Medicine Lodge High School
Medicine Lodge, Kansas
Teachers:  Devra Parker and Steve Germes

 

My View of Our Country
By Breann Shelite
12^th Grade

One can only imagine how those in poverty feel.  My youth group, Reality Check, decided to try to understand what one might feel like in a person's shoes who is much less fortunate than us.  We decided to have a "grunge skate day."  Our Youth Pastor drove us to a larger city where we went to a Goodwill store and bought the most worn clothing we could find.  We put on that clothing, making us appear less fortunate, and we went to the ice skating rink. We skated in the public rink while others gave us strange glances.  I, for one, was touched by this whole ordeal.  It made me appreciate my way of life and how good I have it.  It also made me realize how others in our country may feel. For a person who could not afford the best clothes, skating might be one of the happiest moments for them.  I felt this way, but if our nation's leader would realize that there are people here that cannot afford much food, let alone a house, then I may not have even had to experience this "reality."

I understand that other countries are worse off than us, but we should focus on those around us.  We need to provide our people with homes, jobs, and security.  Many foreign aid attempts have been tragedies.  One example is when our money went to purchase condoms as every young boy for a Christmas gift as the story goes.  How do condoms help those who are starving?  I would honestly like to know how condoms help prevent starvation.  Are we just telling them to stop reproducing because we do not want to help them anymore?  I would not want to get involved in that kind of an argument.  Although the condoms could serve in reducing the number of people with aids, I still feel as though this was a terrible foreign aid attempt.

Another example of a failed foreign aid attempt would be when we decided to decrease the number of dying infants in one country.  We decided to send them a truckload of baby formula so the babies could get the nutrients they cannot receive from their malnutritioned mothers.  One problem was that they had to mix the formula with water, their own water.  Their water was often dirty and infested with many different diseases, killing many of the young infants.  Other nurslings died because they had a nutrition overload.  They were not used to getting all those nutrients, and their small, delicate malnourished bodies could not handle it.  The remaining babies that did not die from these reasons ended up dying of starvation. Yes, starvation killed them because we were too late delivering the second truck load of formula, and the mothers had stopped producing milk.  When the formula ran out, there was nothing left for the infants to eat.  Now you can see why I have chosen to reject foreign aid.

Children have tests throughout the school year to see how well the teachers are doing.  I believe that this is wrong because many students are not good test takers.  They might struggle on the test, but, in reality, they are very bright people.  Other students do not even care about the tests, and they might not even try because they are bored with school and think that they do not need this.  They, too, could be bright people.  This, in turn, may falsify the purpose of the test and although the test shows the teachers have not done a great job, they might have done a relatively good job in educating their students.

The Millennium Challenge Account makes me feel the same way.  It says that we should still send foreign aid, but we should be more involved.  We should have the leader of the country to whom we are sending the money write down what he/she will do with the money to help his/her people.  The leaders may write down one reason for the money and then use it for another, or they might write down something and then fail at it requiring more funds then originally planned.  We have no way of knowing exactly what the other country will do with the money and even if we do have them write down what they are going to do with the money we have no way of making sure they go through with it without violence.  I think that the MCA might possibly be a small step in the right direction if we could assure that all the factors will go as planned, but there is no way to assure that.  Therefore, I think this will only leave an even bigger mess for our next president to deal with.  Thus, I think that MCA is a step in the right direction, but it will most likely cause us to fall two steps behind.

Thus, I believe that if we continue foreign aid, we should aid ourselves as well.  If we end up using the MCA, then we will have to make sure that we do not lay it upon the future generations to work out the details.  We must make it work correctly and accurately.  When every little detail is worked out to our advantage, we will be successful.  Although I do not agree with foreign aid when our streets are full of hungry people, and I do not agree with the MCA because of the mess, the government overrides me.  I hope and pray that they make the correct choices to make our country, as well as other countries, a better place to live.

Questions

Q1- President Bush claimed that most funds for development do not come from international aid. He mentions three things that do fund development. What are they?

The three items that President Bush mentioned that do fund development are domestic capital, foreign investment, and especially from trade.

Q2- President Bush reminded his audience that successful development in a third world country requires more than funds. What two items did he mention in this regard?

Successful development requires citizens who are literate, who are healthy, and prepared and able to work.  Education and health care needs are very important to successful development.

 

Q3- When is money sometimes counterproductive, according to President Bush?

Nations that refuse to enact sound policies, where as progress against poverty is nearly impossible.  When this happens, more aid money can be counterproductive.

 

Q4- Describe the Millennium Challenge Account and include in your description what is anticipated from donors and recipients?

The Millenium challenge will be devoted to projects and nations that rule justly, invest in their people and encourage economic freedom.  This pledge would lead the United States by example and increase it’s core development by 50% by the next three years, resulting in yearly increase of $5 billion by 2006.

 

Q5- What are the three broad standards that President Bush expects the leaders of the developing nations to adopt?

Three broad standards the President Bush expects the leaders to adopt are ruling justly, investing in their people, and encouraging economic freedom.

 

Q6- Describe President Bush’s challenge to development banks and explain why or why not you favor it.

President Bush challenged development banks to adopt a growth agenda, which increases their support for private sector enterprises, and focuses more on education.  He also challenges development banks to use grants instead of loans and to use all of these to increase the support of the World Bank by almost 20 percent and this will all be a step to remove debt.  Whether or not I favor it is not the issue, focusing more on education is top priority in my opinion.  President Bush is willing to give money to other nations to help them, but we do not even have very much money in our school systems to supply us with decent technology.  I do not agree with his challenge due to the fact anyone can say they need money, or they could deliberately spend money because they know they can get grants and not have to pay them back.  I think this could eventually put our country further into debt than it will bring us out of it.

 

Q7- What percentage of our national income (GNP) do you think the United States government committed to foreign aid in 2002? First answer this question and then use the Internet to find the answer.

  I think that the United States government used around 20% of our GNP to send as foreign aid in 2002.  I found out that the United States government used around 12% of our GNP as foreign aid in 2002.

 

Q8- Describe and defend a “Me First” attitude. (Use your head ¾ you won’t find the answer in the required reading.)

Foreign aid takes away money that we could be giving to our own people in the United States.  Giving billions of dollars to a different country to help them, when our home is in debt is pointless.  They are trying to help but they are just putting us further in debt.  We should worry about our own people that we have to see suffer rather than people from other countries who are suffering.  Why is it our problem their government can not take care of their own citizens?  It should not be our problem.  United States first is how we should think about it not the United States last.

 

Q9- Describe and defend a “Mutual Benefit” attitude. (Use your head ¾ you won’t find the answer in the required reading.)

Foreign aid benefits everyone involved.  The United States benefits by helping the different countries receiving the money and the other countries benefit by the help of the United States.  Foreign aid gives money to countries that are in desperate need of it.  Mutual benefit means that it benefits everyone involved in foreign aid, the receivers and the givers.  By the United States giving out money, they help people in need and they gain respect by the other countries as well as support.

 

Q10- Describe three unsuccessful foreign aid programs operated by the U.S. government or private American citizens. (Do not use the programs discussed in the testimony of Faith Action for People-Centered Development Policy included in your required reading. Conduct research using the Internet. Duplicate examples from the same class will not be accepted.)

There are many unsuccessful foreign aid programs and many need some changes.  The USDA has to change how it gives Indonesia aid.  We hurt the farmers and strengthened their ruling classes. Between a 20-year period, AID contributions to foreign aid disappeared without a trace.  US Food for Peace Program tried to help Guatemala after a horrific earthquake.  Only one stood in the way for development, food aid.

 

Q11- Describe three successful foreign aid programs operated by the U.S. government or private American citizens. (Do not use the programs discussed in the testimony of Faith Action for People-Centered Development Policy included in your required reading. Conduct research using the Internet. Duplicate examples from the same class will not be accepted.)

There are many successful foreign aid programs that have an impact on those given the foreign aid.  The International Cooperation and Development Program gave $697,000 in humanitarian assistance to seven nations with natural disasters that have befallen upon them.  Ethiopian Aid has provided 6 million people with better health services and education.  India Aid has made a cut on the adult illiteracy by one half. 

 

Q12- Steve Radelet, Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development, believes we can do both ¾ take care of our own people and lend a helping hand to citizens of less developed countries. Explain why you think we can or cannot offer aid to both.

I think that we cannot take care of our own people and lend a helping hand to citizens of less developed countries because I just have to look around to see that we aren’t doing so.  I mean there are so many homeless and people that cannot afford to send their kids to school.  There are so many debt problems here in the United States.  If we cannot help our own people, how can we help other countries.

 

Q13- What do you think about Mr. Radelet’s assertion that “the administration is leaning towards a system in which eligible countries would write proposals (or business plans) describing their objectives and strategy, how they would use the money, the benchmarks used for evaluation. Giving recipient countries this responsibility is a revolutionary change in US foreign assistance.”?

This assertion allows countries to write down their strong points along with their weaknesses.  Then the U.S. government decides whether or not foreign aid is needed in the situation.  Letting the countries write their own proposals (business plans) allows the government to choose those that are the most in need and who deserves the money we do not have as foreign aid money.

 

Q14- Which of Mr. Radelet’s three concerns regarding the MCA concerns you and why?

1.      as more countries in this income range become eligible, there will be fewer MCA funds available for the poorest countries that are implementing sound development strategies.

2.      the make-or-break requirement may unnecessarily eliminate some countries.

3.      the separation of US foreign assistance into two agencies could lead to a lack of coordination and overlapping functions.

The number two concern regarding the MCA concerns me.  The make-or-break requirement could cause a war because it may unnecessarily eliminate some countries.  If our allies need foreign aid yet they do not meet the U.S. government requirements they may turn against us for not helping them out when they need us most.  This could cause disagreement or possibly even war.  This concerns me because I know people fighting for our country and they could be killed over some money issue that should not have even been argued over in the first place.

 

Q15- There is evidence of an increase in negative world opinion towards U.S. foreign policy, not necessarily the American people. To counter this negative perception of the U.S. some people want the U.S. to concentrate more on weapons of mass assistance (WMA) and less on weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Please comment.

I think that we should focus more on weapons of mass assistance yet still continue some work on weapons of mass destruction.  It is nice to have the weapons of mass destruction incase we need to end a war fast, but it is better to have weapons of mass assistance when other countries are deciding whether or not the United States produces a threat to their country.

 

Q16- What does the World Bank recommend as the United State’s “just and appropriate share” to reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015? Do you think our citizens can afford that kind of increase? Defend your views.

The factors needed to reach MDG by 2015 are as follows:  to cut the proportion of people that obtain less than a dollar a day and those that suffer from hunger in half, make sure that all children at least get a primary education, promote equality among genders (especially in education), reduce the rate of deaths of children under 5 years, to lower the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters, stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, to sustain the environmental problems, and to develop a development global partnership.  I do not think that we can afford it because we are in debt so far now that we should focus on getting out of debt so we do not spend money we do not have.  I think it is a good idea and it needs to be done, but unless we go further in debt, we cannot go through with this program.

 

Q17- What do you think about the request of Faith Action for People Centered Development Policy’s request that tax dollars be used to fund, not only government-sponsored foreign aid programs, but “that funds also go to NGOs and grassroots organizations.”?

I think it would be nice to have these organizations funded, but we cannot even afford foreign aid, let alone these other organizations.  We are in debt enough as it is.  We do not need to spend more money.

 

Q18- How many countries would be affected positively by health-related investments according to the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (CMH)?

There would be 83 countries that would be affected in a positive way by health-related investments.

 

Q19- According to the CMH, how much would be gained annually between 2015-2020 due to saved lives and increased economic growth, if an increased investment were made in global AIDS and other health services?

From 2015-2020, 360 billion dollars will be saved lives and increased economic growth.  The loss now in the foreign aid, will eventually pay for itself over time.

 

Q20- Use the Internet for your research and name the two congressmen who introduced H.R. 4524. Give a 2-line synopsis of that bill.

Two representatives that introduced H.R. 4524 in April of 2002 are Chris Smith and John LaFalce.

This bill was passed in order to help third world countries with their debt relief.  The cost of this bill for 2003 will be less than an estimated 50 million dollars.    Back