Lending Patterns

Today’s headlines for the Washington Post read “Financial Meltdown Worsens Food Crisis.” According to the article, 923 million people in the world were severely undernourished in the year 2007. That staggering number seems like it will only become greater with recent higher costs for imported food and limited funding given to agriculture, due to the financial crisis. Not just the United States, but global markets around the world are facing huge recessions and trying to protect their economies as well. More money is being injected into the economy and taken away from money previously spent towards agriculture. Third-world, less-developed, and many Asian and African cultures are the ones hurting the most.
The article states, “Richer countries from the United States to the Persian Gulf are busy helping themselves and have been slow to lend a helping hand.” The head of the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation also commented that “The amount of money used for the bailouts in the U.S. and Europe—people here are saying that money is enough to feed the poor in Africa for the next three years.” This raises a question for me: Should the U.S. always be turned to for financial aid when other countries opt out of helping us?
This question may sound a little egocentric, but it’s really true. Granted, our intentions for helping other countries may have had hidden motives behind them in some instances, but overall the U.S. is a nation that is always helping others in need. Is anyone helping us with our financial crisis? No. Do we have the money to help other struggling countries at the risk of becoming equally hard shipped? Probably not.
On February 14, 2008, President Bush discussed the U.S. Africa Policy before a national visit to five African nations, mentioning the equal partnership that was being created to help the continent’s economics, disease prevention, and process of building their nations’ governments systematically to leave the dangers of chaotic organization. The president discussed the implementation of investment funds to increase profitability in Africa. This partnership is aimed at helping struggling nations, not gaining power to overtake their resources. But the U.S. can only do so much. This has to be understood globally-and other nations have to start taking initiatives to help themselves also. No country is perfect, and ideally, every country should be willing to lend a helping hand to those who are struggling.
Unfortunately, this rarely happens…and while I’m not suggesting we dismiss the Good Guy act and stop helping others, the U.S. can’t be blamed for other nation’s hardships when there is a lack of funding to support our own country. So what should the U.S. government do? What should other “richer” countries do? Well, if we want to hold global power and be sought after for help, which seems to be a motivating factor for helping others, the U.S. has to be smart. Bringing it back to the rescue plan, we cannot let financial crises consume us, or be blind sighted enough to allow them to occur. Strong countries demand strong governments, and when it comes to the economy, some regulation is required to keep economic cycles stable. Similar to the Africa Policy, the U.S. is creating a helping partnership with their nations, but also mandating organization within their governments for stability.
To put it sweet and simple-You must expect out of yourself what you expect of others. We have the great ability to help struggling nations, but we need to get on track ourselves. And while it is unfair that the rest of the world is reluctant to help us, we shouldn’t allow it to prevent the U.S. from being a greater nation.