Foreign Aid

I don't like it. I posted elsewheres that I don't like it (in the comments). Almost all of it is wasted through corruption. Too much of it is collected not from generous donors but through extortion, "give us money or we'll throw your tourists in jail!".

And yes, I know that technically I shouldn't end a sentence with !"., but grammar rules never made sense so I try to take a logical approach to such things.

There's a better way to do foreign aid, methinks. Establish an office in our embassies in whichever third world countries respect the rights of their citizens. Probably already an office for foreign aid in all of them, so it'd really be closing the offices in oppressive countries.

The office would field requests, not from the country's national government, but from private individuals and local (city/town/village) councils for things they want/need. A lot of these will be spurious requests for self-aggrandizement, but some will have actual benefits to the general public. We don't, however, give them the money. We run bids, let local businessmen made bids (w/ designs/blueprints for anything involving construction), and if it looks good, award pay-on-completion contracts to the best bid (price::quality).

It would build up skillsets in the local population, pump money into the local economy, and provide them with things of lasting public benefit while circumventing the bulk of local governmental agencies (the ambassadors will have to earn their pay) hence bypassing the bulk of the corruption. It'd have the added benefit of raising the profile of our aid programs with the public in those countries, since pretty much every country's media wants to portray us as evil.

Goe, needs to finish that story for Rachmeg, but sleep first.