Thanks, Bono, but No Thanks

FINALLY A GREAT ARTICLE FROM YOU. MUCH BETTER THAN THE ARTICLE ON THE ANTI-CHRIST.
WHAT AN INTERESTING AND FACINATING STORY IT IS THE AMERICAN DREAM.

In her book "Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa", Dambisa Moyo cites entrepreneurship and job promotion as solutions toward a better way for Africa. An example of this is in Rwanda where two businesswomen who own salons have come together to start a beauty school to provide a vocation and a future for Rwandans. Go to this site to learn more about the school and how you can help get it opened www.rwandabeautyschool.org. The two entrepreneurs, Jeanne and Sylvie, are being helped by the Business Council for Peace (Bpeace) - a New York based international network of business volunteers that help women entrepreneurs in post-conflict countries expand their businesses, create employment, and build a peaceful future for their communities. For more information on Bpeace, go to www.bpeace.org.

Moyo's aim of improving development in Africa by self-sustaining methods, but I feel like her timing and recommendations are misplaced. The current economic climate calls for more aid, not less. Perhaps she oversimplifies the challenges as suggested Kileken ole-YoiMoi in his response to Moyo in Foreign Policy Digest Mr. ole-YoiMoi argues that African countries need more "patient capital" and a general shift toward long-term donor strategies (http://foreignpolicydigest.org/Africa/March-2009/restructuring-aid-dambisa-moyo.html)

Dambisa Moyo, with her privileged education, criticizes and blames specific celebrities, religious and charitable organizations, and other governments for extending aid to Africa. African leaders, she states, should be taking the charge, and "anyone else's opinions are moot." Leaders such as Bashir, perhaps, responsible for wholesale African genocide and mutilation? Yes, Africa would be so much better off without organizations such as "Save Dafur." Stop and listen Ms. Moyo. The people most grieved by your Coulteresque polemic are your own.

Dambisa Moyo, with her privileged education, criticizes and blames specific celebrities, religious and charitable organizations, and other governments for extending aid to Africa. African leaders, she states, should be taking the charge, and "anyone else's opinions are moot." Leaders such as Bashir, perhaps, responsible for wholesale African genocide and mutilation? Yes, Africa would be so much better off without organizations such as "Save Dafur." Stop and listen Ms. Moyo. The people most grieved by your Coulteresque polemic are your own.

Let's face it - NGOs are now big business. And just like big business, they will resist any change. (Just think about doctors banding together to protest universal healthcare in the past because of fears over pay drops. That's not exactly altruism, right?) After several years of aid, I think that it's obvious that aid isn't a magic pill - it's a band-aid. We need to start thinking outside of our global box. I think that Dambisa is brave for pointing out the problems with dependency on foreign aid.

It is a simple matter of fact that without aid e.g. food-aid by Oxfam and other NGOs, millions of people in Africa would starve. What the west needs to do is to make African governments more accountable for the funds donated, like what they did for Germany and Japan. What Ms Moyo is trying to do is build a career for herself. Ask her what she???s done to help Africans. Her itinerary-New York, London etc- shows where her loyalty lie, FAME.

I am proud of the fact that this insight came from an African......A few facts is that yes the African continent has problems but then again what country does not. Feeding those who live differently than the Western world is looked upon as admirable however in most of the Western countries, there are the same problems of hunger and abandoned children. Until Katrina happened here in the US, I was not aware of people living as if they are in the third world country. So it seems almost hypocritical for people to want to help the "poor Africans" when here in the US, the same term applies. The model of dependency has already been established right here in the US through the welfare system...Giving people handouts does not encourage them to grow as independent and resourceful people.There is a leader who recognized this however since he is not curbing to the wills of the west, his insight does not count. Ms Moyo I cannot wait until I get a copy of your book...................

Moyo seems to have hit a nerve with posters who are most likely themselves the beneficiaries of Dead Aid! What? Who argues most vehemently against cuts to initiative killing inner-city porverty programs? The very same people paid to administer them!

You people are too transparent.

I am currently reading this book and ahven't been able to put it down since I got copy a few days ago. The reason being so much of it resoantes with my own fidnings as an African woman and advocate of giving african people the tools to face day to day challenges as opposed to the kind DEAD AID referred to in this book. People have to udenrstand thatthe average African never get to see any of this AID and in mst cases is not even aware of it's existence, this was true for me. Jamie and Bona have missed the point here which is regrettable. they ahve not lived life as African people and whislt they do a valuable job of highlighting the plight of africans, at the end of the day they will never know what it emans to be an African in Africa. there is no dignity in this type of AID, it is not sutainable and if you ask the africans in africa they will say, give us the tools, please buy our produce, please trade with us. thye will never ask for handouts.

As for Rich, if these were your children you would teach them to be self sufficient and take care of themselves. Attitudes such as these are bad for Africa as the dependancy cycle needs to be broken and it can't if like rich the donor countries view African as chidlren!
Ida Horner

Where's the picture of the Moyo, the actual author? Her picture is portrayed in the print Newsweek. With the image of the editor it is not only misleading, but contributes to the continued cultural incompetence of our society. Please don't pass on the passive racism by exclusing access to visual images of other cultures. Even with President Obama, a beautiful visual image of our world's rich cultural diversity, STILL corporate (Newsweek) America perists in denying us visual equally. Please post Moyo's picture with this article, consistent with the print version of your article.

I could not agree more with Ms. Moyo and I cannot wait to read her book. Africa has many problems, but only when African countries develop their own talent pool for leadership and organize against corruption and civil war and human rights abuses will they ever really make lasting progress. What good is spending American tax dollars to save someone's life by putting them on AIDS drugs if that person turns around and gets killed in civil war or dies of starvation?

I'm also shocked that Americans let Europeans like Jamie Drummond tell them how to spend their tax money. This goon and his organization led our country down another of George Bush's rabbit holes: billions of dollars wasted on countries who aren't any better off than they were before those eight years (sound familiar?). If you doubt this, take a look at how aid groups were touting Kenya as a big economic, anti-corruption success a few years back. Then read the news update from last year - civil war, mass murder over an election.

Thanks but no thanks, European do-gooders - Americans can make our own decisions and you should let Africa do the same.

Unfortunately Ms. Moyo fails to grasp the real issues with Africa, worst she mixes up the causes with remedies. Foreign aid is a remedy or relief effort with the hope that people would get back on their feet and contribute to the development of the society. Ms. Moyo simplify the issue for it appears personal gain.
Without affirmative action there would be no Condeleeza Rice, Colin Powell, Barack Obama etc. Without foreign aid Africa would be further in shambles. Foreign aid can be compable to affirmative action in the sense that its intent is to lift an empoverish group. Both are necessary even though there are abuses and people can become dependent of such outside help.
In addition, by definition foreign aid is a short term solution good leaders can leverage to turn around their countries. South Korea is a typical example. The Country was a recipiant of foreign aid in the 60's but with good leadership and resolve, the country became a great competitor in the global economy while African countries have remained empoverished. The African challenge lies therefore on Africa's poor leadership, lack of vision and most importantly its inability (slow process by which) to integrate the global economy.
The decline of Zimbabwe is not due to foreign aid! Nor Sudan, Chad, DRC, Madagascar etc. Poor leadership. Democratic regime in Africa who are reforming their economy are triving, Ghana, Liberia, Rwanda, Tanzania... By the way these countries are still receiving foreign aid. Foreign therefore cannot and should not be blamed for Africa's plight but rather poor leadership that fails to seize on opportunities and fan political instability, ethnic tensions, wars for personal gains... May be just as Ms. Moyo is doing with her book, criticizing Foreign aid... That is just selfish. She certainly does not speek for the Continent...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dambisa_Moyo

gdarisi, that's a very noble thing to espouse. However, I am afraid that is not what she is saying at all. When you teach a man to fish, you are aiding him. More importantly, today's fishing lessons (figuratively speaking, kind of) require a whole lot of resources that come through aid. So if you think that is what she is saying, either you or her have misunderstood the fundamental meaning of aid or its different forms. If that is the case, then it would appear that she has simplified a very complex issue in order to sell her book to people who will treasure it for the feeling of vindication her 'African' opinion gives them.