NB This is in general NOT in the current countries hit by adverse events such as Burma and China!.
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Position:Home>Philosophy> Can charity be the answer in helping poorer countries to develop ,or can it leadQuestion: Can charity be the answer in helping poorer countries to develop ,or can it lead to dependency!? NB This is in general NOT in the current countries hit by adverse events such as Burma and China!.
Needed for discussion on leadership and businessWww@QuestionHome@Com Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I must agree with most aspects of the previous answers!.Throwing money at third world and developing countries in many cases leads to dependency!.Unfortunately this won't be from the people that need it but the corrupt governments or regimes that syphon off large percentages for their own use!. A more practical approach would be to spend the money on food,clothes etc, and the charitable organisation personally hand out the supplies where needed!.I am using certain countries of Africa as an example!.I'm sure it is already in practise,but education and skills on how to improve their standard of living have longevity!.New schools need to be built that can supply a waiting populous of teachers (there are many degree educated people in Africa with no jobs to go to and many eager students with no schools to attend)!.Basic skills in finding,cleansing and retaining water;Money spent on machinery for factories will not only bring employment to a redundant workforce but also pride and self worth to individuals and a better economy in said countries!. I think what I'm trying to say is that we need to get to the grass roots of poverty and build up from there as opposed to throwing our money at them and then pat our backs for having done our bit!.Admittedly stability i!.e civil/enforced wars make this approach very difficult in practise if we were to quote not only African countries but others such as Iraq and Afghanistan etc!.Www@QuestionHome@Com As with all things, it depends!. A lot of the countries which most need charity are the countries with corrupt regimes!. Unfortunately, the regimes in those same countries are likely to appropriate any charitable donations, which means the aid destined for those for which it is intended never reaches the ones who need it!. In such situations, it's difficult to know what to do to help!. Some sort of intervention to overthrow the corrupt regine seems like a good idea at first; but that generally leads to disaster (Iraq being a prime example; African countries, where western colonialism has led to distrust, rightly so in my opinion, are others!.) So let's restrict the discussion to countries without corrupt regimes!. In those cases, I think you have a point - but I'm sure there must be a way of structuring that aid so that it doesn't lead to dependency!. We just have to be careful!.Www@QuestionHome@Com I'll express a view from the obverse angle to start if I may!. Charity as with being concerned for the poor!. There is an expression 'as cold as charity' as in giving without feeling a strange interpretation on a word meant to suggest concern for others!. Some people will always be dependent, what should happen to someone who is healthy has a car accident and is crippled and then needs support for the rest of their lives!? The welfare state was developed in part out of charitable ideas, but people felt that the ideology behind charity stigmatised, hence the NHS and the 'cradle to grave' philosophy that all can qualify for the club!. The issue around poor countries is not about charity or charitable giving to help with sudden disasters!. It is about economic mismanagement!. China still has millions of poor (but relatively USA and UK and throughout Europe there is plenty of real poverty, as real as in China or Africa) But what China has shown is that if you get organised and set goals you can inspire your people to create wealth and reduce poverty!. No African leader (North or South, including the great Nelson Mandela) has yet inspired his/her people to the belief that they can build a Nation!. I offer no theories as to why, just an observation!. So charity doesn't create dependency, but mismanagement, greed and war do!.Www@QuestionHome@Com In some countries it can lead to dependancy!.!.a good example of this is Nepal were the majority of their income comes from foreign aid making it harder for the country to find economic independance!. however in other cases like Angola aid was necessary to over come the privations resulting from the civil war but their economy is becoming more reliant on the export of their mineral wealth!. I think it often depends on the resources that a country has at hand!.!.!.angola has a wealth of resources, nepal has almost none!.Www@QuestionHome@Com There is more to charity than money!. Unfortunately, some people and countries (viz!. Gordon Brown ‘I’m sending another ￡10m in aid to Africa’ – surely by now he has learnt that Africa is a continent i!.e!. a collection of countries) think that this gives them an moral ‘upper-hand’ and they get a ‘feel-good’ factor out of it and possibly acts as a salve to their conscience!. The Encarta dictionary gives the following definitions (amongst others) Provision of Help – the voluntary provision of money, materials or help to people in need Tolerant Attitude – the willingness to judge people in a tolerant or favourable way Impartial love the impartial love of other people especially as a (Christian) virtue – (I don’t see or particularly agree with the thought that charity is a particularly Christian characteristic-hence the brackets) If the provision of charity is not well managed then it is quite possible that dependency will follow!. The trick is to provide charity in such a way as to aid eventual independence!. Some people and governments think that the provision of cash gives them the right to change the way things are done in a country and ‘make them more like us’ (what arrogance!) and it becomes a power-play!. They shouldn’t because charity should be (by definition) unconditional – otherwise we run the horrible dangers of ‘regime change’ and that is a subject of a whole new discussion!. It’s almost like being a benevolent parent – of course we are all ‘charitable’ to our children but we (should) try to ensure that they are in the end (or our end!) independent from us and able to contribute to the future to the best of their own abilities whilst recognising that they can and will make mistakes!. The best hope for charity is from richer to poorer nations is that seen as a partnership not a hierarchical relationship!. Not a particularly a Bible reader myself but the following seemed quite appropriate King James Version St Pauls Letter to the Corinthians 13 8Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away!. 13And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity!. Apparently Faith Hope and Charity were three martyred saints and their mother was Sophia (Greek for Wisdom)!. There’s a thing!Www@QuestionHome@Com you need a range of things!. Charity on it's own isn't enough!. Sometimes people need support and education!. A country like China certainly doesn't need charity from the west, but it does sometimes need our expertise especially when disasters strike!. Throwing money at something never solved anything!. In fact china a quite a good example of how to do things properly!. To get the new oil fields (like in the Congo) they've offered complete packages to the locals!.!.!.from schools and hospitals to jobs and training!.!.!.!.as well as the drilling for oil!. They offered to build a complete new village with shops etc!. They created a situation where everyone was a winner!. As appose to BP who would have just got rid of all the locals by throwing them off the land!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Charity can definately lead to dependency!. But, if given in moderation and if the right charity is given, for example, education, this leads to the society building its own economy, and therefore independence!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Absolutely it can help developing nations!. Wyclef Jean, for example, helps Haitian's by giving them chickens, cages, and food for the chickens, so the people will continue to have food!. http://www!.iht!.com/articles/ap/2008/05/2!.!.!. But as for dependence!? I found this: http://blog!.360!.yahoo!.com/blog-zN!.UYxIyb!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com charity is only a feeling the real solution is change the political way of govern that countries & eliminate the corruption janeWww@QuestionHome@Com |