“Foreign Aid”: An Oxymoron

“Foreign Aid”: An Oxymoron

by Leon Howard

Mr. Obama and his family are spending over $1 Million on their African Mr. Obama and his family are spending over $1 Million on their African “vacation” and promising Africa $7 Billion of American taxpayers money to provide electricity in sub-Saharan Africa to ‘unleash the power of entrepreneurship and markets to create opportunity here in Africa.’ Sorry, Mr. Pretender, Mr. Bush spent more than you are suggesting there and they’re still in poverty! This has been nothing more than a self-aggrandizing tour to the world saying, “Look at me! Ain’t I special?”

But that is all I expect from the Pretender to the White House; his arrogance is known world-wide.

Every President since WWII has “got it wrong” with Africa, Germany, Italy, etc., etc., etc. Governments giving other governments money isn’t “foreign aid”! It is charity, plain and simple and robs the people of the nation giving the “aid” of opportunity for themselves! Our economy is on “life-support” because of government thinking they can make things better when all they can accomplish is chaos! Our economy is where it is now because of government overreach, “foreign aid”, 3 wars we shouldn’t be in, and an apathetic society!

The world’s nations do not need America’s “foreign aid” because nation to nation accomplishes nothing; it’s an excuse to meddle in foreign affairs and that this nation has done since WWII! We wonder why so many nations hate us … Look no further than our “foreign policy” and “foreign aid” because they are “foreign” to governmental “friendship”!

Friendship and prosperity can only be successful when it is done “people to people”! It starts with an idea from one or two people, who “sell” the idea to more people and then put that plan into action. Let me offer an example: The business I was building before we started the Tea Party was with NuSkin Enterprises and it was one of their founders, Blake Roney, who had a dream to help the villages of Malawi, Africa, become self-sustaining communities. Blake presented the idea to his board of directors: It started out as a way to feed the starving children of Malawi, and was named the NuSkin Force for Good Foundation and was funded by donations from NuSkin’s Distributors! Today, Distributors donate money to the Force for Good Foundation but it’s not to feed the starving children of Malawi because they are no longer starving … Thanks to one man’s idea! That idea spread to the reforestation of Malawi’s Baobab tree, a great source for water during Malawi’s dry season. The initial drive to feed the starving children was assisted by the development of  Vitameal. More than a bag of rice; it provides all the nutrition a child needs to be healthy. NuSkin’s Distributors could see even more need in Malawi and that was teaching the people to farm. From the donations through the Force for Good Foundation, they built a village and brought a few members of the villages of Malawi to NuSkin’s “village” and trained the villagers how to raise their own crops; the villagers go back after the training and teach their villagers how to farm. Several years ago, NuSkin started producing the Vitameal in Malawi; this plant provides jobs for non-farmers. Is it profitable? It must be or NuSkin couldn’t keep the plant opened!

Is Malawi rich and self-sustaining? Not yet, but they’re much better off than they were and even though it started out as charity, it was charity from people to people; the governments aren’t involved! Does Malawi “love” the United States? They may not even know who the U.S. is but they love NuSkin’s Distributors who helped them and are continuing to invest in them and are not telling them how they must live or how to govern themselves!

“Foreign aid” from the government is nothing less than theft from one people to another government! And it always has “strings attached”! Therefore, it is resented by the people of both countries. Why? Obviously, the people the money is being stolen from feel like they’ve been wronged and the people receiving the stolen money probably never see any of the “aid” and now another government is telling them how to govern themselves! I’d be pissed, too!

Then they are those who say, “But we’ve got to give Israel money so they can protect themselves!” Please apply a little logic here: I am certain Israel would rather do without our $2 Billion a year the U.S. gives them, if the U.S. would stop giving their sworn enemies $12 Billion a year!

If we truly wanted to help “world peace”, we would also stop bringing foreign troops over here and train them to be as good at killing as our troops are! Maybe, if we hadn’t trained all the armies of the world, we wouldn’t be continually involved in conflict! If a nation couldn’t fight well, maybe they’d leave their neighbor alone or open a dialog to fix their differences!

This nation’s “foreign policy” seems to have accomplished nothing for “world peace” but has created a distrust with many nations in the world that we are trying to rule the world.

Our “foreign policy” must be as Thomas Jefferson and George Washington professed it to be, and I am paraphrasing: “True friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none!” And I believe this is the Christian outlook; at least it is this Christian's outlook.

Our nation was divinely inspired. It was created with God’s teachings of freedom and love for mankind. We were to be the “beacon of liberty” for the people of the world to emulate; by living like the Philippians, we would attract others attracted to a moral society! We, the People, have allowed that vision to be destroyed through ‘political correctness’ and apathy!

The only way to return to our founders vision, short of a shooting revolution, is to vote all of them out of the State Houses and the federal government, replace them with true citizen legislators; reduce the size of government by at least 60%; close the over 1100 American military bases in foreign countries, bringing all the troops home; and tell the world: “We will, once again, be the beacon of liberty, with friendship to all peoples who would be our friends and a strong and ready military if you should choose to attack us! If this nation must go to war again, it will be an all-out war until unconditional surrender!”

God bless America!