manny_ramirez
07.04.05, 14:07
Widac ze nie tylko Stany maja problem z pomoca dla Trzeciego Swiata. jeszcze
sie okaze ze ten strasznie kapitalistyczny kraj bardziej pomaga
niz "sprawiedliwe" socjalistyczne gospodarki.
Here's a new one: Canada is too rich to help the poor
Kate Heartfield
Canada embarrassed itself when Jeffrey Sachs came to Ottawa yesterday.
When the federal government can take its attention off its Gomery damage
control and ballooning budget surplus, all it can tell one of the world's
most influential economists is that Canada is too rich to give more foreign
aid.
Canadian politicians have, since the time of Lester Pearson, been telling
anyone who would listen that rich countries should spend 0.7 per cent of
their gross national product on foreign aid. Yet Canada still does not spend
even half that amount. In fact, unlike the United Kingdom and several other
European countries, Canada does not even have a timetable for reaching that
goal, say by 2012 or 2015.
"We can't understand why Canada would be reticent about this," said Mr. Sachs
yesterday. "Something's not right about this, because there's room in the
budget. This is Canada's original contribution to the world, it's the Liberal
party contribution. Ralph Goodale, the finance minister, was part of the
Africa Commission which recently made its call, also for 0.7 (per cent). The
economy's growing well. It doesn't make sense that Canada isn't in that
group."
The latest excuse Mr. Sachs is hearing from government officials goes like
this: Canada's economy is growing too well, so it can't afford to spend 0.7
per cent of it helping the world's poor stay alive.
This is like billionaires saying they should pay a lower percentage of income
tax than you do, because they make more money.
I don't know whether Mr. Sachs can keep a straight face when the Canadian
government tells him this claptrap. He had a hard time doing so while talking
about it to journalists.
"It is the most interesting explanation I have ever heard .... Frankly, it's
a level of creativity I would not have been able to come up with," he said
with a little smile.
Mr. Sachs is a professor at Columbia University and director of the United
Nations Millennium Project, dedicated to helping the world meet its ambitious
development goals. He is an optimist in a world that has too few.
His latest book is titled The End of Poverty. He believes the elimination of
extreme poverty is achievable by 2025. What is even more amazing, he believes
governments can be convinced to get it done.
Despite his optimism, Mr. Sachs is not naive. He is not railing against
multinational corporations; he just knows they aren't in a position, by
themselves, to pull Africa and Asia out of extreme poverty.
In The End of Poverty, he distances himself from knee-jerk anti-globalization
activism, calling the sweatshops of Bangladesh "the first rung on the ladder
out of extreme poverty." But he knows that without the aid to provide what
humans need for survival, people in poor countries never move up that ladder.
He doesn't want governments to shovel money into corrupt regimes, such as
that of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. What he does want is for Canada to live up
to its promises and give sufficient aid to those countries where aid can make
a difference
