President Trump and Elon Musk were quite right that US programs deserved control and reform. So far, these two billionaires have achieved crushing the poorest children in the world in the boiler of confusion and cruelty.
For decades, I covered the United States agency for international development and I asked my contacts around the world to get the true story of Trump-Musk demolition.
In Socoto in Nigeria, toddlers are starving, because the emergency feed centers supported by the USAID has reached a nutrient -rich paste used to save the lives of severely malnourished children. The warehouses in the area have a paste, but they cannot release it without giving up the agency – which is in such a Muskic chaos that it cannot give out acquittal.
“Thousands of children can die,” said Erin Boyd, a former US Nutrition Adviser who told me about the situation.
The outbreak of Ebola in Uganda has spread to three cities. The Ugandan Government has begged With members of the medical staff formerly paid USAID for “continue to work in the spirit of patriotism as volunteers”.
The doctor on the scene told me that with the missing USAID there is a greater risk that Ebola will spread – and may even infect the Americans. It is a reminder that the robust USAID is the first defense against the epidemic and the pandemic, whether including bird flu, eBol or other diseases.
I quote these two examples, because the first represents humanitarian values and the second of our national interest; USAID is an agency that connects them.
Chaos accounts flow from around the world. My colleague Stephanie Noen reported The fact that the effective closure of the agency suddenly stopped 30 clinical studies, so patients were stuck. In South Africa, for example, women were equipped with experimental internal rings to prevent pregnancy and HIV – but now the participants are alone. Women and children are the main recipients of humanitarian aid, so they are the greatest victims of what is happening. The limit value causes approximately 130,000 women to lose access every day To contraception, According to the Guttmacher Institute (Condoms are now lack in Zimbabwe). If freezing continues for three months and access to family planning this year will not restore 4.2 million unintended pregnancies and 8,300 deaths, the institute estimated.
USAID employees, who mostly joined the agency in the hope that the world would become a better place, are in agony. “We’re just paralyzed,” said an employee of Africa. “No one is in charge of
If an antifreeze is running in your veins, you may think you think that It is a pity that children starve to death and mothers die during childbirth, but how else can we clean all those “cheaters” that Musk refers to what he described as “criminal organization”?
Unfortunately, Musk seems to have verified a single case of fraud. It seems that the only break is the attack on Trump on Congress’s established agency that it has no legal authority; The destruction of the USAid may have violated A number of federal lawsNot to mention the constitution.
Fairly Republicans quoted some examples of what they call the waste that really sounds stupid, although most of them examples It turned out that it does not include USAID at all. However, we will certainly admit that some money to help has not been optimally used over the years.
In any case, Trump and Musk seem to have worsened waste. More than $ 489 million in Food Aids has been left in Limbo and is now endangered by rotting, USAID Inspector General warned.
It’s more serious. It has been said that employees of the Agency Agency Agency Agency have not reported that they do not report to work, which increases the risk that assistance will be diverted to terrorist groups, the general inspector added.
China has long criticized USAID and Chinese Internet erupted in health at the end of the agency. This is because – as Senator Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, observed In 2021 – Agencies such as USAid are “Strategic tools to defeat China” in the global competition for influence.
Another senator note that the agency is “critical to our national security” and a powerful tool “to face the Chinese Communist Party”. Update: This Senator, Marco Rubio, has since been promoted to a position where he can fight for the agency if he stands according to his principles.
Above all, the USAID demolition is human tragedy. One woman On the border of Myanmar-Thai, she has already been identified as dead for cuts, because the hospital supported by the agency could no longer treat. And it is almost certain that the poorest in the world is already dying because of the decision of the richest in the world.
In Somalia, Kismayo, a hospital had to close 3,000 people every month, told me an auxiliary worker, with patients kidnapped in donkeys or wheels. In Sudar in Gadariff, I say that the only hospital in the region that can perform C-Section may now be closed during the month-the women in blocked work may die or suffer fistulas.
I had malaria and saw that countless people were dying for it, so I was pleased that Myanmar was on the track Eliminate it. Without American support, malaria is expected to return, “threatens years of progress,” said an assistant worker. Pregnant women and children are most likely to die.
I suspect that the USAid attack is a test during an offensive against a rescue line for poor people here in the United States – Medicaid. Some Republicans would like to reduce this to pay for tax cuts for the rich.
This makes it particularly important that Americans speak for humanitarian aid at the international level, because it is a place where our interests and our values are closer. Readers still ask me what they can do. I tell them to call their members of Congress and the White House to invite them to reform the USA, not to release it. And if you are motivated to write a check, I have three suggestions.
First, Helen Keller Intl He does an excellent job fighting malnutrition and blindness around the world. Second, Muso It is extremely cost -effective in saving children’s lives in countries where the USAID is now gutted. Thirdly, the Sudanese “Lost Boy”, Valentino Deng, who was seated in the United States and has become the subject of the best -selling book Dave Eggers, “what is” Civil War; I found that his determination to use his happiness to help others through his What basis Inspiring contrast to those who use their wealth and strength to crush joyfully the happiest in the world into increasing suffering.
