It’s time to stop the Foreign Aid farce!

At the risk of boring readers, I’m going to use today’s blog to bang on again about the farce of foreign aid.

Here’s a list of the countries which received the most foreign aid from the developed countries between 2009-2013. For each country receiving aid, I’ve laid out the total aid handed over, the GDP per capita and the country’s position on the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (where 1 is ‘not corrupt’ and 174 is the ‘most corrupt’) (click to see more clearly)

So, what does this tell us?

1. Vietnam Why has this relatively highly developed country with reasonable GDP/Capita received more aid than any other country?

2. Ethiopia A corrupt, worthless basket-case country whose population is one of the fastest-growing in the world and has shot up from 22m in 1960 to 35m by 1980 to 66m by 2000 to about 90m today. Looks like Ethiopia’s problems are of its own making and that a little birth control would go a long way to solving this country’s self-inflicted poverty.

3. Turkey Hold on a minute. A wealthy (GDP/Capita of an amazing $15,353) country that is turning into yet another increasingly corrupt Islamic dictatorship is number 3 in the amount of aid received. What on earth is happening?

4. Democratic Republic of Congo Totally hopeless, poverty-stricken, deeply corrupt cesspit of human misery. I wonder how much of the $2.859bn went into building palaces for the rich and into buying them fleets of Mercedes?

5. Tanzania Not as corrupt as most African countries and therefore wealthier than many of them. So why does Tanzania get $2.831bn? Still, Tanzania’s rulers look extremely well-fed and are probably good customers at their local Mercedes dealership.

6. Kenya A bit more corrupt than Tanzania, but with a reasonable (for Africa) GDP/Capita. Maybe there are more deserving causes for the West’s money? Still, Kenya’s rulers look extremely well-fed and are probably good customers at their local Mercedes dealership.

7. Ivory Coast I wonder who got hold of this country’s $2.626bn – the poor or their rulers?

8. Bangladesh Utterly corrupt, but the workshop of the clothing world with a GDP/Capita of $2,080. Time to cut off the flow of our cash and let the country stand on its own?

9. Mozambique Probably a deserving recipient, though one might wonder who – the poor or the rich – actually got hold of the $2.096bn. After all, if the money has been well-spent, then surely Mozambique won’t need too much aid any more?

10. Pakistan Utterly corrupt hell-hole of backwardness and religious bigotry. Pakistan is our enemy – the Pakistan government deliberately hid Bin Laden near a large army base in the belief that he would be safe there. Pakistan has nuclear weapons and none of its multimillionaire politicians pay any tax. All aid should be stopped immediately!

11. Nigeria Utterly corrupt. With its vast oil reserves, Nigeria should be one of Africa’s wealthiest countries. But the ruling elites have stolen (and keep on stealing) the country’s wealth leaving over 90% of the population living in poverty. The UN should take over this cesspit, try the rulers and their cronies for corruption and start to reinvest the country’s wealth into roads, schools, hospitals, universities etc

12. India What? India – a nuclear power with more billionaires than almost any other country gets $1.667bn in aid! Time to stop this farce by stopping all aid to India.

13. Brazil Brazil! You mean the Brazil that is spending billions on the World Cup – much of the money being lost to corruption – while leaving tens of millions of its own citizens in poverty? Yet Brazil gets $1,288bn in aid. What a joke! Time to stop all aid to Brazil. If the country can afford the Sepp Blatter’s venal World Cup scam, it doesn’t need any of our money in aid.

Conclusion Hopefully this brief listing has shown what a farce most foreign aid is and that most of our money never goes anywhere near those who really need help.