I think I have been entertaining you long enough, haven’t I? For seven weeks now, I have stayed away from serious topics like hunger, poverty, development aid and politics in general. But now I have caught you attention, have lured you here with funny stories in which I have ridiculed myself and others, now, I will abuse this situation by talking to you about development aid.
The fact that I haven’t given my opinion on that topic during the first seven weeks, has not only to do with this cunning strategy of mine; it’s also because I didn’t want to jump to conclusions. I wanted to allow myself to form a real opinion. But now, I feel like I’m starting to get a grip on things, and I have arrived at the pointed that I can give you an, at least preliminary, conclusion.
Poverty is sad, hunger is bad. Not that I see much of that. It is not like people are dying on the street here, or that skeleton-like children pass you by. I know that that is the image most people have of Africa: that it is a continent where everyone lives in huts in small villages, being hungry and covered with flies all the time. Africa is either jungle, or desert, but above all, misery, isn’t it? We can thank the Oxfam’s in this world, ánd our national television, for spreading ideas like that.
But even if I don’t see it much, I know it’s there. It feels wrong that we live in a world in which welfare is distributed unequally. And for some reason, a lot of people seem to think that it is alright that in Africa, a lot of people suffer from malnutrition, diseases, etc., while in Europe this would be unacceptable. Even though we are all human, some people are a bit more human than others: I’m not sure where the invisible border between humans and this lesser sort of humans lies for those people. For me, there is no border. We are all humans, all part of the same planet, even though nationalist politicians try to make us believe that national borders are holy and magical. They’re not. They’re just thought up one day by a bunch of guys a few ages ago, and in most of the world outside western Europe, they make no sense at all.
But what should we do then? Transfer large amounts of money from Europe to Africa? I don’t think so. We are doing that now, and it definitely helps a bit to improve things around here. But it’s not really a long-term strategy. In fact, there is no long-term strategy now. Development aid has become completely focused on poverty reduction, because we can’t stand the idea of people dying, but helping the poor of today is not going to help making sure that there is less poverty tomorrow.
I think, that for real development aid, the kind that is an investment in the future, that is aimed at dealing with the problem in the most efficient way, we should toughen up, get much more business-like, admit that we cannot save everyone in this world from suffering, and draw up a big plan, with an exit strategy. Because now, development countries’ governments have no incentive to help the poor in their country. They don’t learn to make tough choices. There is no need to them to have a vision, because both policies and the money to finance those policies are provided by the donors. Developing countries are completely governed by their donor countries. Why pay 34 ministers (well, why indeed of course, but let’s not get into that now), if the only thing they do, and can do, is to sit into meetings with their donors, and agree to everything they say? Why bother with organizing democratic elections in these countries, if it’s all fake anyway?
And speaking of lack of vision: where is our vision concerning development aid? There is none. We are holding on to lifelines, giving just enough money to developing countries to prevent large-scale human catastrophes. We will continue to be doing so for the next decades, because it is not going to change anything in the long run. Our politicians don’t have the guts to break through the taboos concerning development aid, even though that would help to change the world for the better.
We are currently patronizing development countries to a shameful extent. While any parent will know that raising a child to become a responsible adult means letting go, stepping back, letting them make their own mistakes, and accepting that they will get hurt every now and then. When you truly care, there will come a point when you say: and now, it is up to you.
Thank you if you’re still reading this. Next time will be much more fun again, I promise. But I must warn you: there will be more blogs like this. Trying to figure out how to best save the world, and sharing my ideas on that with you, is very important to me. Please address any complaints you may have concerning that to my parents. It’s their fault: they raised me to become a responsible adult. And responsible adults, you know, have opinions of their own.
The fact that I haven’t given my opinion on that topic during the first seven weeks, has not only to do with this cunning strategy of mine; it’s also because I didn’t want to jump to conclusions. I wanted to allow myself to form a real opinion. But now, I feel like I’m starting to get a grip on things, and I have arrived at the pointed that I can give you an, at least preliminary, conclusion.
Poverty is sad, hunger is bad. Not that I see much of that. It is not like people are dying on the street here, or that skeleton-like children pass you by. I know that that is the image most people have of Africa: that it is a continent where everyone lives in huts in small villages, being hungry and covered with flies all the time. Africa is either jungle, or desert, but above all, misery, isn’t it? We can thank the Oxfam’s in this world, ánd our national television, for spreading ideas like that.
But even if I don’t see it much, I know it’s there. It feels wrong that we live in a world in which welfare is distributed unequally. And for some reason, a lot of people seem to think that it is alright that in Africa, a lot of people suffer from malnutrition, diseases, etc., while in Europe this would be unacceptable. Even though we are all human, some people are a bit more human than others: I’m not sure where the invisible border between humans and this lesser sort of humans lies for those people. For me, there is no border. We are all humans, all part of the same planet, even though nationalist politicians try to make us believe that national borders are holy and magical. They’re not. They’re just thought up one day by a bunch of guys a few ages ago, and in most of the world outside western Europe, they make no sense at all.
But what should we do then? Transfer large amounts of money from Europe to Africa? I don’t think so. We are doing that now, and it definitely helps a bit to improve things around here. But it’s not really a long-term strategy. In fact, there is no long-term strategy now. Development aid has become completely focused on poverty reduction, because we can’t stand the idea of people dying, but helping the poor of today is not going to help making sure that there is less poverty tomorrow.
I think, that for real development aid, the kind that is an investment in the future, that is aimed at dealing with the problem in the most efficient way, we should toughen up, get much more business-like, admit that we cannot save everyone in this world from suffering, and draw up a big plan, with an exit strategy. Because now, development countries’ governments have no incentive to help the poor in their country. They don’t learn to make tough choices. There is no need to them to have a vision, because both policies and the money to finance those policies are provided by the donors. Developing countries are completely governed by their donor countries. Why pay 34 ministers (well, why indeed of course, but let’s not get into that now), if the only thing they do, and can do, is to sit into meetings with their donors, and agree to everything they say? Why bother with organizing democratic elections in these countries, if it’s all fake anyway?
And speaking of lack of vision: where is our vision concerning development aid? There is none. We are holding on to lifelines, giving just enough money to developing countries to prevent large-scale human catastrophes. We will continue to be doing so for the next decades, because it is not going to change anything in the long run. Our politicians don’t have the guts to break through the taboos concerning development aid, even though that would help to change the world for the better.
We are currently patronizing development countries to a shameful extent. While any parent will know that raising a child to become a responsible adult means letting go, stepping back, letting them make their own mistakes, and accepting that they will get hurt every now and then. When you truly care, there will come a point when you say: and now, it is up to you.
Thank you if you’re still reading this. Next time will be much more fun again, I promise. But I must warn you: there will be more blogs like this. Trying to figure out how to best save the world, and sharing my ideas on that with you, is very important to me. Please address any complaints you may have concerning that to my parents. It’s their fault: they raised me to become a responsible adult. And responsible adults, you know, have opinions of their own.
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