Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Not the American people

Sahar Mandour from Assafir writes in the Youth page: USAID is not the American people. She makes reference to the USAID advertising billboards which have recently invaded all major roads of Lebanon with the caption: From the American People to the Lebanese People or something like that. Her point is that USAID is part of the US government and its policies are aligned with those of the government, and that the US government is not the US people. And she dislikes the US government policies. This is an interesting post as it raises the issue of development aid and the underlying political agendas of the donor countries (all countries).

2 comments:

Sophia said...

When we visited Lebanon in 2005 USAID billboards were only posted in the Chouf, sometimes so ostensibly on very narrow roads in very small villages...

Marcy Newman said...

masboot, rafiq! i HATE those billboards! so offensive...and so depressing that lubnan would accept this money regardless of who it comes from.