With many British taxpayers facing financial calamity this winter, isn’t it grand to note that the vital work of ensuring a “complete revision of the concepts of gender” among Mexican farm workers continues apace. In the public foreign aid budget, it would seem that money is no object when climate change is evoked. A local Mexican academic, Professor Cesar Flores claimed that the “observance” of revised concepts of gender “can have a positive impact in the development of projects of carbon sequestration”.
This vital educational work among the coffee growers in the state of Veracruz is being undertaken by the U.K. Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions (PACT), noted to be a “flagship” programme funded by the Foreign Office and the Business Department (BEIS). It is said to fund projects helping developing countries reduce their carbon emissions. It is part of the U.K.’s International Climate Finance portfolio, in which the U.K. is investing £11.6bn to March 2026.
Undisclosed is whether the U.K. taxpayer-funded re-education courses touched on some of the more cutting edge, fluid gender narratives familiar to viewers of the BBC. It might be thought to take some cojones to broach such advanced concepts with traditional, definitely he, him, Catholic Mexican hombres. The local “implementing partners” are said to have received instructions “around gender, the role of masculinities and about effective communications with a gender perspective”.
The classes occurred as U.K. PACT ran an alternative coffee bush planting project said to mitigate the effects of climate change. The project was said to aim to benefit the coffee producers, “by planting trees that contribute to a higher quality of life for the communities, taking into account the possible utilities and cultural aspects of each species”. There appear to have been plenty of social scientists around to make sure “that the benefits obtained from this programme contribute to closing gender gaps and promoting an authentic inclusive economy”.
It is a fact often noted that when social scientists get involved, meaningless waffle has a tendency to surface. One of the local implementing partners, Flor G Vazquez Corzas, was quoted in the U.K. PACT press release as stating: “The topics of the workshops were of great relevance, and necessary themes to integrate in the project, just in time to begin working with the people in the communities and consider an inclusive perspective in the design materials, from the attendance rosters, invitations and the development of workshops, among other things.”
The project is said to have kicked off in June this year, although actual tree planting is expected to “culminate” next March with the planting of tree species that may “best benefit the coffee agro-producing communities in Veracruz”. Are we to understand from this patronising tone, that this knowledge has escaped the generations of farmers in the past? Since their excellent product is served around the world, they presumably have some clue as to what they are doing. And of course, as with many such projects in the public sector, the whole make-work boondoggle is expected to lead to greater heights. “The project will also produce global public goods, a series of guides and didactic multimedia that will facilitate the replicability of this project in other regions of Mexico or in other geographies around the world suitable for this project.”
Is this what foreign aid in Britain has become? Noble aims to give people a fishing rod and teach them to fish have been replaced by a neo-colonial education exercise based on fashionable climate scare stories and gender identities. Pet projects from liberal elites funded by the U.K. taxpayer being spread around the world, to populations that are expected to be grateful for any social, economic and cultural wisdom so graciously being bestowed upon them.
Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.
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It is absolutely astounding that with the UK virtually on its arse that ANY government thinks it right and proper to spend taxpayer’s money on BS so called ‘Foreign Aid.’ We have no business telling the peoples of other countries how to think, work, live. There is too much of that going on here.
The F and C office has been a drain on taxpayer’s for years and overseas spending should have ceased many years ago. Realistically what is happening is criminal. It is not inconceivable that people in the UK could go cold and hungry this Winter while their taxes are spaffed abroad on useless social engineering projects that we have no business being involved in. And for what it’s worth I am sure the Mexican coffee workers neither want nor need this crap.
Charity begins at home. I look forward to the sensible Ms Truss closing down F and C promptly.
Yeah right….pigs and all that.
Bloody disgusting and disgraceful.
The origin of foreign aid lies presumably in the realization (by a certain Mr MacMillian) that it’s not really necessary to install functioning administrations in dependent, African territories to get resources from there. It’s entirely sufficient to arm and pay some local gang of thugs which keeps enough of a thumb on the population to enable continued resource extraction. Enter the modern African state.
“It is part of the U.K.’s International Climate Finance portfolio, in which the U.K. is investing £11.6bn to March 2026.”
Investing? Pissing away more like.
Unless these new crops that for some unspecified reason are more environmentally friendly actually involve locking farmers into using proprietory, patented products.
Then it’s an investment ok, just not one we the common tax payer.or the poor bastard Mexican farmer will see any of the returns from.
It was Brown who started calling all spending he did not want to properly account for “investing”. It was never thus and any right thinking civil servant accounting officer and the ONS would refuse to allow it to be described as such.
Pitty the professional institutes cannot be trusted to speak up for proper standards in accounting.
As far as the Labour Party are concerned “investing” is first and foremost their code for demolition and destruction – somewhere.
Chris Morrison stated “It is a fact often noted that when social scientists get involved, meaningless waffle has a tendency to surface.”
Anyone reading the press release quoted in the post – or if they were unfortunate enough to be in a UK PACT meeting – has an excellent chance of winning Bullshit Bingo.
So a project to supposedly lower carbon emissions which is presented to the local people as an initiative to improve their communities.
Right there is the basic premise swirling around in the mind of the collectivist technocrat. You’re dumb and uneducated and someone cleverer that you is going to tell you how you should do things, even if it’s something you’ve been doing all your life and he hasn’t and you know much more about your community than he’ll ever know.
And the collectivist technocrat actually knows its a sham and that it’s all for someone else’s benefit but it’s fine because he’s on the right side of the scam. And he has the toolkit of nonsense to clean his conscience: climate change, equality, sustainability, etc, etc…
Does it make the coffee taste better?
It’s a great way to launder public money into the pockets of otherwise unemployable politics and social studies graduates.
The girl in the picture looks to have benefited from it
So, basically, parts of the UK foreign aid budget are spent to pay EDI consultants to have a holiday in Mexico based on the pretext that this would somehow help to combat climate change? It’s not entirely surprising that this kind of people are the ones who take the issue least seriously. After all, they ought to know their own babble.
Why would coffee growers want to REDUCE CO2?
I think you’ve the main elephant in the room there. If we’re going with the principle of CO2 being a driver of climate-change-related adverse conditions – which can be demonstrated to be false – then to suggest that this kind of project benefits both the wider environment (by reducing CO2 emissions) and benefiting the local communities (presumably by increasing yields) is contradictory. Increasing CO2 would increase yields from any crop. But of course, the project evidently is designed to do neither of these. It’s not sequestering carbon these neo-colonialists are interested in. It’s sequestering resources.
Comment on meaningless waffle: Some time ago, the Oracle (Reading shopping mall) sported two kinds of foreign aid/ environmentlist posters. One of them showed a young, bearded, brown-skinned man (probably a paid model) in front of a forest with a text Volunteering on community-led water projectes helped me realize my potential for impact.
Whenever I walked past that, I thouht something like Dude, your theoretical potential for impact depends on your impluse, which is your mass times the speed at which it is moving. However, since humans are mostly composed of water, they tend to burst into a wet mess when colliding hard with anything, hence, your potential for impact isnt’ very great.
Wouldn’t we have thought this would be an ideal report for a conservative, financially responsible person to shout about at the Conservative Party’s conference.
oopps. I ought to have written “shouldn’t” not “wouldn’t”. We know they wouldn’t.
Professor Cesar Flores claimed that the “observance” of revised concepts of gender “can have a positive impact in the development of projects of carbon sequestration”.
Carbon sequestration. Is that burying it with a shovel? Carbon is of course a solid black substance. More weasel words and changing the message once again as the truth about carbon dioxide being a trace gas that makes plants grow better is now entering the mainstream.
“Professor Cesar Flores claimed that the “observance” of revised concepts of gender “can have a positive impact in the development of projects of carbon sequestration.”
I haven’t a clue what this Professor is talking about and I suspect neither has he.
Meanwhile as the cost of living grows here, how wonderful to know we can still send billions in foreign aid for such worthy projects as this. Words fail me. Time to stop reading the news again. it’s too damaging to the mental health!!