請依下文回答第 21 題至第 25 題
Too much of America’s foreign aid funds what I call authoritarian development in foreign countries. That’s
when the international community—experts from the U.N. and other bodies—swoop into third-world countries and
offer purely technical assistance to dictatorships like Uganda or Ethiopia on how to solve poverty.
Unfortunately, dictators’ sole motivation is to stay in power. So the development experts may get some roads
built, but they are not maintained. Experts may sink boreholes for clean water, but the wells break down. Individuals
do not have the political rights to protest disastrous public services, so dictators are left with cash and services to prop
themselves up—while punishing their enemies.
But there is another model: free development. Poor individuals, asserting their political and economic rights,
motivate government and private sectors to solve their problems or to give them the means to solve their own
problems.
Compare free development in Botswana with authoritarian development in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia in 2010,
Human Rights Watch documented how the autocrat Meles Xenawi selectively withheld aid-financed famine relief
from everyone except ruling-party members. Meanwhile democratic Botswana, although drought-prone like Ethiopia,
has enjoyed decades of success in preventing famine. Government relief directed by local activists goes wherever
drought strikes.
In the postwar period, countries such as Chile, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have successfully followed path
of free development—often in spite of international aid, not because of it. While foreign policy concerns have often
led America to prop up dictatorial regimes, we need a new rule: no democracy, no aid. If we truly want to help the
poor, we can’t accept the dictators’ false bargain: ignore our rights abuses, and meet the material needs of those we
oppress. Instead, we must advocate that the poor have the same rights as the rich everywhere, so they can aid
themselves.
【題組】21 Which of the following is the best title for this passage?
(A)More Aid for Africa (B)Ethiopia’s Fate
(C)Stop Sending Aid to Dictators (D)The role of America’s Foreign Aid
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