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# The Tangled Web of Foreign Aid
- URL: https://goodoil.news/the-tangled-web-of-foreign-aid/
- Published: 2025-02-14T03:30:40.000Z
- Updated: 2025-02-14T03:30:39.000Z
- Description: The agitators will not give up without a fight. Too much money is at stake.
- Author: Reproduced with permission
- Tags: USA Politics, World Politics

[**Armando Simón**](https://brownstone.org/articles/the-tangled-web-of-foreign-aid/?ref=goodoil.news)  
*Armando Simón is a retired psychologist, originally from Cuba, and author of* The U*,* Fables From the Americas *and* A Prison Mosaic*.*

> The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”  
>  
> – Cicero, 55 BC

It was Peter Bauer who pointed out that foreign aid is the means by which poor people in rich countries are forced to give money to rich people in poor countries. After all, how else are the families of African dictators and [their](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/Many-African-dictators-own-properties-in-Paris-Report/articleshow/9406986.cms?ref=goodoil.news) ministers going to maintain their [mansions](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-parisian-treasures-of-african-tyrants-french-government-may-seize-mansions-and-luxury-cars-of-corrupt-regimes-8706535.html?ref=goodoil.news) along the French Riviera? How would [they](https://www.thedrive.com/news/5855/11-supercars-worth-more-than-8-million-seized-from-dictators-son-in-geneva?ref=goodoil.news) be able to navigate Europe’s roads? If not for American and [British](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2019890/Billions-aid-Britain-used-fund-lavish-lifestyle-dictators.html?ref=goodoil.news) foreign aid, luxurious [chateaus](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-12170577?ref=goodoil.news) would go empty, unsold. And bank accounts in [Switzerland](https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/dictators-funds-in-switzerland-the-biggest-scandals/47477324?ref=goodoil.news), [Grand](https://publish.illinois.edu/illinoisblj/2010/04/29/the-cayman-islands-and-the-john-grisham-effect-yes-everything-changed/?ref=goodoil.news) Cayman, Panamá, and [elsewhere](https://financialtransparency.org/dictators-riches-are-stolen-at-home-but-banked-in-the-west/?ref=goodoil.news) just don’t get [filled](https://ottawacitizen.com/news/world/adam-african-dictators-live-lavishly-while-the-people-starve?ref=goodoil.news) by themselves.

No doubt the people of [North](https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2024/12/10/nolte-left-wing-politifact-gaslights-defend-1-billion-angola-while-helene-victims-still-suffer/?ref=goodoil.news) Carolina who are [homeless](https://legitgov.org/index.php/2024/12/03/biden-announces-over-1-billion-to-support-africans-displaced-by-natural-disasters-food-insecurity/?ref=goodoil.news) because of the hurricane can sleep better knowing that African dictators’ families have a roof over their heads in Gstaad and Lake Como. Americans who have not received help from [FEMA](https://nypost.com/2024/10/03/us-news/feds-say-theres-no-money-left-to-respond-to-hurricanes-after-fema-used-640-9m-this-year-on-migrants/?ref=goodoil.news) because the money allocated to that agency went toward illegal immigrants’ welfare and because some had Vote [Trump](https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/08/politics/fema-employee-trump-florida-hurricane/index.html?ref=goodoil.news) signs in their yard should realize that there are priorities and they should not be heartless.

And to be fair, it is not just dictators who receive the benefits from the money. It seems that $35,000 went toward providing Cameroons with comic [books](https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2020/07/06/comic-books-for-cameroon-and-4-other-very-real-federal-government-grants/?ref=goodoil.news), $1.5 million to promote homosexuality in [Serbia](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14344255/trump-millions-dei-foreign-aid-programs-funding.html?utm%5Fsource=substack&utm%5Fmedium=email), and $2 million to make the Ethiopians [wear](https://www.foramerica.org/post/let-s-cut-some-spending-2-1-million-to-get-ethiopians-to-wear-shoes?ref=goodoil.news) shoes. 

Yet, one only has to look at Haiti and Africa to notice that after billions of dollars spent on ‘economic development’ over many decades, all of those countries remain pigsties, whose cities don’t even have a sewer system, something that Rome developed 2,000 years ago (and it is not rocket science). And Afghanistan? Though the cretin from Crawford, Texas swore against nation-building, that country at one point received the most foreign aid of all the parasites. 

How did that [work](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/afghanistan-papers/afghanistan-war-corruption-government/?rid=10166&utm%5Fcampaign=WEX%5FExaminer%20Today&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fsource=Examiner%20Today%5F12/13/2019) out?

Nor is it individual nations. The United States is the largest contributor to the United Nations, paying 22 per cent of the $5.4 billion core UN budget and 28 per cent of the $7.9 billion UN peacekeeping budget.

Yet, [two-thirds](https://www.newenglishreview.org/two-thirds-of-the-world-are-on-americas-welfare-rolls/?ref=goodoil.news) of the world is on America’s welfare rolls. 

And remember the Covid farce? During the height of the fiasco, for over two years businesses were ordered closed by Democrats in an orgiastic display of power and subjugation. People lost their jobs while the politicians kept getting a paycheck. Inside the “stimulus package” the overlords passed: in a gesture of generosity, the politicians bestowed [$600](https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/emerald-robinson-newsmax-examines-future-republican-party-complete-cluelessness-ruling-elites-video/?utm%5Fsource=Email&utm%5Fmedium=the-gateway-pundit&utm%5Fcampaign=dailypm&utm%5Fcontent=daily) of their own money back to each citizen as compensation for Democrats imposing lockdowns that resulted in their loss of livelihood for over a year. [And](https://nypost.com/2020/12/22/covid-19-bill-contains-billions-of-dollars-in-foreign-aid/?ref=goodoil.news) in [that](https://dailycaller.com/2020/12/22/10-million-earmark-for-gender-programs-in-pakistan-sparks-backlash-amid-pandemic-recession/?ref=goodoil.news) “stimulus package,” [they](https://townhall.com/columnists/andrewpollack/2020/12/24/americans-should-be-appalled-by-the-latest-covid-relief-bill-n2582090?ref=goodoil.news) sent $25 million to Pakistan, 10 of which went to “gender programs,” $700 million to Sudan, $250 million to Palestinians, $85 million to Cambodia, $134 million to Burma/Myanmar, and $11 billion to various African dictatorships.

“Pleased that we were able to get so much done #ForThePeople in the closing days of the 116th Congress,” Nancy Pelosi actually had the nerve to say. To add insult to injury, that malignant elitist displayed herself indulging in a refrigerator full of $12/pint ice cream while many citizens had trouble putting regular food on the table (how is it that so many in Congress become multimillionaires while in office?).

And [then](https://www.newenglishreview.org/articles/americas-bastille-day/?ref=goodoil.news) the politicians wonder why there was January 6.

Attempting to completely eliminate USAID will result in an avalanche of lachrymose appeals about how absolutely necessary this, that, or the other program is and how it should remain untouched if we are ever going to rid the world of AIDS, ebola, irritable bowel syndrome, dirty water, famine, drought, ingrown toenails, illiteracy, circumcision, lack of circumcision, defective pencils, stale crackers, fostering homosexuality, shoelaces, etc. You will see dozens of photographs of children – always children – with suffering faces. You will hear dozens of corrupt politicians with offshore accounts and the army of lobbyists saying how tragic it is that “the world” is turning our backs on this or that ‘humanitarian crisis’ and that ‘*something* needs to be done.’ Or that good, old standby, ‘racism.’ In the meantime, [USAID](https://www.zerohedge.com/political/monday-afternoon-massacre-usaid-employees-placed-leave-allegedly-circumventing-trumps?utm%5Fsource=daily%5Fnewsletter&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=3920#google%5Fvignette) deep [state](https://amgreatness.com/2025/01/28/over-50-usaid-workers-placed-on-leave-while-acting-administrator-investigates-insubordination/?utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fsource=act%5Feng&seyid=48242) workers will ignore orders to stop giving out money that does not belong to them.

African dictators will *demand* that Western countries send them money, using either slogans of ‘the rich must help the poor,’ or, ‘reparations for slavery’ that will elicit knee-jerk reactions from liberals.

The above agitators will not give up without a fight. Too much money is at stake.

And, of course, you will hear appeals to ‘compromise,’ and ‘gradual.’

This article was originally published by the [Brownstone Institute](https://brownstone.org/articles/the-tangled-web-of-foreign-aid/?ref=goodoil.news).