Saturday, February 21, 2009

Down with Bono; Up with Kiva


Why is Africa such an economic basket case? Is there hope for the Dark Continent? Are Hollywood celebrities and foreign aid destroying Africa? For a non conventional answer listen to Dambisa Moyo, an economist with degrees from all the right places and until recently a Mistress of the Universe for Goldman Sachs (no she doesn't resemble Sherman McCoy or Tom Hanks who was physically miscast as him in the movie. The movie still worked in its own right.) Dambisa Moyo says no aid, no celebraties, and if you want to finance jobs, cut out the middlemen and women through microfinance like kiva.org.

"I wish we questioned the aid model as much as we are questioning the capitalism model. Sometimes the most generous thing you can do is just say no."

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I wonder how many of these countries try to say no, but America insist.

You would think that with all the aid that there would be progress. This is not the case.

Probably because the aid goes to the politically powerful and never works its way into the free market economy.

I could be wrong, but at least something to consider.