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by orzig 653 days ago
> I suspect all the aid and help over the decades has really just prolonged things

Can you be more specific about the counterfactual? I’m assuming you’re not imagining that the country’s population would have just fallen to 0 absent aid, but I can’t figure out how you’re so sure things would have been better run

2 comments

I didn’t write the comment you replied to but often what happens is that politicians in Wealthy Country send aid to Poor Country so they can say they did something. The aid often props up the Baddies in Poor Country and doesn’t reach the people who need it most.

The Dictator’s Handbook covers this topic I think.

Treating “Sudan” as an actual entity to be helped. Consider it has failed as a political concept (the state of Sudan) and allow the people that inhabit it figure out what the borders and political entities actually are. By delivering aid to Sudan and treating it like a real entity you only prolong suffering in the region as factions fight over control of it.