Department of English | University of Washington



Foreign Aid Funds Corruption I was born and raised in Ethiopia, where one government party has been in power for over two decades. The country is labeled as a country thatWhile our country follows a democratic government system but, people don’t have basic human rights like freedom of speech, freedom of the press, orand the right to bear arms. Ethiopia has also been the receiving recipient of foreign aid for a long period of time and yet the our number of poor people appears to have stayed the samehas remained unchanged. That’s because our The economic system is regulated by the government officials who use such foreign aid to line their pockets, rather than feed the hungriest among usgovernment and all the money that enters the country as foreign aid first fills government official’s pockets, then maybe reaches its intended place. Out of curiosityIf you I looked up the richest people in Ethiopia, and most of them are government officials who were veryhappened to be very poor when they went into officebefore they entered office. While these These people are living as multi-millionaires, while most of the country is struggling to pay for basic necessities of life, like water or medicine. And, unfortunately, we’re not alone. This is the case for many foreign aid receiving countries.According to the Central Intelligence Agency, there are countries where people earn less than $2 a day. It has been this way for an exceedingly long time, despite the fact that. dDeveloped nations, like the USA and some European countries, have been aiding third world countries with about 0.7 percent of their annual income for years. The total amount of foreign aid that has flown into Africa over the last fifty years is about $1 trillion, while . dDeveloped nations now are directingcontinue to give about $50 billion annually to Africa annually. However, according to the World Bank, According to the World Bank, the number of poor people only fell by 76 million over the last fifty years, and despite the significant expenditure, the continent hasn’t shown any economic development at all. So the question becomes:, where is all the money going if we don’t see any economic improvements in foreign aid receiving countries? Contributors of The Spectator, Daron Acemoglu and James A.Robinson state in their article for The Spectator that,: “if money alone were the solution, not only we would we reduce the number of poor people, but we would be able to eradicate poverty forever.” Unfortunately, this has not been the case because mMost foreign aid receiving countries, like Ethiopia, have unstable a government systems and the people in power are very corruptand very corrupt people in power. Corruption is one of the major problems that contributes to why foreign aid fails to serve its purpose. The other big reasonproblem is that foreign aid makes poor countries dependent on First World nations in a way that cripples their independence and growth by reducing their incentive to build their own economies. on it economically and it makes the people incapable of living on their own accomplishments. If most of the GDP of these countries come from foreign aid, it makes the countries depend on aid and reduces the opportunity for the countries to build their own economic system. So if foreign aid is not the answer, then what is the solution that is most effective to reducing poverty in the world that is not just moneyto eradicating poverty in Third World countries? I believe the solution is not to stop the flow of foreign aid, which still does some good, but to put sanctions on countries that have corrupt government and s, to reduce or stop the money flow through foreign aid and implementing implement a policiesy that works to helpwill encourage these countries to become economically independent. Apartheid in South Africa is a great example of how the system of foreign aid receiving countries is oppressing its low class residentsactually contributes to the oppression and poverty of those living in the Third World. Apartheid was a system of racial segregation that existed in South Africa from 1948 until 1994. Under this system, black South Africans, who accounted for 70 percent of the population, were not denied numerous rights. Not only were black Africans forcibly moved into derelict ghettos and prohibited from voting, but the were also forced to live under a set of economic institutions and rules that told people what they could or could not do. In apartheid, the rules only targeted black South Africans who accounted for 70 percent of the population. The black community was trapped under the system and were limited from climbing up the economic ladderlaws that prevented them from escaping poverty. Even though black people dreamed of going to a good schools, graduating and having meaningful a great jobs, they were forced to follow the system’s oppressive policy wouldn’t allow it. They had to have a passThose had to travel or work in white communities had to have a special pass to do so. They were banned from occupying any skilled or professional jobs and. tThe only jobs they were allowed to take in white communities were as unskilled workers. Furthermore, black Africans They were banned from owning their own property or starting their own businesses. The same situation takes place nowadays in many countries. Most foreign aid receiving countries have a government system that is unstable and very corrupt. Like apartheid, the majority of people in these counties are oppressed economically, politically and socially. The foreign aid that is meant to help poor people does not always reach and help people. The poor people will not ever be able to pull themselves out of poverty, because the basic rights and abilities to do so are denied. Even if these people are receiving aid money, they will not be able climb up the economic ladder and gain economic independence due to the lack basic human rights. Acemoglu and A.Robinson have some quotes from poor people living in poor foreign aid receiving countries. A Jamaican person states: “Poverty is like living in jail, living under bondage, waiting to be free.” Another from Nigeria say: “If you want to do something and have no power to do it, it is talauchi [poverty].” Recognizing that poor countries are poor because of the system that is set to trap them under an oppressive economic structure helps us understand how to best help them. It also gives us a better idea of how we can use foreign aid to provide poor people with the basic necessities to climb up the economic ladder. I believe that stopping the money flow throughflow of foreign aid is not the best solution to our problem. The money still does a lot of good. It provides public services, feeds the hungry and saves lives. Still,But foreign aid does not help people climb out of the oppressive institutions that make them hungry, sick, poor and dependent. So if we understand that foreign aid helps but at the same time it makes people very dependent on it and makes it difficult for them to ever become independent,. tThe solution is clear. Foreign aid donating countries like the USA and European countriesEU nations need to get together and implement a law that makes sure the money does not go to the elites in power. Instead of handing the money straight to corrupt governments, developed nations should send in people to build infrastructure and teach the local people how to be economically independent. WHO should tTeach them howto use their talents to feed themselves. As I mentioned earlier, the people in power make it impossible for the people to climb up the economic ladder but if powerful countries like the USA impose a law or put a sanction on these governments, we would see changes. Governments in developed nations do not like any conflict with dictators who let them do business, or help them by providing resources. For example, China is now all over Africa building an empire. The Chinese government is willing to give corrupt governments money in exchange for natural resources even though it hurts the local people. So if governments are not willing to solve the issue of foreign aid, we the people who care for the poor people need to pressure politicians to set aside their self-interests and write a law that helps poor people. We need to force the government to empower the poor not make them dependent on foreign aid money. Foreign aid works. theguardian contributor Sachs argues that foreign aid works and he presents his argument by providing facts and data. He shows that the number of epidemic disease related deaths and infant mortality has fallen sharply because WHY. He takes us back to in 2000, when Africa was struggling with major epidemics. AIDS was killing more than 2 million people each year. The number of people dying from malaria and tuberculosis soared because people had no access to the hospital. Then the United Nations used foreign aid money to provide drugs, health centers and reduce the death caused by epidemic diseases. Around 12 million children under the age of five died in 1990. By 2010, this number has declined to around 7.6 million. This improvement is due to foreign aid. It has also brought down people dying from malaria, deaths of pregnant women and other preventable diseases.I agree with Sachs argument about the fact that foreign aid helps but Sachs is only focusing on the numbers. His argument doesn’t provide any perspectives from the poor people themselves. He argues strongly that foreign aid is working right and he provides data showing the improvement in health care but does not talk about why most African countries have not shown any economic improvement in the last decade despite the large currency flow through aid. He misses the big picture which is how foreign aid helps these countries in the long run. Even though the number of people dying from epidemic diseases has fallen sharply, it does not mean the people are out of the oppressive institution. Sachs and anyone who believes foreign aid works needs to be able to answer the question of why African countries have not shown economic improvement if foreign aid does in fact work. I encourage everyone who cares about this issue to demand politicians to pass laws that would stop our tax money from ending up in the hands of corrupt governments. Writer’s MemoI enjoyed working on this assignment because I was able to work on an issue I care about and I was able to integrate my personal experience of living in Ethiopia in the essay. I was not sure at first where to place my “personal experience” paragraph in the essay and I decided to make it the first paragraph of the essay since it’s powerful in the sense that it makes my reader interested more than if I just start with facts and numbers. One thing I believe I am missing is road map. I try to include my road map in the second paragraph but my reviewer doesn’t think I have a road map. Another weakness in my paper is that I don’t have a well-structured essay. I believe I can work more on organizing the paragraphs better and having a clear distinctions between each paragraph. Overall, I enjoyed writing the essay.I think this is very a worthwhile topic and your problem and solution are well defined. You do a good job of showing us how foreign aid fails to make real change in the second paragraph and then you offer us your solution (I had to edit to some extent, because you end up contradicting yourself later on (your original claim said the flow of foreign aid should be slowed or stopped and later you said that it shouldn’t be)…that contradiction has now been fixed according to what I thought you were really arguing for. The biggest problems here are: (as you wisely observed) organization and a lack of specific evidence. Right now, your paragraphs don’t have clear points that they are each trying to make. Instead, you jump back and forth from point to point. It feels as though you kept circling around and around in each paragraph, which also made it feel like you were repeating yourself. Furthermore, you don’t back up your points with concrete evidence or you bring up things like Apartheid but fail to show how foreign aid has contributed to keeping this oppressive structures in place (which is part of your argument). My suggestion is your organize your paper like this:Intro: personal relationship to the issue (good right now)Complex claim where you define problem and solution (good right now)A paragraph where you discuss that foreign IS effective and show us how (use example of $ from UN for AIDS, etc. A paragraph where you discuss that it could be BETTER. Use evidence to talk about how the numbers aren’t that good.A paragraph where you discuss WHY the numbers are bad: corrupt politicians take the money. NEED TO GIVE CONCRETE EVIDENCE OF THIS. YOU DON’T TELL US ABOUT ONE PARTICULAR INSTANCE OF POLITICIANS DOING THIS BUT JUST GENERALLY REFERENCE THISSolution: sanctions that will keep the above from happening NEED TO BE MORE SPECIFIC ABOUT THE TYPES OF SANCTIONS THAT WOULD WORK. DO YOU HAVE ANY CONCRETE EXAMPLES? A paragraph where you talk about how foreign aid often props up the oppressive systems that need to be eradicated; THIS IS WHERE YOU CAN USE APARTHEID, BUT YOU NEED TO SHOW ITS RELATIONSHIP TO FOREIGN AID SPECIFICALLYSolution: INSTEAD OF THROWING MONEY AT CORRUPT GOVERNMENTS, SEND PEOPLET O BUILD INFRASTRUCTRE THAT WILL TOPPLE THESE REGIMES AND HELP PEOPLE BECOME ECONOMICALLY INDEPENDENT. CONCLUSION: ELABORATE ON THE STAKES OF YOUR ARGUMENT. I think that if you follow this rough outline and include more SPECIFIC evidence, your paper will be strong. ................
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