another article for the school newspaper...

“More and better aid.” That was the first point of a campaign that shook the world this July. Live 8 concerts urged the public to create pressure on their governments to contribute more funds to helping the poorest of the poor. But are they really helping?

New Zealand economist Jim Peron does not think so at all. He criticises the West for believing that money is the answer by comparing foreign aid to welfare:”When you pay people to be dysfunctional the amount of dysfunctionality will increase.”

In the 1950s, Africa was exporting food. In the 1970s, it started to decline and foreign aid began to pour in. It is now considered the poorest continent in the world. Financial or food aid rarely results in any good. Corrupted governments or dictators use aid money for war and social reform resulting in even more hunger. If that’s what brought the money in the first place, why not?

In countries where food aid is indeed distributed to the poor, local farmers fall into poverty because they are unable to compete with the low prices of UN-subsidized World Food Program. Not enough crops are produced, economy suffers, and the sadistic cycle continues. But why should anyone worry? The west is full of charities and individuals striving to fulfil their duty to compassion and provide the next shipment of aid.

Even compassion laced with the best of intents can be out of place. In the words of the Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati, Africans have to help themselves. In a world where no help was given, African countries would be forced to examine their policies and renew trade amongst themselves. The continent is far richer in natural resources than media portrays it. “There's a sense that Africa would go under without development aid. But believe me, Africa existed before you Europeans came along. And we didn't do all that poorly either.” Shikwati also cites results of the downpour of clothing donations: “In 1997, 137,000 workers were employed in Nigeria's textile industry. By 2003, the figure had dropped to 57,000.” This is the result of the Westerners’ struggle for a clean conscience.

According to the Make Poverty History website, 50,000 people still die every day from poverty-related causes. The estimates are that 201,331 people are born every day. The unfortunate fact is that there is still only one Earth. If the rich people of the industrialized countries want to deliver the poor from poverty, they have to lower their own standard of living. Equality is not a one-way deal, and aid is sometimes not as beneficial as it seems.


Sources
www.makepovertyhistory.ca
www.liberalvalues.org.nz, “Journals”, “Jim Peron”
service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,363663,00.html
www.live8live.com
www.geohive.com