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yikes, there is a limited way in which i almost agree with you on something, seretogis. that way is that the way in which aid is put together is at the least problematic. but aid is as it is because of the larger neo-colonial system that has come together since the early 1960s. in fundamental ways, african economies are organized in the same way as they were during the colonial period. economic autonomy has not happened because it has not been allowed to happen. the cycle across which this has taken place is well-known: it repeats all over the southern hemisphere. watch the film "life and debt" for a useful primer.
the present structure of aid is most curious because it is entirely unclear if it is aid for africa (say) or aid for american corporations----particularly agricorporations-- simply because its character and the structural space within which it operates is far more suited to the needs of that curious blurred space between the american state and industrial sectors like agriculture----aid money is a screen for dumping overproduction: corn and its derivates for example, which follows DIRECTLY from the american monocropping model---diary by-products, which follows DIRECTLY from the american system of organization of dairy production---etc etc etc.
the mountains of clothing follow primarily from tax breaks given to individuals and corporate persons alilke who donate overproduction via institutions that allow it to enter this system.
so the characteristics of aid are a direct reflection of the neo-colonial order within which it circulates. it is that same order that makes all of the nostalgic elements you bring into play--isolationism, maintenance of the "amurican dream" etc---irrelevant.
this critique of aid directed at areas like africa leads toward a basic critique of contemporary capitalism itself. you cant get very far in considering what aid functionally is, why it is as it is, and what might be done to alter any of it unless you integrate that into some understanding of how globalizing capitalism works, how fordism worked, how american large-scale industrial production works, particularly in agriculture, and of the relations between them. africa is badly served by this money because, despite appearance/illusion, it is not about africa. aid that is provided is mostly about the requirements of industrial capitalism in the north, which requires the dumping of over-production in order to be able to simply generate room for more over-production. the system itself is irrational and not sustainable. the myriad problems created for subsaharan african countries by aid money follow from this--this situation is an expression of the larger problem.
but the structures that shape this are quite huge and central to the way in which the american economy in particular uses poorer nations as dumping grounds in order to continue to prop itself up.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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