Foreign aid failure

The University of Louisville has twice given the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order to works outlining some of the potential problems with humanitarian assistance.

• Janine Wedel won in 2001 for her work on corruption in the Eastern bloc recipient states, after the end of the cold war.

• Fiona Terry won in 2006 for her work on the "paradox of humanitarian action." Sometimes, aid goes to perpetrators of humanitarian abuses, rather than victims.

Well, it appears as if the United States also makes for a poor recipient of humanitarian assistance. Sunday's Washington Post has the details as they related to Hurricane Katrina.

Note: The lessons offered by Wedel and Terry: take greater care in the selection and oversight processes. They weren't anti-aid in general.


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