live8, third world debt, foreign aid
My friend Camilla (one third of our Catster CKC Triumvirate) mentioned in her diary about giving more thought to foreign aid.
Here is a link to the article she cited. Too Much of a Good Thing: Choking on Aid Money in Africa by Erich Wiedemann and Thilo Thielke for Der Spiegel. It is worth spending time to read.
The issue is that some of the "poorest" countries rely on foreign aid and loans (hence the debt). In the meantime, the regimes of those countries divert a lot of their funds into wars or the pockets of corrupt leaders.
Waiving debt may not necessarily be the solution, if other concerns are not addressed.
A very interesting and thought provoking book by Patrick West is Conspicuous Compassion.
"Patrick West argues that wearing coloured ribbons, strapping red noses onto the front of your car, signing internet petitions, and carrying banners saying 'Not In My Name' are part of a culture of ostentatious caring which is about feeling good, not doing good. The three Cs of modern life - compassion, caring and crying in public - show not how altruistic we have become, but how selfish.
Sometimes these gestures actually do harm. People who wear ribbons may think they have done their bit, without actually contributing to the charity concerned. Writing off third world debt will make more funds available to dictators who want to buy arms. Internet petitions are often inaccurate. Celebrity endorsements of good causes are sometimes characterised by both ignorance and credulity."
Definitely worth reading and thinking about, even if one does not necessarily agree with all that he writes.
........ooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo........
It was such a cold day today. The temperature went down to 14 degrees Celsius inside my house. I do not know why my human can't leave the heater on for me during the day when he is at work. I am making up for being cold by insisting on lying on his lap all the time.
I had my usual chicken wing for dinner. In the meantime, my human taste-tested his braised rabbit and gave it the paws up.
keisercat@wildmail.com
Here is a link to the article she cited. Too Much of a Good Thing: Choking on Aid Money in Africa by Erich Wiedemann and Thilo Thielke for Der Spiegel. It is worth spending time to read.
The issue is that some of the "poorest" countries rely on foreign aid and loans (hence the debt). In the meantime, the regimes of those countries divert a lot of their funds into wars or the pockets of corrupt leaders.
Waiving debt may not necessarily be the solution, if other concerns are not addressed.
A very interesting and thought provoking book by Patrick West is Conspicuous Compassion.
"Patrick West argues that wearing coloured ribbons, strapping red noses onto the front of your car, signing internet petitions, and carrying banners saying 'Not In My Name' are part of a culture of ostentatious caring which is about feeling good, not doing good. The three Cs of modern life - compassion, caring and crying in public - show not how altruistic we have become, but how selfish.
Sometimes these gestures actually do harm. People who wear ribbons may think they have done their bit, without actually contributing to the charity concerned. Writing off third world debt will make more funds available to dictators who want to buy arms. Internet petitions are often inaccurate. Celebrity endorsements of good causes are sometimes characterised by both ignorance and credulity."
Definitely worth reading and thinking about, even if one does not necessarily agree with all that he writes.
........ooooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooo........
It was such a cold day today. The temperature went down to 14 degrees Celsius inside my house. I do not know why my human can't leave the heater on for me during the day when he is at work. I am making up for being cold by insisting on lying on his lap all the time.
I had my usual chicken wing for dinner. In the meantime, my human taste-tested his braised rabbit and gave it the paws up.
keisercat@wildmail.com
posted by Keiser at 21:30
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