Forget about the Tebbitt test!

This is one is much more important. This is no game of cricket, seriously. How many East African Asians support charitable causes in the country of their origin? The logical line of enquiry would be to establish which of the three East African countries would they support?

Mostly, they do not prefer to support charitable causes in Africa at all unless there is a major disaster or a special appeal to which they can respond. The term ‘country of origin’ therefore automatically refers to the country of origin of their parents. That is their emotional or spiritual home. It the home that most benefits from charitable giving.

Many would say that there is nothing wrong with making that choice. Hundreds of worthy causes in the Indian Sub-Continent deserve support and indeed they must be helped at all times. The main concern is that the South Asian charitable projects may have unfair advantage over the African ones. The problem arises when East African Asian donors make their choices by using subjective criteria and indeed any one of them would be entitled to challenge this by saying,” I can support any charity I like. Its my money you know?”

Lord Tebbitt’s test of loyalty is hopelessly now out of date. It is no longer interesting to find out which team of cricket an East African Asian migrant would support. It is more significant to find out which country’s charities do the East African Asian support for charitable giving.