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The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good

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Author: William Easterly
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book

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Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.1

ISBN: 0143038826
Dewey Decimal Number: 337
EAN: 9780143038825
ASIN: 0143038826

Publication Date: February 27, 2007
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The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So much Ill and So Little Good February 18, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

This book is offering the new approach for helping the poor countries to me. I don't need to accept everything that author criticizes for UN millennium project. However, I'm thinking that I need to change my thought about emphasizing efficiency and quick consequence of efforts on developmental assistance for the poor countries. I should respect the poor's will and ability and should follow their unique way for development. It is not desirable that I show our way for development and urge them to follow us. I should encourage them to develop themselves and I should participate in their efforts as a member of them. This book provides me for these lessons.

4 out of 5 stars

100th Anniversary of Similar Issues and Reactions January 18, 2007
6 out of 8 found this review helpful

One theme of the book is a rebuke of Sachs' "The End of Poverty" which describes the UN Millenium Project goal to collect something like 0.7% of the GDP of the world's rich countries to aid those earning less than $1 or $2 per day (a billion people) and wipe out poverty. Sachs might argue that the $2.3 trillion over 50 years is less than 1% of the US GDP alone and not as significant as some make it sound. Easterly argues that with all the money sent to East Central Africa people don't have the $4 mosquito netting or cheap malaria pills... Although I don't remember Easterly offering a particular solution to this (he's not about particular solutions, but a relatively broad method (something like a "planners", but probably more accurately called a meta-method of test-feedback-improve (not a terribly innovate thought, but apparently all-too-often overlooked...))), there were notions of bringing market forces to play, the apparent default panacea of economists.br /br /Easterly repeatedly calls for "piecemeal" solutions to particular (tractable) problems while Sachs calls for a holistic approach in which different systems are needed support each other -- a simlified example is something like having roads to go with fertilizer so the added crops can get somewhere to be sold. The debate's not resolved for me by these 2 books.br /br /A potential motivation for the author could be a self-distancing atonement for admitted mistakes while with the World Bank...br /br /Easterly denounces the notions of "planning" activities such as the millenium project on principle of not having enough understanding and feedback or appreciation for their complexities (and historical failures of similar methods/plans) and ignoring the localized, technical considerations -- like beauracracies not supporting successfully- and locally- initiated schools (but what is this really a result of?). And I don't know that there was enough information to indicate where the programs are ineffective: planning, implementation, corruption, etc. Do all the aid workers work for a short time and leave and leave no useful information behind? Why, given a failed irrigation system, would similarly problematic systems continue? Easterly says to make the responsible (but is that with any more resolve than a "planners"?) It certainly seems to be contengent on a number of factors... Ironically Easterly criticizes the Seeker-like qualities in the quintessential "Planner" Sachs for having too many particular and too technical ideas...br /br /After slogging through the text (including the preoccupation and inconsistent characterizations of "searcher" and "planner" -- there's no point in getting bogged down with the terms, by the end of the book all they could possibly be left to mean are "good" and "bad", respectively) the message apparently comes down to ___having feedback (market practices) on aid programs and not being stupid___. OK...br /br /It's probably of interest to the helpfully-inclined to be skeptical about their aid dollars (see Maren below for a more striking description), but for the aid community there may be little new information (see E. D. Morel's attacks of the so-called "civilization" of many of the same areas 100 years ago, or for a novel-like reading in a few chapters, see Hochschild's "King Leopold's Ghost" -- which gives insight into how helpful-minded and corrupt people interacted in "aid" enterprises). That being said, given current practices of aid (glaringly: Katrina) organizations are still have problems. (I was hoping for some indications of the same type of solutions for the poor or uneducated in America, but that may have been against the "searcher" philosophy, though is undoubtedly covered by many other economists...)br /br /Another notion that needs clarification is the distinction between those who are trying to do good (from utopians in charge or sending cash and those in the field) and those who are merely working under the guise of doing good (the Leopold II's of today, certain "receivers", orgs, etc.)-- I think Easterly implies this, but the (imposible?) distinction is often at least muddy if not ignored. Michael Maren's "The Road to Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity" described the naively altruistic and active corruption of both aid agencies and some individuals associated with receivership. Easterly's stated focus is on those who try to do well but set up situations that don't have the correct tensions to work -- pie-in-the-sky celebrities or politicians and aid agency marketeers -- one example was in creating an irrigation system that needed less interdependence of individuals than the old system, but got none and became worse than the old, technically worse system. Maren pointed out things like dumping so much food into an area that local farmers went out of business, or housing for refuges nicer than the locals'... Sachs claimed that corruption was not a major factor in the countries getting or needing the most aid... It's hard to see through differences like these.br /br /Easterly provides some statistics and inferences on a very broad scale (planners'-eye view?) that appear interesting -- no improvement in countries that get more aid. I find it hard to appreciate from the text alone the separation of variables that makes the assertions credible. A simple associated question is, "How would the country have done without aid?" or "How do you separate out variables such as government practices, corruption, existing infrastructure, morale, etc.?". Easterly makes comparisons between countries' progress and aid levels and does ask the reader to look at some other sources for statistical support.br /br /I was hoping for more information, especially on China's and India's development models (I thought Easterly missed the idea of international support for Japan after WWII, and I'm sure there are dramatically different colonial considerations between Africa, the Americas and especially India and Asia...), as examples of countries that developed without the amount of aid put into Africa (and how can you statistically separate influences like, say, Mao or to kick out the British and have your country split in half...). If China had a "plan" to gradually phase out quotas by freezing them leaving additional production as profit incentive, is this something we can take feedback from? If micro-loans worked so well (how well?) in India (I think Easterly mentioned them), is that a notion of a plan? I think Easterly backlashes against mistakes of Russian Shock Therapy (was he responsible for them then?). What are the conclusions that can be drawn from certain successes?br /br /I did find ungratifying the regular refusal to suggest solutions more than the (pedantically?) high level methodologies. I can appreciate a backlash from historically problematic situations, and wanting to take a step back from mistakes in order to get perspective, but that's not a thesis.br /br /Maybe a "searcher" idea would be to get "planners" to collect support (they're historically good at that and should use their skills) and then have "searchers" make sensible uses of the more than abundant resources. (Or would that be too much like a plan? :-))br /br /My take-away is a refreshed notion of mere good intentions and open-ended systems in general not being effective. I expected more, but it may be a useful introduction of considerations and high-level methods for altruists to be more effective.br /br /

2 out of 5 stars

Cursory at best. January 3, 2007
9 out of 24 found this review helpful

The author makes a well intentioned effort to cover the material but it's often superficial. He tries to simply cover too much material. He has a bad habit of making jokes regarding the poor judgment of the players involved. Its not that the jokes aren't clever, but they come off as superficial and take away from the seriousness of the subject matter. If you know nothing about the topic it's a good first read, but that's where its usefulness ends.

3 out of 5 stars

Both some good points and some ranting January 2, 2007
19 out of 21 found this review helpful

Easterly's central theme is that the West is spending a fortune on foreign aid yet cheap simple things (bed nets for $4, malaria medicine at 20c a dose) don't get delivered to the poor. Increasing spending isn't the answer as it isn't lack of money that is causing these failures. Easterly lays the blame on high-level utopian planning that is far too disjoint from what the poor need.br /br /He presents data that shows that economic success isn't tied to aid delivery and that aid programs have done very little to help the poor. But the West keeps applying the same broken formulas. Easterly asserts that what is needed isn't more money, but better spending.br /br /Easterly argues that it is easy to dream up grand utopian plans, but these are typically focused on making the donors feel good and ignore the realities of actual local situations and needs. There is no feedback loop from the intended recipients, so money is easily lost or wasted. He argues that more aid should be driven by what he calls "Searchers" (bottom-up pragmatists) and much less by "Planners" (top-down bureaucrats). The West shouldn't seek to reform countries or economies wholesale. Rather it should work on delivering lots of piecemeal localized improvements that can be individually analyzed, evaluated, and either abandoned or refined.br /br /He gives examples of the vast bureaucratic efforts spent on aid summits, planning frameworks and reports. These consume lots of energy in both the aid organizations and (worse) in the over-burdened target governments. He recycles the amusing point that if you apply the standard doctrines of two of the largest aid agencies (the World Bank and the IMF) to the aid process itself, they would insist that it abandon central planning and grand schemes and instead move to privatization and market-based mechanisms.br /br /He observes that many of the target governments are wildly dysfunctional. Aid money (like oil revenue) is treated as a resource that can be exploited. However, in his proposed solutions he tends to ignore that aspect. If governments have a tendency to steal or misspend their aid budgets, then donor groups are bound to demand detailed plans and reports. And I doubt if those governments will tolerate groups that try to bypass them. Unfortunately it is exactly those countries with the worst governments that most need help.br /br /Easterly sometimes comes across as overly dogmatic in his emphasis on "Searchers" and his attacks on "Planners". However he does a good job of making his core points: the West should show much more humility, avoid grand plans and look for detailed programs that actually help the poor and allow for both feedback and remedy.br /

5 out of 5 stars

Non-partisan critique of international do-gooding December 21, 2006
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

When the IMF and World Bank take it upon themselves to `fix' a failing country I have to believe their intentions are generally pure, more or less. The process works like this: the West makes loans of millions or billions to a country. In return the loan recipients will impose "structural adjustments" on the country as dictated by the IMF/World Bank. The structural adjustments are intended to create a free-market, neo-liberal economy with accelerated economic growth. As the countries GDP grows the government will be flush with money and more than capable of paying back the loans. The problem is that this top down approach to fixing world poverty is simply not working. In fact it's worse than not working it's creating more problems than solutions.br /br /White Man's Burden is filled with empirical evidence that organizations like the IMF, World Bank and other poverty reducing multinational organizations have tended to exasperate structural deficiencies in failing nations. For instance by propping up poor and corrupt leadership and creating a system of dependency. There appears to be a direct inverse correlation between the levels of funding a country has received from the World Bank and the health of its finances. The author states that, "the right plan is to have no plan". His urge is to press for a bottom up approach that tries to tackle smaller problems. One of the great success stories has been in the area of reducing preventable deaths as in combating malaria and diarrhea. Another area of progress is in education. Unfortunately the IMF and World Bank have obsessed over large scale social engineering programs.br /br /Iraq is the perfect example of top down social engineering. The country was invaded, shattered and rebuilt in the West's own image. Iraq's imposed structure is more than just an emulation of the West it is a neo-liberal's dream come true. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) under Paul Bremer issued 100 Orders defined as "binding instructions or directives to the Iraqi people" with "penal consequences". These `Orders' were intended to create a free market economy with a highly regressive tax structure. The orders allowed 100% foreign ownership of Iraqi business, privatized Iraq's 200 state-owned enterprises, dropped corporate tax rate from 40% to 15% and capped income tax rates a 15%. Some rules like order #17 which granted foreign contractors full immunity from Iraq's laws is a slap in the face to the Iraqi people and Order #81 which prohibits Iraqi farmers from using the methods of agriculture they have used for centuries seems reminiscent of something Chairman Mao would have dictated. Iraq is an extreme example but restructuring governments has been going on for hundreds of years going back to colonialization and rarely ends well. The IMF and World Bank need to stop trying to imagine that there is a one size fits all solution to poverty. They also need to realize that forcefully imposing economic planning on a country is anti-democratic and often benefits the few at the expense of many. Globalization and structural adjustments have only increased the disparity in wealth across the world by among other things devastating local farming.br /br /The author's solution is to stop trying to throw more money at the problem. Address the problem in a market based manner with the poor as the consumer rather than the wealthy western countries. Analyze the effectiveness of programs and look for solutions that work. As Scrooge McDuck said, `Work smarter not harder'. Stop subsidizing dictators and change loans to grants (the IMF is already moving in this direction). As hard as it may be to accept sometimes the best solution is just to sit back and let things work themselves out on there own.br /br /BTW: The current World Bank president, appointed by George W. Bush, is neo-conservative Paul Wolfowitz, one of the chief architects of the Iraqi war. How lovely.br /

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