Donor aid as killing joke

In Time Magazine yesterday, Hannah Beech asks the question on everybody’s lips:

Why do the rich nations keep funneling millions of dollars every year to a corrupt country like Cambodia? Each summer, at around this time, for more than a decade, international donors have pledged huge sums to prop up the impoverished Southeast Asian nation. The donors unveil a goody bag of financial aid contingent on the country tackling endemic problems like corruption, human-rights violations and environmental degradation. And each year, like ritual, longtime Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen dutifully pledges to clean up the government’s act. Alas, also like ritual, little or nothing happens. Yet somehow the entire ceremony repeats itself year after year.

The spring of this cruel fate, it seems, is as simple as it is cynical: ego. Rich countries like to make themselves feel good by giving money to poor countries. Whether that money actually makes it into the hands of people who need it, or just gets pocketed by corrupt politicians and their corporate cronies, appears to make little difference. It’s the thought that counts.