Benefield, Alicia
February 14, 2013
INR3932-03
Paper 1
Why Foreign Aid is Hurting Africa
In this article Dambisa Moyo, is arguing that money, in the form of aid given to African nations has not only trapped many of these nations in debt, but has started a cycle of corruption as well as slowed down economic growth and poverty. To solve this isuue Moyo suggests cutting off the flow of aid to these African nations. Many developed countries will gladly give aid to Africa, these countries do not give small donations they donate by the millions. This continued donation of aid has only been putting Africa further in debt. What many do not realize is that aid is not given to Africa freely, the African nations receiving aid must pay this
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This is because the donations are being given with “no strings attached” so the funds are being used for everything except what they were meant for, development. Political elites are using these funds to finace their own expidentures as well as financing their families and home life. The other problem is countries like the U.S. Implementing programs like the U.S. Food for Peace program, which buys American food and ships it overseas to African nations. This program is not helpful, it is a hinderance to Africas economic growth. By supplying American food for free, the U.S. is putting African farmers out of business. Moyo suggests that instead of purchasing American food, they U.S. could purchase food from the African farmers to distribute to the African nations. Done this way the African farmers are benefitting from the program and are able to compete in the market.
The opinions presented in this article relate to many of the concepts we have touched on in this course; views on poverty, the development, as well as the international aid system. The article opens up stating “A month ago I visited Kiberam the larget slum in Africa” (Moyo, 2009). When we hear the word slum, we perceive a negative connotation and relate this term with a place in poverty. We can see the inequalities between developed and undeveloped nations, according to the article
Imperialism is defined as one country’s domination of the political, economic, and social life of another country. In Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, imperialism was present and growing. The main countries involved in the imperialism in Africa were the French, German, and Great Britain. The French’s empire was mainly in North and West Africa while Britain’s colonies were scattered throughout the continent. Germany ruled over such countries as Tanganyika, Togoland, and Cameroon, until their defeat in World War I.
JFK stated, the basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.
However, the aid has some drawbacks which include some of the policies not being practical and occasionally being too political which makes the targeted poor people more vulnerable. Also governments receiving the aid could be partial which can also result in uneven and biased distribution of the aid which doesn’t solve any problems.
Since the beginning of modern civilization, man has had a burning desire for land. European nations in particular are well known for being those of imperialists, the act of extending a nation’s power or economy through the process of acquiring land. The strive for power in Africa can be seen dating back to the late 18th century, and continued throughout the early 20th. Europeans practiced imperialism in Africa for several centuries for reasons including economic opportunities, national pride, and the interpreted moral responsibilities.
The actions of the developed nations were justified in regards to imperialism in Africa. Europe desired to gain not only more land, but more power. The Europeans nations and the United States took control over Asia, Africa, and South America. Taking over Africa had its negative effects but overall it was the most feasible and justifiable arrangement.
diplomacy or military force. In the 20th century many European countries attempted to colonize the great continent of Africa. Europeans saw Africa as an area they would be able to profit from, as it had a great climate, good size, and some phenomenal natural resources. While the Europeans divided the continent of Africa they failed to see the possible negative effects on themselves, and the indigenous people of Africa. Their foresight was limited to only the positive outcomes.
Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums, predicts the direction in which the world’s cities are headed, and how the changes in living conditions are only going to deteriorate if certain trends continue. The title of his book explains Davis’s vision for the future of cities as he feels there is enough evidence pointing towards an exponential rise in slum populations across the world’s largest cities. Additionally, he expresses his opinion on many issues regarding the rapid rise in developing cities’ slum populations, although he offers very one-sided arguments geared towards those who feel the current system is causing more problems rather than improving current conditions. This causes Davis to overlook the problems of slums as resolvable through different modes of assistance such as international aid programs. Instead, he views aid programs as the root cause of imbalance created during industrialization. Throughout the book, Davis presents information that confirms his preconceptions towards the slums. Therefore, all the evidence that is presented by him portrays confirmation bias as Davis fails to mention anything about the resolution of the problem of the growing number of slums and instead sees this problem as unavoidable. Particularly, Davis’ writing, although intended for the general population, is more geared towards critics who have similar ideas. Instead of providing the means through which the economy could be improved and the problem of slums could be resolved, it is
When people reflect on New Imperialism—the era when Europe colonized Europe—they recall the horrors perpetrated by France, England, and Belgium, and they are slow to forget the torture and the cruel injustice those countries labeled “progress.” However, no one seems quick to remembe rremember generous settlers who, like Mary Slessor , saved many childrens’children’s lives, and easily dismissed are the soldiers who prevented widowed women from being burned alive. Even though it may have had a large negative effect on much of Africa, New Imperialism also presented a positive impact as well; it welcomed an entire continent to international culture, put an end to the natives’ cruelty toward their own people, and, most importantly, furthered the work of the Lord.
Before we close, let’s get one thing straight: Albeit its inefficiencies, the current system does not make injections of money redundant. Development assistance is indeed an important stream of resources that can be employed more efficiently to prevent and treat
Poverty for centuries has been a very severe issue that has troubled many nations while impeding economic developments and progress. Poverty stricken countries are majorly concentrated in the continents of Africa and Asia. Continents like the Americas and Europe have globally been recognized as been wealthier yet still many parts of these ostensible countries face massive cases of poverty. Most at times, countries with high populations owing to high birth rates face the most cases of poverty. The definition of poverty can be boundless in the sense that poverty entails so many subsections as it sometimes gets complicated to group everything under one umbrella. Society tends to focus more on the tangible aspects of poverty because many people associate poverty with lacking money and it makes sense because poverty in terms of lacking money is a major problem affecting almost every country in the world. Even though it is debatable that poverty can be physical, intellectual, spiritual and even emotional, it is best to talk about the lack of money and economic developments in this essay. With reference to the oxford English Dictionary, poverty is state of being extremely poor and the state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount. Reflecting on this definition given, I deduced that malnutrition and hunger can define poverty. In the light of this, I think poverty is lacking a comfortable place of shelter, being ill and not having access to a better
Kiberia, Africa’s largest slums where one million people live, is an “eyesore” in the eyes of Kenya’s president Mwai Kibaki. The place is in an extremely bad sanitary condition, with horrible smell, unpaved narrow streets, mud shacks, rivers are being filled with sewage, and mountains of trash. This is an ideal image of developing-countries poverty in many westerners. Sara Candiracci, one of the members of United Nations Human Settlements Program, even has to utter, “It is not acceptable that Kibera exists.” Thus, the government and the United Nations join hands together to change this area through an experimental slum-upgrading program. This program is said to benefit and reshape
When it comes to poverty, there is the magnitude of definitions explaining the term. The definition of poverty has important implications from point of view of policy making, politics and academic debates. Each view has its own value judgments and explanations. Over the times, new definitions have surfaced the debates and yet, there is not a single universally acceptable definition of poverty. Definitions usually set the perimeters of the terminology and often subject to limitations and criticism. According to the definition of the World Bank, the term lack refers to the scarcity of economic resources while the term inability refers to the failure of competence to take part in a community (Bellu & Liberati, 2005). It is now widely
Some of the world’s poorest countries, with some of the highest child labor and illiteracy rates lie in Sub Saharan Africa. People generally associate the region only with poor economic conditions and all of the social disorder that goes along with 3rd World Status. While some of this reputation is deserved, many people are also failing to see the vast potential for this part of the world. There are several factors that African governments should look into if they want to effectively and efficiently revamp this areas quality of life. One way to do so is by improving the more crucial aspects to healthy functioning region, for example, allowing children to possess their natural rights to a decent education. This could influence an increase
Misused Money, Over $500 billion (U.S.) has been sent to African nations in the form of direct aid. The consensus is that the money has had little long term effect. In addition, most African nations have borrowed substantial sums of money. However, a large percentage of the money was either been invested in weapons (money that was spent back in developed nations and
Over the last 50 years, the world has struggled to maintain an economic balance and stability, while flourishing countries try to maintain a steady income to support its people and relations with other countries. Therefore, when a continent like Africa fails to maintain a stable government and economy, super powers such as America decide to intervene with its relations. Africa has great potential to become another pillar of the world’s economic structure with its mass amounts of uncultivated land. Unfortunately, corruption and irresponsible governments hinder that progress. Foreign aid while helpful should be limited to a yearly amount because it allows the government to repudiate responsibility and gives room for corruption; it creates a