The Empty

I read an article on food aid to Africa today that relates to the old proverb,  "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."  The article starts off with:

CARE, one of the world's biggest charities, is walking away from about $45 million a year in federal funding, saying American food aid is not only plagued with inefficiencies, but may hurt some of the very poor people it aims to help.

Having recently watched Beyond Borders, which depicts some of the horror of what is going on in Africa, I was intrigued by this.  The basic gist of it is that the USA donates food to organizations like CARE to sell cheaply there in Africa.  The money that the aid organizations make from this funds anti-poverty programs.

The problem is that the cheap food from aid organizations competes with what local farmers are trying to sell in order to feed their families.  This is, of course, a contentious issue with the US government, US farmers, and other charities like CARE.  Some say that the effect on the local farmers is negligible and the current practice keeps money within the African country and keeps food prices from spiking.

A senior manager at care also cited reading a book,  Food Aid After Fifty Years, helped bring about the chaneg of heart that has resulted in CARE phasing out the sale of farm goods to fund anti-poverty programs.  Instead, they will be focusing on helping the African farmers to get better yields and reach better markets.  "It will try to raise money to replace the lost revenues [from farm goods sales] from philanthropies and other donors, and by making its own aid programs profitable."

That makes a hell of a lot of sense to me.  Why keep giving handouts when you can help someone to not need the handout in the first place?  Yes yes, corruption, power, and money.  Let's table that for the moment.  I also read something this week (can't remember where) about expanding internet access in some African nations.  How about we stop people from dying of malnutrition and corrupt government and/or insurgent military action in Africa before we worry about them surfing the web, eh?  Damn the Man!