Aid Debate

Kirwan
Thursday 16th October

Speakers: Richard Waghorn, Chief Political Editor, Irish Daily Mail.
Heike Vonhorgan, Galway One World Centre.

Motion: TTHW Not Aid The Third World

The third world is both subverted and supported by the first world. It’s the chemo drip that’s slowly killing it. The subversion began with Imperialism and continues to this day with unfair trade barriers which ensure that the low-cost raw materials are processed at huge mark-ups in the first world. Not to mention the crippling debt repayments the World Bank and wealthy countries insist they’re owed. The result on the ground is no infrastructure, no clean water, starvation and death from diseases that are easily and cheaply cured in other parts of the world.
So we aid. Of course we do! What else could you? Individuals give some of their money to help starving people, sometimes they give their time through volunteering programmes. The Irish Government has multiplied its aid budget in the last 10 year. Read more by pressing the button below.

But there’s a question mark over whether a lot of aid actually does any good, or whether through misdirection, corruption and unscrupulous NGOs, it is squandered. Then there's the question of Ireland's receding economy and whether or not we should be looking after the problems on our doorstep that directly affect us, before we send money abroad. Then, of course, there's the argument that wealthy people should not be obliged by the state to give to poor people. If they wanted to be charitable they would be, but it's not for tax collectors to decide. What is there to be said for the “voluntourism" aspect of aid, where people (many of them students) raise money to go on charitable trips to build houses or teach English? Are they actually contributing to or costing the local economies?