Aid, Arms, and Friends

I hesitate to say that more nonsense has been written about economic aid to developing countries than about any other subject in public life, for the field is so wide and rich, but the claims of that statement are certainly strong. Perhaps, for a start, “developing” countries could be restyled “stagnating.” The old, pre-euphemism label (I am going back a bit, say to the 1950s) was “underdeveloped”; though even that one was open to criticism, on two grounds: it begged the question of what constituted a satisfactory level of development, and it smacked of superiority and smugness on the part of potential donors.

I am inclined to sympathize with the U.S. Administration for boycotting the 140-nation UN conference on disarmament and development, which has been running its course in New York. The Soviets were there, all right, to plug a “natural” in propaganda terms: that money and resources saved by disarmament should be diverted to aid for the stagnating countries (though of course that was not the adjective they used). Like “peace,” “from swords to plowshares” has an idealistic ring.

BC

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Brian Crozier

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I hesitate to say that more nonsense has been written about economic aid to developing countries than about any other subject in public life, for the field is so wide and rich, but the claims of that statement are certainly strong. Perhaps, for a start, “developing” countries could be restyled “stagnating.” The old, pre-euphemism label (I am going back a bit, say to the 1950s) was “underdeveloped”; though even that one was open to criticism, on two grounds: it begged the question of what constituted a satisfactory level of development, and it smacked of superiority and smugness on the part of potential donors.

I am inclined to sympathize with the U.S. Administration for boycotting the 140-nation UN conference on disarmament and development, which has been running its course in New York. The Soviets were there, all right, to plug a “natural” in propaganda terms: that money and resources saved by disarmament should be diverted to aid for the stagnating countries (though of course that was not the adjective they used). Like “peace,” “from swords to plowshares” has an idealistic ring.