Misplaced Aid

There are a lot of misplaced good intentions around the world. We have Bono and his African aid. The man uses that to feel less guilty about being wealthy. If he wants to rid himself of that guilt, he should give away that wealth. There is no amount of charity which will solve many of the problem in Africa.

Then you have guilty nations. The United States is in the same category as Bono. The leaders and the left feel guilty because this is a prosperous nation. We are supposed to feel guilty for nations like Mexico, and continents like Africa.

I ask, how long have we been pouring money into these problems? The answer is decades. You might ask, what else is there to do? We could invade them, but that wouldn’t work either. People need the desire to improve themselves.

This leads up to the purpose of this post; North Korea is flexing its muscle. Fat Kim wants money from the USA and other nations. The North Korea, under a deal with Bill Clinton, agreed to halt its nuclear program in exchange for diesel fuel. Thankfully President Bush had the sense to suspend shipments of that fuel.

You might ask what does this have to do with African aid. We are hearing of nations like Japan and China considering halting aid to North Korea. Without China’s aid, North Korea would die a quick death. I can see why China keeps the fat tyrant around, but why would the USA, Japan, and other free nations provide North Korea with anything?

It’s easy to feel sorry for starving people in North Korea and Africa. But by sending those countries any type of aid, we are only prolonging those people’s slavery. Each time fat Kim hands out food the people see it coming from him. The people in North Korea think they live a decent life. As long as they, or any country’s people, believe that, tyrants will prosper.

You want to end fat Kim’s reign? Let the people starve. Starving people will rise up and fight. A man will not join an army and fight for the leader while his family is starving. This is harsh, but handouts are not solving the problem. As long as free nations send aid to support dictators, the people will never rise up against them.

So Bono, if you want to help people, open centers in your own neighborhood to teach people job skills. Hollywood wants us to think that we don’t care unless we are on television bragging about what we are doing in Africa. Bill Gates is scoffed at for being a crook, while quietly giving billions to charity.

Let the USA and it’s allies stop supporting dictators. A couple decades ago a new term was coined, “tough love”. Let's practice some of it and help these people help themselves.








Update February, 2012: Natalie Portman has an organization where she loans money interest free in the poverty stricken areas so that people can start small business. This is the same as the adage, teach a man to fish and he will eat forever,