Are We Hurting Africa by Helping It?

Perhaps the answer is that we’re giving them the WRONG TYPE of aid? I don’t know what the alternative would be, though.

Stopping aid isn’t the answer though. At best outside aid is clearly just a very large wad of gauze in a very large bullet hole. It’s not helping much, but it’s doing something.

With stop-gap measures though, one assumes that the doctors are on the way with solutions.

It seems like stepping in and forcing some change is an obvious step, but if the outside governments aren’t doing this, then one must wonder why. There has to be some kind of major road block.

I…. Would tend to agree with the author of the article, but not with such generally inflammatory rhetoric.

It is true that much of the land in Africa is at or well above its ecological carrying capacity, especially with the mismanagement of the land and so many corrupt governments over there. Much of the aid given to Africa exacerbates the poor situation.

An example to pull upon would be the Malthusian principle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusian_principle#The_Principle_of_Po pulation). It’s an outdated view of population in the modernized world, but still somewhat true in the poorer, agricultural areas of the world (in Arica or anywhere else). He says that population will generally keep growing at a quick rate until it reaches the maximum food supply, at which point disease, malnutrition and other crises will bring it down to just below that level. This process will continue, where food will limit the population of the area and a strange painful equilibrium will form.

Anyway, as I said, Africa as it currently isn’t producing or distributing its food well enough to keep its whole population fed. Large increases in food in the form of aid artificially — and temporarily — increase the food supply, which may lead to temporary population growth, followed by more death. So we are leading to a huge amount of pain and hardship in those areas by giving them all the food and medicine aid.

What we need to be doing more of is promoting family planning, contraceptive usage and education of women. This will help get the population down to a level where hopefully everyone will have enough to eat.

I think Kevin Myers is dead right! Someone needed to say it. I am in no way a heartless man, but I said this years ago. You go down there and feed them and in 20 years you have ten times as many and so on. So the aid (and cash machine) continues to roll consuming more and more and more. The balloon is going to pop sometime.

I’m by no means against feeding for the hungry, but I said 30 years ago to relocate them. So it is just not a food hand out but a real rescue.

This video on growth and the exponential function might be of interest here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY

You should watch all eight parts.

I actually agree with the article.

Sometimes, there are just too many people in an area. They have to leave (migrate) to find food, or they’ll die.

An interesting novel that touches on the topic of foreign aid gone wrong is “One Big Damn Puzzler” by John Harding, though it’s set on an island, not in Africa.

That might be a more interesting article if the author wasn’t clearly out of his tiny mind.

He’s obsessed with black men’s penises for a start.

My wife is obsessed with black men’s penises too, and I’m white.

I’m reminded of a story from a friend of mine who worked in the Peace Corps. Her village –where she was stationed for two years giving medical treatments, teaching classes, and running a women’s clinic– had a well that an earlier Peace Corps group had dug. But it kept getting clogged. It had been dug and re-dug three times. No one had bothered to train any of the villagers in how to maintain the well, so over time it had simply clogged up with sediment to the point of not even functioning.

The “help” that we sometimes give to poorer nations is often tarnished by the fact that we make no long-term investment in their infrastructure. We give them food for physical survival without educating them for economic survival. We build schools but don’t train their people to teach in them. Our help needs to be better directed in this region of the world.

We need to find solutions that aren’t band-aid solutions. We (US, 1st world countries) can’t continue to go in and feed them and give them resources without teaching them to fend for themselves. A large part of the problem is that these countries have become dependent on other countries to fix the problem instead of coming up with solutions themselves and learning from it.

Letting people starve to death is a great idea. After a few months, no more problem!

I don’t think any of the reasons this author gives would justify actively killing African babies. So I don’t see why it should justify letting them die due to innaction.

All ok, and with some realism.
However only if we (the wealthy west, and our big business) also stop taking Africas resources for our own.
Take no more of Africas gold, oil, diamonds etc – and let them develop their own uses and wealth.
Most of Africas’s wealth beneifits us – not them.

The only relief sent to Africa should be condoms and ‘the pill’.

I’d say this for any suffering continent.

this is not just a problem with africa, this is a problem with the entire planet. earth cannot sustain our world population with the way we’re living right now and the population is only going to go up until just about everyone is suffering.

for those of you saying “they’re not animals, they’re people” i have to ask what are humans if not another animal on this planet? most of whom*, for some bizarre reason, claim ownership to the entire planet and recklessly inhibit the way of life of so many other species.

i don’t say any of this from on top of a tower because i know i’m not helping as much as i could, but the problem at hand is so much bigger than we think. it’s not going to take a fraction of us to fix it, it’s going to take all of us to fix it, mostly in very small ways. i highly suggest reading daniel quinn’s books: ishmael, the story of b, and my ishmael. they talk pretty much exclusively about this subject and i think i agree with him, and the author of the article.

*many “indigenous cultures” have lived in a way that is sustainable and doesn’t tax the land. it may be they didn’t consciously do this, but this is just how they evolved to do it, because it works. (i know, i know… i’m regurgitating quinn’s ideas, but i think they’re pretty spot on)

* their, not they’re

Sadly this is a reflection of the reasons why most people act charitably – they respond to the sense of guilt rather than acting rationally. It’s ultimately not about the charity they’re engaged in and the good it will do, but a placation of their own anxiety over poverty. Much like a Christian acting out of a fear of hell rather than because of any real empathy for the poor.

I agree not much can be done while the message of ‘procreate wildly’ is reinforced by their culture.

How irresponsible and naive to present the problem as such: “We can save them from starvation, at the cost of encouraging overpopulation.” Really? Are there no other angles to work from?

To conclude that any aid would exacerbate the problems could be a compelling argument if better posed, especially economically speaking, but still an argument with stronger, more sound opposition.

Hey this is a lot of fun, I’m enjoying this discussion, thanks for keeping it civil, everyone.

Andri, I’m gonna have to pick on what you said for a little bit. I’ve read Ishmael, and its a fun read. But he presents the world in a totally inaccurate way. Native, or indigenous, cultures are generally not at peace with the environment. It may appear that way, and popular culture sure reinforces that stereotype, but it’s not accurate.

I’m not going to go into any large specifics here, but Easter Island is an excellent example of an indigenous culture not able to sustain itself. I’d recommend reading Jared Diamond’s book “Collapse” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_(book) for more info. It’s a fantastic book.

Changing topics a little back to population: one more very interesting image to the people who think we’re going to overpopulate the earth and we “westerners” should be personally responsible: http://www.prb.org/images07/62.3_01GlblPopGrth.gif

Almost all of this growth happened because we broke the previous barriers of food production during the “Green Revolution”. It was actually so successful that the US and Europe dumped cheap food on the rest of the world (in part because of aid, partly to keep out farmers in business now that grain is so cheap).

Demographically, people in agriculturally dominated food-poor nations had been attempting to have large families to run their subsistence farms (kids = free labor ). This has just been the cultural norm in many of these regions.

So back to the Green Revolution and Malthusian Principle: we flood their economies with cheap or free food. Infant morality goes WAY down REALLY fast, but cultural norms don’t change that fast. So people keep having kids until the culture changes and population skyrockets.

The “west” went through this same thing a long time ago, but it was a gradual process where the norms changed at the same pace of the slow innovation.

Um… now that I’ve written an encyclopedia… if it’s any consolation several demographers expect total global population to drop over the next century as developing nations urbanize and industrialize.

And of course it is more complicated than this. there are corrupt governments, and a nasty colonial history. But this population issue is why I think the majority of our aid money should be going to slowing down the population growth that the green revolution and outdated cultural norms have created.

As humans, one characteristic many of us admire is generosity. Generosity is not about what your neighbor can give you, but what you can spare for your neighbor.

In a world of limited resources, it would mathematical sense to look at the problem in numbers, what is going in, what is coming out…a chemical equation that is Africa.

But the problem with Africa is not mathematical or biological, its social and there are very human problems caused by humans, and the pain can only be alleviated through human intervention.

On the subject of overpopulation, Bangladesh is the most densely populated country in the world, and they have made amazing strides in keeping population under control by using education and resources brought in by other countries. It took time, but they have had great successes in bringing down the birth rate. Similar resources and education should be provided…

Of course, most of the problems come from who is in power. While the world shakes their head at these horrible people, someone is still buying the diamonds and other resources they do horde to keep them rich.

Because the earth has limited resources, humans should be more keen on figuring out how to save the continent of Africa instead of simply throwing stuff at it or suggesting we turn our heads and plug our ears (while pouring resources into wars and ships to get us off the planet).

Life seems to work in cycles, whether it be biofeedback, human history, or the earth itself recycling. Many believe that human life began in Africa, and ignoring the continent may be the beginning of the end.

his obviously bigoted rhetoric is scary, and what’s more scary is people reading this on neatorama, and slightly agreeing with his stance that all Africa gives back to the world is AIDS.
oh my god, please, on the off chance that ignorant fuckers read this blog and decide to comment on serious issues like this inbetween posts about murder mysteries and eating rats to make them feel worldly and smart,
maybe you should just steer clear of these topics all together.
lest you lose more intelligent and level-minded readers who actually possess the abilty to critically think.

Like someone said before.
This is a country full of PEOPLE, not STRAY CATS, DOGS, or plottable statistics. REAL LIVE HUMAN PEOPLE.

how about you invade, rape and pillage a country for hundreds of years, then say the horrible shit the author said in his article, and tell me how you like the backlash. can you seriously agree let alone defend his opinion.

fuck, (this and the comments) totally bummed my day.
we as a race are doomed with thinkers like this amongst us.

i’m tipsy and make more sense then the proponents of this idea.

alex, poor taste yo

I’m Irish and everyone I’ve talked to was horrified by this article. It’s not the first inflammatory article he’s written (we all remember the “children out of wedlock are bastards” one from a few years back…) so I hope no one takes this as an indication of the viewpoint of the Irish people. The Immigrant Council of Ireland declared that the article was incitement to hatred and I certainly agree: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0715/breaking64.htm

Ireland has a very good record on its international aid figures, and Irish people personally donate one of the highest amounts per capita in the EU. I hope that this will give a more balanced view of Ireland at least. There are plently of people who will agree to this (to my shame) especially in times of recession and inflation.

We in Ireland should remember when one million people died in the potato famine (a further million emmigrated)- must have done wonders for our surplus population….

This is a racist article, one which places a value on human life. It is an antiquated notion, a relic from Victorian times when simply being poor made you worthless.

We, in Europe and the US get up to 25% of the worlds resources. So if this argument works with food why not with resources, we only get our fair share.
Or does this argument only apply to Africa?
For centuries now, and continuing today we have looted Africa. For every euro sent in aid at least seven are sent back. We have a vast array of trade rules designed to keep poorer nations in the first bracket of development while we do the processing and service side of industry. Yes there are huge problems-most of them with the system we have created and keep.

A large part of me agrees with the author, although for somewhat different reasons, viz; that by providing handouts (as opposed to education and training) you only make people into dependants. That said, I don’t think that there is much in the way of education that can be given by Europeans (from a temperate climate) to Africans who have survived for thousands of years on that continent, and developed good methods for dealing with the natural conditions there. The intervention we might be best advised to make is opposing the spread of social memes, such as religion, that encourage people to breed regardless of the resource available to support their progeny. (Christianity and Islam, basically). I think there is nothing wrong with excess food from one region being shipped to another region. I do think it should be traded/purchased, though, not donated. If the nations of Africa prove capable of repairing themselves, and building viable economies, then they will be able to obtain the resources needed to increase their populations by trading for them. This may seem ruthless, but at what point to you choose to recognise cyclical behaviour and disengage from it? I am not saying that there is no place for charity. In the wake of a natural disaster, aid can be offered, without compunction, but when a nations woes are self inflicted – eg; by letting the population grow out of control, or by agricultural practices that ruin the land, then the emphasis should be upon that nation to recover from that by its own means.
There is a whole other side to this argument, too, which is that it would be greatly to Africas benefit to disengage from Europe because of the terms of the unfair trade ‘agreements’ that European countries have dictated to African countries in return for ‘aid’. If they refuse to play that game, then they wouldn’t have to allow the import and sale of subsidised european products, eg, canned tomatoes, the availability of which put many local producers out of business (google for it). At the Gleneagles G8 summit, Gordon Brown, Bob Geldof and others boasted of having written of large amounts of Africas debt. In fact, the amount written of was trivial, and it was tied into the sort of ttrade agreements that I have mentioned.
There is an excellent book on this topic called ‘The Lords of Poverty’ by Graham Hancock. He details the nature of the governement aid agencies (as opposed to the voluntary aid agencies) and their practices, as well as the fact that much of the food aid sent is often goods that were considered unfit for consumption in the donor country.
Apologies for length.

Andri, you’re welcome.

Anne, I’m not sure if you’re responding to me or not. My argument about food has nothing to do with it being Africa. It’s all about how a population reacts to a huge and sudden drop in infant mortality, and a sudden rise in life expectancy. As I said, the huge population boom didn’t happen as much in the Europe because the culture of having large families to work the farms had time to change as Europe slowly became industrialized and urbanized.

You’ll find a statistical tendency to larger families in most rural or agricultural areas, and smaller families in wealthier educated urban areas. Even within the US and Europe.

Ok, so I didn’t feel like reading EVERYONE’s posts… seeing as there were so many of them… but I work in the Charity Sector in Africa, and I deal with this every day…

The truth is this: Africa doesn’t need food… it’s not a shortage of food that is a problem (yes, in certain areas like Ethiopia it’s necessary)… the issue is that Africans have lost their culture to do things for themselves. I think to a great extent this is because people have come and given instead of taught. The old chinese proverb is well illustrated here in Africa… we give to them to feed them, but never teach them to grow, to plan, to strategize. The end result is fed tummies today, hungry minds tomorrow.

Now move look at it from a different perspective, as an African. Here you are in Nigeria, where you hardly have any chance of getting employed. Food isn’t particularly scarce, as you can grow veggies or fish for food… so you cruise down to your local fishing spot to pick up some lil’ ones for dinner… BANG, suddenly there’s this big-ass oil refinery fenced off where you always fished… where did this come from? now suddenly this “Shell” has introduced something called a Cell phone? And it costs less than my groceries? And these “casettes and CDs”? What are these wonderful things? Wow… and all this to take the oil from my land? Sure… take away! Oh, but what if you leave… what then? So you leave us with no resources, you’ve polluted our water, and given us blank cd’s and the remnants of the MTV generation.

Let’s be honest here… Helping Africa help itself is the way to go, but up till today the only reason why anyone has shown ANY interest in Africa has been due to it’s wealth of resources and minerals. The Corporations and Governments (US, China, UK, etc) have been plundering the continent like the savage pirates they are… leaving nothing behind but old Nike’s, satellite dishes and cheap cellphones. Africa cannot save itself because the trade agreements with China secure cheap goods to flood our market… this means that locally produced goods have no where to go…

So before anyone points fingers as to whether Africa should or shouldn’t be helped, let’s first ask whether our INTENTIONS for helping Africa, and even our METHODS, are sincere.

Care and all those other organizations that have been feeding them created this problem. Let them deal with it. It is only multiplying.

Can’t we bomb over there for humanitarian reasons?