Good Intentions... Bad Results

I am a liberal. But I am also practical. When the earthquake happened in Haiti I was all to happy to contribute to the relief efforts. But now I'm starting to wonder about the intentions of some of the aid agencies. I read an AP story (here's one digital version: http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20100227/NEWS02/702279932) that revealed that shipments of rice into Haiti are undercutting Haitian farmers. So people who have jobs and are contributing to the economic health of the country are now suffering. My first thought was, why in the world are they bringing in rice when there's rice already there? Wouldn't it be cheaper, easier, and better for the environment to transport the money to buy the rice rather than the rice itself? It makes no sense to me.

But then I thought about other stories I've heard, like the United States hiring American contractors to go to Iraq and Afghanistan to rebuild the countries-- and cutting native contractors out completely. It creates a culture of dependency. Instead of 'teaching a man to fish', they're providing the fish. But when the American people don't want to pay for the fish they pull out and leave the dependent populace devastated. To me, part of rebuilding a nation would be to hire their businesses to do the work, not to do the work ourselves. Buy local food from local farmers, don't import it.

And if there's concern about fraud, waste, and abuse (as there always is), then empower the governments to enact meaningful reforms. Bringing in outside companies are no guarantee that fraud won't go on (there are plenty of news stories about American companies committing fraud and wasting money and resources that were supposed to go to others). We aren't going to stop being the world's caretaker until we start helping countries be independent. Forcing dependency and then complaining about it makes no sense and solves nothing in the end.