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China is gaining a reputation for corruption. One of it's most secretive areas of spending is in international aid, which seems to be a vehicle for huge kickbacks for very few people. Namibia accepted China's offer of millions of dollars to use to buy special scanners that analyze cargo containers for illegal or dangerous contents. China did not let Namibia choose the company to buy from or compare prices of companies; instead, a Chinese company was chosen for them, Namibia was to buy the scanners for a ridiculously inflated price, and the head of the scanner company received millions of dollars that had nothing to do with the scanners: "Investigators charge that Nuctech agreed to hire Ms. Lameck's consulting company, Teko Trading, in 2007, a month after President Hu's visit. Nuctech agreed to pay Teko 10 percent of the contract if the average price of one scanner was $2.5 million. If the price was higher, Nuctech would pay Teko 50 percent of the added cost. A subsequent agreement fixed the amount of commissions at $12.8 million, according to court records." China is using international aid to give friends huge amounts of money and fund national businesses. That is not how aid is supposed to work.

Pros, cons, models of international aid. See references to Jeffrey Sachs, who we saw in the Commandin Heights documentary! source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Since the initial 8.1 earthquake, there have been more than 700 aftershocks. Residents are concerned that the governments made no effort to aid the victims for 24 hours after the largest earthquake. In places like Oaxaca, despite being in a seismic zone, the government did not have a plan to aid residents.

Monsoons in Pakistan have killed thousands of lives this past summer, so multiple neighboring nations sent aid to help those stranded. Heavy rains may be caused by climate change, and the unprecedented monsoons have washed away infrastructure/homes.

Overall, there has not been as much news coverage of this flooding as many other events going on in the world. However, I noticed that emphasis on aid to this climate catastrophe has been covered even less. What does this say about news bias and possibly even censorship?

Good questions, Subby. I think that charitable donations are down, even as intense needs are rising. see https://afpglobal.org/covid-era-fundraising-stalls-donations-soften-and-donors-retention-rates-fall-first-quarter-2022

This is an article about how Americans in Haiti are abducted while providing aid to communities in need

Turkey: Syria Crisis Fact Sheet from theEuropean Commission. Good source, Scott! Sort of like the U.S. CIA Fact Sheets. . . But NOT the US.

article about the aid/profit conundrum around a breakthrough child malutrition treatment

In order to remedy Ebola, Nations most affected by the virus, namely Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, must allow their leaders to calm and heal the general public. If political and social leaders fail to eradicate the disease, the number of people infected will quickly rise from 3000 to 20,000. So far, several countries have mismanaged the outbreak. Governments quarantined rural and urban areas of aforementioned African countries; a slum in Monrovia, the Capitol of Liberia, was one of the blocked off places. Instead of helping the people, as intended, the quarantines trap people. These people feel disregarded and sentenced to death. Fear causes people to run from the spaces and further spread Ebola, defeating the purpose of the quarantine. Even if African governments take necessary steps to prevent the spread of the disease, Western aid is still essential. Western countries should not supply weapons to help contain quarantines, but rather provide medicine and experienced medical personnel. Unfortunately, the pay is not high enough for many medics to risk their lives treating a disease that is the highest risk to doctors and nurses. The solution to Ebola is not an obvious one; the entire process is experimental. However, U.N. experts say a medical center need be established in West Africa where representatives of every African country can convene to discuss the disease.

Very interesting article. It is interesting how psychology must be considered in giving aid to African countries infected with Ebola (for example, the article mentions that soldiers shouldn't brandish their weapons so Ebola patients won't be afraid of the quarantine). The quarantines seem like an extra cause for panic. Imagine a Liberian seeing a quarantine being set up. Do you think they would act calmly and happily admit themselves to the quarantine, or just simply run away and spread the virus further?

Great analysis--see quotes below--but my question is, can the widespread response that is needed actually be pulled together? Especially, can it be pulled together fast? "Most agreed on many basic principles. All, for example, were sure the outbreak could be stopped without experimental drugs or vaccines. None expected it to take less than six months." "Pay is also an issue, experts said. Health workers taking huge risks must be compensated, and so must their families if they die." "Also, this outbreak is like SARS in that doctors and nurses are in the highest risk group. Training must be extra-thorough - especially in taking off protective gear that might be smeared with virus. Nigeria, for example, does not let anyone near victims without three days of training on wearing protective gear, said its health minister, Dr. Onyebuchi Chukwu." "The new W.H.O. road map calls for 12,000 local health workers and 750 expatriates." ""There's no part of this you can't break down and make work," Dr. Aylward said. "But it took us 20 years to build the polio response, and this has to be done in 20 days."

Mevlut Cavusoglu has declared that the Turkish government will now aid the Iraqi Kurdish forces, known as pesh merga, into the Syrian town of Kobani. Forces of international powers are feeling pressure to push back against the Islamic State rather than making Iraqi Kurdish forces to fight alone against ISIS. The U.S. has already begun airdropping supplies to the Kurdish forces, but Turkey has refused the Kurdish forces to move through Turkey in the past, because Kurdish forces have threatened the autonomy of Turkey in the past. Yet, desperate times call for desperate measures and many International powers are claiming that ISIL/ISIS is picking up steam in their counter-attacks.

Interesting to compare the response to disasters in different countries (US to the recent hurricanes and Sierra Leone to a recent deadly mudslide). Also shows how promises of aid can be a shallow political tool.

"Cost"

Not particularly comparative politics, but seems very apropos

Sort of like the Operation Varsity Blues scandal, it's not entirely surprising but very revealing about college admissions. A lot of these colleges advertise their FA policies in their admissions as draws, too. I'll be interested to see what results from this lawsuit.

It is a good thing that this summit highlights aid toward less developed countries. Although a lot of the funding that is going towards these less developed countries seems much more like downstream solutions rather than upstream. This aid may help short term but won't in the long run.

Very interesting that the US was mentioned as starting to act on its commitment from COP26. US is investing $370 bil in emmission-free energy sources that should get close to cutting 50% of emissions by 2025. I wonder how are progress on that statistic is right now.

I thought this was interesting... especially this little tid bit: "Given Egypt's influence in the Arab world, the officials said, its economic recovery and political stability could have a profound influence on other nations in transition and ease wariness in Israel about the tumultuous political changes under way."