Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Venezuela aid

The Miami Herald notes Venezuela's aid to Haiti, and twists itself into a pretzel to portray it as bad.  However, if you remove "Venezuela" and insert "United States" then you could make U.S. aid look equally bad.  The article directly or indirectly makes three main points:

First, countries with domestic economic problems should be criticized for provided aid to other countries instead of giving it to their own citizens.  Under this logic, all U.S. aid programs should be ended immediately and indefinitely.  In fact, very few countries on earth should currently give aid.

Second, countries should be criticized if there are perceived political objectives associated with aid.  OK, though no country provides large amounts of aid without a political goal.

Third, countries should be criticized if they make huge promises of aid that they are unlikely to provide.  I agree with this, but Venezuela is hardly alone.

2 comments:

Anonymous,  4:18 PM  

I did not read the twisting into pretzels part. The article gave a fair representation for the advocates on Venezuelan aid. It pointed out the benefits. Given the amount (and kind) of scrutiny US aid received in the first month, this journalism is peanuts. We were the empire militarily occupying Haiti to reestablish the conditions of 1920. There is no reason a major US paper, particularly one with a focus on Latin America, should not ask these questions. There are a fair number of Haitians in Miami. The Venezuelans (never mind Cuba or US) have a record of using aid for political ends. So, is it not right for Haitians (through the international press) to be able scrutinize their aid relationships?

leftside 12:59 PM  

Haha... I doubt Haitians really are interested in "scrutinizing" the motives for the insufficient aid that has come in. I think they are more concerned with getting more aid and making sure it is spent properly.

Venezuela ought to be recognized for being the first country to arrive with aid, the first country to forgive all debt and now the country giving the most total aid - double what the US has pledged.

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