by Joseph Whalen

Created on: May 27, 2008

Is foreign aid the solution to global poverty?

Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime. It's an old saying but a valid one. The problem of global poverty will never be solved with foreign aid, at least not by itself. This has been clearly illustrated by some of the more prominent attempts to provide aid such as the Live Aid concerts and other public outpourings of support for those less fortunate in other countries. The fact of the matter is the biggest hurdle in solving global poverty is the very governments of the impoverished people.

It's no small secret that only a small portion of the aid that is earmarked for starving people in foreign countries ever actually reaches those who are truly in need. Food, supplies and medical shipments are distributed to the governments of third world nations with the intention of easing the suffering of their people, only to have such charity shipments quickly confiscated and misappropriated by the more fortunate people who hold power in such countries. This sad fact, while made public in the past has been quietly hushed up by most of the media in an effort to prevent discouraging people from donating. In truth, the little bit of help that does eventually reach the suffering is a huge help. What is unfortunate is that so much of the charity that people are so willing to offer is wasted on bloated bureaucrats and petty dictatorships who are responsible for imposing such hardships on their people in the first place.

This is not to say that environmental conditions and natural disasters do not play their part in causing suffering, they do indeed and more frequently than most people would like to acknowledge. The issue is not with the cause of the suffering but how best to alleviate it. Even in our own country during times of need and disaster such as in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks and the horrible devastation from Hurricane Katrina there were people in our own country who were despicable enough to abuse the system of charity for their own greedy ends. If people in the United States, where even our most destitute citizens tend to be better off than even middle class families in third world nations can stoop to the level of falsifying claims to aid and profiteering on those in need then the practice is likely to be rampant in other parts of the world.

Foreign aid sent to other countries is one part of the solution, but until the siphoning off of such aid by thieving

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