The UN pushes to get all children in school, even if they learn nothing.

This won't help the kids. But it benefits others.

It disconnects farm children from the land. They don't learn farm skills.

Now there's less resistance when foreign interests arrive to grab that land.

TODAY'S THOUGHT

'The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.'
- H.L. Mencken, U.S. journalist, 1924

TODAY'S THOUGHT

Foreign aid is 'an excellent method for the transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.'
-Peter Bauer, an early aid critic, who wrote from a libertarian perspective

The myth is that a charitable West generously sends aid funds to the South.

The reality is that far larger amounts flow in the opposite direction. This overview was published five years ago, but little has changed.
theguardian.com/global-develop…

The UN pushes to get all children in school, even if they learn nothing.

This won't help the kids. But it benefits others.

It disconnects farm children from the land. They don't learn farm skills.

Now there's less resistance when foreign interests arrive to grab that land.

'On some level, all bureaucracies work on this principle: once you introduce formal measures of success, 'reality' -- for the organization -- becomes that which exists on paper, and the human reality behind it is a secondary consideration at best.'
-David Graeber

100 BAD HABITS LEARNED AT SCHOOL

Once we unlearn the habit of mutual comparisons, life becomes more bearable and fun.

and 99 more... how many reflect your own experiences?
supermemo.guru/wiki/100_bad_h…

🧵 There’s an ongoing fight for the future of farming and Africans are finding they are having to farm the way the Gates Foundation wants them to.

'The clampdown on Kenyans, which began just months after the queen ascended the throne, led to the establishment of a vast system of detention camps and the torture, rape, castration and killing of tens of thousands of people.' Queen Elizabeth II's legacy. nytimes.com/2022/09/09/wor…

There are a lot of problems with how development and aid are delivered. However, not admitting to failures is due to donors not willing to invest in innovative trial and error projects...

'The head of the WFP [World Food Program], James Morris, explained that donors select countries and regions where they have political interests, or places thought of as high-profile that offer a fair chance of positive publicity. '
-Linda Polman in The Crisis Caravan

'Schools and schooling are increasingly irrelevant to the great enterprises of the planet. No one believes anymore that scientists are trained in science classes or politicians in civics classes or poets in English classes. '
-John Taylor Gatto

WHY DEVELOPMENT AID WAS NEVER GOING TO WORK (a series)

One way we improve is by reflecting on, and learning from, our failures.

But the UN and INGOs ignore, cover up, and lie about their failures. They don't need to improve. They just need to spin a good tale for their donors.

TODAY'S THOUGHT

'Globalisation has obliterated distance, not just physically but also, most dangerously, mentally. It creates the illusion of intimacy when, in fact, the mental distances have changed little.'
-Martin Jacques, in The Guardian