Killing with "kindness"

"For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!" That's Kenyan economist James Shikwati speaking. "... it has to be the Kenyans themselves who help these people. When there's a drought in a region of Kenya, our corrupt politicians reflexively cry out for more help. This call then reaches the United Nations World Food Program -- which is a massive agency of apparatchiks who are in the absurd situation of, on the one hand, being dedicated to the fight against hunger while, on the other hand, being faced with unemployment were hunger actually eliminated." ("apparatchiks"—now that's telling it straight!) Just read it all. Then read, Let Africa Sink by Kim du Toit. One piece of macabre humor from Let Africa Sink: My favorite African story actually happened after I left the country. An American executive took a job over there, and on his very first day, the newspaper headlines read: "Three Headless Bodies Found". The next day: "Three Heads Found". The third day: "Heads Don’t Match Bodies". You can’t make this stuff up. Just read it. Now, what was that I was saying about "Killing with 'kindness'"? (Yeh, Daniel Patrick Moynihan tried to warn us about our social welfare programs doing just that... to blacks in this country... more than 40 years ago.)