Freedom, Not Foreign Aid, For Africa (Capitalism Magazine, July 12, 2005)
Summary: Professor of economics, Walter Williams, writes for Capitalism Magazine forsaking foreign aid in favor of the adoption of Capitalism, and he backs up his claims by providing historical examples of previously troubled countries that have dug themselves out of poverty with the help of capitalism.
Topic: Should the Obama Administration double foreign aid for Africa?
Category: Alternative Journalistic
What is It? An online article on Capitalism Magazine website
Title: Freedom, not Foreign Aid, for Africa
Publication Information: Capitalism Magazine, July 12, 2005
Author: Walter Williams
Location: http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4310
Accessed: January 30, 2009
Support:
• Tony Blair, British Prime Minister
• “Capitalism is the Cure For Africa’s Problems”, article by Andrew Bernstein of the Ayn Rand Institute
• List of previously impoverished countries including U.S., France, The UK, and Australia that have all embraced Capitalism
Walter Williams uses Tony Blair’s call for an increase of foreign aid for Africa as a lead-in to discuss the “vicious cycle of poverty myth” that many think only foreign aid can break. He uses an article by Andrew Bernstein to give evidence of capitalism and how its establishment in bereaved countries solved all their problems and made them world powers. He uses examples of now wealthy capitalist countries that have risen to the top without the help of any foreign aid, before foreign aid even really existed, by embracing capitalism.
Source Analysis: Capitalism magazine clearly has a very narrow audience, and its
association with Ayn Rand indicates that it’s an extremely conservative website with a very definite right-wing perspective. They are a “for-profit” website that is owned and published by Bahamas 2000, Ltd.
Usefulness: I could use this article to represent the extremist point of view in regards to foreign aid. It doesn’t really offer up any ideas for how to get African to embrace capitalism, it just cites the cases in which capitalism occurred and resulted in wealthy nations without the help of foreign aid. It’s addressing an extreme right audience and leaving out a whole lot of information about the effectiveness of foreign aid and the pit-falls of capitalism in order to appeal to the extremist reader.
Works Cited:
CapMag.com “About Us” page http://www.capmag.com/company/index.asp
A brief foray into the “Atlas Shrugs” blog
