Bitterroot Humanities Recap on The discussion on "The Extents of International Aid"

his weeks discussion will be on "The Montana Constitution: Conflicting Values?"

This weeks presenter will be Monday the 18th, from 5-6 pm, upstairs at the Bitterroot Brew Pub.

This weeks presenter will be Mr. John Semmens, 3rd year UM Law Student.

The discussion on ‘The Extents of International Aid’ included:

To begin we made an important distinction, that of the difference between disaster and developmental aid. In the case of disaster aid the problem of investing time and resources ineffectively is much less relevant then in developmental aid. When dealing with collapsed infrastructure of entire cultures, as in the case of the earthquake in Haiti or the Tsunami in Banda Aceh, sure there will be inefficiencies…but what are these inefficiencies compared to?

It is hard to argue a claim along the lines of, "We should withhold significant amounts of resources to a Haiti-esque situation due to possible inefficiencies in implementation." It is always necessary to look at the mechanisms for implementing disaster aid, but this has to be balanced with the fact the hundreds of thousands need food and water.

When we move on to developmental aid at times we find the opposite, that the immediacy has to be tempered with appropriate means for implementation. These mechanisms have to take into account the local knowledge of the situation, establish trust between community members and third parties, and communicate effectively between all (much along the concepts presented by 2009 Nobel Economics Laureate Elinor Ostrum).

Understanding the local knowledge, establishing trust, and communicating effectively hinges almost entirely on time. Yet time is not on most groups’ side. It is much easier to infuse economies with capital, two week volunteer trips, or ‘gift baskets’ then it is to take a few years to understand what the community in question actually needs to improve its given situation.

Yet without this time, what results are projects such as what our presenter mentioned. One example was of an international agency who distributed food to under fed populations in rural Zimbabwe. This group would arrive with a truckload of food and unload it onto the local economy. This would dilute the marketplace and create a large glut. Farmers who were growing grain to feed the community now had no way to receive a return on their investment from the summer’s labor.

Another example was during the Rwandan Genocide where United Nations provided food and other necessities at such a discounted rate compared to local markets that rebel leaders would buy exclusively from these camps and use the saved revenue to purchase weapons and other supplies for their respected Hutu or Tutsi campaign.

Finally, the logical fallacy of the week is that of a hasty generalization. This is an argument from a special case that is inappropriately extended to a general rule. Otherwise known as ‘Chicken Little Syndrome’, examples include:

"I know this hippy that never showers…Therefore all hippies must never shower."

Or…

"I met a hunter who believes wolves were reintroduced by the government to take away our elk so that we wouldn’t have a reason to hunt so that they could take away our guns much more easily…Therefore all hunters must think this."

That’s it for now. Enjoy the week and see you Monday.

-Zack Rogala

[email protected]

Interesting examples of aid:

Health Care by Philosophers
http://sciencestage.com/v/30836/prof.-thomas-pogge:-global-health.html http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/igh/

Toyota’s and Babies (5:02)

Microfinance
http://www.kiva.org/

Montana Students
http://www.ewb-msu.org/