AID saves lives

After WWII, the world was in total disarray. Food was scarce, infrastructures were broken, cities were demolished and families relocated. The US rose as a great World Power, the one who came in and saved the day.

At the same time, communism was on the rise in the USSR. Though Stalin's Russia had been our ally in war, it was clear that our values as a democracy did not match those of their one-party communist state. Europe was divided east and west.

Germany, the former aggressor, was also divided into a democratic West and a communist East. Though crops were affected throughout the war-torn world, occupied Germany was especially hard hit.

Kindergarteners who were not responsible for the Nazi terror machine were starving. Though some of our allies were dead set against it because of anger ripe from the recent bombings, the United States offered material and financial support in the reconstruction and democratization of West Germany. The Marshall Plan first and foremost helped our ally, Great Britain, regain its strength. However, the second recipient of aid was the country that had recently been the cause of so much destruction.

Holland even named a coin after Marshall!

Why did we support Germany then? Why was there a Berlin Airlift? In fact, why did we offer billions of dollars of funds for economic recovery in Europe?

The answer is very relevant right now.

If we didn't help the next generations of Germans (and, for that matter, of Europeans), someone else would. And that "someone else" would be the USSR. Keen on expansion, they would gain the loyalty of the new Germans. We believed in a democratic world. Our foreign aid policies were not just for the immediate recipients. By helping people who were struggling in other countries, we were also helping ourselves.

Fast forward to today. USAID offers developmental assistance to many programs that fill humanitarian needs all over the world. From disaster and poverty relief to medical support (containing epidemics, for example), this organization has strengthened our alliances and improved the living conditions of so many people and communities.

As in postwar Germany, the reality of alliances reigns true. If we don't support the struggling nations, someone else will. That someone else is likely to be Russia or China. And thus, generations will grow up with ideologies aligned with their values. Without USAID, loyalties of growing nations will lean towards Russia and China. The results are likely to be disastrous.

What can we do about this?

First of all, there's the obvious. Contact your politicians. Not just once. Call again and again. Make your voice heard. Especially contact the ones who are up for re-election in coming years.

There's another thing that we can do, too. We can help spread this narrative. Unfortunately, the current government provides a lot of misinformation on all sorts of topics. One misconception that the public holds is that 25% of the federal budget goes to foreign assistance (information from the Carnegie Foundation). In fact, it is about 1% of the budget. Interestingly, the amount of money that goes to support so many poor people internationally is only 10% of the net worth of Elon Musk. One person holding ten times the wealth of what we offer the world-- supporting Ukraine, preventing malaria, providing education so other populations may someday support themselves. Ten times!

USAID does so much, including help children worldwide

We can spread the narrative that it is in our best interest to help the world.

We can remind people that Germany became our ally after the war-- and not Russia's--- because of the support we offered. And that the Marshall Plan that we appreciate for enabling such support was 10% of the federal budget, ten times the amount of that is set aside for USAID.

We need to use simpler language than I'm using. We probably need to create infographics. We need to make it entertaining. To me, there is nothing entertaining about this. But it's the simple language, the visual appeal and the entertainment factor that has made many people trust politicians who are actually not working in their best interest.

I'll work on using simpler language and being more fun. But I won't develop those skills in time. If you are more talented than I am in that regard, please find ways to let people understand that we need our policy of offering foreign aid and that dismantling USAID would be dangerous to all of us.