This was intended to be a comment to John C.'s post and Maryann's and Carol's comments but I'm having a problem posting comments and I wanted to comment before the moment passes. I was listening to NPR a few weeks ago while driving and Dambisa Moyo author of "Dead Aid" was promoting her book. Her point of view was so different from anything I had ever heard on the topic that I actually sat in the car after reaching my destination just to hear the end of the interview. I suspect the interviewer didn't do his prep correctly because he not only appeared surprised by her point of view he kept asking her questions based on his own cognitive shortcuts on the issue. Of course her point of view which I thought was iconoclastic obviously is not that singular as John's posting shows furthermore, Ms. Moyo acknowledged other writers and economists as well as her own parents who share the same idea. I've linked to a interview by the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/feb/19/dambisa-moyo-dead-aid-africa I suppose because she is African, I paid closer attention. She is compared to Ayaan Hirsi Ali by her mentor. If I were not enrolled in the XMPA I would have bought her book which I may still do so during the summer.
As I recall from the NPR interview, she is not opposed to Aid for disaster relief but for everything else she is opposed. This flies in the face of the more recent high profile efforts by Bill Gates, Bono etc. who argue that not enough has been done. For me the tragedies (not counting the wars, droughts, AIDS and famine) occur when leaders like Mugabe drag their countries from relative prosperity and stability into abject poverty and chaos. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/1064589.stm
The positive report from Ghana from our first class was heartening and a few other countries are managing to keep their economies and societies stable or to achieve recovery from the devastations of war and disease. To prove or disprove her thesis we would need a natural experiment and of course that is impractical and unethical. I think that fifty years into the post colonial era, the landscape looks bleak. In some places the standard of living and life expectancy have plummeted. I agree with the premise in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney but moving beyond that, creative solutions are needed.
Tamara
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Yes, Dambisa Moyo is the current darling of the anti-aid movement. You can hear the NPR interview at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101986498. Here is the description of the interview:
ReplyDeleteMorning Edition, March 17, 2009 · Steve Inskeep talks with Zambian-born economist Dambisa Moyo about her book Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa. Moyo has been a consultant for the World Bank and an economic sub-Saharan Africa specialist for Goldman Sachs. She says American and European good intentions discourage innovation and breed corruption.
John C
And even more about Dambisa. A friend who know I am interested in these issues, just sent me this link to a Financial Times article about her work:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/05ef6174-4a51-11de-8e7e-00144feabdc0.html