Should Aid to Africa be diminished?

Question

I've contributed to special causes before, volunteered and have tried to help. I do however wonder, if continuing to Aid African Nations is such a good Idea. Most African Nations have Ultra Corrupt Governments that pocket most of the Aid sent, also won't Aiding cause people to be dependant on receiving help rather than being self suffiecient.

Answer 1

To a point but we can't forget about things like AIDS education money and stuff like that.. what other countries do, directly affects us and if we don't take care of them and make sure they are receiving education and medical it WILL effect us... keep in mind that HIV did not start here... it was started by a very sexually active Canadian male stewardess ( or whatever the PC term is) who traveled around the world-no idea where he picked it up... we need education and good medical treatment in order for everyone to live together - there will always be problems but if we can nip things in the bud faster then it's better for all of us all the way around

Answer 2

This is a very difficult question. I think ultimately the governmental foreign aid we offer is nothing more than blood money such that the dictators and puppet governments in Africa remain friendly and leave Americans to pursue their interests. I think there are some good Governmental and NGO programs in Africa (like small business loans to African women, and AIDS education for the groups that are doing it intelligently) and we simply can't forget about them.

Answer 3

African countries don't get much cash aid, aside from loans from the African Development Bank and occasionally the World Bank and IDF, which they have to pay back.

What they do get lots of are feasibility studies that count as "aid" but are in fact payments to American firms to do studies that rarely lead to anything.

And emergency food aid -- excess American farm products sitting in warehouses in the USA and getting stale.

And condoms (until George W. Bush put a stop to that).

Most of the rest (old clothes, worthless broken and obsolete computers, toxic waste) comes from private companies and private charities.

Most of the money wasted by corrupt politicians comes from sale of oil and minerals.

The best site about worldwide corruption is http://www.transparency.org

ADDENDUM: tinkerbell24 says they should just "get a job"! Working for whom? For cultural reasons and because of population explosion, lack of education, etc., as well as corruption and the health problems of the tropics, there ARE NO JOBS! No investment. Just agriculture. But the USA and Europe SUBSIDIZE their agri-business and then dump the unwanted products -- cotton, corn, sugar, rice -- on Mexico and Africa. So Mexican farmworkers are out of work and try to go North; Africans are out of work and try to go ... North, to Europe.

Answer 4

This will piss somebody off, but I'm gonna say it anyway.

Why don't they do what we have to do every day of our lives? GET UP AND GET A FREAKIN' JOB!! Nobody is going to help you unless you help yourself. I absolutely hate it when I get a phone call asking me to donate to some charity that is only sticking the money in their own pockets.

I used to work for a fundraiser service, and did you know that only 6% of what we collected actually went to the charity? The other 94% went to the people who chaired the fundraisers.
Now, how lame is that? We give all this money, and they're still calling us to give more.

Answer 5

Yes it should. We have children over here in America that are much worse off than the african kids. Look at some of the southern towns and cities...the slums there are worse! I substitute taught in Alabama and there were kids in my classes who didn't have shoes, hadn't seen a doctor in over a year, were constantly sick, only got food at all if it was given to them by the school or one of their friends, etc. It's no better over here. We should help our OWN first.

Answer 6

Sounds just like the way I feel about illegal aliens from mexico stealing aid.....