GOAL plea to business people

Kevin Mills, Business Editor

He urged business people to take up the challenge and spend their holidays in a Third World country helping the poor.

The holiday aid destinations include Afghanistan, India, Angola, Bosnia Herzegovina, Honduras, Kenya, Philippines, South Africa and Uganda.

Mr O’Shea was highly critical of the international community, particularly the United Nations for their lack of concern for the plight of the people of the Third World.

Journalists and pop starts were far better at highlighting Third World problems and small aid agencies were far more efficient at helping people in need, he said.

Money provided by the Irish Government and channelled through the United Nations was generally wasted, he said.

“It’s my job to convince the Government that this money would be spent more effectively through small organisations like GOAL,” Mr O’Shea said.

The poor of the Third World are worse off today than they have ever been, he said, adding that the bulk of Third World countries were quite happy to keep it that way. These countries are corrupt and happy to keep their citizens ignorant and under control. Because of this corruption he said it was easier to climb Everest than get aid to the poor.

He was speaking at the Cork Chamber of Commerce monthly business breakfast in association with the Irish Examiner.