Word: westernness
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...billion five-year program identified 7.3 million Ethiopians unable to live without free food and gave them jobs in rural projects, such as roads and irrigation. The idea was to create livelihoods as well as to save lives. It was working, slowly. By this year, says a Western economist familiar with the effort, "a few thousand" had left the program and were making it on their own. Then came the double blow of drought and soaring food prices. Of the 7.3 million, 5.4 million suddenly needed extra food aid. The sobering lesson: even the best efforts to eliminate hunger...
...food supplies. Ethiopia exemplifies the consequences of giving a starving man a fish instead of teaching him to catch his own. This year the U.S. will give more than $800 million to Ethiopia: $460 million for food, $350 million for HIV/AIDS treatment - and just $7 million for agricultural development. Western governments are loath to halt programs that create a market for their farm surpluses, but for countries receiving their charity, long-term food aid can become addictive. Why bother with development when shortfalls are met by aid? Ethiopian farmers can't compete with free food, so they stop trying. Over...
What about the idea that assistance undermines enterprise and self-reliance? An expression of human solidarity between the rich and the poor should not automatically be demeaning to the beneficiaries. There has been a transformation of Western thinking [on that score]. [Most Western countries] no longer believe that aid implies the unfortunate are in that position because they are inadequate, that Africans have brought this on themselves - although that has not been completely eliminated. Some people think African states cannot be trusted with the cookie jar. But there are absolutely good NGOs who have this feeling of human solidarity...
Advice as to where to focus the next Afghan surge or how many more billions we should spend to catch bin Laden is given to our leaders in weekly CIA briefings. Perhaps we should add just one historical fact: for 3,000 years, never has a Western army won a lasting victory on the Asian mainland. Never. So how can we believe war will achieve anything in this 21st century, with economic power surging in China, India and Russia? Nicolas Gessner, PARIS...
Zimbabwe's Turmoil It is time the first world took up arms [July 14] to defend democracy against Mugabe, a dictator who suppresses freedom by torture and murder. If Western nations can fight to defend democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan, then surely they can do the same in Zimbabwe, where a war against Mugabe and his supporters would be over in a week. Colin Segal, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA...