Pictured – a power plant under construction in African hell-hole of Equitorial Guinea.
Just a random question, really – but why are we giving foreign aid to the world’s 4th richest nation?
Take a look at the CIA World Factbook’s standing on the relative wealth of nations. Canada comes in at number 16 [old numbers though - see here]. Up at number 4, more than $10,000 per person above us, us the tiny West African Petro-Nation of Equatorial Guinea.
(Using the purchasing power parity formula) In 2006, Equitorial Guinea brought in US$50,200 per person vs. Canada’s $35,700. And yet, in 2005, the last year for which there are numbers, Canada’s CIDA gave the world’s 4th richest country $3.57 million in development assistance.
This to a country which is rich, which is a dictatorship, and whose top officials are prone to criminality. So while the good people of democratic East Timor have to make do with $1,000,000 in Canadian assistance, the thug-in-chief of Equatorial Guinea gets thrice that. Or put another way, Canada gave the country enough money to build nearly 18 stereo systems like the one in the president’s vacation house in Cape Town.
Money well spent, surely.
Filed under: Uncategorized , CIDA, equatorial guinea, foreign aid, Government waste
Inter-governmental aid will always bemuse me.
On a lighter note however – that is a superb photo. I looked at it for ages. Tell me, where was your source?
[...] but I doubt us sending money is making things better there. Here’s another situation where Canada is paying a country that abuses human rights. This looks fishy to me. Equatorial Guinea does not sound like a place we [...]