While concerns over racism against staff are undoubtedly genuine, they do not acknowledge the reality that the aid sector is itself a racist tool, embedded in colonial structures and power inequalities, that looks down on countries based on their wealth, history and global positioning. By default, those who control these power structures – donors, international NGOs, charities, private foundations – all perpetuate racism towards their southern counterparts.
So, don’t participate in racism by accepting the aid then.
But the whole purpose of ‘aid’ is to keep the natives dependent, and in their place. Apart from all the embezzlement of course, cannot interfere with that. Whatever would Rolex (etc) do without all the forin aid to spend?
A young thing of my acquaintance went off for a few months to Do Good in the third world – an NGO charity project. It proved to be corrupt. Was that education good value? Since then her do-goodery has been limited to stuff she can do herself, to people whom she thereby gets to know.
Fantastic, we can tackle racism and save £12bn a year by ending all foreign aid. Let’s be real allies and also ban charities which raise money in the UK from spending it overseas.
“the aid sector is itself a racist tool”
And so is the author of the linked article.
It’s very entertaining – clearly the influence of the likes of Murphy is universal. The author’s stance seems to be – please continue giving me the money and I’ll decide how it is spent without any oversight from people donating it who are ‘racist’ by virtue of location, rather than attitude. I’d award points for the sheer brassneck of it. Effectively what she proposes is tantamount to direct theft from Northern taxpayers. Which in effect is what aid is, so hats off to her for removing the veneer
Perhaps I’ve mentioned before that the only foreign aid I’ve ever approved of was when the Australian Wheat Board bribed someone in Saddam’s Iraq to buy Aussie wheat.
Of course the Wheat Board has since been abolished.
The only foreign aid interests me is nuclear. Expending the entire thermonuclear arsenal would make the world a far better place with minimal disruption.
I like the Foreign Aid where the UK does research e.g. Dexamethasone good, proning good, other treatments neutral or not so good. And then other countries get that knowledge for free.
Even better in this regard is the Union States of America which gives the world loads of stuff for free – from Jimmy Wales and his generous wikipedia donors to formulating the Washington consensus to different State policies which have been analysed on the harms or lack of from prostitution, guns, abortion, health and cannabis.Foreigners can check out the researches on that stuff and knock themselves out. God Bless America, i say.
You’ve got a point, Bongo. Intellectual property is one of the best forms of aid. Say steam engines and maxim guns. Or further back Arabic numerals and gunpowder.
Of course what I like about it is that the people wanting to adopt it have to make sure they understand it, they have to work out how to introduce it to their society, and then they have to do the hard yakka of actually doing so.
I don’t have to lift a finger or spend a penny.