Message-ID: <37C56647.E774E3A7@akron.infi.net> Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1999 12:07:35 -0400 From: Bob Pyke Jr <mailto:repyke@akron.infi.net> Subject: Retiring USAID Head Vents Frustration To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
Bob Pyke Jr
{Always inspiring when someone stands out and takes a stand!}
> Copyright 1999 Associated Press/AP Online
> June 30, 1999; Wednesday 04:11, Eastern Time
> >
> HEADLINE: Retiring AID Head Vents Frustration
>
> J. Brian Atwood has a disquieting message as he prepares to step
down as
head of the U.S. foreign aid agency: Don't believe those stories about
democracy
and free enterprise enabling developing countries to lift themselves out
of
poverty.
>
> And part of the problem, according to Atwood, is what he sees as
> Washington's pinch-penny attitude toward Third World problems.
>
> ''What will it take to wake up our political leaders?'' he asked.
> ''More failed states? More wars? More south-to-north migration? More
> transmission of infectious diseases? More terrorism?''
>
> After six years as head of the Agency for International
Development,
> Atwood will return to the private sector next week. He could have gone
quietly, as his predecessors have done, but decided not to.
>
> He gave his valedictory Tuesday at a luncheon at the Overseas
> Development Council, which attempts to sensitize opinion-makers
> on Third World issues.
>
> ''The sad and even dangerous reality is that globalization and the
> democratic market economy movement have not closed the gap between
rich and
poor,'' he said.
>
> ''Much of the change we are seeing is occurring within the previous
> ruling classes of these societies. Some in the donor community seem
content to
nurture reform without equity.''
>
> Economic growth, he said, can reduce poverty only with investments
in
> health care, education, job creation, community development and food
security.
>
> The industrial world is getting ''shamelessly rich'' while most of
> the world's people are losing ground, Atwood said. He put the ratio of
rich
> to poor at about 65 to 1, or for every $65 earned in industrial
countries, $1
is earned in poor ones. About 1.3 billion people live in extreme
poverty, he
said.
>
> Atwood called the government's international affairs budget ''a
joke.
> There is no money to do anything,'' he said. ''It's outrageous.''
>
> He took aim at the congressional class of 1994, the election that
> gave Republicans control of the House and Senate. It was filled with
> ''nonpassport-carrying members,'' Atwood said, a not-so-subtle
suggestion that
such people think provincially, not globally.
>
> Another source of distress for Atwood was U.S. policy toward the
> United Nations. ''What we are doing to the United Nations system is
> unconscionable,'' he said.
>
> ''At a time when the U.N. is bending under the weight of human
> crises, most emanating from the developing world, we are sapping
> it of its vitality by refusing to pay our bills. Then we criticize it
for
> not doing its job.''
>
> He described as ''shameful'' a recent compromise under which the
> Clinton administration would pay $819 million in arrears on the
condition that
it pay a smaller share in the future. The congressionally drafted
approach is
'designed to appease people whose real goal is to kill the United
Nations,''
> Atwood said.
>
> Atwood was scheduled to become ambassador to Brazil after his
service
> at AID, but Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee
> chairman, refused to convene hearings on the nomination.
>
> Helms was smarting from Atwood's characterization of him as an
> ''isolationist'' and his accusation that Helms drew up complicated
> government reorganization plans ''on the back of an envelope.''
>
> Atwood withdrew his name from consideration for the Brazil post in
> May.
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