President Bush kept a remarkably straight face Tuesday when he strode to the microphones with Britains prime minister, Tony Blair, and told the world that the United States would now get around to spending 674 million US dollar (godt 4 milliarder DKR) in emergency aid that Congress had already approved for needy countries, the influental American daily, New York Times, writes in an Editorial Wednesday.
That is it, the paper goes on.
Not a penny more to buy treated mosquito nets to help save the thousands of children in Sierra Leone who die every year of preventable malaria. Nothing more to train and pay teachers so 11-year-old girls in Kenya may go to school. And not a cent more to help Ghana develop the programs it needs to get legions of young boys off the streets.
Mr. Blair, who will be the host when the G-8, the club of eight leading economic powers, holds its annual meeting next month, is trying to line up pledges to double overall aid for Africa over the next 10 years.
That extra 25 billion dollar (150 mia. DKR) a year would do all those things, and much more, to raise the continent from dire poverty. Before getting to Washington, Mr. Blair had done very well, securing pledges of large increases from European Union members.
According to a poll, most Americans believe that the United States spends 24 percent of its budget on aid to poor countries; it actually spends well under a quarter of 1 percent.
As Jeffrey Sachs, the Columbia University economist in charge of the UN Millennium Project, put it so well, the notion that there is a flood of American aid going to Africa “is one of our great national myths.”
The US currently gives just 0,16 percent of its national income to help poor countries, despite signing a United Nations declaration three years ago in which rich countries agreed to increase their aid to 0,7 percent by 2015.
Since then, Britain, France and Germany have all announced plans for how to get to 0,7 percent; America has not. The piddling amount (sølle sum) Mr. Bush announced Tuesday is not even 0,007 percent.
What is 0,7 percent of the American economy? About 80 billion dollar (480 mia. DKR). That is about the amount the Senate just approved for additional military spending, mostly in Iraq. It is not remotely close to the 140 billion dollar corporate tax cut last year.
This should not be the image Mr. Bush wants to project around a world that is intently watching American actions on this issue.
At a time when rich countries are mounting a noble and worthy effort to make poverty history, the Bush administration is showing itself to be completely out of touch by offering such a miserly drop in the bucket.
It is no surprise that Mr. Bushs offer was greeted with scorn (foragt) in television broadcasts and newspaper headlines around the world.
“Bush Opposes U.K. Africa Debt Plan,” blared the headline on the AllAfrica news service, based in Johannesburg. “Blairs Gambit: Shame Bush Into Paying,” chimed in The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia.
The American people have a great heart. President Bush needs to stop concealing it, the New York Times concludes.
Kilder: New York Times og The Push Journal
