Is Aid killing Africa

Long Onion

Read an article yesterday in which a number of African economists were arguing that a constant stream of foreign aid is actually destroying the continent and that the best way to help is to withdraw financial support completely.

Found it interesting to be honest, what do you reckon?


P.S. (I didn't forget to add an 's' after 'Aid' - smartass:))

MagicMarker

Who's Aid?

P.S. I'm a smartass.

Bottle_of_Smoke

Got a link? Was looking for something to say to concern chuggers actually.

Riamfada

Ive been trying to get Aid stopped for years

aido179

i do my best

Cookie_Monster

Long Onion wrote: »

Read an article yesterday in which a number of African economists were arguing that a constant stream of foreign aid is actually destroying the continent and that the best way to help is to withdraw financial support completely.

Found it interesting to be honest, what do you reckon?


P.S. (I didn't forget to add an 's' after 'Aid' - smartass:))

Aid in the sense of food rations or cash is in a way pointless.

Aid in the way of education or development projects should be encouranged.

As the saying goes:

"Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach him to fish and he'll eat for life"

MagicMarker

I think withdrawing financial aid would be a good idea, so long as the current debt is wiped clean.

aido179

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

"Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach him to fish and he'll eat for life"

dont see how you can fish in a desert drought

twinytwo

Long Onion wrote: »

Read an article yesterday in which a number of African economists were arguing that a constant stream of foreign aid is actually destroying the continent and that the best way to help is to withdraw financial support completely.

Found it interesting to be honest, what do you reckon?


P.S. (I didn't forget to add an 's' after 'Aid' - smartass:))

Africa is cooked with or without aid... with guys like mugabe in power it never stands a chance

Lardy Carl

Long Onion wrote: »

Read an article yesterday in which a number of Africans were arguing

FYP

Cookie_Monster

aido179 wrote: »

dont see how you can fish in a desert drought

Obviously no one ever taught you to fish so!

994

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Aid in the sense of food rations or cash is in a way pointless.

Aid in the way of education or development projects should be encouranged.

As the saying goes:

"Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach him to fish and he'll eat for life"

More like, "give a thousand men a fish, and you destroy the local fishing industry".

biko

Stop the exploitation by Shell, de Beers and similar.
Many African countries are very rich in resources but still very poor - where does the money go?

We keep them starving and grateful. Just let them keep and use their own resources.

Bandit12

Yes aid is killing africa and has been for years. I've argued this point with friend's/family on several occasions and have even been called a "racist":rolleyes: for advocating aid withdrawal to african nations. Sooner or later they will have to learn that the only way to help themselves is to help themselves.

Gone Drinking

AID isn't, but AIDS is making a dent

Cookie_Monster

1. Stop giving aid

2. they all die out from starvation/war/disease

3. ???

4. Profit

Bandit12

"Yes we can"

Wompa1

Doesn't Africa have a big Aids problem..why would you want to make it worse?

But on a more serious point..didn't alot of the Live Aid money go to militias? A local priest near to where I grew up became a missionary in Uganda and said the majority of charity money doesn't see the people that need it. GOAL are suppose to be good.

From a goverment view...sure whatever...

Biggins

aido179 wrote: »

dont see how you can fish in a desert drought

...but they can farm instead by the use of Hydroponics. Here
A mad example of this is the Japanese bank with a farm under it! HERE

Give them the knowledge, not just the money and its a good start too.

Wompa1

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

1. Stop giving aid

2. they all die out from starvation/war/disease

3. ???

4. Profit

HEY WHAT'S STAGE 3!!?......UGHHHH STEP 4 IS PROFIT!

Cookie_Monster

Wompa1 wrote: »

HEY WHAT'S STAGE 3!!?......UGHHHH STEP 4 IS PROFIT!

:rolleyes:

genericguy

I think we should stop giving aid, cancel their debt, and then forget about them.

Everything we give them, they use to finance war. Plus, regardless of how much help they receive, africans always gravitate towards evil dictators, electing them in time after time then begging for help from the west.

We should help them build an electric fence around the whole continent and then leave them to it. In about 15,000 years they should be civilised, then we'll talk.

KerranJast

The main problem I see is Aid is used to prop up populations in terrible areas for human development. If there's continual drought in a region that prevents farming thats natures way of natural selection. The population should migrate to better areas not rely on handouts to survive.

Long Onion

http://www.thepost.ie/agenda/continental-divide-43565.html

Here's the link to the article. It's food for thought I reckon and one of the points brought up is this;

‘‘Aid dependence has been a big problem for the past 30 years; one of its manifestations is that for many African governments, the most important revenue channel they have is aid from donor communities," Erixon says.

‘‘The easiest way for a developing country to increase revenue is to get the donor communities to distribute more resources there, and that means that your chief priority as a government is towards other governments, and not towards your own population. This is not only a democratic problem, but also one that leads to skewed economic policies."

Glennie agrees. ‘‘When the vast amount of your budget arrives from outside the country, you become accountable not to your own people, but to the donor countries. And if the majority of a country’s income does not come from within, then it is hard to put in place all those checks and balances that democracies need."

prinz

twinytwo wrote: »

Africa is cooked with or without aid... with guys like mugabe in power it never stands a chance

Magnus wrote: »

Many African countries are very rich in resources but still very poor - where does the money go?
We keep them starving and grateful. Just let them keep and use their own resources.

See above. A large proportion of aid, in food etc, and money never filters down to the people who need it. It gets skimmed at every level. Bribes, protection money etc. It was interesting to note that at one stage Ethiopia was spending something like $1,000,000 per day on weapons and armaments for it's war with Eritrea, yet relies on foreign aid for food and basic supplies. The resources are there. I also saw an article once by I think it was an engineer with Krupps or one of the other big firms like that about hydroelectric power, who said by properly utilising the natural resources in the Congo alone, the entire continent of Africa could be supplied with electricity.

The biggest problem in Africa is Africans, this only applies to sub-Saharan Africa for the most part. You can't help someone who has no interest in helping themselves. Obviously this does not apply to refugee camps or droughts etc, but I have talked to people who have done work in Africa and they're fighting a constant losing battle, one man was over building houses in a village and training people in trades, tailor, mechanic etc, and when he returned sometime later everything was gone. The houses built had been stripped down and all the materials sold, tiles, bricks etc, the 'tailor' had sold his sewing machine to buy a machete, or the mechanic had upped and left town etc etc. Basically a year of work and training had taken a few months to be undone and the town was back to square one.This was in a productive part of Africa too, with lots of crops and no problems so it wasn't an excuse of starving, or needing to do it. The people just weren't interested. Unless they have someone there directing them and instructing them it won't happen. It's no coincidence that many African nations were far better off under colonial rule, because they actually got things done. And before any jumps in shouting racism and white rule, in many of the colonial nations the civil service, and administration work was done by locals.

Long Onion

MagicMarker wrote: »

Who's Aid?

P.S. I'm a smartass.

He was one half of bottom and yes, yes you are ...

orourkeda

Aid is killing us.

Aids is killing Africa.

Agamemnon

Aid will only work if it's kept out of the hands of cretins who'll spend it on assault rifles and landmines but, as said above, that's extremely difficult to do in the long term.

Bear in mind as well that not every African country is the same and countries like Botswana are doing relatively well.

waraf

prinz wrote: »

See above. A large proportion of aid, in food etc, and money never filters down to the people who need it. It gets skimmed at every level. Bribes, protection money etc. It was interesting to note that at one stage Ethiopia was spending something like $1,000,000 per day on weapons and armaments for it's war with Eritrea, yet relies on foreign aid for food and basic supplies. The resources are there. I also saw an article once by I think it was an engineer with Krupps or one of the other big firms like that about hydroelectric power, who said by properly utilising the natural resources in the Congo alone, the entire continent of Africa could be supplied with electricity.

The biggest problem in Africa is Africans, this only applies to sub-Saharan Africa for the most part. You can't help someone who has no interest in helping themselves. Obviously this does not apply to refugee camps or droughts etc, but I have talked to people who have done work in Africa and they're fighting a constant losing battle, one man was over building houses in a village and training people in trades, tailor, mechanic etc, and when he returned sometime later everything was gone. The houses built had been stripped down and all the materials sold, tiles, bricks etc, the 'tailor' had sold his sewing machine to buy a machete, or the mechanic had upped and left town etc etc. Basically a year of work and training had taken a few months to be undone and the town was back to square one.This was in a productive part of Africa too, with lots of crops and no problems so it wasn't an excuse of starving, or needing to do it. The people just weren't interested. Unless they have someone there directing them and instructing them it won't happen. It's no coincidence that many African nations were far better off under colonial rule, because they actually got things done. And before any jumps in shouting racism and white rule, in many of the colonial nations the civil service, and administration work was done by locals.

Wow you really need to do some homework. Try reading The State of Africa by Martin Meredith or if you're looking for some info specifically on DRC (Congo) try reading Blood River by Tim Butcher.
One of the questions you failed to ask was who was funding the war in Ethiopia. I think you'll find a large amount of Chinese weapons and money is involved in many conflicts in sub Saharan Africa. Also your statement that "The biggest problem in Africa is Africans" is plain insulting. What I hope you meant to say was "The biggest problem in Africa is crime/corruption" which stems from a lack of stable governments and a lack fo education of the general public.

waraf

Agamemnon wrote: »

Aid will only work if it's kept out of the hands of cretins who'll spend it on assault rifles and landmines but, as said above, that's extremely difficult to do in the long term.

Bear in mind as well that not every African country is the same and countries like Botswana are doing relatively well.

If you want to see how foreign aid is being squandered you only have to look as far the UN. The money wasted on bureaucracy by the UN is an absolute disgrace.

walshb

Aid is needed, but it's the incessant western interference that is killing Africa.
They not only want to give aid, they want to dominate and take over. Africans'
need to be in charge of their destiny, helped alright, but from a distance.
Africa is a damn powerful continent, but it suits the west to continually
advertise it as a desolate hole with nothing. It keeps all these wetsern do gooders in the lime light, gives Bono and Geldof a pedestal and all the other so called charities a name for themselves