Economist Blames Aid for Africa Famine

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Pull yourself by your bootstraps conservatism at its finest

By TODD PITMAN, Associated Press Writer
37 minutes ago



DAKAR, Senegal - In Niger, a desert country twice the size of Texas, most of the 11 million people live on a dollar a day. Forty percent of children are underfed, and one out of four dies before turning 5. And that's when things are normal. Throw in a plague of locusts, and a familiar spectacle emerges: skeletal babies, distended bellies, people too famished to brush the flies from their faces.

To the aid workers charged with saving the dying, the immediate challenge is to raise relief money and get supplies to the stricken areas. They leave it to the economists and politicians to come up with a lasting remedy. One such economist is James Shikwati. He blames foreign aid.

"When aid money keeps coming, all our policy-makers do is strategize on how to get more," said the Kenya-based director of the Inter Region Economic Network, an African think tank.

"They forget about getting their own people working to solve these very basic problems. In Africa, we look to outsiders to solve our problems, making the victim not take responsibility to change."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=5&u=/ap/20050730/ap_on_re_af/why_africa_goes_hungry

[Son of California]

1. A totally different perspective

thank you.
people need to learn to stand on their feet.
One of the running criticisms of Liberalism in general is that we think we can solve problems just by throwing money at them.
Maybe, Africa needs to learn to stand on its own.
To find peace on it's own.

[Benhurst]

3. Yeah, think of where Dubya Bush would be now if he hadn't

learned to stand on his own feet.

[SpiralHawk]

4. Bush pulled himself up by his own Skull & Bones connections

eom

[mbperrin]

2. OK, so let me get this straight - if we'd cut off all the aid, Africa

would be the land of milk and honey?

So if I quit sending tax dollars to the US government, our budget will balance?

"In Africa, we look to outsiders to solve our problems, making the victim not take responsibility to change."

Why should VICTIMS have to change? This is like in an area with large numbers of burglars, instead of catching the burglars, we tell those who have been robbed to DO something. If this isn't classic blame the victime, I never heard it.

He must be a member of the Ayn Rand Fan Club and Greater Decimation of the Planet Society.

[54anickel]

6. I think what he's trying to say (but does so rather poorly and there

ARE extenuating circumstances this time) is that the POLICY makers in Africa are not giving enough money and attention to prevention.

In a way, it is a valid point. We have aid workers helping to dig wells, but why didn't the gov't/policy makers step up to the plate to do that?

I so see SOME of his point. But you're right, the answer is not to pull the aid rug out from under them.

[Eugene]

5. His point is that crisis management is not a solution.

While Shikwati criticises bad governance and
dependence on foreign aid, he also cites other
structural problems that left Niger vulnerable
to famine. And when the crisis hit, the international
aid community was slow to act.

He also cites trade barriers that prevent African
countries from sharing food surplusses among themselves
while encouraging imports from Europe.
He goes on to say that Africa is progressing toward
reforms but there is more to to be done.
He also agrees with aid agencies that the
international community should focus more
on prevention.

[BlueStateModerate]

7. Economist Blames Aid for Africa Famine

<snip>
In Niger, a desert country twice the size of Texas, most of the 11 million people live on a dollar a day. Forty percent of children are underfed, and one out of four dies before turning 5. And that's when things are normal. Throw in a plague of locusts, and a familiar spectacle emerges: skeletal babies, distended bellies, people too famished to brush the flies from their faces.

To the aid workers charged with saving the dying, the immediate challenge is to raise relief money and get supplies to the stricken areas. They leave it to the economists and politicians to come up with a lasting remedy. One such economist is James Shikwati. He blames foreign aid.

"When aid money keeps coming, all our policy-makers do is strategize on how to get more," said the Kenya-based director of the Inter Region Economic Network, an African think tank.
</snip>
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050731/ap_on_re_af/why_africa_goes_hungry

[MisterP]

8. Niger is "neoliberal," hewing to the proper IMF rules and conditionalities

such as the Randroid line that aiding the poor and starving only hurts them: as a consequence thousands are dying and the Nigeriens poor are now being made to aid those with totally nothing: UNICEF totalled the current number of those in poverty due to modern globalization as 1 billion.

[Pystoff]

9. Seems more sadistic that African countries are aiding the problem

Trade tarrifs of 33% when most of these countries suffer from drought and plauges so often seem like one is waiting for the other to starve out for land grabs.