Canada's "bag full of money" to Afghanistan

[Topaz]

The Foreign Affairs have been giving their bags full of money to Afghanistan by buying real estate which cost as much as New York City! I can see some of these expenses but buying real estate in a country that won't see peace for a long long time is real stupid! Harper could have put that money to better uses here at home. http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Foreign+Affairs+spent+millions+inflated+Afghan+real+estate/3826921/story.html

[capricorn]

The Foreign Affairs have been giving their bags full of money to Afghanistan by buying real estate which cost as much as New York City!

How many bags of money do you think setting up a Canadian embassy in Kabul adds up to? Ten bags? Twenty bags?

Seriously, does Paul Dewar really think it would cost a mere $47M to purchase land and build a similar embassy in Manhattan? I think he's got his numbers wrong.

Land in New York metro.

In their paper out today, the researchers found the average price of land in the New York metro area was at $366.08 per square foot in 2006, up sharply from $71.95 in 2002 and $46.65 in 1999, with prices highest in midtown and sharply dropping off with distance.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/05/12/the-price-of-land-vs-the-building/

Land in Kabul.

He said that a year ago a 1,080 sq ft lot on the city's main shopping street in its Shahr-e-Naw district sold for around £69,000 but would now cost at least £104,000.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/5090789/Kabul-property-boom-bucks-world-trend.html

104,000 pounds Sterling equals $169,331 divided by 1,080 sq. ft. That's $156.78 per square foot for land in Kabul. In 2006, the price per sq. ft. in Manhattan was $366.08 and presumably that cost has gone up.

Harper could have put that money to better uses here at home.

By that logic, are you also advocating cutting the entire foreign aid budget?

[William Ashley]

How many bags of money do you think setting up a Canadian embassy in Kabul adds up to? Ten bags? Twenty bags?

Seriously, does Paul Dewar really think it would cost a mere $47M to purchase land and build a similar embassy in Manhattan? I think he's got his numbers wrong.

Land in New York metro.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/05/12/the-price-of-land-vs-the-building/

Land in Kabul.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/5090789/Kabul-property-boom-bucks-world-trend.html

104,000 pounds Sterling equals $169,331 divided by 1,080 sq. ft. That's $156.78 per square foot for land in Kabul. In 2006, the price per sq. ft. in Manhattan was $366.08 and presumably that cost has gone up.

By that logic, are you also advocating cutting the entire foreign aid budget?

I'd like to see it replaced with return capital projects, as well as transform CIDA into a self funding foreign enterprise agency, instead of foreign aid it would manage federal government overseas crown companies, for instance if medicine is an issue, set up companies for that.

Now you might argue that people don't have the money - but this is why you can set up a pill factory in Bangladesh and ship back to Canada to lower domestic medical costs to offset the start up costs. It is "planned programs like this" where direct inputs that can create a business model that can ease what foreign aid may have went to - but to sustain the business ownership for a portion of the return to the asset to the nation invested in. These return capital projects would be the basis of foreign aid. Don't think all for profit, but instead to help both countries and insure a business model rather than a sinkhole and an endless cycle of foreign aid dependence rather than building the economic base. I would go as far to argue that foreign aid destabilizes regional sufficiency. Business models would have to be looked on, but I think it is something that could work.

The other option for foreign aid would come from "payfor" basically donations - but the government would act as a gateway for those things, should people not be aware of private charities.

.

[capricorn]

You must be a genius William cause I haven't a clue what you're talking about.