Devon DaLuz
25 April, 2014
Mrs. Oliveira
E Period
Foreign Aid
Is helping other countries really worth the United States’ money? Foreign Aid is the act of giving money, food, or other resources to other countries that are less fortunate. Is it worth it? Many Americans as well as Congressmen argue this while trying to make serious budget cuts. The United States alone spends about $50 Billion a year to 180 countries towards under developed countries, poor countries, or even countries at war that cannot provide their own resources for their people. However, this is less than half of 1% of our total budget making it almost nothing compared to the benefits it provides for the other countries as well as our own. First beginning in World War II, the US used Foreign Aid to help rebuild the economies in Western Europe and help contain the Soviet expansion during the aftermath during the war. Later, in 1945; 188 countries established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Bank of Reconstruction and Development for debt relief and economic development. This provided something to fall back on, in case of emergency. Another groups established in 1946 called the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration or UNRRA was created to provide relief for war-torn countries. Proven successful in 1946, distributed $4.5 Billion of food and supplies to Europe where World War II had destroyed economies. History is proving time and time again how countries and people are benefiting from organizations much like this. Foreign Aid is used in many cases to help starvation and dehydration, provide attention for world health issues, and also create market expansion.
Living as humans we require certain needs to survive such as food and water. Many people in the world including the US take it for granted being such a well-fed country and having about 1-third of all adults being obese. This makes it seem like a small issue. This could not be farther from the truth. “About 33% of the world is starving with extreme poverty,” (-Statistic Brain Organization) mostly from poor-resourced wastelands who cannot provide for their own people. “7,615,360 people will die from hunger this year;” like insects in an exterminated house. These people can be saved with the help of Foreign Aid. Foreign Aid can help allow countries to help one another by shipping food to densely populated areas, but, this will not be a long-term solution help some countries like the countries in Africa where the environment is very dry and not many forms of life live causing there to be no food. Organizations like the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as part of the United Nations (UN) decide to take another approach to the problem and try to improve agriculture, forestry, and fisheries to ensure good nutrition for the less fortunate. To attack this problem they help with agricultural issues by traveling around the globe and starting “Garden Schools” where people are taught how to grow their own foods and maintain a farm so that they can learn to feed themselves. Also, they help the dry countries by building green houses in which provide moist sanctuaries well-enough to grow anything in need. To help with forestry, the FAO exports trees to those countries. Also, they aim to build and maintain forests. Finally, with fisheries they regulate aquacultural life keeping a close eye on populations of fish and toxins and PH levels in the water to ensure rich-living in the waters so that the fish are safe to eat. Like they do with agriculture, they also help those learn to fish and everything else needed to survive and hunt for themselves. People need to eat to survive, but many cannot even do that. How will the stop to Foreign Aid possibly be for the better? Food can be regulated with time and money, however, what happens when these poor countries get sick? Many more problems can occur which can be disastrous causing people to die.
Foreign health is one of the many great benefits of foreign aid that helps save lives. HIV, AIDS, Polio, Tuberculosis, and Malaria are some of the many massive infectious diseases that threaten a large population of the globe every day. Large infectious diseases like these put political and economic stability at risk, creating a chain reaction of unfortunate events. “Just Tuberculosis alone kills 1.3 million people each year and infects 9.4 million,” as told by Ken Silverstein from The Nation. “Another disease, Malaria causes 243 million acute illnesses and sum of 863,000 deaths annually” A large percentage of these diseases are just as curable as they are widely known and can be stopped and prevented. Foreign aid is essential.
"Without action, almost 400 million people will die from chronic diseases in the next 10 years. Many of these deaths will occur prematurely, affecting families, communities and countries alike." -WHO Organization. The WHO organization or World Health Organization is a community where their major priority is to “remain flexible” with the fast evolving environment and provide care to the health of the populations in the 21st century. They are directed and funded as part of the United Nations system which includes 196 countries. This creates a wide budget needed to relieve world health.
Due to the lack of access to quality diagnostic services half a million people became ill to the tuberculosis-resistant drug. Funded by the WHO program they set out on a mission to improve the quality of the resistant and also “Reach the 3 million,” which was one third of the total 9 million that were affected by TB. At the end of 2013, 92 laboratories were created in India, a major country affected by TB. This helped the overall health of the country because not only does it provide the medication needed for the disease, but it can help with the research of HIV, AIDS, and Malaria. Providing help towards world health is one of the many benefits of other countries because of Foreign aid. Unlike foreign aid, hosting countries can also be benefited. An example would be market expansion and trade. Marketing is a foundation of life and survival. Marketing is the act of trading whether you are importing or exporting goods. Trading has been used for a very large portion of human history. Going back to 3000 BCE Egypt exchanged Obsidian and Flint to buy things to make jewelry and other valuables. Trading is easier than the old fashion, “doing it yourself,” because as a country they do not have to make and find their supplies, they can use other countries and allies to buy their desired supplies for living. This proves Foreign Aid as an essential part of global affairs. It is also beneficial because some countries do not have all of the resources required to live. For example, Japan is one of the most industrialized countries in the world; however, it lacks natural resources. “Of their $856.9 billion budget on imports about %15.5 of it is petroleum based substances,” as told by EW World Economy Team. Without Foreign Aid this country would never survive as a country. Foreign marketing can also be an equalizer when it comes to advancements in technology. Instead of each country being isolated, causing a great difference of advancements of each country, countries are allowed to communicate with trade allowing countries with new high-end technologies to sell to the less advanced equalizing the intellectual state of the nations. This also applies with War time during competing nations “arm race,” where they compete to have the best technology possible to win. Such when, the US remained neutral selling goods and supplies to both sides during World War II. This helped the countries and also the US because their economy boosted greatly. This is another evident reason trade is necessary. According to the organization of Trading Economics, “The US alone in 2010 made about $163 Billion from only exports.” This much money can help provide much care for the rest of the nation whether it is rebuilding towns, medical care, etc. At the same time, approximately “1.84 million jobs were created in the US alone in 2010” -Daniel J. Ikenson from the CATO institute. No trade means desperate countries are going to have to somehow create millions of jobs in the US which would be a poor decision on their part.
Foreign Aid is a worldwide necessity and a complicated subject to talk about, because of all the aspects it comes along with. Foreign Aid is mainly used to fix food and water scarcity, provide development of basic infrastructures like medical attention, and create market expansion. Today organizations such as the WHO, FAO, EW, and the UN are working their best to keep humanity stable using Foreign Aid as a tool. In consequence, billions of lives are improved through the long chain of events foreign aid follows. A problem encountered in many news articles is that media every day tries to degrade Foreign Aid talking about how much money goes into it and not saying how much money they gain back in return. Also, articles do not state other important facts such how money spent into this is less than 1% of the national US deficit. A simple rearrangement in words leads society to believe that Foreign Aid is horrible and should be stopped because most Americans will believe a good amount of things seen on the news or in an article and will not look further and research the cold hard facts. Oppositioners will use this method to gain supporters while trying to provoke isolationism in the US. Americans need to start realizing that media can have more power than imagined. In the end society and governing bodies have to realize is end of Foreign Aid going to have more benefits than keeping it? Is saving a small part of the budget more important than all of the jobs that will be lost? How about the lives that will be lost if organizations like the FAO no longer cared for the innocent, starving people in Africa who were born into poverty? The government as well as everyday people should take a wide look at this ongoing debate.