Are Americans stingy in helping the poorest?
Well, are we in fact stingy as Jan Egeland of the UN suggested recently? What prompted this statement was how much development aid we've been giving as the following excerpt shows:
"Americans give 15 cents per day per person in official development assistance to poor countries....We gave 15 cents for every $100 of national income to poor countries. Denmark gave 84 cents, the Netherlands gave 80 cents, Belgium gave 60 cents, France gave 41 cents, and Greece gave 21 cents (that was the lowest share, beside our own)."
- from today's NYTimes
However, we are very generous in times of great need, whether it was to rebuild Western Europe or fund emergency relief for Tsunami victims. So, why these extremes of behavior? In with what Kristof's column in today's NYT offers: 1) We don't like watching awful footage on TV 2) We feel less secure to donate to off-the-spotlight causes as we expect little accountability. And 3) Out of sight, out of mind.
So, what now? At this time of great need, it would help if we realized that these Asian countries are not nearly the poorest on earth and that in fact, more folks die every year of malaria and AIDS than this year's tsunami. And most amazing of all, it would take on the order of a few cents a day to fix the malaria problems and a few dollars a day to address the AIDS cases!!!
Our sense of morality toward saving lives, makes us a lone nation that witholds government funding for stem cell research, so why not use this moral clarity to save millions of lives all over the world? Given the numbers above, from a moral and diplomatic standpoint, it is imperative that we urge our representatives in Congress and our friends/neighbors to fund the eradication of malaria and treatment of AIDS in the poorest nations.
And yes, practically speaking, accountability in funding health initiatives is among the best ways to get results out of international aid money. IT IS HIGH TIME THAT AMERICANS MADE WORLD-WIDE HEADLINES FOR ERADICATING MALARIA AND MAKING AIDS DEATHS A THING OF THE PAST.
"Americans give 15 cents per day per person in official development assistance to poor countries....We gave 15 cents for every $100 of national income to poor countries. Denmark gave 84 cents, the Netherlands gave 80 cents, Belgium gave 60 cents, France gave 41 cents, and Greece gave 21 cents (that was the lowest share, beside our own)."
- from today's NYTimes
However, we are very generous in times of great need, whether it was to rebuild Western Europe or fund emergency relief for Tsunami victims. So, why these extremes of behavior? In with what Kristof's column in today's NYT offers: 1) We don't like watching awful footage on TV 2) We feel less secure to donate to off-the-spotlight causes as we expect little accountability. And 3) Out of sight, out of mind.
So, what now? At this time of great need, it would help if we realized that these Asian countries are not nearly the poorest on earth and that in fact, more folks die every year of malaria and AIDS than this year's tsunami. And most amazing of all, it would take on the order of a few cents a day to fix the malaria problems and a few dollars a day to address the AIDS cases!!!
Our sense of morality toward saving lives, makes us a lone nation that witholds government funding for stem cell research, so why not use this moral clarity to save millions of lives all over the world? Given the numbers above, from a moral and diplomatic standpoint, it is imperative that we urge our representatives in Congress and our friends/neighbors to fund the eradication of malaria and treatment of AIDS in the poorest nations.
And yes, practically speaking, accountability in funding health initiatives is among the best ways to get results out of international aid money. IT IS HIGH TIME THAT AMERICANS MADE WORLD-WIDE HEADLINES FOR ERADICATING MALARIA AND MAKING AIDS DEATHS A THING OF THE PAST.
posted by Self at 2:04 PM
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