Rating: 
Summary: ...Paved with Bad Intentions
Review: This rampaging investigative report truly uncovers the horrors of the international aid business. The uninitiated may ask how the process of helping starving people in third world hellholes and developing stable democratic societies could possibly be bad. Well it is bad, and Michael Maren writes passionately from experience. He has seen the pernicious effects of charity-based NGO's from the ground, both as a longtime aid worker in several African countries, and then as a muckraking journalist. Using the then-current debacle in Somalia as a case study, Maren demonstrates that international charity has become a self-sustaining bureaucracy and a big business focused on profits, with little or no focus on helping actual disadvantaged people. The main problem is free food shipments, which put honest third world farmers out of business and attract fraudulent refugees, who have no incentive to work when they know that food and medical care is free at refugee camps. Meanwhile, much is stolen by local warlords and sold off, and homegrown entrepreneurs make a killing off the cash thrown around by huge staffs that accompany NGO relief missions. "Charities" are drawn to humanitarian disaster sites as opportunities for profits, government funding, and corporate relations; then split when things cool off and offer no hope of actual long-term development. The bad effects described above usually make the local situation worse, even leading to war in Somalia's case. Famines indeed have political roots, and NGO's literally destroyed Somalia. Maren tends to lose his cool in the midst of his passionate reporting, falling into unnecessarily inflammatory language. He also tends to pick on certain enemies like the Save the Children fund and particular UN agencies. His coverage of the "humanitarian" (actually military) mission in Somalia is revealing but drifts from the book's focus into war reporting. But despite some weaknesses, this hugely informative and revealing book raises very serious concerns about the corruption of the inaccurately named "foreign aid" industry. [~doomsdayer520~]
Rating:
Summary: The Truth Hurts
Review: This tale of misguided and misapplied aid is a definite eye-opener. Its veracity is undeniable. The cases cited are convincingly presented, and the author gives a fair picture when presenting those situations. Although this work primarily revolves around African aid, other examples are presented to demonstrate the pervasiveness of his premise. If Michael Maren is wrong, why isn't Africa out-producing the world's top food producers? After all, we've been "saving" Africa for decades now. I would think they should be totally self-sufficient at this point. Unless of course, Maren's premise is correct: refugees and starving children are big business. So big, in fact, that we may need standing armies to help rescuers inflict their aid upon the needy! This work is a bit tedious in places and does more than prove its point. Other than that, I recommend it to those who can handle the hard and disturbing truth about aid programs.
Rating: 
Summary: An Overly Self-Righteous Critique of Foreign Aid
Review: While Mr. Maren does point out many of the flaws prevalent in food aid programs, he loses credibility by trying to bring down the whole aid business with the example of Somalia and Save the Children. His self-righteous indignation and lack of objectivity also reduces the value of his writing. I have worked in the aid business for several years, and I do agree with many of Mr. Maren's points regarding waste, misuse of funds, and the self-serving nature of many organizations in the "aid business." Especially valid is his point, implicit throughout the text, that the US and UN were oblivious to the local politics, culture and dynamics of the region. The major error in their approach was trying to apply a eurocentric solution to the problems by seeking to establish some semblance of "democracy." While we may not have agreed with the way local politics worked in Somalia, it is not up to the US, the UN, or any other world body to interfere in the local situation, especially militarily, despite that it may be affecting the health and lives of thousands of people. Maren demonstrates how naivete and the mentality of "manifest destiny" went awry and created and utter fiasco for the international community. However, his flaw is in extrapolating this situation to the aid community at large. Finally, Maren provides no solutions nor even offers suggestions on alternative ways to deal with such situations. I would rate this book a 3 out of 5. It held my interest, as I work in this business, but its self-righteous tone reduced its credibility as a true analytical work on the problems of the aid business.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much Sensationalism Just to Sell A book
Review: While some of of the arguments made against international relief by Mr. Maren in his book are correct, he goes a bit too far in damning the whole aid sector just by using a few, highly personalized accounts of aid gone wrong to illustrate his point. This is not an academic review of the subject by any means. One gets the impression that Mr. Maren has a huge chip on his shoulder against certain organizations. This shallow, personal, emotional attack on the aid industry does little to further thoughtful analysis of the subject.
Rating:
Summary: More important and relevant than ever
Review: With the Balkan humanitarian crisis shaping U.S. military and foreign policies, it is important to understand that humanitarians comprise a lobby and interest group as much as any "industry." This book points out many of the mistakes of past, and places humanitarian gestures in fascinating perspective. In addition, with the news that UNICEF projects in Bangladesh may be responsible for the deaths of 30 million people, it is so important that we learn the important lesson of this book: Our help often hurts. This book is extremely well written, and a compelling read.
| 
