Foreign Aid // Current TV

Sen. John McCain says foreign aid is not redistribution

en. John McCain.says foreign aid is not redistribution of wealth by the government... more

Radical_Centrist
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Sen. Rand Paul on Your World with Neil Cavuto - 5/8/12

Sen. Rand Paul appears on Fox's Your World with Neil Cavuto to discuss... more

Radical_Centrist
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Sen. Rand Paul on The Willis Report on Fox Business – 2/15/12 Talking about his bill to PUNISH Egypt

Sen. Rand Paul on The Willis Report on Fox Business – 2/15/12

Radical_Centrist
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US 'deeply concerned' after Egyptian forces raid NGO offices in Cairo

State Department urges government to 'resolve this immediately' as... more

crabbyoldguy
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Egyptians raid offices of NGOs, including U.S.-based groups

REPORTING FROM CAIRO -- Egyptian security forces stormed the offices of 17 nongovernmental organizations, including three U.S.-based agencies, as part of a crackdown on foreign assistance that has drawn criticism from the West and threatened human rights and pro-democracy movements.

The raids appeared to be part of a strategy to intimidate international organizations. The country’s ruling military council has repeatedly blamed “foreign hands” for exploiting Egypt’s political and economic turmoil.

Human rights groups say the military is using the ruse of foreign intervention to stoke nationalism and deflect criticism away from its shortcomings and abuses.

Egyptian soldiers and police forces raided offices and seized computers and files across the country. Those targeted included the U.S. groups: National Democratic Institute, International Republican Institute and Freedom House, which are funded by Congress to monitor elections and promote democracy overseas.

"The public prosecutor has searched 17 civil society organizations, local and foreign, as part of the foreign funding case," the official news agency MENA quoted a prosecutor's office as saying. "The search is based on evidence showing violations of Egyptian laws including not having permits."

The Reuters news agency quoted one person working in an office at the National Democratic Institute as saying: "Security forces who said they were from the public prosecutor are raiding our offices as we speak. They are grabbing all the papers and laptops as well."

[Updated 9:55 a.m., Dec. 29: Freedom House condemned the raids as a sign that Egypt’s government has become only more repressive since last winter's revolution overthrew former President Hosni Mubarak.

The raids were part of “an intensive campaign by the Egyptian government to dismantle civil society through a politically motivated legal campaign aimed at preventing ‘illegal foreign funding’ of civil society operations in Egypt," said Freedom House President David J. Kramer, who was a senior State Department official during the George W. Bush administration.

"It is the clearest indication yet that the [ruling] Supreme Council of the Armed Forces … has no intention of permitting the establishment of genuine democracy and is attempting to scapegoat civil society for its own abysmal failure to manage Egypt’s transition effectively,” he said.

The raid came three days after the organization filed papers to officially register, as required under Egyptian law. On Thursday, the group called for the U.S. government to reconsider the $1.3 billion in aid it provides each year to the Egyptian armed forces -- 20% of the military’s total budget.]

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has been increasingly agitated by pro-democracy activists and protesters. Clashes last week between demonstrators and soldiers ended in the deaths of at least 15 people.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/12/egyptian-authorities-raid-offices-of-ngos-including-us-based-groups.htmlREPORTING FROM CAIRO -- Egyptian security forces stormed the offices of 17... more

crabbyoldguy
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Human Chain to Spell 'NO FLY ZONE OVER PALESTINE'

"We intend to remind the world how the children of Palestine are terrorized and... more

maasanova
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2 years ago
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Foreign aid: Anti-malaria bed nets v F-35s

WHEN you argue for humanitarian military intervention, my colleague rightly says, you... more

ampersand
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2 years ago
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More Images from Japan's aftermath of tsunami/earthquake

The 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on Friday afternoon... more

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Ron Paul: How Foreign Aid Creates Instability and Isolates America

How Foreign Aid Creates Instability and Isolates America
Texas Straight Talk | February 07, 2011
by Ron Paul

The events in Egypt of late have captured the attention of the world as many thousands of Egyptians take to the streets both in opposition to and favor of the current regime. We watch from a distance hoping that events do not spiral further into violence which will destroy lives and threaten the livelihoods of average Egyptians caught up in the political turmoil. I hope that Egyptians are able to work toward a more free and just society. Unfortunately, much of the blame for the unrest in Egypt and the resulting instability in the region rests with U.S. foreign policy over the past several decades. The U.S. government has sent more than $60 billion to the Egyptian regime since the Camp David accords in 1978 to purchase stability, including more security for the state of Israel.

We see now the folly of our interventionist foreign policy. Not only has that stability fallen to pieces, with the current unrest, but the years of propping up the corrupt regime in Egypt has led the people to increase their resentment of both America and Israel. We are both worse off for the decades of the intervention in Egypt's internal affairs. I wish I could say that we have learned our lesson and will no longer attempt to purchase or rent friends in the Middle East, but I am afraid that is being too optimistic. Already we see evidence that while the U.S. historically propped up the Egyptian regime, we also provided assistance to groups opposed to the regime. So we have lost the credibility to claim today that we support the self-determination of the Egyptian people. Our double dealing has not endeared us to the Egyptians who now seek to reclaim their independence and national dignity.

Diplomacy via foreign aid transfer payments only makes us less safe at home and less trusted overseas, but the overriding reality is that we simply cannot afford to continue a policy of buying friends. We face an ongoing and potentially deepening recession at home, so how can we justify to the underemployed and unemployed in the United States the incredible cost of maintaining a global empire? Moral arguments aside, we must stop sending hundreds of billions of dollars to foreign governments when our own economy is in shambles.

American media and talking heads repeatedly pose the same loaded questions. Should the administration encourage the Egyptian president to remain or to resign? Should the U.S. ensure Mohamed ElBaradei or current Vice President Omar Suleiman succeed current president Mubarak? The best answer to these questions is that we should just do nothing, as Eisenhower did in 1956. We should leave Egypt for Egyptians to figure out.

Some may claim that this is isolationism. Nothing could be further from the truth. We should enthusiastically engage in trade, allow travel between countries, but we should stay out of their internal affairs. We are in fact more isolated from Egypt now than ever because the regime we propped up appears to be falling. We have isolated ourselves from the Egyptian people by propping up their government as we isolate ourselves from the Tunisians, Israelis, and other recipients of foreign aid. Their resentment of our interventionist foreign policy makes us less safe because we lose our authority to conduct meaningful diplomacy when unpopular regimes fall overseas. We also radicalize those who resented our support for past regimes.

Let us hope for a more prosperous and peaceful era for the Egyptians and let us learn the lessons of our 30 year Egyptian mistake.

http://dailypaul.com/156269/ron-paul-how-foreign-aid-creates-instability-and-isolates-americaHow Foreign Aid Creates Instability and Isolates America Texas Straight Talk |... more

TheEmpireGuy
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2 years ago
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Ron Paul: Cut Off All Foreign Aid to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, And All the Rest!

Ron Paul joined Neil Cavuto on FOX News to discuss the ongoing crisis in Egypt, the... more

Radical_Centrist
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US sends Israel 45 tons of fire retardant material to fight Mt. Carmel fire

The fires in Mt. Carmel have been raging now for almost two days. There is no... more

Aimee_Kligman
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U.S. foreign food aid supports industrial agriculture not farmers

As individuals, Americans are generous, often donating in response to crises abroad even while struggling to make ends meet at home. We tend to assume that our government's foreign aid is similarly altruistic. But is it?

October 16 is World Food Day, a good time to examine this assumption about U.S. food aid and begin to press for some much-needed improvements.

Meet Khalida Mahmoud, a 29-year-old woman whose farming family was driven into worsening poverty, after U.S. food aid poured into her home region of eastern Sudan. That's not how food aid is supposed to work, but just look at the policy: your tax dollars are used to buy grain from U.S. factory farms, the same giant corporations that already receive $26 billion in tax subsidies. Then the grain is transported halfway around the world, using thousands of gallons of fossil fuel and releasing tons of harmful carbon emissions into the atmosphere. The transport typically takes months while hungry people grow more desperate.

Once the food finally arrives, it floods agricultural markets, destabilizing fragile local economies. Small farmers are the first to go bankrupt. Most of them are women like Khalida, who work small plots of land hoping to sell enough at market to buy cooking oil, flour, a bar of soap and a pair of shoes so a child can stay in school.

These women are more than the backbones of their families: they grow most of Africa's food. Unlike giant grain corporations, these women farm without fossil fuels and harmful chemicals. Their sustainable agriculture practices are critical to meeting the twin challenges of feeding people and protecting the planet. Khalida and millions of other small-scale women farmers are the people we want to support with our food aid programs. Instead, the policy undermines the livelihoods of those who hold the key to long-term food security in Africa.

Fortunately, there is a straightforward solution: the U.S. should buy food aid crops directly from local farmers in Africa. When the U.N. World Food Program did this, they were able to obtain 75 percent more corn to feed hungry families than when they purchased grain from factory farms in the U.S. Buying specifically from women farmers has an enormous added benefit. Studies consistently show that when poor women gain access to money, they use it to provide food, healthcare and education for their children.

Cont.As individuals, Americans are generous, often donating in response to crises abroad... more

JanforGore
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2 years ago
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Why The Oscars Are A Con

This year’s Oscar nominations are a parade of propaganda, stereotypes and... more

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3 years ago
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In Haiti, survivors are angry as they wait; chaos is setting in and so is violence

~y2010m1d17-In-Haiti-survivors-are-angry-as-they-wait-chaos-is-setting-in-and-so-is-vio... more

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Nicole Kidman blasts Congress

"I am here just to be a voice,” Kidman said. “I rely on the people... more

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Many see aid as a cure for underdevelopment. Not so, says William Easterly,... more

suba
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3 years ago
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Sharma: US Aid in Need of Drastic Overhaul

The U.S. foreign aid framework was crafted in the early '60s. Now it desperately... more

suba
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3 years ago
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US Green Party Presidential Nominee spent 4th of July in Israeli Prison

Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney returned home today after 6 days being held by the government of Israel while attempting with 21 colleagues to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza on the vessel, the Spirit of Humanity.

“Don’t sign Miss Cynthia don’t sign!” So chanted a boisterous group of Palestinian teens and pre-teens in Beirut’s Shatila Refugee Camp demonstrating support for the Freegaza Humanity boat abductees on the 4th of July.

The students understood that those illegally arrested while in International waters had been offered a “get out of Jail Free” pass if they confessed in writing to violating Israel’s territorial waters.

The Spirit of Humanity boat, trying to bring emergency humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, was the topic of a lively discussion during a Sabra Shatila Foundation summer school civics lesson on “International law and the Question of Palestine”. The students were interested in the plight of some of their relatives and countryman in Palestine and the continuing siege of Gaza. Some had just finished their Baccalaureate exams and were wondering how they could continue their education given the severe impediments the government of Lebanon places on Palestinian civil rights, and their post exam relief seemed to energize them for the discussion.

A couple of the students had met Cynthia during her recent visits to Lebanon. When they learned that as a Congresswoman, she had introduced articles of impeachment against Bush, was a consistent anti-war voter during her twelve years in Congress, and that no member in Congress had achieved a more consistent, principled, voting record of issues of civil and human rights, including Palestinian rights, they really connected with the subject of the Freegaza aid boat, the Spirit of Humanity and her travails. “Those supporters of Palestine should not accept a false confession and should stay in Jail if necessary. They are patriots” was a commonly expressed sentiment.

The students understood that in refusing to sign the Israeli government prepared “acknowledgement/confession” the Freegaza group acted consistent with International Law. They learned that territorial waters, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is a belt of coastal waters extending at most twelve nautical miles from the baseline (usually the mean low-water mark) of a coastal state. The territorial sea is regarded as the sovereign territory of the state, although foreign ships (both military and civilian) are allowed innocent passage through it. They learned from media reports that in any case the Humanity was in International waters and that consequently Israel had no right to molest it.

The class adjourned sharing a general consensus that the Spirit of Humanity, enjoyed and will continue to enjoy on every subsequent humanitarian voyage, these freedoms as well as other internationally lawful uses of the sea within contiguous zones, exclusive economic zones, and on the high seas. Needless to report, were it possible for them, the whole class would like to be on the next Freegaza boat.Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney returned home today after 6 days being held by... more

asherp
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3 years ago
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Obama lifts stranglehold on women's health

A great win for women's health and rights around the globe. President... more

St_Alia_10191
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4 years ago
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