Thought for the Day

[bcholmes]

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) says it spent $39 million in Kandahr last year and another $100 million in the rest of Afghanistan. Senlis conducted an extensive investigation into these claims. “We were not able to see any substantial impact of CIDA’s work in Kandahar and, as a matter of fact, we saw many instances of the extreme suffering of the Afghan people,” reported Nadine MacDonald, president and lead field researcher of the council at a news conference on August 29.

MacDonald described the council’s search into claims by the CIDA that it has provided several millions of dollars for a maternity clinic at the Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar City. When it visited the hospital, it found no such clinic. It did find 28 injured and starving children sharing eight beds and whose needs were being paid for out of the pockets of Afghan doctors who themselves complained about the total absence of foreign aid for their work.

— "Canadian aid in Afghanistan and Haiti", by Roger Annis

Ah, Canadian aid.