Dan M wrote: > One of the main causes of starvation is that people with guns stop NGOs from > distributing food at gunpoint. Some allow it through, after substantial > bribes are paid, some don't. My daughter has worked in this area for about > 4-5 years now, and has some strong opinions.
I'm going to disagree a little bit here. While food aid can have some immediate positive benefits compared to doing nothing, it can also create a long-term problem for the recipient countries. Food aid as it is currently structured is primarily a way of benefiting farmers in the donor countries. Governments buy up food, putting money in the pockets of farmers, and then dump it in a foreign country where it can have no impact on prices in the donor country (in fact, the government purchases in themselves raise prices in donor countries). The impact in the recipient countries is to knock the bottom out of the market and drive local farmers out of business. That creates a perpetual cycle of starvation and dependency, and is one reason why the same places have to keep coming back for more aid year after year. If our true objective was to help starving countries to achieve food self-sufficiency (and I am pretty sure that is *not* the main objective of our politicians), that can be done fairly simply by sending them money. With money, they can purchase food. This in turn raises food prices, and creates incentives for local farmers to produce for the market since they have ready buyers. And then you could reduce the tariff barriers you mentioned earlier, which would also have a strong positive impact on those economies. I doubt that reducing the tariff barriers before you have a strong local economy will do that much to end dependency in those countries. Regards, -- Kevin B. O'Brien TANSTAAFL [EMAIL PROTECTED] Linux User #333216 "The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues." -- Elizabeth Taylor _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
