Dambisa Moyo, who authored the book Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How there is a Better Way for Africa, makes the case for that very idea in this video I recently watched on Cato @ Liberty:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIPvlQOCfAQ[/youtube]
Moyo’s book is much maligned by left leaning critics but her most basic premise, that relying on the fickle largess of White activists is no way to run a country, is so simple and obvious that one suspects her critics are motivated by colonialist racism. Zimbabwe is engaged in pogroms against Whites and Jews largely because the government is able to be propped up by Western money, thus they can afford to destroy productive members of society in spiteful class and race warfare policies. If Zimbabwe was forced years ago to govern themselves it would be a much different place. Not to mention that the current economic crisis is limiting how much aid will even be available, and it becomes clear Africa needs to find a new sustainable economic model.
Damisa Moyo also has a website so check her out, and buy her book.
Isn’t it striking how even the most conservative among us often fail to view foreign aid in the same light as domestic welfare? If we believe that welfare perpetuates poverty and a host of other problems, then it follows that foreign aid does the same and worse when sent to countries with rampant political corruption. We need to hand out fewer fish, and spend a lot more time teaching people to fish for themselves.