Thoughts from Dennis

Mom forwarded me the latest chain email (see below) whining about how much foreign aid the USA gives to countries which don't vote with us the UN. Here's my 2 cents....
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Hi Mom,

Kind of over simplified. I wonder what the break down is between military related aid & humanitarian aid? Often it's the military aid that the governments want & which keeps them in power & works as a bribe for them to vote our way. And which all to often causes more trouble in the future (After all, 20 years ago, our government was sending weapons & other support to "freedom-fighters" like Osama Bin Laden in Afganistan. Too bad they turned out to hate us as much as they hated the Soviets, but I guess our government think it relevant at the time.)

(NB: I know that Egypt gets so much aid as part of a peace treaty between them & Israel, so that's really a separate issue).

And it's amazing that a big poverty stricken country like India with around 1 billion people gets only about 200 million in aid (I bet it's mostly military too). That's less than $1 per American per year, or <$2 per American taxpayer per year.

The email also skips the fact that the US is one of the stingier Western countries: we spend <1% of our Gross Domestic Product in foreign aid--which is the low end of the spectrum. At the high end is some of the Scandinavian countries at >2% of GDP (and as far as anyone can tell, >2% is what is needed).

Of course, the periodic emails like this one that circulate boasting about American generousity and whining about how excessive it is, always focus on total figures (not per capita), and never differentiate military aid from humanitarian.

One also has to consider how much worse things might be without the humanitarian aid to other countries. Very often the common people are friendly to the US, in no small part due to the humanitarian aid. (Unfortunately, too many others are unfriendly to the US, in no small part due to the use of the military aid against civilians).

One great thing about my job is that I often get to meet talented & bright people in various travels. At one investigator meeting, I ate dinner with a Doctor from Pakistan who fled because of trouble with local version of the taliban. One of the religous thugs had cut his wife's arm with a knife in the marketplace because her sleeves were too short, the local police were too scared to prosecute, and by the time the story ended, a collegue was shot dead, and he had to flee the country. He guessed that only about 5% of the people actually sided with the taliban, but the rest of the population was too intimidated to stand up against them. Between government corruption, the religious thugs, the poverty, etc., etc., the country is a basket case.

What does this have to do with the UN & foreign aid? I'd rather the government of Pakistan oppose the USA in public forums like UN votes and work with us behind the scenes in dealing with the real problems. And I'd like to increase my share of the foreign aid to Pakistan from $0.04 to over a dime , as long as the aid goes to win the hearts & minds of the people (but not just to prop up a corrupt government which is worsening the problems). Since Pakistan has both nuclear bombs, and a lot of Islamic militants who want to use those bombs against the West, cutting foreign aid is about as "penny-wise, pound-foolish" as one can get.

I guess some people just don't "get" what 9/11 was about, and what is going on elsewhere in the world.....


-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 7:56 AM
Subject: FW: How They Vote In the UN

>Below are the actual voting records of various Arabic/Islamic States which are recorded in both the US State Department and United Nations records:
>
> Kuwait votes against the United States 67% of the time. Qatar votes against the United States 67% of the time. Morocco votes against the United States 70% of the time. United Arab Emirates votes against the U. S. 70% of the time. Jordan votes against the United States 71% of the time. Tunisia votes against the United States 71% of the time. Saudi Arabia votes against the United States 73% of the time. Yemen votes against the United States 74% of the time Algeria votes against the United States 74% of the time. Oman votes against the United States 74% of the time Sudan votes against the United States 75% of the time. Pakistan votes against the United States 75% of the time. Libya votes against the United States 76% of the time. Egypt votes against the United States 79% of the time. Lebanon votes against the United States 80% of the time. India votes against the United States 81% of the time. Syria votes against the United States 84% of the time. Mauritania votes against the United States 87% of the time.

US Foreign Aid to those that hate us: Egypt, for example, after voting 79% of the time against the United States, still receives $2 billion annually in US Foreign Aid. Jordan votes 71% against the United States and receives $192,814,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.

Pakistan votes 75% against the United States receives $6,721,000 annually in US Foreign Aid. India votes 81% against the United States receives $143,699,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.

Perhaps it is time to get out of the UN and give the tax savings back to the American workers who are having to skimp and sacrifice to pay the taxes.

>Pass it along. Everyone needs to know this. Might even mention it to your congressman, who knows it anyway...what a disgrace...no wonder the
world has no respect for us!
>
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posted by Dennis Sweitzer @ 10:15 AM