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An African economist rejects foreign aid Jeremy Botherway reviews Dead Aid: Why aid is not working and how there Is a better way for Africa by Dambisa Moyo (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009, 2008 pages)
The road to hell is said to be paved with good intentions. And the way in which the post-colonial West has satisfied its sensitivities toward the third world through foreign aid is no better demonstration of this proverb.
Economic growth of those countries most dependent on foreign aid has remained stagnant, and in some cases, has regressed. What has perhaps emerged is one of the most egregious and iconic failures of Western humanitarianism. Yet foreign aid attracts a consistently popular following.
In Dead Aid , Dambisa Moyo, an economist from Zambia, details this failed approach to African development, arguing that it is a morally cloaked crusade that has not only proven itself ineffective, but malignant to African growth. The author's central thesis is clear-given the patent failure of a trillion dollars in...