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No surprise. Western nations are the most giving, with the US in the lead this year.

The United States is the world's most generous country, according to the Charities Aid Foundation's World Giving Index 2011.

Countries were ranked by the UK organization in terms of both monetary donations and charitable acts of citizens, using Gallup polling information.

According to the survey, 65 percent of Americans gave money in 2011, 43 percent gave time, and 73 percent helped a stranger.

The US, which placed fifth on the 2010 index, was followed this year by Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Canada placed seventh.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news ... ving-index

The index also shows the Middle East is one of the least giving nations - including the oil rich gulf kingdoms. Saudi Arabia was ranked 59th place.

The survey was taken before the "Arab Spring", so the current turmoil would not affect the data: https://www.cafonline.org/pdf/World_Giv ... 191211.pdf

Interesting survey - thanks for posting eh. I see that globalpost was quite selective with it's extracts (as you'd expect with a US based publication - pulling out the US aspects) and the CAFonline headline was about UK. It is also a survey of people, and does not measure the aid/charity given by countries themselves - rather what % citizens surveyed within countries said they had given money, time or helped a stranger.

Congratulations to the citizens of the USA and the other countries who came out on top. In my experience, many individual Americans are indeed quite generous and well meaning. Some look down on the poor and have right wing views about how the poor are to blame for their condition, but many are more charitable.

Interestingly the survey had China at 141 and India at 91. Pakistan went from 142 to 34!

What's interesting is the range of countries making the top of each category - 'Western nations' aren't 'the most giving' on all measures.

The highest-ranked country for "helping a stranger"; is Liberia, with 81% of the population giving in this way each month. The USA is second, with 73%, and Ghana and Sierra Leone are jointly third, with 72%.

Turkmenistan is the country with the highest percentage of the population "volunteering time", with 61% doing so per month. Second is Liberia, 48%, and third is Sri Lanka, 46%.


By far the largest increase in the percentage of population "giving money"; is in Asia, with an increase of 9% in South Eastern Asia and an increase of 10% in Southern Asia.


The report shows that the worldwide increase in inclination to "help a stranger" is in part due to a surge in the prevalence of this behaviour in Asia - with the four Asian regions seeing increases in the percentages of their populations "helping a stranger" ranging from between 4-16%.


The Gallup opinion polls, used as the basis for the World Giving Index, asked over 150,000 people - representing 95% of the global population - whether they had given money to charity, volunteered time or helped a stranger in the last month. Using information from these interviews, the World Giving Index combines the levels of each charitable behaviour to produce a ranking of the most charitable nations in the world.

Cheers,
Shafique

And here's US taxpayer money well spent on educating Pakistanis. What a great place to start: Sesame Street.

The show is to be filmed in Lahore and aired later in the year.

The programme is part of a series of ventures that is aimed at developing the educational infrastructure in the country, Virginia Morgan, a spokesperson for USAID, told the BBC.

Education is one of the vital sectors that need help in Pakistan.

PMSL!!!! What's next "Little House on the Swat Valley???

http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/20 ... -pakistan/

Ah, spending money on foreignors who want us dead rather than on American citizens.

I'm absolutely opposed to the US government giving money overseas.

We should help our poor first before anyone else.

My sentiments, exactly. Charity begins at home. The overseas budget is about the only budget that hasn't been cut in the UK. I can never understand why we give anything to India. If they can afford a nuclear capability they don't need my hard earned cash!

From what I can tell, the survey was asking people about charity they had personally done - so it was about helping people around them.

As for US foreign aid - one thing I do agree with right wing Americans on is that it is historically very inefficient and indeed, I would say that tackling in iniquities within the US should be a higher priority than they have been.

Cheers,

Shafique

shafique ,

That's not exactly foreign aid now is it? It's wasting US taxpayer dollars. That's the problem with the US, they don't see charity beginning at home and think that educating people via Sesame Street is a charitable thing to do - even if the receiving end is the enemy.

Right wing, left wing, center, conservative - Americans are sick of seeing their money being flushed down a toilet. Americans weren't educated via Sesame Street, but I guess that would be a reach for some other countries.

Bora - as I said, I sympathise with your view about the US aid and this example. However, let's keep this in context - compared to bail outs of banks, money given to military contractors etc this is a miniscule drop in the ocean.

That said, as a Brit tax payer, I also do agree with the aid that we give out. There was an uproar this year about the aid going to India, when India was a country that had a space programme (as the tabloids put it). I agreed with the government argument that the aid was being targetted at the poor and was being well used. I support the aid that goes Africa, Asia etc.

I have the utmost respect for many charities that do sterling work - from Medecins sans frontiers, Oxfam to Save the Children. There are interational and local charities - indeed in the UK the lifeboat service is a charity with volunteers giving a 27/7 - and reliant on public donations.

Cheers,

Shafique

shafique wrote:That said, as a Brit tax payer, .

You need to get a new accountant Sunshine! You shouldn't be paying tax if you don't live in the UK. Now if you're making a profit on your rental from your UnIslamic mortgage, that would be a different matter.

Tut tut!

I also do agree with the aid that we give out

It's dead easy spending someone else's money isn't it?

BM try and keep up. As a tax payer, I do have a say in how my money is spent.

But nice of you to take an interest in my affairs, even if it is to try (and fail) to elicit a reaction. 3.5/10 for effort.

Cheers,
Shafique

shafique wrote:BM try and keep up. As a tax payer, I do have a say in how my money is spent.

But nice of you to take an interest in my affairs, even if it is to try (and fail) to elicit a reaction. 3.5/10 for effort.

It's evident that we don't agree on the meaning of the word 'fail'



I note you tell us at least once a day that you are a Brit. I wonder who you are trying to convince. Is it yourself or us?

shafique wrote:in the UK the lifeboat service is a charity with volunteers giving a 27/7 - and reliant on public donations.

I thought the UK worked on the same time frame as the rest of the world. 27 hours to the day???

That said, as a Brit tax payer, I also do agree with the aid that we give out. There was an uproar this year about the aid going to India, when India was a country that had a space programme (as the tabloids put it). I agreed with the government argument that the aid was being targetted at the poor and was being well used. I support the aid that goes Africa, Asia etc.

Are you running for a political position in the UK? Only a politican would agree that giving away UK taxpayer dollars to a country that doesn't help it's own poor, but takes money from another country in the guise of helping its poor, would think it's OK. After all the years that countries have been pouring "financial aid" into Africa, Asia, etc., exactly what great impact has been made? Those insect infested swamp lands are no better off today than they were 10 years ago.

Do you really believe that the money the UK gave to India went to the poor and was being used well? If you believe that then you believe the moon is made of cheese.

A lot of the financial aid paid to poor countries creates new jobs for the citizens of the paying country. The money is not given without conditions, the country receiving money is usually required to hire experts from the paying country which all have a decent salary.

Regarding sponsoring the education in Pakistan. Not only it creates jobs for american citizens, this is also the BEST WAY to spread democratic values and teach human rights. This is actually the best kind of charitiy.

As in "Teaching people how to grow their food is much better than giving them the food."

Also happy people don't want to fight and go to war.
BoraBora, if you compare the money spent on War vs Education you will see why education is a much better way to spend tax money, even if you consider the receiver enemy (Which is not true, because a true enemy will never accept foreign education). Can US create educational centers in Iran or North Korea? I don't think so.

Bora Bora wrote:I thought the UK worked on the same time frame as the rest of the world. 27 hours to the day???

Well, the guys at the RNLI are heroes to me.. but I think even they can't work 27 hours a day!

And yes, I do agree with the current and former UK governments that the aid to India (and indeed elsewhere) is indeed well used. Moon being creamed cheese.. hmm.. do Nasa know about this?

Actually, I think that more of the military spending and financial bail outs should go to targetted aid - the amount we spend is miniscule in comparison, and the benefits can be so much more. But that's just my opinion.

That said, after watching the documentaries on how the west went bust - we'll need to spend a lot more on looking after our own poor in the next decade (at least).

Cheers,
Shafique

DFT ,

I highly doubt you are a US taxpayer, but more than likely from a country that is on the receiving end of US taxpayers money. Creates jobs for Americans!!! LOL How are they creating jobs for Americans when Sesame Street it's being filmed in Lahore?? Did you get your education through Sesame Street? What level of education did you receive from SSU?

The US does create jobs for other countries, while causing millions of jobs in the US to disappear. American companies move their production to other countries. The US has sent out millions of jobs that will never be seen again in the US. Manufacturing was the heart of the middle income class, which is all but disappearing. The US government uses outdated guidelines/sources to keep the real number of Americans living on or below the poverty level.

Are you familiar with NAFTA? That's when American jobs started to get outsourced and then manufacturing. That's how India was able to create a middle class - getting American jobs outsourced. China - factories opening left right and center by American companies where all the manufacturing jobs have gone and we get the goods back to be sold in America - goods that contain toxic ingredients. But hey, better to pay some Chinese laborer $80 a month rather than $80 a day plus benefits, right? America is so big on labor laws in the US but ignores child labor, poor wages, no benefits in countries that the US sets up businesses as long as they keep producing goods that are sold in the US.

Of course there are conditions, but who pays attention to them? Is there an accounting of where that money goes? No. Why? Because who is the US to ask where US taxpayers money goes when it's given to foreign countries. Of course there is a payoff to those in politics on both sides who cut those agreements. It's the people who get screwed.

PS: Iran has extremely good universities and NK must have a better system than teachingb 2+2=4. from a cartoon show.