For complete chronicle of the evening, see http://www.wednesday-night.com/Wed1228page2.asp whole concept of foreign aid has been based for years on a misguided concept of handouts. Misguided because if you spoon-feed a country, it will just go on being spoon-fed: Third World countries have to have the will to develop themselves. Many of them do not have this will and when they run out of money, they simply ask for more. And often it suits the purposes of donor nations to maintain this state of dependence, especially when much First World aid is tied to purchases by the recipient of goods and services originating in the donor country. The initial response of the U.S. State Department to the offers of disaster aid from countries around the world is indicative of a luxury that most Third World recipients of foreign aid do not have. When asked why the U.S. had not responded to all the offers of international assistance, the State Department spokesman said, "We are evaluating the needs against the offers". Although this may sound arrogant, it was a sensible answer – even had there not been such a crisis in disaster management as we have witnessed. [When doctors from neighboring states, not to mention Canada, were prevented from giving urgent medical assistance because they were not "federalized", how could the 1,100 doctors offered by Cuba have been put to work effectively?] Often, although well intentioned, foreign aid is not suited to the recipient country's culture or the local availability of either human or natural resources. We need to learn how to give aid so that it is a tool for development. Aid organized by locally-based NGOs or independent leaders of the community is most likely to meet the local needs than something dreamed up in a meeting of international bureaucrats. As has been graphically illustrated in Louisiana, common sense is the most important asset in any form of aid – and often the least prevalent. Corruption is a huge problem in many countries, often former colonies. Donor countries are complicit, participating in the chain of corruption and justifying their actions by "that's the way it is done", offering huge grants or gifts to Third World countries in return for access to needed natural resources, turning a blind eye to the aid that winds up in corrupt leaders' bank accounts; and often the Third World becomes a dumping ground for equipment that is donated because it is not compliant with developed nation standards. Every country has some corruption, including the western corporate scandals. While some call for sanctions against the small baksheesh given to functionaries in the Third World to accelerate a process (most of the people are so underpaid that they depend on these small gifts to support their families), the U.S. let it be known that there would be no objection to large gifts of money to maintain friendly heads of government in power. Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath We are dismayed by the confusion and mismanagement at every level of government, municipal, state and federal, the bungling by FEMA amidst revelations of the cronyism that permitted incompetents to rule, new horror stories each day of wasteful and stupid bureaucratic decisions, the "blame game" that has started, and the dangerously precipitate talk of rebuilding New Orleans. However, U.S. and world media has been galvanized and is not likely to let go of this bone. We applaud particularly the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, TIME, New Yorker (see http://www.newyorker.com...ent/?050919ta_talk_mayer) – and the Picayune Times -, and the valiant anchors and reporters of the television networks. As Frank Rich said in his biting op-ed piece: "You know the world has changed when the widely des[censored]ed news media have a far higher approval rating (77%) than the president (46%) in a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll.]