I’ve just watched the special New Year’s Day episode of The Vicar of Dibley starring Dawn French, and what a sanctimonious pile of old codswallop it was. Yes, I know it’s only a sitcom, but it reveals something of the mindset of BBC scriptwriters and their ilk.
The general thesis is that 30,000 people are dying from extreme poverty every day and, what with it being the 20th anniversary of Live Aid and all, Something Must Be Done. The solution, obviously, is to wear white arm bands and write to the prime minister. I can see the food raining out of the sky already. The only character who disagrees with this plan is the rich landowner who points out that no-one actually cares about starving children because the new traffic lights outside Sainsbury’s are far more worthy of the anger of the masses.
Obviously these are the only two possible points of view. It’s the hippies who will solve everything by taxing the rich to feed the poor versus the evil Tory bastards who don’t give a shit about anybody.
Just to emphasize which viewpoint is correct, and by way of a plug, the vicar and friends visit a website and see the starving children, cry into their Jaffa Cakes and it’s white armbands all the way home. Everyone lives happily ever after.
Except they don’t. All that foreign aid just funds corrupt third world governments who pocket most of the money and use the rest to pay for their armies. Even a lot of the private charity ends up going the same way: the original Live Aid money was apparently handed over to the dictator Mengistu.
Here’s an alternative viewpoint that the writers of Vicar of Dibley, and by extension most of the BBC viewing public, haven’t thought of: Giving money to corrupt governments is harmful. It’s not that I don’t care about the starving children. I actually think that their salvation lies on the path of global free trade and capitalism. Governments are the problem, not the solution. The way to abolish poverty is to make people richer. Contrary to popular opinion, wealth is not a fixed quantity and can be (and is) created in free countries, which is why the most free countries are also the most rich. The case has been well made. When will someone say so on the BBC?
Postscript — reading this, it seems clear that the famine in Ethiopia had very little to do with a lack of rain, in which case not only the money but the lyrics did something of a disservice to the Ethiopians.
Related Links — Dr Madsen Pirie writes about the Make Poverty History campaign. In the comments section is an interesting discussion of the effects of debt cancellation.
Thank goodness most real development professionals don’t work for the BBC. This year’s G8 and EU presidency will focus on reducing debt, opening markets, increasing the levels of aid and creating incentives for companies to create effective, affordable treatments for HIV, TB and Malaria. Much of today’s development spending goes does go on ‘direct budget support’ and there is a huge debate over how worth while it actually is (some times it’s great, sometimes it’s terrible); but most of it goes to various enabling development measures such as basic education and healthcare, improving government systems (to tackle corruption, etc) and bolstering democratic processes.
There is a huge amount that governments in the developed world can do. The best thing is to allow the worlds poor to participate in the global economy on as even a playing field as possible and let them get on with it. When the poor get richer they buy our stuff (we get richer), we buy theirs (they get richer), more stuff pecomes available (things get cheaper) and capital flows to where it is most efficiently used. Everybody’s happy. If only we could scrap the Common Agricultural Policy/ US farming subsidies, we’d see an overnight transformation!
Interesting comment, Mark. I agree that the best thing we could do is scrap the CAP. (Wow, that rhymes. Did I just invent a slogan?) It’s a shame some of these do-gooding campaigning types haven’t realised that. I’m not so sure about G8 and EU’s “incentives” and “development spending” though. All that would be funded by tax and I don’t like tax.
Why does everyone say that the EU producing cheap food for Africa causes famine Surely it stops famine and getting rid of the CAP would cause more famine aren’t the euro skeptics confusing poverty with famine, when they complain the CAP stops africa selling food to us what is the point in africa selling food to us if they don’t and have any left over and they don’t get cheap food from us anymore and they have a famine.
Stop falling for right wing extremist drivel the sort of dogmatists who allowed 4 million Inidans to starve to death in the Brittish empire because the free market said the poor should not get food, and the free market dogmatism said the free market will allways provide well it wonn’t why on earth would any country in the world provide food for starving Africians other than subsidies.
Look at the potaoto famine and the indian famines, caused by the free market when they couldn’t afford our food prices. how does the CAP cause famine how does making too much food cause famine.
The last time we had a free market in Britain in the days of the empire, 1940s India was exporting food while 4 million Indians starved. That is the cruelty of the free market. Why does selling food to a drought stricken country cause famine. Surely we need more food security not less especially with climate change issues.
Why is EU extremism has increased to such levels that anything the EU does is allowed to be insulted wihout critism back.
Why are we becoming so ignornat that we forget thes mistakes of the past thr free makret in CAP will not help Africans or Europeans.
By the way if people do better without aid then chuck everyone out of eton at the age of 10, ane make them live in Africia and see if they thrive. Bollocks to right winfg drivel.
Right wing facists will destroy the CAP and starve Europe and Africia and then blame socialists due to some drviel logic, and we will will all fall for the esame excuise again,. If the free makret works why did 4 million Indians starve in Inida in the 1940s, or dont the facists regard tha as a failure. Probably.
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