The Read International Midday News Thread For 11/24/08: The PitFalls Of Africa's Aid Addiction

Photo from BBC.com

In today's "TRI" thread, another great piece of journalism from the BBC today is offered. This is surly a "must read", and if it wasn't up to that standard, than it certainly wouldn't be apart of The Read nor The Read International.

A real question is asked here, setting the stage for a fascinating article for both an eye opening article and a fascinating special documentary titled "Panorama:Addicted To Aid" on the BBC tonight:

Over the last 50 years Western governments have paid more than £400bn in aid to Africa. But according to figures from the World Bank, half of sub-Saharan Africans still live in extreme poverty. Why has so much assistance had so little impact?

It is a vital question to answer, though the end result will both infuriate you (unless you already understand what the hell has been happening here in that continent).

It certainly saddens and frustrates Sorious Samara, the correspondent and West African native of this gut-wrenching piece:

People often say a nation gets the government it deserves. And we Africans have certainly made some bad choices in terms of leaders, but all too often Western aid has ended up bankrolling them.

Aid has offered legitimacy to corrupt and autocratic regimes, allowing them to hang on to power even when they have lost popularity with their own citizens.

And if I said gut-wrenching before, then I can only struggle to describe this one, for it really hits the soul:

While I was filming in Uganda, local newspaper editor Andrew Mwenda took me and my crew to his home village near the town of Port Loco in the west of the country. There he introduced us to two men, one in his sixties and one aged 26.

"This man represents the tragedy of aid," he said pointing to the older of the two. "While this man represents the potential of aid," he said indicating the younger man.

Mr Mwenda explained that the sexagenarian was the chairman of the local parish council who had spent most of his life living off aid money, supervising projects meant to benefit the community.

Today he is an alcoholic who still lives with his mother.

This article will make you think twice about all that "aid" getting sent to Africa, and how it is really only benefiting the affluent and powerful instead of the deeply impoverished and demoralized.

Other reports from the BBC:
1. This Somali pirate story continues to get more bizarre by the day.
2. Once again, no one here in America talks about Jimmy Carter's humanitarian efforts. Today, Zimbabwe's crisis is what's on his mind, and he ventures off to South Africa.

From the CBC:
1. As Obama is trying to plan on giving the rich a fair tax here, Gordon Brown is doing it across the pond.
2. An additional day has been booked for NASA's Endeavour's mission.

And from Al Jazeera:
1. Israel allows limited aid to Gaza at the moment.
2. Another bombing, and another set of killings today in Baghdad. Sad.
3. Venezuela's election results sees happiness from Chavez, while Mahmoud Abbas became the official President today of the PLO.

The Read International. The Delivery wouldn't be whole without it.