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Doge cuts to USAid blamed for 300k deaths – most of them children

thetimes.com

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Re: Doge cuts to USAid blamed for 300k deaths – most of them children

#21

Post by owebmaster »

cadamsdotcom wrote: post #7

First to get this out of the way, I do not support the destruction of USAID and I definitely do not support the death of 300,000 people. This study brings to light a hidden problem of countries and individuals dependent on foreign aid. There should’ve been plans in place to reduce foreign aid dependency over time. Yes provide aid as needed & appropriate, but work out what it’ll take for the country to not need it and…

> Is there something I don’t know?

Yes. Software power. We are talking about the TANSTAAFL land. All those countries are full of corporations sending profits without paying fair royalties or taxes, which are paid back in the US.

Re: Doge cuts to USAid blamed for 300k deaths – most of them children

#22

Post by safety1st »

cadamsdotcom wrote: post #7

First to get this out of the way, I do not support the destruction of USAID and I definitely do not support the death of 300,000 people. This study brings to light a hidden problem of countries and individuals dependent on foreign aid. There should’ve been plans in place to reduce foreign aid dependency over time. Yes provide aid as needed & appropriate, but work out what it’ll take for the country to not need it and…

Respectfully, yes there is!

Foreign aid is not a thing governments dole out due to the kindness of their hearts.

More often than not its purpose is to curry military, economic or political favor with the recipient country.

More often than not a lot of it is skimmed off the top once it arrives.

The US loves to buy allies - reciprocity may come in the form of the country in question agreeing to a military base, or a trade deal. It can be as specific as "You will allow these specific US megacorps to do business in your country unhindered." This stuff isn't really secret at all, hang out at AmCham meetings overseas and you will hear all about it.

The folks back home, though, are generally unaware.

I don't support the death of 300k people either (which currently is not a real thing, it is in a model created by an academic). But the American public has every right to form opinions about whether this money is well spent and express them at the ballot box.

As an expat who has seen how a bit of the sausage is made overseas with this money, just shutting down USAID overnight was pretty reckless but I wouldn't be surprised if more than half of it was spent in ways that the average US taxpayer would be enraged by. This is a country with $36T of debt we're talking about, my main concern is I don't think Trump and Musk will go far enough.

Re: Doge cuts to USAid blamed for 300k deaths – most of them children

#23

Post by hoseyor »

Out_of_Characte wrote: post #12
cadamsdotcom wrote: post #7

First to get this out of the way, I do not support the destruction of USAID and I definitely do not support the death of 300,000 people. This study brings to light a hidden problem of countries and individuals dependent on foreign aid. There should’ve been plans in place to reduce foreign aid dependency over time. Yes provide aid as needed & appropriate, but work out what it’ll take for the country to not need it and…

As conspiratorial as this sounds, alot of successfull non-profit organisations have a vested interest in becoming a critical part of their infrastructure so that funding cuts would be a humanitarian disaster in of itself which neccecitates the continuation of the organisation. Foreign aid has always been a double edged sword when it comes to self-reliance and lasting change

It does not sound conspiratorial at all. I know this to be a fact from first person knowledge and experience that it is exactly what goes on in NGO board rooms. It’s not really all that different than the MIC though.

Abstracting a bit more, it’s also not really any different than aristocratic, monarchical, and even feudal patronage systems where your fortune and standing was directly linked to how close you could get to the monarch/center of power. In fact, I see the west devolving towards such patronage systems as power and wealth keeps concentrating. All across the board you see every more sycophancy as people grovel for benefits.

Re: Doge cuts to USAid blamed for 300k deaths – most of them children

#24

Post by ourmandave »

rsqnow wrote: post #5
oldpersonintx2 wrote: post #2

[flagged]

As a percentage of GNI, many nations give more development aid than the US. Norway gives 5x more, Germany 3x, France 2x, UK 2x. The US is on par with Slovenia, Poland, Lithuania, and Spain. You can see for yourself here: https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/official-development-assistan...

Stated in total $ of %

US 0.22% of GNI = $63.3B Norway 1% of GNI = $5.2B

I not only hate that they cut aid, but that they did it abruptly, like everything else. No fore thought or care of how it will impact anyone or if it's even legal.

Just one giant fuck you after another, all in the name of the isolationist America First.

Re: Doge cuts to USAid blamed for 300k deaths – most of them children

#25

Post by hoseyor »

motorest wrote: post #16
cadamsdotcom wrote: post #7

First to get this out of the way, I do not support the destruction of USAID and I definitely do not support the death of 300,000 people. This study brings to light a hidden problem of countries and individuals dependent on foreign aid. There should’ve been plans in place to reduce foreign aid dependency over time. Yes provide aid as needed & appropriate, but work out what it’ll take for the country to not need it and…

> This study brings to light a hidden problem of countries and individuals dependent on foreign aid. There should’ve been plans in place to reduce foreign aid dependency over time. This would be a reasonable topic to discuss, if only these cuts to USAID didn't resulted in supplies decaying in warehouses. This means no cost was cut and no expense was averted: just waste. Those desperately depending on these supplies t…

Just because things exist does not mean transporting and securely delivering them half way across the planet would be expense free.

But maybe you are right, there should have been a way for people who want to pay for the delivery and security of that aid out of their own pockets. It could have been a voluntary sign up of whatever the cost would have been, added as a proportional tax at the end of the year, anywhere from 1%-100% of net worth.

Re: Doge cuts to USAid blamed for 300k deaths – most of them children

#26

Post by exceptione »

cadamsdotcom wrote: post #7

First to get this out of the way, I do not support the destruction of USAID and I definitely do not support the death of 300,000 people. This study brings to light a hidden problem of countries and individuals dependent on foreign aid. There should’ve been plans in place to reduce foreign aid dependency over time. Yes provide aid as needed & appropriate, but work out what it’ll take for the country to not need it and…

  > but work out what it’ll take for the country to not need it and try to get there..
One moment. You are just asking to increase the program that will take generations, while being dependent on factors you don't influence.

Many African countries are overrun by Russian wagnerites, who protect local war lords and take control of natural resources. Part of the program is to ensure ongoing chaos and prevent local development.

Some other African countries are burried by Chinese debt, their "development" agenda is set by China with focus on extracting natural resources.

So that is why health, democracy, rule of law and state building is not on the agenda. Thus children die.

The USA has/had an organized administration, laws, police, hospitals etc. But if Americans in comfort even then bow their head for a weird mix of criminals and sectarians, what magic agency would you expect from a population living from health crisis to health crisis in extreme poverty?

Re: Doge cuts to USAid blamed for 300k deaths – most of them children

#27

Post by stenl »

hoseyor wrote: post #14
cadamsdotcom wrote: post #7

First to get this out of the way, I do not support the destruction of USAID and I definitely do not support the death of 300,000 people. This study brings to light a hidden problem of countries and individuals dependent on foreign aid. There should’ve been plans in place to reduce foreign aid dependency over time. Yes provide aid as needed & appropriate, but work out what it’ll take for the country to not need it and…

Not only that, but the whole system was such that the very type and nature of the support led to ever more dependency and creation of yet more need that the system could then further argue needed more support, i.e., a self-licking ice cream cone. Worse yet, at the cost and expense of people who are damaged by being forced to support this system against their will. I propose that everyone that supports things like USA…

The average federal tax rate is 14%, and the USAID budget was about 0.8% of the federal budget, so you’ve been paying about a 0.1% tax to fund USAID.

Re: Doge cuts to USAid blamed for 300k deaths – most of them children

#28

Post by hoseyor »

encom wrote: post #8

>The numbers are not recorded deaths, but rather predictions. “They’re modelled numbers and I recognise the limitations that that comes with,” she said. “We don’t have routine data sets that we can measure someone as ‘killed by the US lack of funding’.” Why are journos so dishonest?

Because their friends and family are part of the NGO complex. Usually the directors and board members. I know this from personal experience and knowledge.

If they did not know each other from college or growing up, the NGO associated people seek out journalists for that kind of reason and journalists are often flattered by the attention, aka lobbying, and drawn in. It’s a really corrupted system that only further encourages that kind of behavior because it is the very nature of that system today that any new entrants come into.

Basically none of the transparency efforts of the mid aughts seem to have really made any kind of real impact on the corruption of the system either. I’m not sure if it’s just correlation, but it almost feels like the transparency efforts only gave false senses of confidence, not to mention that many of the transparency initiatives are also corrupted, receiving their funding also from the NGO complex and also being drawn into the complex itself. It’s an inherently incestuous system like the MIC or the judicial system.

Re: Doge cuts to USAid blamed for 300k deaths – most of them children

#29

Post by hoseyor »

container wrote: post #18
encom wrote: post #8

>The numbers are not recorded deaths, but rather predictions. “They’re modelled numbers and I recognise the limitations that that comes with,” she said. “We don’t have routine data sets that we can measure someone as ‘killed by the US lack of funding’.” Why are journos so dishonest?

Where exactly do you see the dishonesty here? Is it just the title?

[flagged]

Re: Doge cuts to USAid blamed for 300k deaths – most of them children

#30

Post by breakyerself »

cadamsdotcom wrote: post #7

First to get this out of the way, I do not support the destruction of USAID and I definitely do not support the death of 300,000 people. This study brings to light a hidden problem of countries and individuals dependent on foreign aid. There should’ve been plans in place to reduce foreign aid dependency over time. Yes provide aid as needed & appropriate, but work out what it’ll take for the country to not need it and…

Yeah. The aid given to these nations tends to be a pittance compared to the damage that's been done to them by imperialism. Both old school colonial imperialism in the past and modern economic imperialism that tends to prop up autocratic leaders who take out high interest loans to enrich themselves and hold the working class down to enrich foreign corporations.
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