[mnbcvx]

The idea of using drones to drop something helpful...

What would the world look like now if for the past 15 years drones had been dropping computers, medicine, water purifiers, seeds, etc.? How many millions of parachute-fitted, protective boxes worth of these things could we have dropped for the same amount spent on war?

[pekk]

The cost of drones, including associated equipment and personnel, will be much higher than just paying locals to move goods in the normal ways (truck, boat, donkey, wheelbarrow, etc.) Less risk that you will squash houses and children or litter the landscape with containers. Even so, international operations are expensive. You'll probably have to grease some palms. Then there's the fact that this kind of major cash influx attracts attention from men who are very shrewd and skilled at diverting cash flows. Watch as your dollars line pockets and pay for things you never imagined.

The computers that aren't simply sold for profit will become e-waste with nowhere to plug them in, no local use for them, nobody to maintain them. Your water purifiers will break down, requiring expensive parts to fix, and they may not have been useful to begin with. Your seeds will typically fail to grow, and do nothing about all the other barriers to farming. Medicines without medical care are typically not very useful either. The kind of stuff that is usually dumped like this is cheap trash that the donors would never use, and the locals know it. They could infer it, from the way it is being dumped like worthless trash, and they undervalue it accordingly. When you dump shipping containers full of (say) cheap shoes and t-shirts, you put all the local cobblers and tailors out of business.

When all of this fails or is even seen to do harm, despite costing astronomical sums of money, that will do severe long-term damage to the cause of foreign aid.

[DanBC]

> Less risk that you will squash houses and children or litter the landscape with containers.

Sadly, some drops of food aid used similar colours as cluster munitions. About 10% of cluster bomblets don't explode. This has, obviously, caused some death and maiming.

https://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/arms/cluster-bck1031...

> A key United Nations clearance expert has expressed concern about the similarity of the coloring of the yellow BLU-97/B cluster bomblets and the small yellow food aid parcels being airdropped in Afghanistan, noting that people are being encouraged to pick up the food parcels, but that picking up a bomblet would be lethal. He said, "Our experience in Kosovo showed us that children and youths were highly susceptible to the submunitions…. It is highly likely that many in Afghanistan will not know the difference between aerially delivered food aid and aerially delivered munitions." BBC Worldwide Monitoring reported that U.S. Psychological Operations units broadcast a radio message warning Afghan civilians of the similar yellow color of the cluster bomblets and the food packages, noting that cluster bombs will not be dropped in areas where food is air-dropped but stating, "[W]e do not wish to see an innocent civilian mistake the bombs for food bags and take it away believing that it might contain food."

[mnbcvx]

I do realize that drones are not the optimum delivery method for something like this. A big C-130 would probably be better for most all cases.

You already argued why handing out big sums of cash is a bad idea. As you said, shrewd people will be quick to take it. Foreign aid is already little more than a bribe, usually entirely siphoned off by the country's elite. Centralizing the goods in a warehouse or truck makes them easier for a bad actor to steal as well. And as you said, you'd have to grease some palms to get anything happening at all.

As for the rest of what you said, I don't agree at all. A water purifier (or perhaps I should have said a water filter) can be the size of a straw, with no electrical component or moving pieces, and will last for decades[1]. The medical care to accompany the medicines will come with education, and foreign doctors will no longer fear their hospital being blown to pieces. Your cobbler example makes no sense -- as far as I know Afghanistan does not have a thriving computer manufacturing economy. Obviously seeds will be chosen appropriately for the climate of the region they are delivered to.

[1] https://trendguardian.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/lifestraw_...

So, I didn't necessarily mean my initial comment literally. The core of the idea is that direct aid is a much better solution than bombs and military occupation.

[paavokoya]

I imagine the refugee crisis wouldn't exist. People with computers rarely go outside.. (but seriously they would be able to work remotely much like the Indian tech sector)

[mnbcvx]

If we provided these areas with internet access too via satellite or balloon, you would likely have a whole legion of educated young people fixing problems from within their own society, rather than an outside force mostly wreaking havoc despite its intentions. I don't know if the average American would scoff at the idea, but I am dead sure that it would turn out better for everyone than the path we took.

[DKnoll]

Don't forget a reliable power grid. The scope just grows and grows... there are no easy solutions to poverty.

[mnbcvx]

Drop some generators then too! I live in Cambodia, and spend a lot of time out in the provinces where everyone meets up daily to charge their phones and other electronic devices around the single generator in a village.

And need I mention that massive bombing campaigns don't exactly facilitate having a reliable power grid.

Everything I'm saying would cost peanuts compared to what the US spends on weapons and war.

[DKnoll]

I think you're responding to a comment that advocates US foreign policy... I haven't ever made one.

I'm just saying that Facebook and Google can't throw some balloons and gliders in the sky supplying Internet access and call it a day. There are many more barriers to increasing the penetration of technology in the third world.

I also have a hard time believing that the former Cambodian regime would have allowed generators and other supplies from the US to be used by the populace.

[DanBC]

> I live in Cambodia, and spend a lot of time out in the provinces where everyone meets up daily to charge their phones and other electronic devices around the single generator in a village.

I would love to read a blog post about this. Do people charge, who maintains the generator, is there any solar, what else do people need, what else do people want?