Walt's blog is about 13 months old, and we've visited the subject of foreign aid 14 times -- slightly over once per month.
It might be said that Walt rarely has anything good to say about the concept. That's because there isn't much good to be said.
It's not too sweeping a generalization to say that the majority of foreign aid projects are designed and run by western governments, funded by western taxpayers, with the main (although rarely stated) objective of making white people feel less guilty about their self-perceived neglect or mistreatment of darker people back in the bad old days of imperialism.
Walt has just finished Travels in Nepal: the Sequestered Kingdom, by Charlie Pye-Smith.* Although based on observations made a quarter-century ago, Mr. Pye-Smith's disturbing questions and comments are just as valid now as then.
A point the author makes in the final chapter, "Help and Hindrance", is that grandiose aid projects which are neither necessary nor helpful are not always imposed on the aid-receiving countries because westerners think "They need this." Quite often the aid which is given is a response to a request for help in dealing with some disaster or crisis, which is all too often made out to be greater than it really is.
"Among those keenest to promote the idea of imminent disaster have been the Nepalese government and various aid agencies.... As far as [the government] is concerned, the more gloomy the prognosis for the country, the greater the amount of money which flows in in the form of aid.
"A big problem requires a big solution, which requires big money. Even if a project fails to solve the perceived problem, those whose duty it is to see it through will benefit financially from it."
That, according to Mr. Pye-Smith, was the syndrome prevailing in Nepal in the 80s. In our next post, we'll look at Haiti today.
* Penguin, 1990
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