Submitted By: Victoria Whelan

I found this good US State Department website (Tips for Travelers To China) about traveling to China if anyone is interested.

Wow.

Who would have ever thought that the poor and developing countries of the world would have the option of turning down the IMF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, African Development Bank, etc. for financing?

Well, per this NY Times article [subscription may be required], “Help Not Wanted,” that day has arrived. See also related NY Times Op-Ed piece, “Patron of African Misgovernment.”

The author of the article points out that countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, etc., are pushing the “good guy” foreign aid programs out of the market through their own activist aid programs with no bids, no conditions and no need to reform attached. The article strongly criticizes these countries as “rogue states” for doing this, and predicts that their alternative development model will “create a world that is more corrupt, chaotic and authoritarian.”

Perhaps, but geeeezzz, the IMF, World Bank and the like are certainly no saints in this regard. See, e.g., this recent Wall Street Journal article on the African Development Bank, Continental Divide: U.S. Stirs Debate Over Africa Bank. See also/read, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins and/or just about anything written by the academic adversaries of economist Jeff Sachs at Columbia University.

I read this NY Times article three times to try to get my arms around it. Each time I finished something just did not feel right, and my gut and brain still tell me that the jury is still out on this issue. For example, it seems to me that many of the African countries have tied their wagons to the West and its instituions for the past three centuries and have little to show for it. The author ignores this point and that makes me a tad suspicuous of why the article and its author are so quick to come to the defense of the foreign aid agencies that many contend have done a crappy job helping poor countries improve over the years.

So, why not give the Chinese and others their shot, even IF their intentions are money, international politics and access to raw materials?

Your thoughts? Where is “truth” in this mess? These are less than clear questions and issues for those of us from the legal world.