A Conservative View On Development Aid: Revaluing Peter Bauer's Legacy
From the desk of Dirk Crols on Mon, 2011-03-28 09:00
One of Brussels' latest rather brutal infringements of member states' sovereignty is the proposal from European Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs to force the national governments to spend 0.7 percent of their Gross National Income (GNI) to development aid. If they fail to meet this imposed objective, the Commission will impose sanctions.
Forcing the member states to comply with this arbitrary norm, this '0.7 percent dogma' is not only the world upside down, it will also make problems in Africa and in other poor regions and countries even worse. Targets should be set according to demand rather than supply. Rather than imposing targets to increase aid, based on how well donor country economies are doing with no relation to Africa's economic circumstances, we should be setting targets to decrease aid, having analysed more profoundly its impact on recipient countries. The aid quantity argument - the assumption that more aid money would automatically lead to more development - is indeed a fallacy. The facts are crystal-clear. Over the past 60 years, at least one trillion in aid has been transferred from so-called rich countries to Africa. Yet real per-capita income today is lower than it was in the 1970s, and more than 50 percent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day, a figure that has nearly doubled in decades.
Tribal, Communal And Ethnic Conflicts: Their Origin And Future Trajectory
From the desk of William Holland on Mon, 2011-03-28 07:31
Arnold Toynbee's 12-volume study of the genesis, growth and breakdown of dozens of civilizations is back in vogue with the demise of Marxism and the robust acclaim given to market-based solutions in political economies across the world. He had much to say concerning the origin of war and the intractable nature of religious based autocracies that reign throughout Asia, the Near East and Africa.
Perhaps the single most timely insight that dominates twelve massive volumes is violently on display by Iranian proxies that cover the Middle East. Toynbee reveals the significance of studying the fall of the Roman Empire along the North-East frontier up to the Danube River that is today known as Western Europe. According to Toynbee, whenever a formidable sophisticated civilization maintains a limes (a series of military outposts to engage, contain and thwart an enemy), the more sophisticated culture heats up and disturbs the weaker, whereby ultimately the stronger culture is overwhelmed and collapses in its engagement with an intractable foe.
Posts
