,Bono and Bob Geldof, the world famous rock stars, have earned enough money between them to save at least 10 of the poorest
countries in the world. People with donor fatigue recoil from the ego-boosting and self indulgence of Comic Relief and Live Aid. Status Quo was revived by Live Aid.
One billion people, mostly in Africa and central Asia, live in abject poverty. Foreign aid is tailored to suit the commercial interests of the donors, rather than the welfare of the recipients. The Chinese government, targeting Africa for vital raw materials, are willing to deal with African despots.
The remedy requires the West to accept goods from the
poorest countries in order to allow their escape from basic primary commodities, thereby, reducing restrictions on imports with severe tariffs and allowing low cost manufacturing to provide essential paid work. The alternative is the utter collapse of a country. Somalia is in a state of unrecoverable anarchy since 1993. It is in fact more rewarding to aid a country where its population can live in safety rather than defend the West from the criminals and terrorists, whom collapsed societies export to the West.
The West in general and the Americans in particular are very bad at dealing with alien cultures. The West could make amends by helping the poorest 58 countries reform their societies. Those who qualify with essential skills should be discouraged from emigrating and technical assistance must be advanced to show them how to govern. A free media can aid the proper disbursement of aid. International resource extracting companies must comply with agreed government rather than environmental standards, because the poorest nations need better trade deals. Swiss banks must cease providing numbered accounts for greedy dictators.
The current war against terror is not a war of reason versus faith. Faith in the benevolence of the state encouraged more carnage since 2001. The disaster that is Iraq is due to a way of thinking which must be abandoned. The most militant fundamentalists are the lawyers and doctors of the Middle East seeking
political power in their respective countries, often run by closed family dynasties. Terrorists and extremists are trying to secure political power and social change albeit through extreme violence. Society rejects extreme violence. Confusing the struggle for justice in the Middle East with the struggle against religion rejects social and political reality.
The world can be improved with the benefit of free trade and the inevitable economic and social benefits accruing to developing nations.