By JONATHAN WARREN
In the past few years, the United States foreign aid policy has come under fire. Seen as a financial drain during America’s own recession, people believe that U.S. foreign involvement needs to be cut back significantly. They believe the U.S. needs to focus on problems at home before helping others. Simply stated, the U.S. needs to get its priorities straight.
Those people are correct in one way. The U.S. does need to get its priorities straight and therefore continue supporting other suffering nations despite protests. It will be a sad day when the U.S. places its own consumer desires before the dire needs of others who can’t even dream of the comforts found in this receding economy.
Efforts like helping suffering people in Haiti and working to prevent AIDs in Africa are bright spots on an increasingly materialistic and superficial culture. Because foreign aid is featured on the news more than other government expenditures, the public is led to believe that it is taking a heavy toll on our government.
However, foreign aid makes up only 1.2 percent of the U.S. budget, according to the Congressional Research Service, a miniscule number when compared to the affect it has on thousands of lives worldwide. This budget is used for economic, political, military, humanitarian and developmental aid in other countries.
In an era when the U.S. is gaining enemy threats, foreign aid is a way to make friends. Currently, 17 percent of the foreign aid budget goes to South Asian countries like India. The U.S. may need to capitalize on its Asian friends in the near future because of its rocky relationships with other Asian countries like North Korea and China. The world is becoming too small for the United States to sit back and watch events unfold.
Disagreeing with one of the areas in which foreign aid is distributed is far different than disagreeing with U.S. foreign aid as a whole. Calling for an end to foreign aid just because of one’s beliefs on the war in Iraq, for example, would also be calling for an end to the $447 million allotted to “child survival and maternal health” worldwide or the $103 million spent on furthering human rights.
Although foreign aid is imperfect, its effect on individual lives cannot be denied. Bill Gates recently started The Living Proof Project in which he aims to tell positive stories about foreign aid to change the public’s negative perception of it.
The Living Proof tells stories of redemption and success possible only through U.S. foreign aid. The project’s site tells of people like Maheshwori Devi Bishwokarma who was pregnant with her second child in a small Nepalese town. The birth of Bishwokarma’s first child in a cowshed nearly killed her, and she was nervous for her upcoming delivery.
An aid worker found Bishwokarma on the street and discovered that her baby was in a dangerous position. With permission from the village elders, the aid worker successfully delivered the baby in a hospital bed. One can only imagine how nerve-racking and even life threatening the process would have been had Bishwokarma not found the help of an aid worker.
Those that are opposed to foreign aid should think about the implications of their beliefs. While protesters call for smarter budgets and criticize administrations, the United States is working toward establishing that very freedom for citizens of other countries.