PHM-Exch> Food for a not really altruistic thought

[Claudio Schuftan]

Human Rights Reader 276



*DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION* CLAIMS ALTRUISM AND MORALITY, BUT IS DRIVEN BY AN
IMAGE OF MORAL SUPERIORITY. *



*1. For foreign aid to be effective in reducing poverty it must first and
foremost be disbursed in good faith for that purpose --without political
naiveté or double talk. *



Unfortunately, aid is still seen as ‘temporary assistance’, a sort of *noblesse
oblige* on the part of rich countries (whose riches, to begin with, derived
in good part from the impoverishing exploitation of many of the present
aid-dependent countries).


The notion that today’s aid dependent countries can, with the right
macroeconomic framework and new trade rules, grow into fiscal independence
within an ethically-defensible-time-frame is simply mistaken.

*2. In human rights work, we put our money where our ideals are…i.e., where
the risks are.*

* *

Human rights activists oppose aid more because it is borne out of
compassion than because it is ineffective.


*3. Foreign aid: wrong focus?*



Often trapped in a ‘growth-only’ delusion, development cooperation vows to
focus on poor people, but instead primarily focuses on poor countries…The
HR-based framework definitely focuses on poor people --anywhere and
everywhere.


To read the full Reader, go to

http://wp.me/plAxa-1wW

Claudio
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