
52. Is dictatorship a better form of government for Africa than democracy?
Group Yellow 1
(to Paul Jackson)
53. Shouldn’t we be focusing more on self-help?
54. How is aid money divided up between the countries and how do they decide who they’re giving it to?
55. What effect will the ‘credit crunch’ have on under-developed countries?
56. What can we do as individuals?
(to Heather Maquette)
57. Can corruption be mutually beneficial?
58. Is the country’s system the real problem?
59. Could we train the police to tackle corruption and the government to run their country better, or would that be seen as too interventionist?
(to Debbie Stenner)
60. Why not try to stop the actual human trafficking rather than just raising awareness?
61. Why doesn’t more of the aid get distributed to states with poorer or undeveloped conditions?
62. How would you change the problem of equality of poor countries?
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