As humans, it is our obligation to help each other out, it is the just thing to do. There is no question that countries should try to help each other in times of need. However, there are correct and incorrect ways of helping other countries. The ramifications of foreign aid, the transfer or loaning of resources from one country to another can be merciless and severe, especially when done wrong. Canadian taxpayer money is taken year after year to fund a fruitless endeavour that seems to have no end. Canada should not give aid to other countries. This is because Canadian foreign aid has very little long-term effect anyway, foreign aid can hurt the recipient nation by further damaging an already weak economy, and Canadian money should help to …show more content…
When we think of foreign aid we normally think of the aid as being very helpful. The aid may be wholesome, but that doesn’t mean that its effects will be positive. When CIDA did exist, Africa was consistently high on their priority list. Nearly every African country received some assistance from CIDA (Wells, 49). Overall, Africa has received over 600 Billion dollars in assistance from a variety of countries. In addition, data from the World Bank suggests that most of the spending of the countries from Africa comes from foreign aid (Veronique-de-rugy. par. 7). Nonetheless, Africa remains poverty stricken and corrupt. Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian economist argues that in Africa aid creates damaging reliance that hampers growth rather than promoting it (Copley and Bernard. par. 17). She also says that Africans can’t see their governments as legitimate as long as most of the money for education and health care comes from outside countries (Veronique-de-rugy. par. 8). The continued spending on aid makes it hard for governments to become independent (par. 9). Canada is the third largest bilateral country donor of Ethiopia, a country that has been in a huge food deficit since the 1970s and is very dependent on other countries for food (Lei 26). In the years 2002 and 2003 Ethiopia received about 1.4 million tons of food aid. Unfortunately for Ethiopia, their agriculture industry “accounts for over 80 percent of the GDP. ” (25). The local farmers cannot compete with the free food aid and keep the economy running. Admittedly though, the farmers do face unreliable rainfall, but the point is Ethiopia now totally relies on foreign countries to survive, which is obviously very expensive for those foreign countries, who must have their own