When does aid to the poor become a national disgrace?

Question

I saw a movie about how the western governments, the movers behind the global warming movement, or at least its chief apologists, had inserted special environmental provisions to most aid packages now to places too poor to even say no. Hospitals in poor countries can have enough light for life saving operations or they can run a small fridge and keep their meds from spoiling. Affordable solar power in the heart of the sunniest place on earth is not capable of providing both. If this is the environmentalist version of the lesser of two evils I can’t imagine what’s worse. I assume someone is proud of this.

Answer 1

Yes, this is a sad story! Ethanol over food. China rejected this abuse of human rights. We had a great abundance in 1980 when I built my still, but today we need food. The word has 1.6 months supply, except when the USA is in harvest. Africa has great potential to produce energy for Europe and China, we just need to get a fuel for them to be able to move. I am working on this solution right now, check out the start of it at CoolingEarth.org

Answer 2

give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and feed him for a life time.We need to enable poor people and poor countries to provide for themselves help them to do for themselves.By giving continuous handouts people become to think they are entitled to them and do nothing to better themselves.In Canada we have 3rd and 4th generations that have never worked and are on welfare.

Answer 3

Your in-depth analysis of one paragraph neglected to consider (for example) poor people dying in China lung ailments due to the air pollution.  You don't think that they'd appreciate (or deserve) a little relief?

Are you refering to "feed-the-poor" and "cure disease" campaigns that focus on saving people first, without providing them with education and birth control?  So they survive, have 7 to 8 children per couple, then the problem has grown 350% every generation (every 15 years) but none of the underlying causes has been touched.  In fact, one of the primary causes, overpopulation, has been facilitated.  

Why do you suppose that is?  We've known this for decades, so why would a government bureaucracy (or religious one) operate in a way that only magnifies the issue that they claim to be "solving"?

Perhaps we should be learning from past failures and only implementing campaigns that are more comprehensive in dealing with multiple facets of local and global problems that face the poor, truly equipping them to get themselves out of extreme poverty?

Answer 4

I imagine that most "save the poor" programs do more damage than good.

Answer 5

Keeping poor countries dependent on the better of nations means money. Teach a man to fish for himself means he no longer needs to buy his fish from you. You loose money.

Answer 6

I am sure there are those who do not care however I doubt that it is a great majority.  Helping the poor is always  tough even within our country.  Bad policy can actually keep them perpetually poor, we need to help them progress ie... teach a man to fish and you feed them for life.

Answer 7

If I understood your question correctly, I totally agree. We can build several square miles of solar arrays in Spain or Portugal or the US to power our electronic gidgets and TVs and DVDs, but we can't find the wit or the way to provide a hospital in Africa  with both light and refrigeration. Nothing will change until there's a fundamental shift in attitudes and morality here in the wealthy countries. Most of us are too dumbed-down and comfortable to even care about it.

Answer 8

John, the problem with air to the poor has a lot of different facets, including the rake-off by the corrupt people in the country being aided.

I suggest that you take a look at the histories of some of the countries to which you refer, and their economies.

A relief worker in India once remarked that there would be more food available for people if the rats could be kept away from the grain. The reply was that the rats needed to eat too.

Regards,

Dan

Answer 9

So-called 'Aid' to other nations as really been more of a means to bolster regimes sympathetic to a more powerful countries interest.Most of that 'aid' ends up going into some 3rd world dictators deep pockets or his friends. it's actually used to use to buy weapons for themselves.