Bush is enjoying widespread praise in Africa, likely a welcome relief from his dismal approval ratings hovering around 30% in the United States. Do you know why he's there? And are his stated motivations all that lurks behind the millions of dollars pouring into strategic African nations?
He has spent the past few days on a five-nation goodwill tour of Africa, and citizens of Tanzania turned out in droves to catch a glimpse of the leader who has given millions of dollars in aid to help combat AIDS, malaria, dysentary, and other health problems plaguing the largely poverty-stricken populations.
Don't cannonize Bush just yet, however. Though his campaign against these illnesses in the past seven years of his presidency has admittedly produced tangible results in the realm of health care, there are politics tied to the pursestrings.
"Bush has stressed new-style partnerships with Africa based on trade and investment and not purely on aid handouts.
His Millennium Challenge Corp. rewards countries that continue to satisfy criteria for democratic governance, anti-corruption and free-market economic policies."
(quoted from Reuter's article, link to full story here: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL17797120080217?pageNumber=3&...)
I went to the Millenium Challenge Corporate website and pulled up some interesting info about the criteria countries are judged on to be considered eligible for this public health aid. There is a 17 point system for determining eligibility, and countries are scored on such things as immunization of citizens, conduciveness to free market economy, perceived government corruption, faith in the legal system, etc. I found myself snickering...if our country were up for assistance from MCC, how well would we score? Judge for yourself; here's the full report on the 17 indicators and scoring system: http://www.mcc.gov/documents/mcc-fy08-guidetoindicatorsandtheselectionpr...
Or, just poke around mcc.gov and see what you think of our judging the worthiness of poor people's need based on their government's aping our regulations and structure.
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You've got to admit, getting to pick between thousands of screaming fans and 30% of a nation that likes you...I'd pick the screaming fans. Props on the title of the post, too. I love the Doors.
Nicholas Aden
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i will admit, the title is what brought me into the blog. i thought it was pretty clever.
and i hadn't heard of the point system until just now, so thanks for posting. it was really informational.
i'm going to the site right now...