Economics: Aid: Is Africa paralyzed by aid? - asks Der Spiegel

On July 4, Erich Wiedemann and Thilo Thielke had a heavy-duty article raising questions, indeed a profound question regarding aid from the West to Africa - Is Africa choking on Aid Money? The unsigned graphic below from this source compares the Gross Domestic Product in money terms compared to the percentage of monies given each colour-coded African country that comes from aid, mostly from Western governments and some UN agencies, most of the latter funds also originating from Western governments. Other forms of aid, of course, come from missionary groups supported by churches and individual donors but these figures do not appear in the calculation. However, the graph is flaws in several respects, only some of which have been indicated. For one, Gross Domestic Product has to be translated into money terms, since much of the Gross Domestic Product is not exchanged for money, but for barter or other non-monetary transactions according to cultural norms. Second, Gross Domestic Product is a standard devised to compare with other countries' GDPs, where the relevant comparisons are European and North America which subsidize the main products of their own economies to prevent fair competition of imports from African - which can't subsidize and shouldn't have to. So, the raw statistics used derive from a framework where no even playing field exists. An economic statistician could supply an even more incisive critique of Der Spiegel's flaws graph. But, nevertheless, it has some merit and deserves to be considered, if only perhaps at the end to be well refuted. Hat Tip to Burkean Canuck, blog entry for Wed, July 6. - Owlb