Oz tsunami aid was spent on promoting Left politics on Asians
Melbourne, Dec.27: A survey by The Australian on the contributions by non-government organisations to the Asian Tsunami relief effort has found that the donations were spent on politically correct projects promoting left-wing Western values over traditional Asian culture.
The activities - listed as tsunami relief - include a "travelling Oxfam gender justice show" in Indonesia to change rural male attitudes towards women.
Another Oxfam project, reminiscent of the ACTU's Your Rights at Work campaign, instructs Thai workers in Australian-style industrial activism and encourages them to set up trade unions.
A World Vision tsunami relief project in the Indonesian province of Aceh includes a lobbying campaign to advance land reform to promote gender equity, as well as educating women in "democratic processes" and encouraging them to enter politics.
Also in Aceh, the Catholic aid group Caritas funds an Islamic learning centre to promote "the importance of the Koran".
The earthquake on December26, 2004, created the most powerful tsunami in 40 years, killing about 230,000 people in 12 Indian Ocean nations, just under half of them in Aceh.
Critics say the aid agencies have exceeded the mandate provided to them by mum-and-dad donors from middle Australia who thought they were giving money to rebuild houses and lives shattered by the tsunami, rather than forcing the ideological views of the Australian Left on traditional Asians. (ANI)