The United Nations development summit in Monterrey, Mexico, wound up at the end of March with 60 countries agreeing to a broad set of principles to boost foreign aid and help the developing country. Even the United States agreed to increase by $5 billion its foreign aid. But the results of the summit were decidedly mixed.
The Bush administration continues to insist that any aid must be tied to democratic reform within developed countries. This provoked two reactions.
The Economist summed up one reaction which is namely that this is what the Europeans have been doing all along. Well, maybe, but so far they don’t seem to have done a very stellar job at it. It is one thing to talk about requiring internal reform and another to actually follow through.
The other reaction, of course, came from developed countries ruled by corrupt dictators, which claimed that it was colonial oppression rather than corrupt dictators that was responsible for the developing world’s problems.
The chief architect of this vision was Fidel Castro, who insisted it would be wrong for the West to place preconditions on aid packages,
You can’t blame this tragedy on the poor countries. It wasn’t they who conquered and looted entire continents for centuries, nor did they establish colonialism, nor did they reintroduce slavery, nor did they create modern imperialism. They were its victims.
Leave it to Castro who has systematically destroyed freedom and prosperity in Cuba to complain about being a victim.
On the other hand, the Bush administration rightfully appeared as hypocritical with its ongoing insistence that developing countries adopt free trade principles, while Washington reserves for itself extremely protectionist policies. The United States has refused to lower tariffs for Pakistani textiles, just slapped ridiculous tariffs on wood coming into the United States from Canada, and placed tariffs and limit on steel imports. As the Economist put it, seems to support free trade except for the Carolinas.
That is wrongheaded and divisive. It is time to lead by example, Mr. President.
Sources:
UN summit ends with cash pledge. The BBC, March 23, 2002.
What the president giveth . . . The Economist, March 30, 2002, pp. 12-13.
Fidel Castro still have some good legacies despite his not so good repuation.;.-
the us hates fidel castro but he has lots of achievements too in Cuba~.;
actually, Fidel Castro is not at all a bad man. Cuba has one of the best government medical care in the world “”: