The other flaw of his book is that, like every one else who has written on the subject of foreign aid, Mr. Hancock bases his account on his experiences in India and in some other regions of Africa. But what about the rest of the world. What we need is a much broader and deeper look of the foreign aid industry as the self perpetuating industry that it actually is, particularly with regard to the secret internal modus operandi of bureaucratic institutions such as the UN, World Bank, OAS, USIAD, etc, etc. In other words, we want the true inside story. It is the only way to really know what's going on.
Few people are aware that these organizations are ran mainly by "political rejects" who after having been thrown out from their own countries accused of becoming political trouble makers, or misfits, they find "haven" in those international aid organizations. Sort of like "dying and going to haven".
The fact that the head of the World Bank or the Secretary General of the UN might have been a head of state before he was rewarded with the current top job does not mean in any way that he is fit for the job that he is holding now. Those top positions and other of lesser importance, are usually regarded as political favors. The same holds true of those professionals who are looking for a place to land a good paying job that requires little or no work at all. To keep a good paying job with private industry, professionals would be required to work very hard, something that many of them don't have to do at the UN or any other international aid organization. These are the "technicians", the "experts" who come to poor third world countries to "straighten things out", as they say, when in fact all they are doing is enjoying officially sponsored vacations with all their expenses paid for with taxpayers money from the industrialized nations. That, I believe, is one of the reasons for the high rate of failure of such organizations: bureaucratic incompetence. It is for this reason that I also believe that some form of tight government control and public scrutiny should be implemented in order to make foreign aid agencies fully accountable for every dime they spend. Otherwise they will continue to function as international clubs of free-loaders.
I guarantee that any American taxpayer would be infuriated to know that the great majority of the employees of these international aid organizations headquartered in the U.S.A. do not, I repeat, do not pay any form of local and/or federal income tax because these organizations (UN, OAS, PAHO, IDB, etc.) are not required by law to report salaries paid to their employees. Therefore, the IRS does not have any way to know who's earning what and who owes what. But even those employees who, by some special circumstance, must file a tax return will do so with the understanding that the organization will not only compute their own taxes, but will also issue them a check for taxes owed on their income. Oh yes, no matter how you cut it, "working" in any of those international organizations is like dying and going to haven; or almost like wining the lottery.
V.P.Reyna Guatemala, Guatemala Mepolly@xela.net.gt
The book is one of the most daming that I have read. Although short the book marshals its facts and explains every argument with a clarity that is breathtaking.
The arguments are that the organisations which are involved in providing aid are incompetent. There are a number of reasons for the incompetance but all orginsations which deal with aid are incompetant and corrupt.
At the head of the list is the world bank. The world bank is willing to make grants of aid conditional on changes to monetary policy and dismanteling of anti competative market systems but it never wants to make aid conditional on introducing human rights or democracy. As a result changes to make the market more competative almost always damage the poor by for example the removal of food subsidies. The benifits of World Bank loans almost always flow to the middle class or urban dwellers. The Indian Economist Sen has shown that democracies do not have famines. If the world bank was to make democracy the condition of aid packages it would be more likely to reduce famines in these countries. In fact govermental corruption or incompetance is the real reason for the sorts of problems which require aid in the first place.
The world bank is addicted to large capital intensive projects. Most of these turn out to be white elephants and have unsustainable maintence costs. Again the benifits of electification or transport benifits mainly the urban centres.
Those who are responsible for aid projects are overpaid, come from foriegn countries and lack language skills to properly evlaute projects. The result is that huge amounts of aid are used to pay for incompetant staff at aid bodies.
The author says that the proof of the pudding is that those countries which have had huge amounts of aid have simply gotten poorer. Aid projects have generally failed. The world would be a better place without any aid at all.
Whilst this is an extreme position the book is a valuable addition to debate in the area.