Never Changing Headlines: Africans are Starving Send Money
If you want an easy job, apply to any news organization as a news writer on African Affairs. Then every few days all you'll need to do to keep your job is write an article by simply filling in the blanks:
________________ (Save The Children, the U.N. World Food Programme, Catholic Relief Services, African Aid International, etc.) has launched an emergency appeal for ______ (ten million, 100 million, one billion) ________ (dollars, pounds, euros) to help prevent a famine which threatens millions in ____________ (The Horn of Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, East Africa, West Africa, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria, etc.) after the worst drought in ___ (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90) years.
________________ (A lack of rain, high food prices, war, plundering tribes, exploding population, etc.) has left nearly _____ (1 million to 999 million) people across ____________________ (The Horn of Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, East Africa, West Africa, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria, etc.) facing starvation.
Aid workers have reported that ___________ (tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions) of hungry families have been seen trekking for days to reach already-overcrowded refugee camps - and without foreign help the crisis is expected to get much worse.
After reading your boilerplate article, moron musicians like the great "humanitarian" Bono will hold benefit concerts, idiots like Bill Gates will direct his foundation to send more money, and celebrities like Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Madonna will go out and adopt more African children. None of the above will actually help Africa.
But don't listen to me, listen to Dambisa Moyo (born Lusaka, Zambia), a former economist at Goldman Sachs and the author of "Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa":
Wall Street Journal, Why Foreign Aid Is Hurting Africa
Giving alms to Africa remains one of the biggest ideas of our time -- millions march for it, governments are judged by it, celebrities proselytize the need for it. Calls for more aid to Africa are growing louder, with advocates pushing for doubling the roughly $50 billion of international assistance that already goes to Africa each year.
Yet evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that aid to Africa has made the poor poorer, and the growth slower. The insidious aid culture has left African countries more debt-laden, more inflation-prone, more vulnerable to the vagaries of the currency markets and more unattractive to higher-quality investment. It's increased the risk of civil conflict and unrest (the fact that over 60% of sub-Saharan Africa's population is under the age of 24 with few economic prospects is a cause for worry). Aid is an unmitigated political, economic and humanitarian disaster.
