Worldwide Student News

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Louise Poliquin
Washington International School

After nearly a half century in power, the communist government in China is scouring the world for oil, natural gas, and minerals to keep its economic machine thriving. Its powerful trade deals are insufficient for solving the country’s water problems. According to the New York Times, China’s water usage has quintupled in the past 59 years, a statistic which leaves leaders and health organizations
with tough political choices as cities, industries, and farming simultaneously compete for a finite and shrinking water supply.
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Margaret Shaw
Washington International School

I’m a big fan of the “international experience.” It’s why I first applied to this school and it’s why I decided to host an ASSIST exchange student from Moldova, 11th grader Doina Chiselita, at my house for the second half of the school year. So when Doina began telling me about her Romanian Orthodox Easter traditions, it was immediately agreed that we would hold our own little Orthodox Easter here in DC.
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Adriaan Hilbers
Washington International School

When Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) fought for independence in its famous 1980 war, Robert Mugabe emerged as a hero. Having led the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) through a hard but successful struggle to gain independence for Zimbabwe, he was made the first prime minister, staying in this post for seven years and then running for president, winning the elections, in part, due to his image as a war hero. Since 1987, Robert Mugabe has led the nation, but his time in power has made Zimbabwe one of the poorest countries in the world, and Mugabe is considered by many to be dictator.
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Stanislas Dupuy
Washington International School

In the first few weeks of May, the international community was devastated by a pair of natural disasters that have already matched the vast scale of disaster of 2004’s Tsunami. On May 3, Cyclone Nargis hit Burma, geographically the largest country in Southeast Asia. A little more than a week later, on May 12, an earthquake struck the Sichuan region of central China.
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Leena Ramadan
Washington International School

Moisés Naím, the editor of Foreign Policy magazine, wrote an article titled “Rogue Aid” a year ago. He wrote that his friend from the World Bank lost a deal with the Nigerian government to repair its crumbling railways to the Chinese government. The Bank’s offer of $5 million, with its typical list of conditions, could not match up with China’s offer of $9 billion, with no strings attached. After giving more examples, with the likes of Iran and Venezuela, and defending Western aid-providers, the author came to the conclusion this rouge aid would serve to “stifle real progress while hurting average citizens,” and if allowed to progress, those countries would “succeed in underwriting a world that is more corrupt, chaotic, and authoritarian.”

Fast forward a year later. I find myself in a similar conversation in the back of a SuperShuttle with an International Monetary Fund (IMF) employee who had just returned from Sudan on a mission trip. He told the same story, of how the Chinese were flushing the Sudanese government with lots of cash and very few questions. However, he had a different take on the issue. He views the Chinese generosity positively and he says that the accelerated growth in nations that have received help from other sources, such as the Chinese government, is evidence that these alternative measures can be more of a benefit than a detriment. It is hard for governments in developing nations to resist such an enticing option, considering that the alternative would be to adopt the 101 measures laid out by the IMF.

The West does not attempt to veil its mistrust of sovereign wealth funds in Asia and the Middle East, which have been investing heavily not only in developing nations, but also here in the US. Currently, Abu Dhabi tops the list of nations with the largest sovereign wealth funds. It is followed by Singapore, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and China. They have been accused of pushing the political agendas of their various governments.

As recent wars have disclosed, cash-flush nations have a particular fondness for non-renewable natural resources. It comes as no surprise, then, that China is making fast friends with resource-rich African nations. In fact, the Chinese have taken this friendship a step further by actively migrating to African nations and intermarrying with the locals. The Singapore government has also set up a department to help Singaporean entrepreneurs invest in South Africa. These investors are not satisfied with being anonymous benefactors. They are there to stay and to make their presence felt.

So, if the desire for closer relations is mutual between Africa and Asia, then where is the problem? Darfur is the problem. Due to the political nature of such monetary aid, it is inevitable that the aid contributes to the propping up of ineffective governments. The Darfur genocide is a tragedy and a cause for concern among members of the international community. However, the strides that monetary aids from foreign governments have helped achieve should not be discounted in light of these events. As my friend from the IMF put it, a starving citizen in Sudan only cares for his next meal, something these foreign handouts have proven they can provide through development.

Forcing transparency onto sovereign wealth funds and effectively discouraging them from supporting harmful governments seems a less daunting task than ensuring that governments who receive aid from the Fund or Bank conform to the many conditions demanded. Governments in developing nations have also proven to be much more receptive to help from sovereign wealth funds than the Fund or Bank. Rogue aid it may be, but representatives from the various sovereign wealth funds have done something the Bank and Fund have rarely achieved–they have gained the invaluable trust and friendship of the nations they are providing aid to. These countries hold vital influence in regions that are often hostile to Western intervention
and should be courted as allies and not seen as foes.