United States Agency for International Development - Articles - Zimbio

Africa and foreign aid

Thu, 23 Mar 2007 13:34:00 GMT

posted by Savant
Having returned from a grueling week abroad, dispensing wisom to an adoring public, your Savant looked forward to a spot of well deserved R&R.; However, my fragile peace of mind was shattered by a confluence of events. First a missive from the Department of Money Wastage, apparently sent out to every citizen in the country, telling us how Ireland’s foreign aid would approach nearly €1 billion this year, Ghana, the ‘success story’ of Africa, would be a substantial beneficiary of said aid.

I then read elsewhere that Ghana would be forking out about $30 million of this aid on ‘celebrating’ 50 years of ‘independence’. I use independence in the loosest meaning of the term, in that the country keps afloat only through the absorpyion of billions of dollars/Euros in foreign aid each year. Foreign aid makes up no less than 75% of government expenditure. Some independence! Despite this aid, the average daily per capita income is exactly €1. As I have pointed out in earlier posts, at time of gaining independence Ghana was a jewel, wealthier than South Korea and a lot of other Asian countries, but as they prospered, Ghana – remember, this is Africa’s success story – fell progressively into deep poverty. And this despite buckets of foreign aid.

It would be bad enough if foreign aid were just useless. Unfortunately, it’s worse than useless. First, it consolidates whatever despot is in power by, first, giving him resources to divvy out to the cronies who keep him in power. But, the small amount of aid that gets through acts as a vent for popular discontent, further strengthening the ruling elite’s position. But the aid flows on, as our current reigning orthodoxies demand that we be oblivious to the obvious. Here we should remember Aristotle, who showed us that impractical morality (cf. Del Boy and Rodney) is no morality.

Ghana represented your Savant’s introduction to Africa and was, to say the least, and eye-opener. Many was the lesson I learned, but the most important was this. Apart from the odd exception, Africans don’t give a fuck about the broader community, and will unhesitatingly exploit everyone and everything outside their own narrow circle. Achieving power is simply a means to acquiring, and holding onto, wealth. As I've shown in other posts, there are others reasons also to explain the failure of Africa.

The only solution is to stop all aid, let the various wars continue, and don’t offer any assistance on AIDS. This is the natural and Darwinian was to getting them to sort themselves out. It’s called tough love - just like when you stop providing your beloved drug-addicted child with money to feed their habit. Bring on the cleansing hellfire! Site feed

FOREIGN AID FOR US PRISONERS

Fri, 12 Jan 2008 16:29:00 GMT

posted by indefenseofamerica
OK before you dismiss this notion offhand - hear me out. According to a recent CRS report for Congress titled "Foreign Aid Reform: Issues for Congress and Policy Options" dated November 7th 2007 it was stated in the section headed CURRENT FUNDING as follows: - "Since the evens of 9/11 amounts requested and approved by Congress for Foreign Assistance have steadily increased. The Foreign Operations budget request for FY2008 totals $24.4 Billion in Foreign Assistance programs, representing a 12% increase from the previous years enacted level of $21.7 Billion excluding FY2007 Supplemental funds. This level of increase is the largest within the Budget requests government-wide. The proposed level for FY2008 represents 1.2% of the total US Budget" Now - I ask you my friends, exactly what are we - the charitable people of the United States getting for this large outpouring of our tax dollars?? Can someone please answer me that question? Is it the love and loyalty of our allies? Is it the respect and admiration of the United Nations? The International Red Cross??

Alright - I'll come back to my thoughts on US Foreign Aid policy in a minute as I turn to a brief discussion concerning the US Prison population. We are all familiar, at least I would think we are, that it seems one of the new US business cores is the building of new prisons. Yet, we still hear how overcrowed they are. Just the other day I was amused to hear about various states attempting to alleviate overcrowding by "deporting" prisoners who happen to be illegal aliens. It appears the prison systems and in turn the state governments can save the taxpayers millions by this practice. At an average of $20,000 per day that it costs to house your average run of the mill inmate, savings can accrue in quick order.
This leads me to why I brought up our US Foreign Aid policy. It seems to me that since we provide various countries with so much in the way of US dollars and other Aid that an exchange program should be initiated. This program would provide so much foreign aid, but these countries would also have to accept certain sections of our prison population. By "certain section" I mean those who are already serving several life sentences, are known sociopaths in which it has already been determined that they are not to see the light of day ect., My point is - ship these incorrigibles out and save the taxpayers a ton of money. They would reside in the prisons of another country, and they could sue their new prison overseers when their soup was cold, their was no TV, or their exercise time was cut short, until they were blue in the face.

One more thing - to Hell with the ACLU - these prisoners have lost any rights they may have had.

It is utterly amazing to me that our Supreme Court is agonizing if a needle prick is cruel and unusual on a murderer who hacked someone to death - go figure!!!

-PA CitizenPA citizen is a writer for In Defense of America.

Welcome to our blog about United States Agency for International Development

Wed, 24 Aug 2006 19:32:23 GMT

posted by The_Zimbio_Team
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Help Your Own Country First Laura Bush!

Mon, 26 Jun 2007 21:55:41 GMT

posted by webduck
I have not, and will never, understand the concept of helping other countries with health care (yeah, yeah, it is the humanitarian thing to do) when so many people in our country could certainly use...

What is "webduck" up to today? A rant, or a rave? An article about fibromyalgia survival perhaps, or tips on how to effectively research your family tree; She writes about anything that is family friendly.

For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!

Wed, 7 Jun 2007 10:36:00 GMT

posted by gamasutra

The Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati, 35, says that aid to Africa does more harm than good. The avid proponent of globalization spoke with SPIEGEL about the disastrous effects of Western development policy in Africa, corrupt rulers, and the tendency to overstate the AIDS problem.