by Magius

Created on: February 21, 2008

Yes, Congress should approve Barack Obama's bill, if only to counterbalance the terrible lack of such legislation in the past.

First, I suggest the reader either read Prof. Jefferey Sachs' book "The End of Poverty" or somehow get in touch with his ideas. Prof. Sachs is one of the leading developmental economists in the world today, and his model has proven that foreign aid does have the ability to ameliorate extreme poverty (defined as an income of less than one dollar a day) in the world. If you are skeptic about foreign aid, I suggest going to the website millenniumvillages.com or millenniumpromise.com. This project, headed by Sachs, is a private NGO which has achieved truly miraculous results in African villages. Take Mayange, Rwanda, for example: a cluster of 50,000 people, Mayange experienced phenomenal improvement after the intervention of "Millennium Villages": agricultural produce has tripled, malaria incidence- note this amazing statistic- has dropped from 75% (37,500 infections) to just 10% (5,000), a clinic has been staffed, and more. In Mwandama, Malawi, agricultural yield has increased by no less than 1,100%. The improvements are endless, and all this from the much-maligned foreign aid. If a private philanthropic organization can bring about such amazing change, think what a governmental intiative- with the incredible budget proposed by Senator Obama- could do for the desperately poor of this world.

The US has been horribly negligent on this issue in the past, often dumping responsibility on Europe or the UN. While those bodies have been just as negligent, the US- as the so-called leader of the free world- should set an example and spearhead this cause rather than leaving it to others. The US, the strongest economy in the world by far, certainly has always had the resources to dedicate to the world of starving, agonizing citizens of the world, but it has given minimal attention to this crisis. There have been a number of welcome intiatives, such as AIDS programs and such, but they are far too little. The most radical demand of the US is to dedicate 0.7% of its GDP to foreign aid; in other words, the UN and others are asking the US to spend a mere 70 cents per 100 dollars of GDP to save millions upon millions of lives. Considering the catastrophic horrors that the aid is supposed to solve- for example, in sub-saharan Africa, a malnourishment rate of 30%, 40% of the population living under $1 a day, a child dying of malaria every thirty seconds, etc.- this is a small price to pay.

The US has failed in Rwanda and Darfur, and it is failing now in the fight against world poverty. This new bill offers a glimmer of hope to millions, and is the perfect antidote to the apathy the US currently projects towards the dying third world.

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