What is now called “humanitarian aid” leads to the opposite of what donors believe.
1 Development aid often supports corrupt rulers
A large part of development aid is siphoned off directly by the local rulers. Depending on what it is – money or food – it is sold for personal gain or distributed in pseudo-democratic election campaigns to secure their own power.
2 Development aid often destroys the local economy
Another part of so-called “humanitarian aid” goes straight to the black market. And because there are no production costs, the local farmers and producers naturally cannot keep up and go bankrupt.
3 Development aid creates dependencies
When development aid has started, it never stops. What sounds good is often fatal in practice because after a short time, the recipients can no longer easily do without it. As a result, we have to give more and more, while structures of dependency develop in the recipient countries.
4 Development aid can prevent development
Building infrastructures and operating them independently is associated with enormous costs. The fact that in many parts of the developing world most products come from the West free of charge hardly creates any incentives for self-employment.
5 Development aid finances war and terror
According to studies, depending on the location, a significant amount of the food that comes in as development aid ends up in the hands of terrorist organizations and warlords. They rob the convoys or, what is even simpler, bribe the local distributors.
The food is then sold on the black market – often at exorbitant prices. The money is then invested in weapons and the game starts over.
6 Development aid often ignores local customs
Nobody should go hungry, that’s clear. But development aid sometimes overshoots the mark – with dramatic consequences. It is certainly not unusual for warring villages to have exchanged their crops for weapons. Aid services that go beyond basic social security are threatening to prolong conflicts.
7 Development workers sometimes have no interest in development aid
The “development aid” system does not only consist of volunteers and those in need. Regardless of whether state or private: jobs very often depend on it – sometimes very well-paid jobs. Solving problems and effectively combating the causes of poverty is therefore definitely a conflict of interest when highly paid positions are involved.
Often, with development aid money, fundamental problems are not even tackled but are put in ideologically motivated gender projects, a favourite of Justin Trudeau.
8 Development aid is a profitable business
There is a real industry behind the money that should be helping the local people. Starting with the development workers who hand over food in photos, to the photographer behind the camera, media designers in public relations, copywriters, advertisers, flyer distributors, acquisition employees and of course the managers: they all want to be paid. Private aid organizations have salaries often over $100,000. This money has to be donated first.
9 Unsustainable development aid means more refugees and migrants
The opposite of “good” is often “good intentions”. Development aid, which not only does not create sustainable infrastructure, but weakens the local economy and results in dependencies, is partly responsible for people continuing to leave their country. Saving lives and fighting hunger are of course paramount, but long-term development aid must always help people to help themselves.
10 Development aid often goes to countries that do not need it
Are children saved and hungry people fed with the money from development aid? Not often! China, for example, is among the recipient countries – and not too scarce. The Canadian government has given over a billion taxpayer dollars to the world power since 2000, and continues to give millions more. This is a country that has just landed another spacecraft on the moon. Any country with a space program (this includes India, Iran, North Korea, Brazil, etc.) should not be receiving “development aid”!
Transverse Waves 