The global war on terror should be waged not only in Afghanistan and other lands providing haven to terrorists but also in the hearts and minds of people everywhere. Counter-terrorism strategies must consciously include efforts that distinguish the ways of peace-loving peoples from the methods of those who pursue their objectives through violence. I believe part of those efforts should be intensified aid-giving to the world’s poorest countries, and not only when they are members of the UN Security Council, as indicated by a recent Washington Post report.
I was born and raised in a small town in the Philippines. The town, Gamay (which literally means “small” in the local language), was poor and most of its inhabitants were subsistence farmers or fisherfolk. In the 1970s and early 80s, the town was caught in the middle of a violent conflict between communist guerillas and government soldiers. Today, the violence has abated but the town is still poor and people are still farming and fishing.
One of the earliest memories of my childhood was being brought to the town’s feeding center where malnourished children were fed. I remember with fondness the milk and pancakes that we were fed at the center twice a week. I always looked forward to those trips to the center because milk and pancakes were a luxury in those early years of my life. To this day I can still vividly recall the sacks containing the powdered milk and pancake mix. They were brown bags of sturdy make printed with the words “From the American people” at the top, the US flag in the middle, and a picture of two hands joined in a handshake near the bottom.
In grade school, I would learn that the feeding program was funded by US aid to the Philippines. I would learn later that foreign aid is routinely used as a foreign policy tool to advance the donor’s interests. In recent years, I learned that the current administration had been using aid to pressure poor countries to enter into bilateral non-surrender agreements with the US to avoid the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction over Americans.
Recipient countries, of course, know that aid usually comes with strings attached. “No such thing as a free lunch” obviously applies even in foreign relations. But when a country’s people are dying of hunger or rendered unproductive by sickness or malnutrition, foreign aid oftentimes takes on the attributes of manna from heaven. That this particular manna comes with strings attached is often ignored due to the exigencies of the moment.
It is commonplace that extreme poverty is oftentimes a precursor to violent social upheavals that threaten international peace. It thus serves US interests, as defender of world peace, to address problems spawned by poverty, such as hunger and chronic malnutrition. As the Brazilian president once put it, hunger is actually the worst weapon of mass destruction, claiming as it does millions of victims every year.
One way of addressing poverty issues, and thereby helping maintain international peace, is by ensuring that poor people have access to food. The US government is allocating $3 billion for the Millennium Challenge Corporation for 2007. Even a small portion of that amount, if used to help feed the world’s hungry and malnourished people, will go a long way in maintaining peace and in winning the hearts of the world’s poor.
My childhood experience is without doubt replicated in many other poverty-stricken areas of the world. Even as I write this, malnourished children in poor countries are lining up for their milk and pancakes, courtesy of the US and other aid-giving countries. Milk and pancakes are, of course, illustrative examples. In reality, foreign aid is used for a lot of other social welfare services in the developing world: access to clean and potable water, vaccination and primary health care, sexual and reproductive health, and access to primary education, among many other programs.
Whatever the motivations of its giver, no one seriously doubts that foreign aid helps improve the lives of many people in the developing world. For so long as conditions for granting aid do not lead to further impoverishment (such as when aid is tied to allowing the entry of business interests that destroy the local environment), more aid should be given to the poorest countries of the world. Also, since foreign aid sometimes ends up in the pockets of unscrupulous rulers of poor countries, creative mechanisms (such as giving a portion of the aid directly to non-government and international institutions with demonstrated capacity for delivering needed services) should be adopted to ensure accountability and transparency in its use.
In the end, America wins. The US may not always get the undying gratitude of recipient governments, especially when they are coerced into doing something in exchange for aid. However, the US can be assured of the enduring appreciation of the world’s poor who benefit from its aid. I, for one, would always be grateful for the milk and pancakes from the American people. Gratitude from the world’s poor may not be much in terms of US geopolitical interests, but surely it should help make Americans feel good about themselves and their government.
