statistic) of the money went back to Beltway Bandits (consulting
firms), NGOs and American manufacturers (Buy America policy) leaving
behind burned out Land cruisers & paper reports - but little or no
"Development or Self-Sustaining Economies, nor lifting people from
poverty into the Middleclass - and it was never meant to. Foreign aid
has little or nothing to do with development, It is good business for
host country Beltway Bandits & consulting firms as noted, and for
donor country manufacturers in America, Germany or wherever the donor
comes from. Idi will remember us having to use very dangerous
Chevrolet Blazers in really bad back roads - so dangerous that
eventually we were able to purchase Land cruisers locally. Foreign
aid is also used to provide "Learn to Love America/Germany/donor trips
for political elites, fund workshop after workshop - per diem trips
for many functionaries making more going to workshops than they earn
as government workers - I have seen instances of a
functionaire/bureaucrat being on per diem trips more than in his
office doing government work - becomes a way of earning a living and
makes him very open to being manipulated by donor politics - such as
creating more parks/exclusion zones, shutting down hunting, allowing
mining, petroleum or logging companies to come in take out a lot and
pay very little - etc.. It is also used to buy allegiance and create
dependency - not economies - to assure the vote of the host country in
the UN, allowing foreign military forces to operate within its
boundaries (e.g., French, British & Americans in Africa) or to keep
others out (when I lived in Senegal - there were virtually no Russians
- lots of French & Americans - one Aeroflot flight a month into Dakar
to exchange commercial fishing fleets - that I also believe a % served
as spy vessels - from personal experience - but that is another story
for another day). Yes there are some good sides to foreign aid - some
people are sent abroad to study - but then there is Cherry Picking -
where the best and brightest are allowed to stay in the donor country
if they wish - the "Brain Drain" - Today one in three (33%) African
university graduates works abroad, many educated with Western donor
funding. There are approximately 640,000 African professionals in the
U.S., with over 360,000 having PhDs. Southern Africa knows how Great
Britain lets their countries train nurses and then steal them away
with big salaries. Foreign aid may also provide a few boreholes, some
health inputs - but I have not seen foreign aid generate sustainable
economies - as Idi says - "trade not aid" is needed and not in raw but
in transformed products so Africa gets "Added Value" - and so far
except in South Africa, some in Namibia and in the past in Zimbabwe -
I have not seen much of this happening.
Regards
Andre
--
Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear
of punishment and hope of reward after death." --
Albert Einstein !!!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/22151765/History-of-Pakistan-Army-from-1757-to-1971
http://www.scribd.com/doc/21686885/TALIBAN-WAR-IN-AFGHANISTAN
http://www.scribd.com/doc/22455178/Letters-to-Command-and-Staff-College-Quetta-Citadel-Journal
http://www.scribd.com/doc/23150027/Pakistan-Army-through-eyes-of-Pakistani-Generals
http://www.scribd.com/doc/23701412/War-of-Independence-of-1857
http://www.scribd.com/doc/22457862/Pakistan-Army-Journal-The-Citadel
http://www.scribd.com/doc/21952758/1971-India-Pakistan-War
http://www.scribd.com/doc/25171703/BOOK-REVIEWS-BY-AGHA-H-AMIN
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