BYSAM HILLNEWSWEEK.COM 11
AFRICAHopelessness
and Hope
President Donald Trump called out poor countries for being “S***holes.”
Yes, there are terrible places to live. And, yes, it is easy to build
DZDOODQGVD\ɿJXUHLWRXWRQ\RXURZQ%XWZHFDQŠWRXU
FRUUHVSRQGHQWZULWHVDIWHUDWULSWR6LHUUD/HRQHŜDQGKHUHŠVZK\in 2018, president donald trump asked,
“Why are we having all these people from
shithole countries come here?” That not-so-subtle
implication—poor people from poor countries are
inferior to rich people from rich countries—prop-
erly outraged most people. But the question con-
tains an uncomfortable truth. Many countries are
indeed terrible places to live, especially for those
on the bottom rungs of the socio-economic ladder.
There’s no official definition of Trump’s “shithole,”
but we know which ones he means. Countries that
are poor, violent and mostly brown. Guatemala.
Sudan. Yemen. Myanmar. Niger. Haiti. Bangladesh.
Pakistan. Although most of the countries that fit
Trump’s definition are in sub-Saharan Africa.
Even as worldwide well-being rises,
these troubled countries fall further
and further behind. Nothing we do
seems to help. Over the last 50 years,
developed nations have poured over$3 trillion dollars into official development assis-
tance for developing nations. No one knows how
much more has been provided in humanitarian
and military aid, or how much has come from pri-
vate organizations. And yet desperate people con-
tinue to mass on the U.S. southern border.
It is tempting to build a wall and tell develop-
ing countries to figure it out on their own, like
our president would have it. Except we can’t. We
have no way to insulate ourselves from their prob-
lems: Deforestation. AIDS. Ebola. Terrorism. Drugs.
Gangs. Illegal immigration. Ecological disasters.
Any more than they have a way to protect them-
selves from ours: Climate change. Worker abuse.
Toxic waste. Sexploitation. No wall will keep our
worlds apart.
So what do we do? Increase aid
funding for the U.N.’s Sustainable
Development Goals? Tax breaks
to encourage private investment?&$
5 /
'
(^6
28
=$
ʔ$
)^3
ʔ*
(^7
7 <