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    Should Developed Countries Give Aid to Developing Countries?

    Originally posted by AL!CE View Post
    We should let third world countries fend for themselves and only provide them with aid that benefits us, such as giving them contraception and education to help reduce their populations (because you know the world is overcrowded and people will emigrate from poorer to richer countries) and to help stop the spread of diseases like AIDS.
    Once their populations are smaller (due to deaths and use of contraception) and better educated, they should be more able to grow enough food for and generally look after themselves.
    So being cruel to be kind (Admitedly mostly kind to us, as for example we would have more money if we stopped trying to feed Africa).
    There was a brief discussion about this in the "Unpopular Opinions" thread, and someone mentioned starting a thread about it. That was yesterday and no one did, and I was waiting until someone did to talk about it because I didn't want to derail that thread. Anyway, no one started one, so I did. I think it's an interesting topic that really warrants discussion.

    Should developed countries give aid to developing countries? If yes, why, and what kind of aid? If no, why not?

    To get the ball rolling, my take on it is that yes, they should, for a number of reasons. The most important are environmental impact and the international impact that destabilization can have. HOWEVER, I think that it's not exactly an easy solution. There is enough food pumped into Africa to feed a good lot of people, but corruption and conflict keeps that food from ever reaching its intended recipients. I also think that some kinds of aid, while well-intentioned, are bad for local economies. For example, donated clothing often destroys local textile industries, as they can't compete with free clothing, and also because a lot of locals will see the donated "western" clothes as "superior". I do agree with programs aiming to help further education (especially the education of women), health care programs, and charity along these lines. I also think microfinance can be great, though this really needs to be done responsibly, and if possible it should be regulated (though, this is tricky).

    #2
    Re: Should Developed Countries Give Aid to Developing Countries?

    Short answer: In terms of monetary aid I do believe that charity begins at home. We have enough poverty at the moment in this country. That being said, i dont really understand how much money is given in aid and what for and i dont think our government should stop giving aid completely. But that maybe they can invest it more wisely and sort our own issues out.

    I dont think throwing money at a developing country is the right way to go about it.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Should Developed Countries Give Aid to Developing Countries?

      I think that America would be better served by cleaning up some of its own problems first.

      Homeless, starving, poverty-stricken regions, crumbling infrastructures, you name it, we got it. But somehow, there never seems to be enough in anyone's budgets to do anything about it.
      The forum member formerly known as perzephone. Or Perze. I've shed a skin.

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        #4
        Re: Should Developed Countries Give Aid to Developing Countries?

        As a general rule I think humans should help each other out. That's a given. (At least it's supposed to be)

        But with third world countries it's a special case. For centuries they've been pretty much exploited and abused by other countries. And I think these countries owe them to pay them back for what they did to them.
        [4:82]

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          #5
          Re: Should Developed Countries Give Aid to Developing Countries?

          I look at this issue the same way I look at people doing healing work for a client. If you're not even helping yourself, you really have no business helping someone else. Not only are you not at your best, but the help you're giving to someone else is probably sub-par. And if it's not, if the help you're giving to someone else is better than what you do for yourself then something is most definitely not balanced and your performance will be short lived.

          I'm in total support for helping people help themselves. "Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he'll eat for a life time."
          �Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.�
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            #6
            Re: Should Developed Countries Give Aid to Developing Countries?

            It always amazes me that there seems to be plenty of money for wars... but money is begrudged to feed the hungry, and clothe them, or provide medical aid - no matter whether this is at home or abroad.

            Yes, people need to help themselves. And there are many different types of help and aid. War, for example, probably causes more deaths and hardship than just about anything else.


            And I'm sorry but as Dumuzi says, Third World Countries have been exploited and abused. They are saddled with huge debts they can never repay, at crippling interest charges. If the developed world doesn't want to send aid, it could at least try writing off the interest on the debts. That would be just.

            And as for reducing the population - just remember that a child in the developed nations expects and receives considerably more than a child in the Third World. For many of them, the best they are going to get is a place to be born and a place in which to die.

            And I personally believe they deserve - as do all children - something much better than that.
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              #7
              Re: Should Developed Countries Give Aid to Developing Countries?

              America must be a third world country. Spreading of stds and overpopulating. You know how many dumb twit teens are getting knocked up here? Getting hiv?
              Satan is my spirit animal

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                #8
                Re: Should Developed Countries Give Aid to Developing Countries?

                I'd like to see a number of stable, relatively benign governments with the power and inclination to enforce law within their own borders appear. If one is trying to maintain order with a starving, broke population and no infrastructure worth a damn then that becomes difficult. Any aid that

                1) helps put stable, benign governments running prosperous nations in various developing regions

                2) Doesn't economically break the contributing nations

                and

                3) Doesn't involve genocide or similar idiocy

                is probably justified in my book. After that my next question is, does the proposed aid work? If it isn't effective then either make it effective or find another way. This means among other things that if all your food shipments are being grabbed by warlords before reaching their destination, either re-route the shipments, acquire large escort forces, shoot the warlords responsible or cut shipments till you can find another answer to the problem. I'm all for aid. I'm vehemently opposed to throwing cash at a problem in the name of giving aid without doing everything you can to make sure what you're doing is accomplishing the goals you want.
                life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.

                Yoda: Dark Rendezvous

                "But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun." Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. "At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh, sometimes they are there; often, indeed. But in the very long run the concern of you people is with the absolute good, ahead of all else..."

                John Rowlands, The Grey King by Susan Cooper

                "You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve", said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth; be content."

                Aslan, Prince Caspian by CS Lewis


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                  #9
                  Re: Should Developed Countries Give Aid to Developing Countries?

                  Originally posted by perzephone View Post
                  I think that America would be better served by cleaning up some of its own problems first.

                  Homeless, starving, poverty-stricken regions, crumbling infrastructures, you name it, we got it. But somehow, there never seems to be enough in anyone's budgets to do anything about it.
                  Yep! Imagine if we actually paid taxes... we put men on the moon without raising the national debt! Every time we went to war in the 20th Century, we raised taxes to meet the new obligations.

                  But here's the thing: we have to curb population growth.

                  when you invest in giving people access to contraceptives, and a lifestyle where they don't have to worry about their families starving, suddenly they have ~2 kids for each couple. You know, enough to replace the family members dying off!
                  http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_roslin...on_growth.html Oh don't worry, they're happy to work for it - it is better than starving.

                  How do we get them there? http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_collie...m_billion.html
                  Aid, but we have to be a lot smarter about it.
                  "A true initiation never ends"-Robert Anton Wilson
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                    #10
                    Re: Should Developed Countries Give Aid to Developing Countries?

                    Originally posted by Tylluan Penry View Post
                    It always amazes me that there seems to be plenty of money for wars... but money is begrudged to feed the hungry, and clothe them, or provide medical aid - no matter whether this is at home or abroad.

                    Yes, people need to help themselves. And there are many different types of help and aid. War, for example, probably causes more deaths and hardship than just about anything else.


                    And I'm sorry but as Dumuzi says, Third World Countries have been exploited and abused. They are saddled with huge debts they can never repay, at crippling interest charges. If the developed world doesn't want to send aid, it could at least try writing off the interest on the debts. That would be just.

                    And as for reducing the population - just remember that a child in the developed nations expects and receives considerably more than a child in the Third World. For many of them, the best they are going to get is a place to be born and a place in which to die.

                    And I personally believe they deserve - as do all children - something much better than that.
                    I agree with DanieMarie and Tylluan Penry.

                    I'd also like to add that it's unrealistic to say "We gotta help ourselves first, then help other countries", because there's never going to be a day when our country is 100% okay.
                    One theory I found is that foreign aid is "Strategic investment. Foreign aid helps countries whose interests align with our own increase their capacities. The United States gives money to help select countries -- not the entire world -- improve specific abilities, like their ability to provide public security, defend their borders, or buy and sell goods."
                    The reasons I've seen most often (from what little research I've done online), are humanitarian, political, and developmental reasons.

                    However, I would imagine that helping the world concerns us just as much as helping ourselves. It's like we're all in this house, and even though our room is really nice, if the rest of the house is on fire, we're going down with it.

                    {And yes, I suggested this would be a good thread, but never started it 'cause I'm kinda busy and my attention is divided :-/ But I'm thrilled to be reading what everyone has to say on the topic ^_^}

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Should Developed Countries Give Aid to Developing Countries?

                      I agree mostly with the OP (Alice).

                      Basic humanitarian aid should be given, and perhaps some develpment aid that benefits us.

                      Apart from that, I feel that nature should take its course - in true Ayn Rand style.

                      sounds harsh, but it's the only way.

                      Most 3rd World countries are corrupt and dysfunctional - throwing money at them will only fuel this.

                      - - - Updated - - -

                      Originally posted by Dumuzi View Post
                      But with third world countries it's a special case. For centuries they've been pretty much exploited and abused by other countries. And I think these countries owe them to pay them back for what they did to them.
                      No-one owes anyone anything.

                      If these countries have allowed themselves to be exploited in the past then that is their own fault.

                      They should learn from their mistakes, man up and grow spines.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Should Developed Countries Give Aid to Developing Countries?

                        Originally posted by westwoden View Post
                        No-one owes anyone anything.

                        If these countries have allowed themselves to be exploited in the past then that is their own fault.

                        They should learn from their mistakes, man up and grow spines.
                        Since you are saying it's their own fault, then I think these countries should go to these other countries and do to them what has been done to them and take back what's theirs. But then you can't complain, it's the fault of those countries that allowed themselves to be exploited, right?

                        As if being exploited is a choice. Do you also blame women when they get raped? If she allowed herself to be raped then it's her own fault.
                        [4:82]

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                          #13
                          Re: Should Developed Countries Give Aid to Developing Countries?

                          When you look at the history of many ex-colonial countries you can see that their leaders and elites allowed for the exploitation - for short term monetary gain.

                          This is exactly what continues today.

                          Just a different form of colonisation.

                          The rich foreigner lords it over his poor compatriates and hides behind the begging bowl.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Should Developed Countries Give Aid to Developing Countries?

                            Originally posted by westwoden View Post
                            When you look at the history of many ex-colonial countries you can see that their leaders and elites allowed for the exploitation - for short term monetary gain.
                            And this is the fault of the people living in those countries how again?
                            [4:82]

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Should Developed Countries Give Aid to Developing Countries?

                              I'm not touching the issue of debt due to exploitation. I will say that a developing nation capable of seriously considering retribution against historic oppressors probably doesn't need help. If they are considering it before actually being a stable, functional, prosperous society? Shrug, mortals get free will. That does include the option to commit suicide but I'd prefer if the would be corpses just shoot themselves instead of taking significant portions of their own population to the afterlife by picking fights that they are in no position to truly win.
                              life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.

                              Yoda: Dark Rendezvous

                              "But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun." Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. "At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh, sometimes they are there; often, indeed. But in the very long run the concern of you people is with the absolute good, ahead of all else..."

                              John Rowlands, The Grey King by Susan Cooper

                              "You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve", said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth; be content."

                              Aslan, Prince Caspian by CS Lewis


                              Comment

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