[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by LeatherTrumpet

Interesting article here about how giving money to poor people in Africa
(Aid or Comic Relief)

"Recognising that poor countries are poor because they have extractive institutions helps us understand how best to help them. It also casts a different light on the idea of foreign aid. We do not argue for its reduction. Even if a huge amount of aid is siphoned off by the powerful, the cash can still do a lot of good. It can put roofs on schools, lay roads or build wells. Giving money can feed the hungry, and help the sick — but it does not free people from the institutions that make them hungry and sick in the first place.

It doesn’t free them from the system which saps their opportunities and incentives. When aid is given to governments that preside over extractive institutions, it can be at best irrelevant, at worst downright counter-productive. Aid to Angola, for example, is likely to help the president’s daughter rather than the average citizen."

http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/...why-aid-fails/


we send around 2.3 Billion to Africa each year in aid

I do understand that argument, I truly do but I just think that stopping aid from going there is going to result in the poorest of the poor starving to death on the streets because their governments don't give a **** about them