MUScoop
MUScoop => The Superbar => Topic started by: mu_hilltopper on June 07, 2007, 09:39:54 AM
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I found this article to be very interesting .. different perspective on aid to the African countries & AIDS as big business.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,363663,00.html
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Very interesting article and one I am inclined to mostly agree with. I spent 3 weeks in Niger during the summer of 94 and it was an eye-opening experience. I went through a few of the markets that the article talks about and I can confirm that I saw green bay packer jerseys and the like for sale at astonishingly low prices. It was also clear that one of the biggest "industries" there was begging.
On the other hand, I don't necessarily agree that we should terminate aid completely. Rather, I feel we should alter the form of the aid. The old adage of "give the man a fish and he'll be full for a day, teach the man to fish and he'll be full for life" applies here. If developed countries want to provide aid, instead of giving them corn or other consumer products, they should teach them how to make the products themselves and/or provide incentives for companies that make those products to establish factories in the country being aided (hiring the local people of that country to work the factories and producing goods for the local people of that country).
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Very interesting article and one I am inclined to mostly agree with. I spent 3 weeks in Niger during the summer of 94 and it was an eye-opening experience. I went through a few of the markets that the article talks about and I can confirm that I saw green bay packer jerseys and the like for sale at astonishingly low prices. It was also clear that one of the biggest "industries" there was begging.
On the other hand, I don't necessarily agree that we should terminate aid completely. Rather, I feel we should alter the form of the aid. The old adage of "give the man a fish and he'll be full for a day, teach the man to fish and he'll be full for life" applies here. If developed countries want to provide aid, instead of giving them corn or other consumer products, they should teach them how to make the products themselves and/or provide incentives for companies that make those products to establish factories in the country being aided (hiring the local people of that country to work the factories and producing goods for the local people of that country).
On the surface this sounds like a great and logical idea. Unfortunately, the American farm lobby won't stand for it. Selling crops to the U.S. government for delivery abraod, particularly Africa, is huge business for the agricultural industry, business they won't let go without a fight. And, politically speaking, it's hard for a member of Congress - even from urban districts - to argue against supporting the American farmer.
A couple years back the Bush administration backed a program that would have used about a quarter of the money now spent to send American farm products to Africa to instead buy the crops in Africa. It made sense: build the African economy, create jobs there and get food to the people who need it much cheaper (drastically reduced shipping costs, for one) and much faster. The farm lobby killed that plan in 2005 and again in 2006. Bush is trying again this year, but the results will probably be the same.
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True.. but imagine that if the corn based E-85 business takes off more at about the same time. The farmers will still have a buyer for their product (albeit a different one). We would also probably have enough demand that we could consider reducing the subsidies we pay them to not grow a portion of their crops.
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I found this article to be very interesting .. different perspective on aid to the African countries & AIDS as big business.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,363663,00.html
The same can be said within the US with all of the entitlement programs. If you gov't becomes the teat, then people will suck at it. Nothing new.
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you know, Spiral, I always thought the old adage is..."give a guest a beer and he'll drink for 5 minutes, but show him where the beer is, and he'll drink all day."
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you know, Spiral, I always thought the old adage is..."give a guest a beer and he'll drink for 5 minutes, but show him where the beer is, and he'll drink all day."
that is true as well but these are lifelong drunks we're trying to foster :D geesh.. any less and we'll have failed.