Sunday, June 15, 2008

Charity

I have long felt that much, if not most, U.S. foreign aid is wasted. We give this money to governments that use it to bolster their corrupt regimes. But political realities keep us from better allocating those funds.

So what can we do?

We can vote for people who will change the system or processes that allow such corruption, but that takes time. Instead of relying on the government to do something that is not their job, I think that we should individually support smart charities and businesses that creatively help the impoverished and needy of the world.

Here are a few places that I have been looking into:
  1. Kiva
  2. OLPC
  3. Solar Ovens

I will add more as I discover them.

Update:
Read this post about donating your old eyeglasses.

2 comments:

jimthegray said...

IN fairness the vast majority of aid we supply is food and american produced goods not cash.
it helps us internally and helps others as well.
to look at the other side of the coin some aid is in weapons and military contracts, these also help us but hurt others.

opritche said...

One of the problems with US and EU foreign aid to places like Africa, is that instead of concentrating on helping them with infrastructure, training and the like, we give them food, water and tents. Those are good things but it's the old "give a man a fish\teach a man to fish" issue. We have been "giving fish" for decades to some places. But if you look at a lot of the private initiatives you will see alot of "teaching to fish".

This leads into several other topics, like the foolish and Luddite prejudice against DDT and GM foods. EU sanctions against African countries that try to use GM. Etc...