Is aid a good thing

Is aid a good thing?

Aid is help, typically of a practical nature, with the intention of helping less fortunate countries. We do this because it is what we Christians and other people believe should be done in situations of great need, and hope that if we were in a similar position would be looked after as well. For example Great Britain have given lots of aid to the Philippines after the recent typhoon there has struck them. In this essay I will discuss whether aid is in fact a good thing or a bad thing.

Aid is considered to be a good thing as people do it out of generosity, so surely it should be a positive thing? However some people think that these countries, that need our aid, should help themselves and develop alone.
Countries give aid to other countries as the countries are having or have had trouble. This could be from war to natural disasters, from famine to poverty. Normally these countries who contribute aid donate food as the people will probably have no food. As well as food, other needed objects such as water, animals, clothes and money will be given to help. Some countries give aid in a bad way by donating weapons to help the losing side in a war, this only makes these wars carry on. Also some countries do not think very carefully about giving aid and give the countries the wrong things. This might include keep giving food for over a year, when by this time the country could have got their crops going again by this time. Furthermore some countries might spend more money over time bringing in water, when they could in fact have a water pump built so they could have water for at least ten or so years. If countries also taught the locals in the need of aid countries how to do simple tasks such as building houses, setting up businesses and how to grow crops, things that we take for granted, would also help a lot. Possibly if the countries that were giving aid brought in long term service such as setting up schools that would last a long time and