Foreign aid, then and now - part II

In Travels in Nepal (see preceding post), Charlie Pye-Smith makes the point that filling up the begging bowls held out by the governments of the world's poorest nations often has no or negative results.

The author argues that by giving a man a fish when you should be teaching him to catch his own fish, you reduce him to the status of a dependent, and push him deeper into a cycle of poverty which is difficult to break. The same argument has been made many times before and since.

Look now at Haiti. More than half a year after the earthquake, it's still the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, in spite of the infusion (or at least the promise) of billions of dollars in foreign aid and the efforts, volunteer or (well) paid, of those who are "trying to help those who cannot help themselves".

This week The Economist reports on the state of the aid effort and the plight of Haiti today. Here are some numbers to think about.

• Only a tiny fraction of the $5.3 billion in promised aid has materialised.
• The $1.15 billion committed by President Obama is still held up in Congress.
• Over 1 million Haitians are packed into 1300 tent cities in the Port-au-Prince area, and
• The tent cities are actually growing, as people who fled into the countryside come to the city looking for handouts.
• Less than 5% of the 20 million cubic metres of debris from the quake has been cleared, although the majority of able-bodied men in the tent cities are not working.
• The Haitian government has declared more than 100,000 buildings habitable, and
• Another 60,000 could be safely repaired, but
• Many of the homeless remain in the camps, hoping to be given not just shelter but title to a piece of land with it.
• 23,000 portable shelters are available; only 1/3 of them have been erected.

Had enough? The Economist says, "Foreigners are getting impatient. [US senator] Richard Lugar wrote last week that René Préval, Haiti's president, had 'demonstrated marginal capacity to lead his country's reconstruction.' He added that Mr. Préval's 'actions do not suggest a departure from the self-destructive political behaviour that has kept Haiti the poorest country in the hemisphere.'"

But Sen. Lugar should take heart. Help is on the way! There's going to be a presidential election in Haiti in November, and a leading candidate is none other than Haitian-American hiphop "artist" Wyclef Jean. [Do da bro be a cousin of Canada's Governor-General? ed.] Walt kids you not. See today's Jackson Sun. That's what Haiti needs...not more of my tax dollars.