FAO Quotables

"But being right, even morally right, isn't everything. It is also important to be competent, to be consistent, and to be knowledgeable. It's important for your soldiers and diplomats to speak the language of the people you want to influence. It's important to understand the ethnic and tribal divisions of the place you hope to assist."
-Anne Applebaum

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Are We Helping or Hurting South Sudan?


Are We Helping or Hurting South Sudan?

Is foreign aid helping South Sudan as a nation or state?  Without foreign aid would they be able to turn off their oil?  Could the missed oil revenue be used for desperately needed infrastructure development (South Sudan has 40 MILES) of paved roads!

Part of the problem is the US.  An impotent and partially castrated (read: underfunded) USAID is unable to corral, direct or strategically implement foreign aid and NGOs.  In South Sudan that means you have dozens (?) of NGOs working at cross purposes (and sometime redundantly) in their own microcosms--instead of cooperatively and strategically.  

WILD IDEA:
How about we get (or give option) death row (or life sentence) prisoners from Texas (I only say Texas because it might be the only state crazy enough to consider it) and send them to South Sudan to build roads and highways.  It would be cheaper to house them in makeshift camps in South Sudan than in Texas . . . of course, now that they are at war . . . nevermind.

http://foodsecurity.ngoaidmap.org/location/247?force_site_id=2

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