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Wednesday, August 6. 2014

Is Africa fed up with foreign aid?

It sounds as if many Africans are. Video.


Related: White Messiah Complex - Why do liberal interventionists think the Third World needs them?



 Why do we find more moral gratification in having good intentions than in producing good outcomes? Why do we accept mere symbols of being good—the Facebook photo with the orphan, the public diplomatic démarche, the battleship steaming toward the Oppressor—as evidence of good outcomes, or even as good outcomes in themselves?



It's called "moral narcissism" but some would term it "moral imperialism" or "cultural imperialism." Kipling had the last word on that topic.



Posted by The Barrister in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects, Our Essays at 13:04 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)

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Great video! I'm heartened that even a lefty like Bono has finally realized that entrepreneurial capitalism is the solution but aid is only a stop gap.

Besides the rampant corruption (that could be partially fed by our aid) Africa has other systemic problems. The cheapest way to move goods is over water but Africa has few natural ports and fewer navigable rivers. These things can be overcome but it is a significant impediment.
#1 mudbug on 2014-08-06 14:02 (Reply)
The strategy advocated should be applied right here at home.
#2 tljhound on 2014-08-06 18:22 (Reply)
The issue comes down to do you want to see 100's or even 1000's of starving children on TV or would you prefer to see 10,000's or even 100,000's starving on TV. Every time we (the world) go into Africa and "save" them from these cyclical or political food or health crises the result is they produce enough children to exceed the new food capacity and now instead of a few thousand starving children there are tens of thousands of starving children. The bottom line is we aren't "helping" them we are enabling them. Leave them alone! Eventually the survivors will be the smarter or stronger ones and they will learn/remember how to take care of themselves. Helping them is like feeding feral cats; it may make you feel that you are doing good but you are only making everything worse.
#3 GoneWithTheWind on 2014-08-06 19:42 (Reply)

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