Rich states "Don't give a damn..."

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Thursday harshly criticized his own country and other wealthy states for being stingy with foreign aid and said in rich countries "We really don't give a damn."

In a speech to a human rights conference in Atlanta, Carter said increasing financial assistance was critical to battling malaria, AIDS and other common diseases that disproportionately affect the poorest parts of the world.

"Unfortunately, in the rich countries like ours, we really don't give a damn," said Carter, who was president from 1977 to 1981 and who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

what's really ironic is how much of the 0.18 percent of gross national product that constitutes u.s. foreign aid ("the lowest of any G-7 nation and far below a 0.7 percent United Nations target that 22 of the world's developed nations have agreed to meet by 2015") ends up staying in the countries for which it was intended... a lot of the money is "repatriated" to the u.s. in the form of fees and salaries paid to u.s. staff and consultants hired to administer the foreign aid projects...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet