Today’s News Headlines
We have two main newspapers here in Zambia… The Times and The Post.
There are people selling the newspapers all day at certain stoplights (robots) around town, and today I saw the two headlines side by side:
“U.S. Pledges Continued Aid”
and
“Rupiah Tackles Corruption in Government’s Highest Offices”
The thing about these headlines is that they’re simulaneously funny and sickening side-by-side. Rupiah Banda is the Zambian President and thought he hasn’t really been proven to be totally corrupt, all of his friends he’s appointed more or less have been and he’s been “tackling” their corruption ever since he’s been in office. And then there’s the U.S. government… continuing to send aid money through these corrupt government officials. I don’t have the patience with myself to write out a full blog entry about what this means and doesnt mean for alleviating poverty, but check out these links for some thoughts on the issue, and comment back to me with some thoughts, if you’re so inclined.
cynthia (May 28, 2009, 8:52 am).
matt, that’s so interesting. i liked that times article from the atheist…i’m glad to hear that he can see that perspective, and it’s refreshing to hear as a christian that maybe the work we can do in africa is in fact more valuable than we would have expected. it was encouraging, for me at least.
i hope all is well down there. keep up the good work!
Team Burundi 09: Lending (May 28, 2009, 11:39 am).
[...] (My friend Matt Castle, who is in Zambia setting up social businesses, had a brief but insightful post on aid and associated links. This article in particular is insightful about aid and how churches do more [...]