2 posts tagged “bill gates”
I apologize for not really exploring the effect that economic aid has had in Africa. So I have done a lot of digging and figured that I would shed some light on the reality of aid in Africa. Do you remember Dambisa Moyo? She is the author of Dead Aid (you should read it if you care about this sort of thing-and you should), and a rather intelligent lady.
Moyo, who earned her doctorate at Oxford and has worked for the World Bank and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., focuses her criticisms on low-interest loans and grants from governments and multilateral lenders. Together, these make up more than 50 percent of the national budget in many African states.
“Africa is addicted to aid,” she says. “Like any addict, it needs and depends on its regular fix, finding it hard, if not impossible, to contemplate existence in an aid-less world.”
The West has funneled $1 trillion to Africa over the past 50 years, Moyo notes. Yet more than half of sub-Saharan Africa’s 700 million people live on less than $1 a day, and the poverty rate doubled between 1981 and 2002, she says, citing World Bank figures. Real per-capita income today is lower than in the 1970s.
Cutting off aid won’t affect most Africans, Moyo argues, because they don’t have access to it to begin with; only their governments do. The continent is full of aid-funded roads and schools that stand uncompleted while government leaders ride around in brand-new Mercedes-Benzes, stuff money into foreign bank accounts and travel abroad, sometimes in private jets.
Outright grants and low-interest loans are all too easy to steal, she says. Aid makes African leaders more responsive to Western donors than to their own people and engenders conflict by making government worth fighting over, she adds.
Source
It is my opinion that aid needs to looked at differently. Rather than being given on the basis of promises of reform, initiatives, and improving the quality of life, I think that it has to doled on based on merit. The only entity that has been able to display large-scale, consistent progress in regards to relief in Africa has been the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They look at it like a business, and those with the best plan are awarded the aid. By tying the aid to something that is tangible, it therefore has real effects. I think that this is the only way to dole out aid in Africa, otherwise I would have to agree that we are just throwing our money away.
What a past couple of days! Bear with me, because I have a headache from hell!
- The Websites: After the worst thing that could have happened to the sites did, I was completely freaking out! Days-literally days-of work, was gone. I had created the sites in Flash and uploaded them to my ftp with Expression Web no problem. I needed to update the site and add/change links etc. so I opened it up in Expression Web. I screwed up, and instead of opening the site folder, I opened my "Documents" folder. Bear in mind that I have a 2 TB C: drive. After loading all of my files (30 min.), I was pissed, but figured that I could fix it. I selected all of the files, right-clicked and deleted them. It didn't remove them from Expression Web, it REMOVED THEM FROM MY COMPUTER!!! And it didn't prompt me either! I was up all night panicking, rebuilding, contemplating drinking heavily, etc. After a couple of days of straight work, the sites are fixed for the most part. I am still missing all of my documents however. Check them out: www.jerryv.net www.focusphotostudio.com
- Work: Still undecided about what to do here. Work for alot less money, less hours, yet still be expected to perform the tasks for my now vacant position? That doesn't sound too thrilling to me.
- Life: I am definately my own worst enemy. I am a type A person by nature and I love getting sh*t done from my to do lists in Outlook. Hell, its the reason that I bought a Pocket PC back in the day, and run a Mogul now. After this clusterf*ck with the sites, my lists is both calling my name-no, its screaming it!-I am so far behind! I feel like crap and I am tired as a mofo. UGH!
- On a positive note, I wish to commend Bill Gates for all that he has done and accomplished, as well as what he is aiming to do through his foundation. I remember writing my thesis on the antitrust trial of Microsoft, and to this day, I think that they got a raw deal. If I hadn't lost all respect for our lawmakers, I would wish that they would take another look at antitrust laws and make some corrections.
