Read this article about how U.S. aid for Africa may actually be hurting local African farmers . . .
Sunday, September 09, 2007
U.S. Food Aid for Africa: Helping or Hurting
Read this article about how U.S. aid for Africa may actually be hurting local African farmers . . .
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6 comments:
I'm kind of hurt buy this article. I know that the system in place is on some level hurting the domestic farms in Kenya, but those farms would not be there and honestly doubt they would stay id we pulled back support. But if they say they dont need it, well then we should pull back on it and keep our grain and send it else where. Im all for helping Africa, but i guess the way the article was worded, it made them sound unthankful and upset...I would just hate to see people starve to death. But they know their business over there, I mean look how well things have been going in the past 10 years, just excellent! : ) What do i know?
Kelly, I see what you're saying. IMHO, I think giving even one more red cent for Africa right now is morally wrong. Here's why: While it is true that a small portion of the money/aid we send there does save the lives of childern, the vast majority of it ends up creating more corruption which gives these governments more power to use starvation as a tool to keep the people in line. The way it seems now is that for every one child that is saved a dozen more are doomed to starvation in the near future because we have empowered the corrupt. I hate to think of even one more child dying of starvation over there, but I hate even more to think that our well-intentioned aid is going to cause even more to die. I'm sure some of us have read about the infamous UNOSOM campaign in Somalia back in '93 against Gen. Aidid. It just collasped.
I heard an interview with Bono the other day where he said something to the effect of "the problem in Africa isn't drought or starvation or HIV, it's corruption." For once, I think he is absolutely right. We are not responsible for dragging Africa into the 21st century. We are responsible for Afghanistan and Iraq because we put ourselves there, but not the continent of Africa.
If my neighbor asked me for money to feed his family, I would give it to him. If I heard him call me a piece of crap, I would stop.
I think that giving aid to Africa is hurting the continent as a whole. Through out history people have wanted to help the "uncivilized dark continent" If people would let them set up there own style of government an stabalize their own economy them i think they would be successful. A lot of the money and aid goes mostly to the ruler who is corrupt. My parents always tell me stories of corruption in Nigeria of how the government would always steal away money from the governemt and hoard it for themselves.
They only need good leaders and then they wil be succeed. It will take a while though. The United States is a great example of how a former colony became a megapower. We should not treat the African countries like babies we should let them grow and make mistakes so that they too can flourish.
The U.S. (and particularly the U.S. government) has no buisness meddling in affairs in Africa unless asked for and there is a way to give direct aid to the people, not just to corrupt governments who take advantage of American generosity. As for the amount and type of food aid being determined by shipping and agricultural business interests, prosperous Americans who suffer if they don't have a TV cannot perfectly understand what people on the other side of the globe need. If charity is going to be given, it needs to be from people who have actually been there and experienced the "situation" first hand and who respect the African people.
While throwing money at Africa makes the U.S. look charitable and a "good guy" to the world (particularly to Europeans), it does more harm than good, demeaning Africans as members of humanity and stunting potential growth and development. This reminds me of that Chinese proverb: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
The major point is the while people believe that always being a good and charitable person is the best thing, in reality, the world is not and assisting somebody in a certain way often does more harm than good. Villages and areas in Africa that are recieving assistance in the form of food should only be getting that food if they are able to sustain themselves after a famine or another event. If the village is prone to famine or they are simply unable to sustain themselves, logically, there shouldn't be anybody living there in the first place and by providing food to a village that will never sustain itself, you are prolonging misery as that food will have to stop someday. Another major problem with the donation of any food really is the central problem of corruption. Much of the money and goods donated have the capacity to become intercepted by tribal warlords and used to fund their campaigns. Either that, or the governments in Africa, which often lack efficeny and are sometimes corrupt, will inadequately distribute food or even sell food for profit. There is recorded video in North Korea for example, of rice from the United Nations (Bags of rice with a huge UN logo visable right on the bag) being sold for profit on the streets when it should be equally distributed for free.
The idea of not helping Africans is just stupid, but the way in which we're "helping" them is also pretty stupid. Simply handing food over to Africans does nothing but provide a temporary remedy, so the charity organizations are actually Africans by destroying their permanent ways of making food and instead dropping off food at villages every few months. Think of it this way: a person can have asthma, which can be treated with an inhaler whenever they have trouble breathing, but if they were to choose between using an inhaler and actually getting their asthma cured, which do you think they would choose? If people want to help Africa, they need to actually put forth some effort and improve their farming systems rather than destroy them. Send people there to help farmers by planting crops and increasing livestock instead of having planes drop off canned goods.
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