Irony in “US Aid” or Another Kind of “String Theory”

Irony – Thy name is “US Aid” or Another “Kind of “String Theory”

Here is a riddle: Why does it make sense to support sending unrestricted billions of dollars in money and equipment each month to Iraq to cause destruction and loss of military and civilian lives without any clear plan to improve the long term situation for the local populace, yet at the same time block spending $35 million dollars to support a clearly established foreign aid plan for construction of a local irrigation system in a drought stricken region in Africa and temporary food shipments to prevent starvation while the irrigation project is built?

Unfortunately, the answer to this riddle is something that can come only from a terribly misguided and confused Congress so caught up in special interest hypnosis that it cannot even think through the policies that it publicly claims to support. The Kenyan government approved the local irrigation project that would enable people in the drought region to turn 1000 acres of arid land into farmland capable of supporting the local populace. It objected, however, to importation of American corn to feed the local population when there was a surplus of corn on the Kenyan market. The American aid laws, however, prohibited purchasing the corn in Africa [at a lower prices, mind you] to supply the locals with sufficient nourishment while the irrigation project was built. The apparent reason for the restriction was that the US farm belt state legislators demanded that all aid money be used only to buy American products for export, even though the stated purpose of the aid bill was to help distressed foreign projects, not as a domestic subsidy for US farmers [provided by a separate farm Aid Bill]. Beyond this irrational policy implementation, the squabbling to begrudge starving people trying to survive by building a self sustaining source of food of a mere $35 million while shipping billions of dollars in bombs and military equipment to sustain an occupation force that has no demonstrable purpose seems a misguided priority, if not totally absurd.

UN World Food Program revealed in a recent report the ability to provide 75% more actual food aid to distressed and starving people in Africa by purchasing the food in Africa and redistributing it where the hunger and famine existed. The major obstacles contributing to loss of life in famine and drought stricken regions seem to be lack of infrastructure, ineffective distribution of existing resources and political instability. This suggests that prudent money management would require the US Administration to maximize the effectiveness of aid dollars by purchasing the necessary food products where the lowest available price coincides with the lowest transportation and importation costs. The Kenyan government could be faulted for not redistributing the food within its own country to address the starvation problems. However, even that effort requires money.

If the US government were to give the same aid dollars to the Kenyan government for the purpose of buying food locally for the aid project there would still be greater effectiveness than trying to import American corn. Acknowledging that potential of corruption could divert funds from the intended purpose, the Kenyan government would permit the internationally respected World Vision charity to achieve its humanitarian mission by purchasing corn on the Kenyan markets to support the irrigation project. But then the statutory restriction on US aid dollars prevented those local purchases. The result is that promises were broken and women and children died of starvation while the irrigation project was being built. It now supports farming that allows local farmers to distribute excess produce to the needy in the area. This is progress. But the cost of unnecessary loss of life from cruel and agonizing starvation could have been avoided had special interest blinded legislators released the choke hold on the aid and allowed the money to be used most effectively to achieve the intended purpose.