The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done S

I've come to this rather late, as in this game the 6 years since publication has changed the story to some extent, but the basic message is still entirely valid. Easterly argues entirely correctly, that top-down planning in aid projects has been at best unsuccessful in most cases, and often downright harmful. He looks at the World Bank, for which he worked, the IMF and inter-country and big 'make poverty history' type projects, and demonstrates their futility. Instead of Planners, he argues persuasively, what is needed is Searchers - people on the ground looking at ways of dealing with specific issues of poverty, and finding ways of being answerable to the requirements of the poor themselves.Highly recommended.

This book provides the reader with detailed information about foreign aid and its negative impact on developing countries or so-called third-world countries. The description is based on empirical data, intensive researches and properly collected documents (materials) as well as longstanding experiences of the author in the sector of foreign aid and related institutions of the world. The book is therefore, worth to be read. I furtheremore, believe that every world citizen who has the chance to read this book, should be informed about this crutial subject matter.

Très bon livre parfaitement articulé et argumenté même s'il ne représente pas vraiment mes idées. Les critiques qu'Easterly fait de l'aide au développement mais aussi des actions de libéralisation de l'économie forcée via le FMI sont clairement frappées du bon sens. Son idée de "piecemeal progress" est là aussi très intéressant, le développement prend du temps et des échanges entre les gouvernements et les pauvres c'est une évidence. Seul problème de son argumentaire, l'idée qu'au final c'est toujours le marché à lui seul qui trouvera la solution. Le marché et les éternelles anecdotes de tel ou tel pauvre qui s'en est sorti brillamment comme si chaque pauvre était nécessairement un Bill Gates en puissance à qui on a juste pas donné sa chance.Un livre important pour quiconque s'intéresse au débat sur l'aide au développement aujourd'hui, bien loin des clichés habituels.

les ouvrages d'Easterly font partie des meilleurs pour comprendre l'économie du développement et les politiques menées en la matière. Ancien de la banque mondiale, il démonte une approche se voulant scientifique qui néglige les peuples et leurs différences. A lire d'urgence pour mieux comprendre les problèmes.

Easterly sets out to prove that searchers are better than planners in his 2006 book. Throughout the book he explores what are the best efforts to enhance the lifestyles of less fortunate countries and their citizens. He uses a vast amount of research into many countries and has drawn on his own experiences to ensure the message gets across.The image of the planners and the searchers concept was new to development studies. A planner is the old way of working with developing countries where aid companies like IMF (International Monterey Fund) and World Bank gave money to the governments in hope that it would filter down to the disadvantaged citizens of the country. Easterly shows us that being a searcher who finds small projects to fund is a more beneficial and economically viable avenue to go down. As most of the countries who receive aid have corrupt governments this will ensure less aid is going to them.There are a lot of examples of different countries within the book which show positive aid efforts contrasted with negative aid efforts. The majority of the book looks at countries that are not good examples but towards the end he pulls on more positive cases. Easterly focuses on the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries to show positive examples of aid reaching who it they need to.There is a lot of research to propose the question, how is aid working in developing countries. When Easterly is making presumptions, he would let you know he has no way of proving it. Through highlighting that the aid companies have been recently putting measures in place to ensure that aid is being used in the right places. This shows that people like the World Bank and IMF have thought about what throw aid at disadvantaged countries is doing.When this book was published this seemed to be a new idea with in development. Sach's work was a main influence in Easterly's work, although Easterly has developed the main themes (Jeffrey D. Sachs, 2005). These pieces then lead to other publications investigating this concept. `Dead aid' looks at the concept from a purely economic view and crisis's aid development much like Easterly (Moyo, 2010). Whereas `War games' gives a lot of examples of NGO's and creates practical solutions to aid problems (Polman, 2011). Both of these works used `The White Man's Burden' as a precursor.Easterly writes about the history of colonisation and other events that have impacted on the third world towards the end of the book. This made me think that he has not looked into the history as much as the present. The present is a good place to start but most of the reasons for giving aid is because of colonial reasons according to earlier work (Fanon, 2008). Although, looking at the situation without history is a different and objective view, this cannot be the only way in which to evaluate disadvantaged countries.Easterly has a background working within the World Bank and makes very good arguments in regards to disturbing aid to countries that have corrupt government. He can understand and put in perceptive what different organisations can do. He also has a strong background economics with being the co-editor of the `Journal of Development Economics' and being a professor of economics at New York University (William Easterly, 2013). With this experience his presumptions that he makes are valid and are clearly clarified due to his experience.Throughout the book, Easterly gives us examples that Western readers can relate to. There are many examples including; Ambulance and accident references also Harry Potter sales references. `Feedback without accountability is like the bumper sticker I once saw on an eighteen-wheeler: DON'T LIKE MY DRIVING? CALL 1-800-SCREW-YOU.' - Easterly, pg14. This explained how accountability is very vital to aid as it will ensure that someone is working towards a meaningful outcome. This analogy shows that calling that number will not help the driver to improve which goes the same for aid agencies. Easterly uses these examples to explain complex ideas.Having an example of what Africa is like at the end of the chapter makes the reader understand what the problems really are. When reading statistics you can get caught up in them and dehumanise the problems. Easterly ensures you that the problems that are affected by the statistics can be brutal and heartfelt.This book was very easy to follow and a pleasure to read. It made the subject of aid interesting and gives the reader a lot to go away with. The new ideas and concepts that have been put together have been a new idea not just to me but also the whole International Relations community at the time. Not looking at the history first makes you think outside the box and the examples help bring home what a vitally important issue aid is.BIBLIOGRAPHYEasterley, W., 2006. The White Man's Burden: why the west's efforts to aid the rest have done so much ill and so little good. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Fanon, F., 2008. Black Skin, White Masks (Get Political). 3rd ed. Sidmouth: Pluto Press.Jeffrey D. Sachs, 2005. The End of Poverty: Economic Possiblities for Our Time. New York: Penguin Press.Moyo, D., 2010. Dead Aid: Why aid is not working and how there is another way for Africa. 1st ed. London: Penguin .Polman, L., 2011. War Games: The Story of Aid and War in Modern Times. 1st ed. London: Penguin.William Easterly, 2013. William Easterly. [Online]Available at:[...][Accessed 21 11 2013].