Yet another reason to get angry with Bill...

[Sasha Tsykin]

Derek Broughton wrote:
> Sasha Tsykin wrote:
> 
>> It seems to be unfair to hound the US like this. At least when the US
>> gives aid, there is a good chance of it not being squandered. 
> 
> hmmm.  I'd say there is "a chance".  Not "good".  
> 
better than what other nations are doing, and this policy is relatively 
new, so it has to take time to develop, however it is very promising.
>> Why bother 
>> to give aid if the money will just go into the pockets of the local
>> dictator. 
> 
> And the US has had a pretty good record of giving aid _directly_ to the
> local dictator - not that that makes them any different from most other
> governments.
> 
like I said, the policy is new. A year ago all this criticism would have 
been justified, but now we'll just ahve to wait and see if it actually 
proves effective at chanelling the money to where its needed before we 
start judging the US again.
>> Lets be realistic, stop shoving around the GDP and GNI 
>> statistics, and start concentrating of how much that aid actually buys.
>> I think the figures will tell quite a different story then.
> 
> Yes.
The sould of fair criticism is the concept that everybody will be 
criticised for the same thing. The US gets around the same amount of 
money to developing countries as the european nations once it is taken 
into account that most of the aid Europe gives does not get to where its 
needed. There is no developed nation in the entire world which gives 
enough aid, and that is fair balanced criticism of us all, however, the 
US should not receive such a huge proportion of the criticism, or else 
it loses credibility and turns into America bashing.

Sasha