Monday, November 24, 2008

I Think About This a Lot

This is a link to an article from the BBC that outlines some of the problems that foreign aid can cause or exacerbate: 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7740652.stm

Aid well spent is aid that makes itself unnecessary. Peace Corps South Africa has talked to its PCVs about sustainability repeatedly. Speaking of Peace Corps, here is another article that I read recently that gave me food for thought:  


I think that some of the criticisms in this article are overly strident for the sake of being provocative; not to mention the annoying straw man argument technique employed throughout. Still, there is much in this article that Peace Corps ought to address back in Washington D.C.

Development is a riddle with few easy answers and a myriad of trade-offs to consider. America has its own development problems: from crumbling infastructure (collapsing bridges, energy woes) to a classist, under-funded educational system. If we can't develop our own country properly, how are we supposed to design programs that will develop other countries?

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