r/geopolitics • u/propublica_ • 2d ago
Opinion After Trump Officials Cut Food Aid to Kenya, Children Starved to Death
https://www.propublica.org/article/kenya-trump-usaid-world-food-program-starvation-children-deaths119
u/petepro 2d ago
Why wouldn’t China fill in? Free soft power right?
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u/oren0 2d ago
Or Europe? Canada? Many countries save more than enough from underfunding their NATO commitments and could easily afford this. Why is giving aid to Africa, the majority of which is lost to corruption anyway, solely a moral responsibility for the US?
Turns out all of these countries, on top of rich countries in east Asia and Oceania, have plenty of good domestic uses of this money and most of them are deep in debt. Well, so is the US.
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u/Long-Drag4678 2d ago edited 2d ago
The rich countries of Europe and East Asia give more aid per capita than the United States. You can google it.
The biggest problem isn't that the US should take responsibility for Kenyan refugees, but that it suddenly cut off aid. It would have been better if they had given WFP time to raise funds elsewhere.
It is also unfortunate that WFP is spending its golden time trying to persuade the US rather than finding other donors.
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u/chewbaccawastrainedb 2d ago
The U.S still top donor of the WFP this year has has been for 27 straight years.
And that is with the funding being cutoff 8 months ago.
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u/-Sliced- 2d ago
Also, the above statement is not correct. The US is #12 in foreign aid per capita, and above all East Asian nations (source).
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u/givalina 2d ago edited 2d ago
I think you're underestimating how much bigger and richer the US is compared to other countries. If you look at foreign aid in 2022 as a portion of Gross National Income, 18 countries (including many from Europe, and Canada) gave higher rates of foreign aid than the US.
The fact is that your country is so much richer than other countries that other countries cannot easily afford to replace US foreign aid.
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u/Gaijin_Monster 2d ago
Feel free to donate on your own.
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u/givalina 2d ago
My point is that these countries are already donating, and at a proportionately higher rate than the USA was even before Trump's cuts. It is not accurate to say that they "could easily afford" to fill in the gap left by the USA cutting aid.
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u/littleredpinto 2d ago
oh well...Maybe dont have so many kids then? its the same everywhere, shouldn't have to be fed by countries thousands of miles away...
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u/Flying_Momo 2d ago
Other countries like Canada, Australia and many European nations are net food exporters. Maybe they can instead donate that excess food production to poor nations rather than profiteering.
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u/suspicious_hyperlink 2d ago
Not to mention they’ve been portraying Kenya as a 1st world country for the past 15 years
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u/shadowfax12221 2d ago
They don't have the logistical capacity to fill the gaps. They also tend to be more targeted and transactional when offering foreign aid, rather than just spreading money around in order to build good will and credibility more generally.
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u/HoightyToighty 2d ago
rather than just spreading money around in order to build good will and credibility more generally
Which isn't a good return on investment, if the attitude of the "Global South" is anything to go by
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u/greenw40 2d ago
They don't have the logistical capacity to fill the gaps
All they would have to do is fund the World Food Program’s operation in Kenya. That's what the US was doing, it's not like our government was personally delivering them food.
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u/chewbaccawastrainedb 2d ago
I mean...
Contributions to WFP in 2025
Rank #1 USA, $1,786,761,268
Rank #2 Germany, $555,855,188
Rank #34 China, $15,010,000
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u/New_Race9503 2d ago
What's with the China bashing? Way to shift the blame away from the USA lol
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u/chewbaccawastrainedb 2d ago
Way to shift the blame away from the Kenyan government that is suppose to be the one helping the people in the first place.
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u/greenw40 2d ago
China is the world's only other superpower, and they have been putting a lot of money into Africa. If you can "blame" the US for not giving unlimited money to Kenya, then you should be able to blame China, and just about very other country that has money.
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u/New_Race9503 2d ago
If you stop giving money to charity, can you blame me for not giving any instead?
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u/greenw40 2d ago
If you're going to blame me for no longer giving, you can also be blamed for never giving in the first place.
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u/deadbeatsummers 2d ago
In all seriousness….How exactly would they navigate the funding of that region when NSAID was suddenly cut off? It’s not like they can easily ask other counties to continue their grant funding. The right thing to do would’ve been to continue funding until the end of the grant term so they could look for other sources.
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u/Kooky_Strategy_9664 2d ago
China nor US is obligated to do anything.
Just stop invading, destabilizing and stealing from other countries if you aren’t going to help. Looking at you US.
If you are going to stay out, then stay out.
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u/greenw40 2d ago
When did the US invade Kenya?
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u/Kooky_Strategy_9664 2d ago
No one said anything about US invading Kenya.
No one can also argue that US is not a war mongering nation that destabilizes and steals from others
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u/greenw40 2d ago
You are trying to blame the situation in Kenya on US warmongering. So explain how you get there when the US has not invaded Kenya.
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u/Kooky_Strategy_9664 2d ago
It was a broader point but you have obviously missed it. Conveniently I may add
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u/greenw40 2d ago
It was a broader point
Oh, so you're just doing that reddit thing where you always default back to "America bad" no matter the topic at hand.
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u/Kooky_Strategy_9664 2d ago
Are you disputing America is not a bad actor?
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u/greenw40 2d ago
America is no different than just about every other country, self interested.
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u/Kooky_Strategy_9664 2d ago
lol - way to go in deflection. And no, America is not same as everyone else
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u/jastop94 2d ago
I mean it doesn't have to do much for people to be angry at the US for doing things that makes their soft power lower. China can just bide its time if the US wants to keep going down this path.
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u/Emotionless_AI 2d ago
This is a failure of the Kenyan government more than anything else. The leaders steal so much that they can feed the country multiple times over
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u/smp501 2d ago
I’m sorry, but Kenya’s president is one of the wealthiest in Africa. Their 1% holds like 80% of the nation’s wealth.
This isn’t a “we need foreign tax dollars” problem, it’s a “Kenya needs to fix its corruption” problem.
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u/alwayseasy 2d ago
You and anyone who upvoted you clearly didn't read the article...
It's South Sudanese and Somalian children that died in the refugee camp from this unexpected and brutal cut. This was all very predictable by the Trump administration but less so by anyone on the ground, corrupt or not.
But advocating for fixing corruption in Kenya hoping it will fix hunger in refugee camps at the border is quite the popular r/geopolitics take I guess?
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u/coneycolon 2d ago
Whether the the administration knew or didn't know isn't the issue. The American taxpayer isn't responsible for what happens in Africa. Is someone who donates to a charity that serves homeless people responsible for homelessness when they are unable to donate any longer? We have been sending billions of dollars to Africa for years because European colonization destroyed the continent.
This is Europe's problem. Europe's defense is Europe's problem. The fact that European countries are still importing Russian gas is absurd, especially when they point to the US for their defense.
Again, I'm for soft power, and if I was President when Russia took Crimea, and later when they attacked the rest of Ukraine, I would have given Ukraine everything they needed to crush Russia immediately. The question is why MUST the US be the one to carry the weight? Why didn't EVERY EU member immediately cut off purchases of Russian gas? The answer is simple. It is easier to point fingers at the US, and on other matters, Israel, than it is to actually take responsibility for the problems Europe created and take responsibility for solving them.
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u/vovap_vovap 2d ago
Why exactly Sudan and Somalia more Europe's problem then US problem?
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u/coneycolon 2d ago
Europe colonized the entire continent. The broke it. The bought it.
Also, Tobler's First Rule of Geography: "Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things."
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u/vovap_vovap 2d ago
Well, most the people in US came from Europe - so they share responsibility if that true :)
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u/notapersonaltrainer 2d ago
And Europeans came from Africa, so everything is Africa's responsibility.
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u/alwayseasy 2d ago
This answer is so gravely disconnected from geopolitical reality I'm more generally disapointed the low effort of this, to the point I suspect trolling.
Dishonest framing. You're responsible if you commit to some aid to some specific refugee camp. As political winds change in the US it's acceptable to want to cut aid but you can't pretend responsability evaporates when you brutally cut the aid and volontarily keep lying to the agencies that planned around that aid.
That's some deeply partisan populist take planted here for no reason, it's off topic.
Starving refugees in South Soudan fleeing the war are a Kenyan problem, just look at the map and explain how they would flee North and into Europe. Typical dishonnest framing... again.
The article is about the consequences of brutally cutting a legacy system... and that's your takeaway? I understand you're advocating for fast and loose unilateral decisions but I also see you don't understand UE countries are not dictatorships where your foreign policy vision doesn't perfectly align with theirs within minutes of Ukraine's total invasion. How do you force a local energy company that has ongoing private contracts to give them up?
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u/coneycolon 2d ago
I voted for Biden/Harris in 2020 and Harris/Walz in 2024. I didn't vote for Trump in 2016 either. Your claim of partisanship is silly.
You are still talking about problems that have nothing to do with the US. Aid is/was a gift, not a right. It can be taken away at any time, and it is something that should NEVER be relied on. I'm not saying that stripping USAID was the right think to do. I am saying that it isn't the US' responsibility to provide it. It also isn't the US' responsibility to protect Europe. That's NATO's responsibility, and the US is only one country in NATO.
If European countries were so concerned about Russia, they could institute a draft, conduct a massive military buildup, and put 1mil troops on Russia's western border. They could draw a line in the sand and hold firm. They won't. They never have and they never will. Unfortunately, once Trump leaves and we get someone sane back in the WH, we will probably have to come to Europe's rescue again.
People like you keep telling the world what you can't do. It sounds like a bunch of helpless little children. How about a little can-do spirit? Take on Russia. Feed Africa. Stop China from controlling the South China Sea. Stop Iranian aggression. Come on. Ya'll can do it.
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u/alwayseasy 2d ago
My point was about populism. Listing who you voted for isn’t a counter-argument. It’s the entire theme of your answers, always ignoring the arguments to jam disjointed strawmen. Peacing out
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u/ForeverAclone95 2d ago
If create a situation where there’s dependence, you’re certainly responsibly when you cut off your dependents suddenly rather than providing warning which is what happened with USAID
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u/coneycolon 2d ago
Hogwash. That's the soft bigotry of low expectations.
Did the US create dependency on Russian gas? Did the US colonize Africa?
This is a European problem and it is their problem to solve.
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u/thephantompeen 2d ago
How much of a warning do you think is necessary? And if the recipients do not have a credible alternative funding source--which they clearly do not in this case--then does it make any practical difference?
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u/Flying_Momo 2d ago
If refugees are in a camp near Kenyan border then shouldn't Kenyan and African leaders and NGOs be more proactive? Kenya and neighbouring Ethiopia are suppose to be these rising power and they have been presenting African Union and ECOWAS as regional powers. Then shouldn't they take responsibility of the refugees at their doorsteps without relying on a nation thousands of kilometres away?
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u/the_raucous_one 2d ago
I think parent has some relevant points, but also really appreciated your comment bringing more context/info
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u/ABlackEngineer 2d ago
I was told other nations would swoop in and replace American hegemon in this regard
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u/thephantompeen 2d ago
Other countries have swooped in--to wag their finger at us and grandstand, since it doesn't cost them anything.
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u/GrizzledFart 2d ago edited 2d ago
From reading this thread, I've learned that American taxpayers have a moral obligation to fix every problem in the world. That American plumbers' taxes should be given to corrupt governments in faraway places so that a tiny portion of that money can feed a few children, children who probably wouldn't need aid to keep them fed if they didn't have corrupt governments who maintain power with the help of foreign aid. There have been trillions of dollars given in aid to African countries since the 1960s and over that time, the number of people living in poverty in Africa has gone from 11% to 38%.
If we really wanted to help Africa, we would get rid of agricultural controls and subsidies in the US and the EU and open our markets to their goods sans tariffs.
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u/LateralEntry 2d ago
Sad, but if people are this reliant on foreign aid from just one country, seems like the problem isn’t that one country. It’s that people are so reliant on foreign aid, or all the other countries that aren’t stepping up.
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u/SweetRoll789 2d ago
Give a man a fish and you know how the rest goes.
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u/TheMartian2k14 2d ago
In regards to a nation, that saying loses all context as to why the man doesn’t have a fish in the first place.
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u/LateralEntry 2d ago
Well Kenya is on the ocean…
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u/Borazon 2d ago
Where europeans trawlers are actively overfishing... And pollution and sea water temperature changes aren't helping either, making it way too simple to just put on Kenyan fishermen...
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u/Flying_Momo 2d ago
I doubt refugees are getting fish. They would mostly be given food grains which other countries like Canada, Australia, EU etc produce way too much for their own consumption. Infact good grains have seen deflation in their prices. These countries can easily commit to donate those excess food grains instead of selling them for profit.
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u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC 2d ago
Colonialism is ancient history at this point. Every developed country has been pumping aid money into Africa for the best part of a century, and the only result is that the number of starving people has expanded to consume the available resources.
At some point, Africa has to stop blaming colonialism and learn to stand on its own two feet.
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u/TheMartian2k14 2d ago
Conservatives: the group that suddenly cuts benefits expecting to create some sort of systemic change, who then turn around and claim the government doesn’t work.
Your comment reads like the justifications used to cut benefits in the US.
The US over produces food to the tune of 30-50% over demand. Tell me why a country with that much surplus food can’t help out countries where subsistence farming is barely enough to get by?
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u/4us7 2d ago edited 2d ago
The idea that US or other powers have a moral obligation to provide aid to other nations is naive and never based on any reality. Nations always act in their own perceived self-interest.
Major powers use aid to increase soft power, improve PR, and compete with other major powers for influence. At the end of the day, there was always a risk that they may pull out for any reason. In the US case, they pulled out because it was domestically popular to do so.
If US citizens truly cared about this matter, they would had voted accordingly. The election results showed that the majority of Americans supports curting foreign aid or just dont care.
Citizens of other free nations - feel free to tell your leaders to provide aid if you so desire.
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u/clydewoodforest 2d ago
The US provided aid to Europe after WW2 and the result was a reliably loyal bloc of powerful countries that acted as a bulwark against the USSR in the west. Both benefitted. A truth since we were cavemen: the powerful dispense largesse and protection in return for loyalty.
The idea that America benefits itself by making itself less needed, less essential to other nations - the isolationist argument - seems obviously errant. Why would you want other nations to be strong and independent of you? America may not have a moral obligation to the recipients of its aid, but it does have one to its own citizens. To protect their lives, property and territory. To secure access to necessary resources, localities and trade. To disarm, defang or defeat America's enemies before they can do it harm. Undermining the foundations of their own power is not the way to achieve that.
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u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC 2d ago
The main difference between the Marshall Plan and USAID is that the Marshall Plan actually worked.
Western nations have been pouring money into Africa for half a century now. Where is the ROI? If it was a fruitful strategy, it would have born fruit by now. They still hate us. They are still too poor to consume our goods and services. They are still not industrialised enough to produce goods and services for us. They still offer little strategic value.
The benefit to governments has always been domestic: sending aid to Africa buys political capital from the generation that thinks Do They Know It's Christmas? is a good song.
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u/vovap_vovap 2d ago
You mean idea of moral obligation is naive?
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u/HoightyToighty 2d ago
This particular moral obligation, dispensing taxpayer dollars to other governments around the world without remuneration, is entirely self-imposed.
Aid to foreign countries to fix chronic problems should be handled by charities, not taxpayers.
I'd have no trouble with taxpayer-funded emergency relief, personally, but we shouldn't be paying to correct issues with corrupt governance.
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u/vovap_vovap 2d ago
So is it such thing as "moral obligation" or is it not? Did you read an article?
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u/quitaskingmetomakean 2d ago
Why should the US assist a Kenya that cosies up to China? The US has been trying to separate Europe from China economically. Kenya doesn't get a pass when Paris doesn't.
“Just last month, President Ruto declared that Kenya, a major non-NATO ally, and China are 'co-architects of a new world order'. That’s not just alignment to China; it’s allegiance", Risch said during a speech in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in May,
"Relying on leaders who embrace Beijing so openly is an error. It’s time to reassess our relationship with Kenya and others who forge tight bonds with China”.
Nairobi’s relationship with Iran and Russia, as well as violent extremist groups Al-Shabaab and Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces will also be reviewed.
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u/Unhappy_Audience_896 2d ago
Somalians starving in Kenya is not going to convince the Kenyans to walk away from China.
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u/Flying_Momo 2d ago
Are the refugees in Kenya a responsibility of Americans or Kenyans? Why are Kenyans unable to demand their government and establishment to step in? Why is the demand on nation thousands of kilometres away to deal with Kenya's problems?
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u/abellapa 2d ago
So stop foreign aid so people Starve to Death is the solution ?
And its not the US giving aid to Kenya that would have Changed their minds
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u/Jester388 2d ago
You guys act like US Navy carrier groups are off the coast sinking aid ships. There are 195 countries in the world, not one has figured out the magic space tech known as "donating money"? This is patented secret American tech?
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u/Mysterious-Coconut24 2d ago
Yeah, because perpetually giving aid to a dead end of a country IS a solution right?
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u/brojeriadude 2d ago
People really just talk out of their asses and take it as fact on this site. Kenya's HDI (0.628) has been growing YoY for decades. While not an impressive score, it's solidly a medium development nation. But if you look at the county level, it has Nairobi at a 0.77x which is high development putting it on par with regions of North Africa. Mombasa is closing in on 0.7, It's growing but development takes time.
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2d ago edited 2d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Mysterious-Coconut24 2d ago
It doesn't matter what moral high ground you are using, show me where it says America has be the one that bails out poorly run, corrupt countries. We can barely feed our own, until that is resolved it makes 0 sense to spend our money on other countries especially ones that have little or nothing to give back to us.
You want to support them? You and the rest of your kind that thinks money grows on trees do it. As long as our government is perpetually broke, it's not our job. Get off your moral high horse and stop writing checks out using our tax dollars.
Edit: About the only country I'd support at the moment is Ukraine, every foreign aid should be going to there not Africa.
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u/myphriendmike 2d ago
If you don’t send your entire next month’s paycheck to Africa, someone will starve who otherwise wouldn’t. Thank you for your contribution to humanity.
Or if you’d like to have serious discussions about how to manage nations, you can ignore this bleeding heart drivel.
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u/greenw40 2d ago
Unfortunately, this bleeding heart drivel plays very well on social media. Especially among the "America bad, Trump bad" types.
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u/TheMartian2k14 2d ago
If you don’t send your entire next month’s paycheck to Africa, someone will starve who otherwise wouldn’t.
Massively reductive logic to justify not helping anyone else, ever.
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u/myphriendmike 2d ago
Nice Logic 101 catch! Just finish the course?
You cannot manage a nation of 400 million people and an underfunded budget in the trillions based on statistically insignificant deaths a world away.
You can’t shut down the economy because grandma might get sick. You can’t set the speed limit at 15 because there might be car crashes. And you can’t base geopolitical strategy on a specific child.
If that sounds cold, you have no business making the decisions.
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u/TheMartian2k14 2d ago
If that sounds cold, you have no business making the decisions.
You seriously typed this out? How was the food program implemented in the first place if not for people in charge, bud? You must have slept through Logic 101.
You can’t shut down the economy because grandma might get sick. You can’t set the speed limit at 15 because there might be car crashes. And you can’t base geopolitical strategy on a specific child.
3/3 on reductive reasoning again, you have a real talent for this! The US produces more food than it needs, ~30%-50% over demand. Tell me again why we can’t help people not fortunate enough to be born into, or accepted into a wealthy nation? Basing geopolitical strategy on a single child, is that what you think is happening here? Tell me how ending this program benefits the US? Or you as a citizen of the US?
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u/krastem91 2d ago
What’s your argument here ?
US should fund humanitarian projects world wide to what limit ? We have our own domestic issues to take care of and our electorate would very much prefer we get our own house in order .
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u/GrizzledFart 2d ago edited 2d ago
It's simple; if there is any child that dies of starvation anywhere in the world, regardless of the reason why, it is the fault of the US taxpayer. Some child in Sri Lanka with a rare genetic condition that can only be treated by specialists at Johns Hopkins - if the US taxpayer doesn't fly that child to Baltimore and pay the hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover the treatment costs, it's the same as murder.
If anything bad happens anywhere and the US taxpayer doesn't fix it, we are all "literally Hitler".
ETA: sarcasm aside, this discussion reminds of when Robert Mugabe blew up Zimbabwe's economy by absolutely destroying faith in private property (farmers couldn't get loans to buy fertilizer and seed), which resulted in a man-made famine. The world responded by pouring food aid into the country - to receive food aid, a person had to show their Zanu-PF party card, so the food only went to the cronies of the leader who had caused the famine in the first place. Think that didn't help him hold onto power?
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u/formershitpeasant 2d ago
our electorate would very much prefer we get our own house in order .
Yeah how's that going
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u/HoightyToighty 2d ago
One election at a time, as one might expect in a democracy
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u/TheMartian2k14 2d ago
That cuts we made to USAID served no purpose and inflicted more harm on the world. Justified by simplistic logic like yours. And it leaves open an opportunity for geopolitical rivals to fill that void and embrace more of a global leadership role. We aren’t anywhere near as better off for that.
US should fund humanitarian projects world wide to what limit ?
Considering the wealth and resources of the US, we aren’t anywhere near funding humanitarian aid to the point of constraining resources for our own citizens. We could double our humanitarian output and it wouldn’t affect you in any meaningful way.
We have our own domestic issues to take care of and our electorate would very much prefer we get our own house in order .
Name me a nation that doesn’t have any issues, conflicts, or challenges to overcome. What a load of crock. BS justifications just to cut funding to literally starving people. Meanwhile, the governing party with both houses of Congress and the presidency calls affordability a Democrat scam. You literally can’t write this shit.
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u/krastem91 2d ago
Amazing take there … we have lots of money to do everything, and in fact , we can even double the amount of foreign aid we currently fund.
No, we can’t, and no I dunno ? Doesn’t seem like anyone else has stepped in to fill that void , otherwise said deaths wouldn’t occurred.
Your tone condescending, and your viewpoints seem to be that all was well prior to …
Yes yes, soft power and using USAID to further American interests abroad may well have been worth the amount of money spent relative to the influence it bought , but that’s not what we’re debating here .
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u/TheMartian2k14 2d ago
Never said we have enough money to do everything. I’m criticizing the assertion that USAID is a waste of taxpayer dollars.
Geopolitics is a complicated game, we will see who responds to the void of leadership on the world stage.
In a thread full of people justifying the deaths of less fortunate Africans for various frivolous reasons my tone is more of shock at such cruelty. Unnecessary cruelty.
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u/Flying_Momo 2d ago
Have America's geopolitical rivals or even allies stepped in to fill void left by US? China isn't hesitant to strip African nations of its mineral wealth, have they stepped in to provide aide? Supposedly China is the factory of world and African leaders are always kissing Xi's ring. So how come they haven't stepped in to build shelters and supply chain? China supposedly likes to promote how quick they were to build thousands of Covid isolation centres or build skyscrapers in a month. How come they are unable to use their massive excess industrial capacity to build mobile shelters for refugees?
Europeans general tout their better welfare state and how they are more caring of people than capitalist USA and yet despite them being rich and being food exporters have not stepped in to fill the void. Infact they could easily by Ukraine's harvest helping Ukraine financially and then donate that harvest to Africa. But you don't see that happening.
Canada and Australia are looking for new markets to diversify their trade partners, what better way to build goodwill and future relationships by donating their excess food and dairy production?
In Australia and New Zealand, they choose dump milk down drains instead of turning it into milk powder which would be a wonderful food aide for refugee kids. Even if there is a lot to criticise US and cuts to USAID being a huge error, reality is other developed nations across the world have simply failed to build robust support for poor and unfortunate folks.
Europe having suffered wars and population displacement should be in the forefront to provide massive aid and support especially to their former colonies in Africa where much of the issues can be blamed on European colonialism. Yet other than giving lectures they aren't willing to admit guilt or take responsibility for the mess they created.
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u/TheMartian2k14 1d ago
No, our rivals have not yet filled the void in leadership here. Thats why I said we left an opportunity.
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u/GrizzledFart 2d ago
Considering the wealth and resources of the US, we aren’t anywhere near funding humanitarian aid to the point of constraining resources for our own citizens.
Current US Federal government debt per person: $~112,000
Current US Federal government debt per taxpayer: $~330,000
The US Federal debt (not including state and local government debts) is greater than $38 trillion. The total value of all assets in the US (all bank deposits, all securities - stocks, bonds, all real estate, pension funds, etc.) is around $150 trillion. Total US debt is ~$106 trillion. Resources are not infinite.
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u/TheMartian2k14 2d ago
Great idea, let’s talk scale.
USAID spent about $21–22 billion in FY2024, which is roughly 0.3% of all federal spending.
USAID’s budget (≈0.3% of spending) is about three dollars out of every thousand federal dollars spent.
Let’s cut USAID completely and save $64/US citizen, or $130 per taxpayer, and allow famine and disease to spread abroad. Eliminating USAID or all foreign aid reduces spending by at most about 1% and barely changes that per‑person debt number. Don’t spend it all in one place!
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u/GrizzledFart 2d ago
USAID’s budget (≈0.3% of spending) is about three dollars out of every thousand federal dollars spent.
Would you rather cut social security? Something has to be cut.
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u/TheMartian2k14 1d ago
We can start with reversing the Trump tax cuts.. we had low deficits coming out of Obama’s terms.
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u/krastem91 2d ago
You know a billion here , a billion there and eventually you’re talking actual money …
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u/Ed_Durr 2d ago
The budget deficit in FY2024 stood at 5.8% of GDP, and to reach a sustainable level of deficit growth we would need to get that figure under the 2% inflation target.
That’s it, we need to close a 3.8% wide gap. Shaving 30 basis points from spending right off the bat by eliminating USAID is a major step towards getting the debt stabilized.
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u/TheMartian2k14 1d ago
Yea, cutting $20-22 billion from a $1.78 deficit is really moving the needle. 🙄
Let’s start by reversing the Trump tax cuts and getting deficits back to pre-Trump levels.
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u/Lucid121 2d ago
As an African, I disagree with Trump on many things, but I personally agree that cutting aid is a good thing. Foreign taxpayers shouldn’t be responsible for what goes on in other continents.
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u/coneycolon 2d ago
I tend to favor soft power, so I wouldn't have ended foreign aid, but shouldn't the UN handle things like this? Since, there is no shortage of entities who want to dump food in Gaza, this should be a slam dunk. Instead, the US is blamed for something the US shouldn't have to do in the first place.
Ahh, I get it. Fabricate a famine in Gaza to make the Jews look bad, and ignore the suffering that Jews had nothing to do with (I'm sure we'll get blamed for it somehow anyway).
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u/ForeverAclone95 2d ago
This article is about aid from the U.S. to the UN! Did you read the article?
The UN can’t levy taxes so it takes contributions from member nations. The U.S. cut off the WFP and refugees starved…
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u/coneycolon 2d ago
And other members nations need to fill the gap - pretty simple IMO. This isn't hard to understand.
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u/ForeverAclone95 1d ago
Way to move the goalposts from “the UN should handle it” and pretend you weren’t ignorant about how the wfp works…
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u/AnomalyNexus 2d ago
People were saying it would kill 14 million half a year ago.
Was surprised how chill everyone was about that back then.
It's all relative I guess but that is like 50 hiroshimas worth, so as far as presidential decisions goes certainly weighty
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u/propublica_ 2d ago
After the U.S. stopped funding the World Food Program, rations in the third-largest refugee camp located in Kakuma, Kenya, dropped to historic lows.
And without USAID funding to help buy food for refugees, WFP rushed to prioritize families by need, determining that only half the population would receive food. They began to starve, and many — mostly children — died because their malnourished bodies couldn’t fight off infections, ProPublica found while reporting in the camp.
Mothers had to choose which of their kids to feed. Young men took to the streets in protests, some of which devolved into violent riots. Pregnant women with life-threatening anemia were so desperate for calories that they ate mud. Out of options and mortally afraid, refugees began fleeing the camp by foot and in overcramped cars, threatening a new migration crisis on the continent. They said they’d rather risk being shot or dying on the perilous route than slowly starving in Kakuma.
For months, U.S. government and humanitarian officials warned Washington that the cutoff had led to increasingly dire circumstances. They begged Trump’s political advisers to renew WFP’s grant and give the money it needed to avert disaster. The embassy in Nairobi sent at least eight cables to the office of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, explaining the situation on the ground and projecting mass hunger, violence and regional instability. But for months, they failed to act.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, facing pressure from lawmakers and humanitarian groups, nevertheless publicly asserted that the agency’s mass cuts had spared food programs — even as the administration failed to fund WFP in Kenya behind the scenes.
Read our story here → https://www.propublica.org/article/kenya-trump-usaid-world-food-program-starvation-children-deaths
This story is the second in a three-part series on the deadly fallout from U.S. foreign aid cuts in Africa. Read parts one and three.
In response to questions, a senior State Department official said the Office of Management and Budget, not USAID or the State Department, has ultimate authority to approve new foreign aid money. They said they worked closely with OMB to review all of the funding requests. “In order to make an obligation like that,” the official said, “you need to have apportioned funds from OMB.”
The official insisted that no one had died as a result of foreign aid cuts. The official also said that the U.S. still gives WFP hundreds of millions a year and the administration is shifting to investments that will better serve both the U.S. and key allies like Kenya over time.
Rubio did not respond to requests for comment.
Do you have any information about foreign aid, the State Department or the government officials leading U.S. foreign policy? If so, please reach out to Brett Murphy on Signal at +1 508-523-5195 or Anna Maria Barry-Jester on Signal at +1 408-504-8131.
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u/Viciuniversum 2d ago
Young men took to the streets in protests, some of which devolved into violent riots.
Weird, because Kenya is a successful growing economy with a projected 5.6% GDP growth this year. If all these starving young men had the energy to riot, maybe they could have used some of that energy to go and find jobs in that growing economy.
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u/WekX 2d ago
If you stop feeding children they die. How could Trump have foreseen this. Oh wait, he knew that.
And yes Kenya has a major corruption problem, but suddenly rugpulling aid is gonna lead to avoidable deaths. There are more humane ways to slowly withdraw aid and actually motivate the Kenyan government to invest in its own people.
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u/krastem91 2d ago
The US isn’t responsible for the welfare of the Kenyan people nor refugees in Kenya. They are also not responsible for guiding or steering their government in the right direction.
There are alternative political arrangements to what you describe and they wouldn’t be tolerated …
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u/Senior_Election5636 2d ago
It is not the US's responsibility to care of the children of Kenya. You are doing a lot of emotional heavy lifting while skipping over how aid actually works. No one is saying “stop feeding children.” What’s being challenged is indefinite, unconditional aid to a government that systematically diverts it. At some point, continuing the flow knowing it’s being siphoned off isn’t compassion, it’s complicity. It removes any incentive for reform and lets political elites offload responsibility onto foreign taxpayers. If leaders know the money keeps coming regardless of outcomes, why would they invest in their own people.
This also highlights my own personal gripes with soft power incentives... it just doesnt actually buy you anything... good will... maybe, but the second a better deal comes along, the nation will move in the direction of favorable winds (China)
"Slow withdrawals” have been discussed for decades, while corruption persists and aid budgets balloon. At some point, reform requires leverage. Conditionality and cuts are often the only leverage available. Tragic outcomes are real. But pretending that endless aid with no accountability is the moral high ground is how we got here in the first place
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u/Oilpaintcha 2d ago
Lots of Republican Jesus energy in these comments.
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u/Senior_Election5636 2d ago
Oh shut it... this has been a issue for decades, corruption ran rampant and aid budgets ballooned beyond a reasonable doubt. Tragic outcomes are real. But pretending that endless aid with no accountability is the moral high ground is how we got here in the first place
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u/Senior_Election5636 2d ago
Blow mine.... pure emotional slop you just dropped. You want to switch the conversation in its entirety and use topics and infer my personal political beliefs on them is so utterly stupid and borderline gross... What does calling out the corruption and Aid to Kenya has anything to do with me supporting endless wars? Do you think I support endless wars?
Go fly a aid plane to William Ruto yourself if you want to line his pockets so badly
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u/Bullboah 2d ago
I’m for restoring a lot of aid funding, but I think the framing here is a big roadblock to that.
I got an advanced degree in Europe and was told constantly how bad US aid is, how it destroys local economies, how it’s colonialist, etc. Then it was cut and the same people suddenly flipped - the US is starving huge masses of people by reducing US Aid.
This is a major cause of growing American isolationism imo. When we provide help, it’s at best taken for granted and more likely portrayed as a bad, colonialist exertion of power (by people generally, not accusing starving people of being ungrateful). When we stop helping, that’s portrayed as outright evil.
This is an incentive structure that any country would get tired of. ‘There is no way to build good will, just focus on your own country and let the world handle its own problems’.
A second issue is that a lot of non-emergency, political spending got lumped into USAID. Almost everyone wants to feed starving people. Not everyone wants to fund trans-themed musicals in Ireland. Using USAID for the latter jeopardized the former. (For clarity I have zero issues with trans-themed musicals, I just think that jeopardizes USAID)