Customer Reviews

The Road to Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity

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This is an angry book that has been written with considerable passion. The author worked in Somalia for some time and later became a journalist. In that capacity he has followed the history of the area and the collapse of Somalia as a state. The book is about Somalia and it is about how foreign aid made things worse.

The book is to some extent journalist and fragmented. It looks at the stories of different characters. One Chis Cassidy for instance was an aid worker who headed a project to irrigate some land. He has to battle rampant corruption, the incredibly poor planning of the project and continual attempts to undermine it. In the end despite his talent and passion for the job he fails and the money put into the project is simply lost. Millions and dollars whose only achievement is to enrich some aid workers and government officials. Cassidy is a tragic case and in the end he leaves Africa after one of his children is murdered to warn him off.

The book also looks at how private charity works. How much of it goes to the charity organisation and how little to the target population. What aid that does go to the target population is so poorly distributed it achieves nothing.

The main work of the book is to look at the overall situation in Somalia and the mechanics of aid. The story which was revealed to the public was that due to a war between Somalia and Ethiopia large numbers of ethic Somalias had been forced to flee from their homes and were starving in refugee camps. As a result international agencies sent in huge amounts of food. The author reveals how the crisis was engineered by the then corrupt Somali government. That the numbers of refugees was at all times exaggerated. That the motive of the government in creating the crisis was to be able to steal large amounts of the food aid and to make money out of selling it. That the image of starving refugees was created by photographing children who were victims of dysentery and other diseases rather than facing starvation. How the importation of food distorted the economy and broke apart the relationships which used to keep Somalia to some extent a unified society.

The book is a devestating portrait of how flawed the aid industry is and the sorts of reasons why it is useless. It is also an interesting book to read along side Black Hawk down the recently released popular history of the military adventure which went so badly wrong. This book provides the political background to understand how flawed that entire mission was. A worthwhile book to read but one that it gripping like a novel and hard to put down.

Michael Maren began his journey to Africa as a Peace Corps worker. His first introduction to corruption occurred when school construction materials he obtained were diverted to add new rooms to local officials homes. But this was nothing compared to what is revealed in the rest of the book.

Basically, when we provide food to African nations, much of it is stolen and used to build the wealth and power of whatever dictator is ruling at the time. Efforts to help local people grow their own food are often stopped, because the power base of the dictator would be reduced if people could grow their own food rather than depending on the dictator to provide it.

The resulting suffering, wars, and corruption cannot be blamed entirely on evil African dictators. In fact, if I were to apportion blame based on the material in this book, most of it would fall on American grain merchants and the politicians who aid them. And some of the blame goes to the aid agencies who know this is the way the game is played, and say nothing so they can have a small piece of the corruption pie.

American farmers see a pittance of the money made by the excess grain they grow. When extra grain is sent to foreign nations, or bought with Food Stamps in America, it's the American taxpayer and farmers who lose out. Who does get rich? The money goes into the pockets of corporations like A. C. Toepfer, Continental Grain, Interstate Grain, Cargill, Ferruzzi Trading, Matsui, Richo Grain Limited, Archer Daniels Midland, Louis Drefus, and Mitsubishi (page 191).

These corporate parasites continue to suck on the public wealth by promoting ethanol, which according to the Department of Energy, takes more energy to make than it contains (see Chapter 11, Pigs at a Trough or Patzek "Ethanol from Corn: Clean Renewable Fuel for the Future, or Drain on Our Resources and Pockets?" www.wcpn.org/news/2003/07-09/images/ethanol/EthanolFromCorn.pdf )

This is an important book, one that ought to be read to understand how the grain industry ought to be reformed in America, and how aid agencies affect the economies and politics of African nations.

This book is hard to put down. The stories it tells are very interesting and passionately written.

At a time when the answer to most problems seems to be throwing money in their direction, Maren points out graphically and convincingly that a) it doesn't help; and b) it often does more harm than good. As I read his argument he seems to be saying simply that the problems in poor countries are generally caused by the corrupt and/or indifferent practices of thier leadership. Aid and charity always support that leadership and therefore perpetuate the problems.

He uses the example of Somalia and other African countries but it's easy to see the full breadth of his argument. Further he shows that most charites like CARE and Save the Children are actively aware of the damage they are causing (he cites internal memos) but continue on their way because they are dependent upon Western governments for tens of millions of dollars in financing that goes along with doing their projects.

To my mind, two things make this book unique: First, it's part memoir (Maren has been both an aid worker and journalist in Africa) and told in a riveting narrative style. Unlike most "policy" books, the characters come alive in this one. Second, and most important, Maren is not one of those right-wing cranks who wants do abandon the poor to rot in their own poverty. He believes that the rich countries have a moral obligation to help the Third World. This is the ultimate insider exposé. He does a great job tossing the money lenders from the temple.

This book has its flaws. As other reviewers have noted, it is rambling and disjointed. While I believe that his facts are mostly right, there are points where he may have come to the wrong conclusion because of a lack of familiarity with aid processes. Certainly, he over-generalizes based on anecdotal evidence. Aid in Somalia is probably not exactly the same thing as aid in Chile. The existence of some venal people in an organization does not mean that everyone in an organization is venal.

Maren is too quick to dismiss people as acting only in their own self-interest, even to the point of being internally inconsistent. He spends a lot of time passing out blame, and not always where it belongs. While he is pretty sure that NGOs should be blamed for carrying out bad projects, he doesn't seem to realize that they are under contract with USAID. USAID can terminate projects unilaterally; NGO sub-contractors can't, both legally and practically. On the one hand, he steams about patronizing attitudes towards Africans, and, on the other hand, says that it was "not their fault" that recipients stole aid funds in massive amounts, but the fault of those who made aid available to them. (What could be more patronizing than assuming that adults can't be held responsible for their own behavior?) Does the fact that aid workers have to convince Congress to give them funding by pointing out the advantages to the U.S. and legislators' constituents really mean that the aid workers were never serious about their humanitarian goals?

The fact that it sometimes reads more like angry blurting than balanced or reasoned scholarship is a shame, because there is a lot of good material here and good points being made. But it is important to read, particularly now, where there is renewed clamoring for more funds for aid to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Maren clearly, accessibly and authoritatively explains why more money does not equal more development; worse, can be destructive. These points are made elsewhere by others, but are usually buried in dry academic papers that speak in euphemisms. Anyone who wants to work in development should read this book. Maren can be forgiven for being angry.

This rampaging investigative report truly uncovers the horrors of the international aid business. The uninitiated may ask how the process of helping starving people in third world hellholes and developing stable democratic societies could possibly be bad. Well it is bad, and Michael Maren writes passionately from experience. He has seen the pernicious effects of charity-based NGO's from the ground, both as a longtime aid worker in several African countries, and then as a muckraking journalist.

Using the then-current debacle in Somalia as a case study, Maren demonstrates that international charity has become a self-sustaining bureaucracy and a big business focused on profits, with little or no focus on helping actual disadvantaged people. The main problem is free food shipments, which put honest third world farmers out of business and attract fraudulent refugees, who have no incentive to work when they know that food and medical care is free at refugee camps. Meanwhile, much is stolen by local warlords and sold off, and homegrown entrepreneurs make a killing off the cash thrown around by huge staffs that accompany NGO relief missions. "Charities" are drawn to humanitarian disaster sites as opportunities for profits, government funding, and corporate relations; then split when things cool off and offer no hope of actual long-term development. The bad effects described above usually make the local situation worse, even leading to war in Somalia's case. Famines indeed have political roots, and NGO's literally destroyed Somalia.

Maren tends to lose his cool in the midst of his passionate reporting, falling into unnecessarily inflammatory language. He also tends to pick on certain enemies like the Save the Children fund and particular UN agencies. His coverage of the "humanitarian" (actually military) mission in Somalia is revealing but drifts from the book's focus into war reporting. But despite some weaknesses, this hugely informative and revealing book raises very serious concerns about the corruption of the inaccurately named "foreign aid" industry. [~doomsdayer520~]

Maren does a good job of smearing the UN system, US foreign policy directions, and corrupt officials of the developing world. He does less well when it comes to the private international aid organizations, whose evisceration seems to be his primary aim.

He targets mainly CARE and Save the Children, two vastly different organizations. The blunders and witting or unwitting contributions to the problems of Somalia made by CARE and the other large NGOs are not in the same category as the problems associated with sponsorship.

He should probably have trained his sights more carefully on one or the other problem. Instead we get a scattershot denunciation of all attempts at aid, as patronizing, self-serving, and ultimately destructive.

Some of the 'facts' he uses to support his case are patently flawed--especially his discussion of the PL480 program and his definitions of Title I, Title II and Title III. This may be academic, but these mistakes undermine some of his broader points.

Finally, while I agree most wholeheartedly about the apathy and ignorance--bordering on criminal neglect--which is rife within the UN system, I think his tar-brush is a bit too ambitious when it comes to the overall picture of international aid.

I fully support his recommendation, at the end of the penultimate chapter, that an independent body be established to accredit organizations who are actually doing good, and to channel donors toward them as the most hopeful targets of resources. My fear is that probably the largest organizations in existence today wouldn't make the list, and some of the smaller, more professional ones, when injected with so much donor capital, will become bloated and ineffective, much as the big ones are today.

There are very few books that can claim to fundamentally change the way you see the world; this is one of them. Michael Maren brutally exposes the hypocrisy, corruption and inefficiency that will destroy forever the reader's attitude about foreign aid and charitable work overseas. A reader who wants to retain his belief in the myth that the billions of dollars we spend on foreign aid actually benefit the poor and starving of the world should NOT read this book - it will shatter your illusions forever. After reading about how aid to Third World countries ends up perpetuating the very conditions it is supposed to eradicate, how it enriches the corrupt elites of those countries and helps them consolidate their often violently dictatorial rule, and how a surprisingly large proportion of it ends up in the pockets of those actually running the charities, it becomes clear that foreign aid and charity to the Third World is part of the problem rather than the solution.

Michael Maren makes it very clear that we're rarely fully informed about the nature and the ultimate value of foreign aid. As Americans, we want to bring democracy, peace, and abundance to nations who don't enjoy these blessings. And from our chauvinist point of view, we can't imagine how the people we're trying to help could possibly resist our benevolence or look upon it as imperialism. But they do. There are places in the world where our notions of democracy and equal rights are viewed with suspicion or hostility. Take Afghanistan. Or Somalia. Or Red China. Or Iraq. Or Iran. Or Lybia. They're not ready for democracy, and all the free food we can send won't turn a Somali warlord or Mengistu into Thomas Jefferson. What Maren's book proves is that when we try to force-feed our culture to these countries, it does nothing but cause harm and turmoil. Let's face it. Some places aren't ready for the fruits of democracy. The best thing we can do for them is leave them alone. Somalia did just fine for thousands of years before Westerners "civilized" it. They'll do fine without white busybodies trying to turn them into Rotarians, Born-Again Christians and K-Mart shoppers. Let's accept the fact not everyone on the planet is ready for free elections, free markets and a military under civilian control. Let's let them find their own way in the world. And if they ever genuinely want our help, the best thing we can send them is a copy of the Bill of Rights.

Michael Maren's book is an illuminating look into the world of international humanitarian organisations. Although his book deals specifically with the entry of US aid and donations into Africa, his study reveals many truths about the humanitarian business whether it's in Africa, or other parts of the Third World. I worked with one such organisation before and it's true what he brings up, that the world of humanitarian workers is increasingly being corporatised. There is a world of NGOs to choose from now as opposed to the past when there used to be only the Red Cross and a handful of other organisations involved in disaster response and emergency relief work. Governments all over the world are also increasingly involved in such work, due to the pressure from their citizens to be more responsible world players and to be responsive to the needs of the less fortunate in the global community we live in. With more players in the humanitarian field, there is more competition, and there is a need to run it like a business to make sure you get the funding you require for your programmes. This in itself, is not a negative transformation as there have been examples of aid organisations being better run and more efficient, if one looks more closely at the profit margin (in terms of results, not money). However, this changes the focus of organisations from one of helping others in distress to one of making as much money as possible from the donors. In this transition, many NGOs seem to be losing sight of the reason they exist in the first place. Maren attacks the NGOs he has worked with but also gives the other side of things. Donors are at fault too, they tend to assume that just because Third World countries need help, they can just dump anything that is not wanted on them. Many times, through my experience, donors practically throw stuff they don't need out the window, assuming that anything is good enough for people in the developing world. This arrogance and stupidity is frustrating fr aid workers. In taking the easy way out of contributing things they do not require, donors only appease their feelings of guilt, and worse, this lack of analysis and thought process allows the donors to be exploited. The aid business is a vicious cycle, with all players having a responsibility to make it work. Not just the NGOs and donors, but also the recipients as well. As Maren illustrated, this business is alot more touchy and dangerous than anything else as it deals with human lives, not just money. A must-read for those who want a real look into the mechanics of the humanitarian enterprise.

As an international aid worker and former Peace Corps volunteer, I was hoping for objective and well-researched criticism of international aid programs. Wrong book. The majority of this book is based on the author's personal experiences and anecdotal experiences of others with a couple of specific aid agencies, which are hardly indicative of the "aid industry" as a whole. The writing was amateurish and the facts so slanted and incomplete that I struggled to finish the book.

No aid worker believes that there isn't corruption or incompetence in the field - it's like any other profession in that respect. Maren frequently characterizes aid workers as cowboys who are in it for the money or twenty-five year olds in 4x4s. Working in post-conflict situations is extremely challenging - logistically, mentally, and emotionally. Hard choices and compromises need to be made. But Maren isn't interested in portraying the challenges - he's got an agenda and an axe to grind and he won't let facts or research get in his way.

If you want a more thoughtful and interesting but equally critical portrait of Peace Corps life, I strongly recommend George Packer's "The Village of Waiting" over this book. This book is more of a memoir than journalism, although it's presented as the latter.