Arguments Against Increasing Foreign Aid
Crystal Merritt
English1105
Steven McGinnis
29 November 2011
Increasing Foreign Aid
When the average American guesses how much our government’s total budget is spent on foreign aid the common estimate is 25%. In reality it is less than 1% (Worthington). I strongly believe our foreign aid budget should increase immensely. Their legacy of starvation, drought, deadly disease, underdevelopment, corruption, desperate poverty and violence continues to hinder Africa. The nearly 700 million inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa are the poorest in the world. The number of people dying on a daily basis throughout Africa is staggering (Missionaries of Africa). A recent poll found that 59% of Americans want to reduce foreign aid (Worthington). …show more content…
The irony behind the support to trim foreign assistance is that Americans are notoriously proud for their reputation of being generous. For example, more Americans donated to Haiti after the earthquake last year than tuned in to watch the Superbowl (Worthington). African citizens live the same and harsher lives of Haiti earthquake victims every day and are blatantly disregarded and ignored. Because the crisis in the Horn of Africa is so complex, and because the scale is so difficult to comprehend, we have not seen people come together to respond in the same way they did after the earthquake in Haiti. Many who do hear about the crisis are left with the impression it is too severe we cannot successfully do anything about it (Shah). Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates put it in simple terms; "The 1% we spend on aid for the poorest not only saves millions of lives, it has an enormous impact on developing economies – which means it has an impact on our economy." (Worthington). The best I can do to get my point across that foreign aid must increase drastically is to list facts upon facts of the devastation that is occurring in African countries. Zimbabwe, Congo, Burundi, Liberia, and Somalia are considered the five poorest countries within the continent of Africa (Pettinger). These countries plus many others are in desperate need for our assistance. The worst drought in 60 years has devastated communities throughout the Horn of Africa. The drought has left more than 13 million people in a state of crisis, which is greater than the population of Los Angeles and New York combined. The millions suffering from the effects of this crisis are facing incomprehensible suffering. Left with nothing, many are walking more than 100 miles toward refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia (Shah).
Countries such as Somalia, Sierra Leone, and Niger live everyday with more than half of their people lacking clean water. The population of Sierra Leone is 51% without clean water, Niger’s is 52%, as Somalia’s is 70%! The United States has a mere 1% living in this circumstance (Central Intelligence Agency). Americans take clean water for granted as many people struggle with lack thereof. The UN says that more than 10 million people are affected by drought across the Horn of Africa (Whitlock). How can anyone justify that we cannot or should not help them as much as possible? Malaria is also the number one killer of refugees in Africa.
(Nothingbutnets.net) and accounts for 20% of childhood deaths in Africa. (Malaria deaths fall over 20% worldwide in last decade. In 2009, 781,000 people died from the disease. The mosquito-borne disease is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, where 85% of deaths occurred. Most of the deaths in children are under the age of five. (Malaria deaths fall over 20% worldwide in last decade). Every 45 seconds a child dies of Malaria. (Nothingbutnets.net). One-third of the 108 countries where malaria was regional were on course to eradicate the disease within 10 years. The disease has been eradicated from three countries since 2007; Morocco, Turkmenistan and Armenia. The Roll Back Malaria Partnership aims to eliminate malaria in another eight to ten countries by the end of 2015. This includes the entire WHO European Region. Experts said if targets continued to be met; a further three million lives could be saved by 2015. (Malaria deaths fall over 20% worldwide in last decade). Nothingbutnets.net is my personal favorite organization to donate to. Each ten dollar donation buys, ships, and installs a malaria net …show more content…
in AIDS as well is another fatal disease within Africa. As of 2010, thirty-four million people in the world are living with AIDS. (Kaiser Family Foundation).
5,600,000 living in South Africa, 3,300,000 in Nigeria, 1,500,000 in Kenya, and 1,200,000 in Zimbabwe (Central Intelligence Agency). “Every thirteen seconds in Africa somebody dies of AIDS and every nine seconds an African is infected with the disease.” (Africa AIDS Death Count). Knowing these detrimental facts how is increasing aid even a question? The number of hungry people in the world has now reached over 1 billion! This is equivalent to fifteen percent of total global population. Now greater than 270 million African civilians, which are approximately twenty-four percent of the entire continent, are malnourished (Stop Hunger Now). In just one year this percentage has risen over eleven percent. Our help to them is needed more now than ever. Starvation is simply claiming lives, too many lives. A foreign relief agency just recently discovered a small village in an abandoned region of West Africa where over 18,000 people are on the verge of starvation. Malnutrition is so great in this area an entire hillside was covered with fresh graves of the children who had recently died. (Missionaries of Africa). In countries such as Somalia, Eritrea, Burundi, and Niger, the percentages of toddlers underweight are catastrophic. Somalia alone has 32%, Eritrea has 34%, Burundi has 38%, as Niger has 39%. (Central Intelligence Agency).
Almost 170,000 of Somalis, consisting mostly of women and children, are fleeing the worst famine in a generation in this Horn of Africa nation. Many are going to Kenya and Ethiopia, with some walking over 100 miles. Almost everyone reports passing dead bodies along the way that were not strong enough to make the trip. Of the 1,700 people arriving in Ethiopia daily, over 50 percent of Somali children arriving in are fatally malnourished. Of the 1,300 arriving daily in Kenya range between 30 to 40 percent (IRIN). As a result of this crisis, a child is dying in Somalia every six minutes (Shah). Many sad devastating stories are told by the people of Africa to missionaries who travel to help as much as they can. “Everyday 1.1 pounds of boiled wheat are divided up between two adults, four children, a calf, a goat and a donkey in the Farah household. It is the only food they have had after rains failed for the past two seasons. It is boiled wheat for breakfast and for the main meal, we don 't have anything else, no milk, no meat, no vegetables, no oil" says Maria Farah of Ethiopia. (Whillock). Halima Omar, 30, has buried four of her children, who died of hunger. We were very comfortable when we had our animals. We were one of the better-off families in Da 'ara. But this changed when we lost our last cow five months ago. They died one by one. We could not even sell them. We went hungry more days than we ate. My children started dying slowly. I lost four of my six children to hunger. We felt helpless. There is nothing in the world worse than watching your own child die in front of your eyes because you cannot feed him. We finally left the village two weeks ago to try to save the last two. Now we are in this camp in Kurtunwarey with many other families like us. I am breastfeeding both of my children because I have nothing else. There is nothing left in my breasts but I have to give them something. Many children in this camp are so weak they can no longer control their bodily functions. The community here has been good but there too many of us and they are not much better off anyway. I keep wondering how long we will survive like this. I am worried about my last two children; I pray to God for help to come before it is too late for many of us. Every day we are burying someone here; you wake up in the morning and find that somebody’s child has passed away or you are woken up by the wail of a mother who just lost a child. I am losing hope; I don 't know whether or not the situation will ever get better. Every day, I keep wondering whether we will eat today or not. I will do anything to keep my children alive but don’t know what to do. There is nothing here, no job, no food. Maybe this is our fate or maybe a miracle will happen and we will all be saved from this nightmare." One last tale of African despair comes from a 42 year old slum dweller named Christine Amony, "I have four children and we live in Kony Paco. We have one meal of cassava and beans every day in the evening and even then the food isn’t enough." Many who oppose increasing aid state that the United States is in enough debt as is and needs to help itself before it can help others.
“GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently said we should cut back on foreign aid and let China do it. Other Republicans running for office, or in Congress, say much the same
thing.”
(Paulson). The American person makes on average over all about $104.10 per day, where as in the poorest countries on the planet, people makes less than $1.00 per day, so to say that we are unable to assist the people less fortunate than us is blasphemy. There are not words for how desperately these foreign countries need our assistance and aid. I hope with all the prior information now known to you, you have changed you mind, and have agreed our foreign aid assistance should be increased. I could not agree more with the following statement; "It will only be too late for the children when we give up on them," Fr. Roy says. "As soon as we do that, then they have little hope for survival. You see, many of the children have nowhere else to turn for help. They have so little food, clothing, medicine . . . they need us for everything. That 's why I am desperately praying that the people here in the United States will understand how important they are to the survival of Africa. Without our help, there will be no Africa. Its life, its beauty, its children will eventually dies. In so many ways, the future of Africa is in our hands!" (Missionaries of Africa).
Works Cited
“Africa AIDS death count.” kwanzaakeepers . N.p., Dec. 2000. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Central Intelligence Agency. “The world factbook.” cia.gov. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
IRIN. “SOMALIA: Halima Omar, ‘I watched four of my children die of hunger.’” Irinnews. Humanitarian news and analysis, 4 July 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Kaiser Family Foundation. “People living with HIV/AIDS.” globalhealthfacts. N.p., 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
“Malaria deaths fall over 20% worldwide in last decade.” bbc,co.uk. New health, 18 Oct. 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Masci, David. “Aiding Africa.” library.cqpress. CQ Press, 29 Aug. 2003. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Missionaries of Africa. “Famine, As hunger and disease claim more lives, some ask if Africa can be saved.” Missionaries of Africa. N.p., 2008. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Nothingbutnets.net. “Send a net save a life.” secure.globalproblems. United Nations foundation, 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Paschen, Uwe. “10 poorest countries on this planet.” nowpublic. N.p., 7 Dec. 2008. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Paulson, Tom. “Africa rising and the selfish reason to keep doing foreign aid & development.” humanosphere. kplu88.5, 21 Oct. 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Pettinger, Teivan. “List of poorest countries by GDP.” economicshelp. N.p., 5 May 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Shah, Rajiv. “FWD the Facts About Famine, War, and Drought in the Horn of Africa.” blog.state.gov. Dipnote, 19 Sept. 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Stop hunger now. “Hunger is a moral consequence of greed.” The face of hunger. N.p., 14 Oct. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Whitlock, Craig. “Africa.” Worldhunger. hunger notes, 27 Oct. 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Worthington, Samuel. “US foreign aid benefits recipients – and the donor.” guardian.co.uk. N.p., 14 Feb. 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Classical Argument Outline
Introductory Paragraph:
When the average American guesses how much our government’s total budget is spent on foreign aid the common estimate is 25%. In reality it is less than 1%
"The 1% we spend on aid for the poorest not only saves millions of lives, it has an enormous impact on developing economies – which means it has an impact on our economy.”
More Americans donated to Haiti after the earthquake last year than tuned in to watch the Superbowl.
Body of your Argument:
A. Background Information:
Increasing foreign aid should be done and taken seriously.
B. Reasons or Evidence to Support your Claim
1. Reason 1: Weakest Water
2. Reason 2: Stronger Disease
3. Reason 3: Strongest Starving
4. Opposition View: Need to take care of ourselves before others.
Conclusion:
"It will only be too late for the children when we give up on them," Fr. Roy says. "As soon as we do that, then they have little hope for survival. You see, many of the children have nowhere else to turn for help. They have so little food, clothing, medicine . . . they need us for everything. That 's why I am desperately praying that the people here in the United States will understand how important they are to the survival of Africa. Without our help, there will be no Africa. Its life, its beauty, its children will eventually dies. In so many ways, the future of Africa is in our hands!"
English1105
Steven McGinnis
29 November 2011
Increasing Foreign Aid
When the average American guesses how much our government’s total budget is spent on foreign aid the common estimate is 25%. In reality it is less than 1% (Worthington). I strongly believe our foreign aid budget should increase immensely. Their legacy of starvation, drought, deadly disease, underdevelopment, corruption, desperate poverty and violence continues to hinder Africa. The nearly 700 million inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa are the poorest in the world. The number of people dying on a daily basis throughout Africa is staggering (Missionaries of Africa). A recent poll found that 59% of Americans want to reduce foreign aid (Worthington). …show more content…
The irony behind the support to trim foreign assistance is that Americans are notoriously proud for their reputation of being generous. For example, more Americans donated to Haiti after the earthquake last year than tuned in to watch the Superbowl (Worthington). African citizens live the same and harsher lives of Haiti earthquake victims every day and are blatantly disregarded and ignored. Because the crisis in the Horn of Africa is so complex, and because the scale is so difficult to comprehend, we have not seen people come together to respond in the same way they did after the earthquake in Haiti. Many who do hear about the crisis are left with the impression it is too severe we cannot successfully do anything about it (Shah). Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates put it in simple terms; "The 1% we spend on aid for the poorest not only saves millions of lives, it has an enormous impact on developing economies – which means it has an impact on our economy." (Worthington). The best I can do to get my point across that foreign aid must increase drastically is to list facts upon facts of the devastation that is occurring in African countries. Zimbabwe, Congo, Burundi, Liberia, and Somalia are considered the five poorest countries within the continent of Africa (Pettinger). These countries plus many others are in desperate need for our assistance. The worst drought in 60 years has devastated communities throughout the Horn of Africa. The drought has left more than 13 million people in a state of crisis, which is greater than the population of Los Angeles and New York combined. The millions suffering from the effects of this crisis are facing incomprehensible suffering. Left with nothing, many are walking more than 100 miles toward refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia (Shah).
Countries such as Somalia, Sierra Leone, and Niger live everyday with more than half of their people lacking clean water. The population of Sierra Leone is 51% without clean water, Niger’s is 52%, as Somalia’s is 70%! The United States has a mere 1% living in this circumstance (Central Intelligence Agency). Americans take clean water for granted as many people struggle with lack thereof. The UN says that more than 10 million people are affected by drought across the Horn of Africa (Whitlock). How can anyone justify that we cannot or should not help them as much as possible? Malaria is also the number one killer of refugees in Africa.
(Nothingbutnets.net) and accounts for 20% of childhood deaths in Africa. (Malaria deaths fall over 20% worldwide in last decade. In 2009, 781,000 people died from the disease. The mosquito-borne disease is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, where 85% of deaths occurred. Most of the deaths in children are under the age of five. (Malaria deaths fall over 20% worldwide in last decade). Every 45 seconds a child dies of Malaria. (Nothingbutnets.net). One-third of the 108 countries where malaria was regional were on course to eradicate the disease within 10 years. The disease has been eradicated from three countries since 2007; Morocco, Turkmenistan and Armenia. The Roll Back Malaria Partnership aims to eliminate malaria in another eight to ten countries by the end of 2015. This includes the entire WHO European Region. Experts said if targets continued to be met; a further three million lives could be saved by 2015. (Malaria deaths fall over 20% worldwide in last decade). Nothingbutnets.net is my personal favorite organization to donate to. Each ten dollar donation buys, ships, and installs a malaria net …show more content…
in AIDS as well is another fatal disease within Africa. As of 2010, thirty-four million people in the world are living with AIDS. (Kaiser Family Foundation).
5,600,000 living in South Africa, 3,300,000 in Nigeria, 1,500,000 in Kenya, and 1,200,000 in Zimbabwe (Central Intelligence Agency). “Every thirteen seconds in Africa somebody dies of AIDS and every nine seconds an African is infected with the disease.” (Africa AIDS Death Count). Knowing these detrimental facts how is increasing aid even a question? The number of hungry people in the world has now reached over 1 billion! This is equivalent to fifteen percent of total global population. Now greater than 270 million African civilians, which are approximately twenty-four percent of the entire continent, are malnourished (Stop Hunger Now). In just one year this percentage has risen over eleven percent. Our help to them is needed more now than ever. Starvation is simply claiming lives, too many lives. A foreign relief agency just recently discovered a small village in an abandoned region of West Africa where over 18,000 people are on the verge of starvation. Malnutrition is so great in this area an entire hillside was covered with fresh graves of the children who had recently died. (Missionaries of Africa). In countries such as Somalia, Eritrea, Burundi, and Niger, the percentages of toddlers underweight are catastrophic. Somalia alone has 32%, Eritrea has 34%, Burundi has 38%, as Niger has 39%. (Central Intelligence Agency).
Almost 170,000 of Somalis, consisting mostly of women and children, are fleeing the worst famine in a generation in this Horn of Africa nation. Many are going to Kenya and Ethiopia, with some walking over 100 miles. Almost everyone reports passing dead bodies along the way that were not strong enough to make the trip. Of the 1,700 people arriving in Ethiopia daily, over 50 percent of Somali children arriving in are fatally malnourished. Of the 1,300 arriving daily in Kenya range between 30 to 40 percent (IRIN). As a result of this crisis, a child is dying in Somalia every six minutes (Shah). Many sad devastating stories are told by the people of Africa to missionaries who travel to help as much as they can. “Everyday 1.1 pounds of boiled wheat are divided up between two adults, four children, a calf, a goat and a donkey in the Farah household. It is the only food they have had after rains failed for the past two seasons. It is boiled wheat for breakfast and for the main meal, we don 't have anything else, no milk, no meat, no vegetables, no oil" says Maria Farah of Ethiopia. (Whillock). Halima Omar, 30, has buried four of her children, who died of hunger. We were very comfortable when we had our animals. We were one of the better-off families in Da 'ara. But this changed when we lost our last cow five months ago. They died one by one. We could not even sell them. We went hungry more days than we ate. My children started dying slowly. I lost four of my six children to hunger. We felt helpless. There is nothing in the world worse than watching your own child die in front of your eyes because you cannot feed him. We finally left the village two weeks ago to try to save the last two. Now we are in this camp in Kurtunwarey with many other families like us. I am breastfeeding both of my children because I have nothing else. There is nothing left in my breasts but I have to give them something. Many children in this camp are so weak they can no longer control their bodily functions. The community here has been good but there too many of us and they are not much better off anyway. I keep wondering how long we will survive like this. I am worried about my last two children; I pray to God for help to come before it is too late for many of us. Every day we are burying someone here; you wake up in the morning and find that somebody’s child has passed away or you are woken up by the wail of a mother who just lost a child. I am losing hope; I don 't know whether or not the situation will ever get better. Every day, I keep wondering whether we will eat today or not. I will do anything to keep my children alive but don’t know what to do. There is nothing here, no job, no food. Maybe this is our fate or maybe a miracle will happen and we will all be saved from this nightmare." One last tale of African despair comes from a 42 year old slum dweller named Christine Amony, "I have four children and we live in Kony Paco. We have one meal of cassava and beans every day in the evening and even then the food isn’t enough." Many who oppose increasing aid state that the United States is in enough debt as is and needs to help itself before it can help others.
“GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently said we should cut back on foreign aid and let China do it. Other Republicans running for office, or in Congress, say much the same
thing.”
(Paulson). The American person makes on average over all about $104.10 per day, where as in the poorest countries on the planet, people makes less than $1.00 per day, so to say that we are unable to assist the people less fortunate than us is blasphemy. There are not words for how desperately these foreign countries need our assistance and aid. I hope with all the prior information now known to you, you have changed you mind, and have agreed our foreign aid assistance should be increased. I could not agree more with the following statement; "It will only be too late for the children when we give up on them," Fr. Roy says. "As soon as we do that, then they have little hope for survival. You see, many of the children have nowhere else to turn for help. They have so little food, clothing, medicine . . . they need us for everything. That 's why I am desperately praying that the people here in the United States will understand how important they are to the survival of Africa. Without our help, there will be no Africa. Its life, its beauty, its children will eventually dies. In so many ways, the future of Africa is in our hands!" (Missionaries of Africa).
Works Cited
“Africa AIDS death count.” kwanzaakeepers . N.p., Dec. 2000. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Central Intelligence Agency. “The world factbook.” cia.gov. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
IRIN. “SOMALIA: Halima Omar, ‘I watched four of my children die of hunger.’” Irinnews. Humanitarian news and analysis, 4 July 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Kaiser Family Foundation. “People living with HIV/AIDS.” globalhealthfacts. N.p., 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
“Malaria deaths fall over 20% worldwide in last decade.” bbc,co.uk. New health, 18 Oct. 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Masci, David. “Aiding Africa.” library.cqpress. CQ Press, 29 Aug. 2003. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Missionaries of Africa. “Famine, As hunger and disease claim more lives, some ask if Africa can be saved.” Missionaries of Africa. N.p., 2008. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Nothingbutnets.net. “Send a net save a life.” secure.globalproblems. United Nations foundation, 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Paschen, Uwe. “10 poorest countries on this planet.” nowpublic. N.p., 7 Dec. 2008. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Paulson, Tom. “Africa rising and the selfish reason to keep doing foreign aid & development.” humanosphere. kplu88.5, 21 Oct. 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Pettinger, Teivan. “List of poorest countries by GDP.” economicshelp. N.p., 5 May 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Shah, Rajiv. “FWD the Facts About Famine, War, and Drought in the Horn of Africa.” blog.state.gov. Dipnote, 19 Sept. 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Stop hunger now. “Hunger is a moral consequence of greed.” The face of hunger. N.p., 14 Oct. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Whitlock, Craig. “Africa.” Worldhunger. hunger notes, 27 Oct. 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Worthington, Samuel. “US foreign aid benefits recipients – and the donor.” guardian.co.uk. N.p., 14 Feb. 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Classical Argument Outline
Introductory Paragraph:
When the average American guesses how much our government’s total budget is spent on foreign aid the common estimate is 25%. In reality it is less than 1%
"The 1% we spend on aid for the poorest not only saves millions of lives, it has an enormous impact on developing economies – which means it has an impact on our economy.”
More Americans donated to Haiti after the earthquake last year than tuned in to watch the Superbowl.
Body of your Argument:
A. Background Information:
Increasing foreign aid should be done and taken seriously.
B. Reasons or Evidence to Support your Claim
1. Reason 1: Weakest Water
2. Reason 2: Stronger Disease
3. Reason 3: Strongest Starving
4. Opposition View: Need to take care of ourselves before others.
Conclusion:
"It will only be too late for the children when we give up on them," Fr. Roy says. "As soon as we do that, then they have little hope for survival. You see, many of the children have nowhere else to turn for help. They have so little food, clothing, medicine . . . they need us for everything. That 's why I am desperately praying that the people here in the United States will understand how important they are to the survival of Africa. Without our help, there will be no Africa. Its life, its beauty, its children will eventually dies. In so many ways, the future of Africa is in our hands!"