Newell-Fonda
High School
Newell, Iowa
Teacher:
Connie Doonan
MCA Prospective
By
Aron Nieland
12th grade
The United States has shipped over one trillion dollars of
foreign aid to poor and needy countries around the world since World War II.
That’s hard-earned tax money from the United States citizens.
That’s more money than the whole town of Newell will earn in one
century. The U. S. has its own
domestic problems. We need to
concentrate on fixing domestic problems on [our] own soil. Then [we] can turn
around and help the rest of the world. The
United States has spent hard earned tax money on over seventy needy nations to
help them reform; as a result, forty-three of those countries are worse off than
in 1970. The United States needs to address domestic problems before trying and
failing on other countries’ problems.
The United States role to the rest of the world seems to be
come to their aid and help them out. The
United States has spent only one tenth of a percent of its budget on foreign
aid. Not even a fraction of the
amount...that many other industrialized nations spent on foreign aid.
The United States percentage is misleading compared to other nations
because they still send more money when it comes down to the dollar amount, just
not compared to other nations percentage wise. The United States gives billions
of dollars every fiscal year to other countries to help them condone democracy.
The United States helps third world and under developed nations with
health aid, terrorist relief, corruption, obtain a better life and a better
education for their youth. This in
turn will help out the United States by giving them allies and making it less
likely for terrorist groups to get a strong foothold in society to create horrid
tragedies like September 11th.
The United States has tried endlessly to help out
underdeveloped nations with their economy and to provide adequate aid to help
subdue other problems. The
Millennium Challenge Account is going to basically narrow it down to nations
that are going to be using the United States hard earned tax dollars the
“right way” and not trickle the money away like in years past.
They are going to set Standards to ensure better use of the money.
Well, there [are] ways around the MCA’s roadblocks for other nations.
They will find ways to cover their tracks and use the money as they see
fit. Yes, there will be the
occasional country that uses the foreign aid money and is successful with the
program. There is just one large
problem with that, those countries are just too far and few between for the kind
of money and man-hours spent on foreign aid.
The U. S. has its own problems. They have homeless by the thousands; its current rate is a
record high. The economy is in one
of the largest recessions in over a decade.
The unemployment is also at an all-time high. People are being laid off by the thousands weekly by many
major companies around the nation. The
government needs to concentrate on the domestic problems before they can run out
and help every needy country around the world. The MCA has a set of rules and regulations that are being
more stern when it comes to receiving foreign aid than in years past.
Although these rules look good on paper there are just too many loopholes
that countries can deceive some of the regulations to get by with old tactics.
Most of the regulations set have to be shown on paper, and by looking at
examples of misleading accounts and scandals in the U. S. in the past year, they
will probably be able to get by and look good on paper.
This will just get the MCA back to where they started.
One adage about foreign aid is that its made many people rich through its
hundreds of billions of dollars given to underdeveloped countries.
Too bad these people don’t live in poor countries.
This money that is just being wasted by the U. S., and foreign aid is
looking to go up in the next fiscal year. There
is one thing that should be done with foreign aid that will fix the money
problem all together. They should
scrap foreign aid altogether. The
country should just admit that it has failed and cut its loss, instead of trying
to come up with another scheme to try to make the dismal program work.
For example, the U. S. has given sixty-seven countries foreign aid for
over thirty-five years. Out of
these sixty-seven, half have experienced less than a one percent growth per
year. Half of that half has
actually done worse since receiving this aid.
The U. S. needs to just accept failure and move on.
They need to worry about more domestic problems and work on fixing
what’s going wrong instead of everyone else’s problems.
The United States should just admit that it has failed for
the most part and concentrate on their own problems in the mean time. Washington
has shipped hundreds of billions of dollars of the United States hard-earned tax
money to over seventy nations to help them into reform; as a result, almost half
of those nations are worse off than before the U. S. helped them in 1970; the U.
S. needs to concentrate on domestic problems before they can help see the rest
of the worlds matters. The United
States is going through a tough time in its own homeland; as a matter of fact,
their economy is going through recession, unemployment is at an all time high,
and the homeless rate is climbing to an all time high. The MCA is a valiant
attempt to keep foreign aid afloat. The U. S. needs to help its own citizens before it can run
out and help everyone else’s.
Questions
1-
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?
They
are domestic capital, foreign investment, and from trade.
2-
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?
It
requires citizens who can read, who are healthy, and are prepared and able to
work.
3-
When
is money sometimes counterproductive, according to President Bush?
When
countries have poor policies and we give them money or aid.
They just waste or funding and aid in poor decisions and only the money
is only used in bad policies which in turn delays their reform.
4 Describe the Millennium Challenge Account and include in
your description what is anticipated from donors and recipients?
The MCA is an account to help fight the against AIDS and find
a cure for it, the account is there to provide people in developing countries
the tools they will need to seize the opportunities of the global economy.
5
What are
the three broad standards that President Bush expects the leaders of the
developing nations to adopt?
The
three things are ruling justly, investing in their people and encouraging
economic freedom.
6
Describe
President Bush’s challenge to development banks and explain why or why not you
favor it.
His
challenge is to other nations and development banks to support a world bank.
Then the banks are expected to provide poor nations with half or up to
half of the funding they need, they will do this manly by grants.
7- 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.
10%
--- It says in 2001 that the United States gives .11 percent the lowest of any
industrialized nation.
8- Describe and
defend a “Me First” attitude. (Use your head ¾ you won’t find the answer
in the required reading.)
The
“ Me First” attitude in my eyes is saying that you take care of “you”
first and don’t worry about anyone else.
If you don’t take care of yourself you will not prosper and there is no
one else out there to help you, or that is looking out for you.
9- Describe and defend a “Mutual Benefit” attitude. (Use your head
¾ you won’t find the answer in the required reading.)
If
you help other nations get a start and show them in the right direction in the
long run you will benefit from many of the things that they may develop.
If they prosper and “get out of the dumps” and develop an economy
that is stable than you can take advantage of the things that they have going
for them.
10- 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.)
Three
Unsuccessful ones are feeding the hungry in Samalia, where there army stole and
sold all of the food that we gave them to help the hungry and sold it for money.
11- 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.)
Three
successful ones are three of the most
well known aid groups in the United states.
The Peace Corp, the American Red Cross and the Food and Hunger corp.
12- 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
believe we can, we can offer aid to
other countries and help our selves simultaneously by making sure the money is
to help other countries with their reform and not by letting them scuander as
much. Just for example one of the
only monarchs left in Africa just spent 79 million on a private jet for the
king, there reasoning was that he needs it to go in search for food and aid.
That’s over three times what the united states will give to them in one
year. That’s three times as much
money as that country spends on its own health care.
To top it all off they are going through the worst drought there in
almost a half a century. I think we
can help out other countries as we take care of our own business.
Even though our economy is in a recession we are still doing well enough
to take care of our own needs and help other countries which in turn will help
us in the long run.
13- 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.”?
I
Feel this is a great thing. It will
help our country not waste money on being able to check up on other countries
and being able to make sure they are using the money toward a good cause and
helping them.
14- 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.
This
is my biggest concern there is never going to be enough money and there is
always sufficient amount of countries out there that need aid.
Some countries are using the money secretly and wrongly with out leaving
a trace and having us know. They
just cover there tracts and make it look good on paper so they can keep
receiving aid. Its basically the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
There is just to much corruption involved in this late stage of the
program for it to be successful.
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.
15- 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 Believe we should be looking for both.
Although concentrating on weapons of mass destruction.
You here every day about five or six people dying from WMA but if there
is a weapon of mass destruction used than it’s always on a more serious scale.
16- 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.
No,
I don’t think that our citizens need to spend their hard earned tax dollars
just to throw it down the welfare drain. We
have our own problems to worry about instead of spending forty to sixty billion
dollars on worthless foreign aid. The
U. S. share is ten to fifteen billion that we don’t need to spend.
17- 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
believe its just a waste. We
don’t need to spend money anymore federal money of foreign aid.
18- How many countries would be affected positively y health-related
investments according to the Commission on
Macroeconomics and Health (CMH)?
They
say 83 countries would be positively effected.
19- 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?
360
billion gained annually
20- Use the Internet for your research and name the two
congressmen who introduced H.R. 4524. Give a 2-line synopsis of that bill. .
Joseph
Biden and Rick Santorum
The
bill is to help the Administration to work with other major creditor countries
and international financial institutions to amend the heavily-indebted poor
countries (HIPC) debt relief program to provide deeper debt reduction for
beneficiary countries.
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