I was flipping through The Economist (It's very good and I recommend it) and I stumbled to a very nice chart that details how much foreign aid rich countries have contributed to poor nations. Just looking at a the numbers paint a very misleading picture that the United States has donated the most to poor nations. Yet, in reality our country has failed badly in meeting its commitment in the effort to alleviate poverty around the world.
According to The Economist,
The wealthy countries that are members of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee cut their official foreign aid to $104 billion in 2006, says a new report from the outfit. That figure represents just over 0.3% of their combined national income, well below the 0.7% target set by the United Nations. A handful of rich countries, including Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Denmark, did exceed the UN target. In cash, America was the largest donor, even after it slashed its assistance by nearly a fifth in real terms. But as a share of national income its contribution is among the smallest. Italy's aid also fell sharply, whereas Ireland's rose by more than third in real terms in 2006.
This is really painful to learn that the United States has cut its assistance by almost 20% but it's even worst when one look at the graph to see that the US has failed to even match the average of all the other rich countries. It is true that our country is embroiled in fighting two wars: One by necessity and the other by choice but it's beyond my imagination and I suspect many others why should we neglect our responsibilities so badly that we are ranked next to last.
What can we do? we need to put pressure on the current candidates to force them to take their responsibilities seriously with respect to the have-not around the world. Of course, we need to end the war in Iraq before we can dramatically increase our aid to poor countries but we certainly can do better now!
http://www.economist.com/...