A waste of money !

Australia has just donated twenty million dollars to help the rebuilding of homes and other infrastructure destroyed in the Gaza strip.

It sounds like a good humanitarian idea, until you consider that the government that administers Gaza will continue to fire rockets and make war against Israel - and in due course Israel will retaliate and all the reconstruction will again be laid waste.

The apology for a government that rules Zimbabwe has recently failed to attract a gift of $ 3.8 billion from donor countries to feed it's citizens and try to contain an outbreak of cholera that is killing thousands.

Zimbabwe used to be a food exporter. It's policy of seizing white owned farms and giving them to cronies of it's president - and letting them become unproductive has created famine. Any money given to alleviate distress is merely propping up a catastrophic regime.

We are a generous country and quick to help neighbours in distress, but times are hard and there is no point in throwing good money after bad if the reason a neighbour is in distress is not being addressed. In most cases that means a change of government.

In many cases the only way regimes that are the reason for war and famine can be torn down is if the population reaches the stage that they have to act to bring that about.

Giving aid merely prolongs the day of reckoning. It may seen hard hearted - but sometimes " tough love " is the better option !