696 How to really help the Tsunami victims
Maimonides, the medieval Jewish sage wrote that the highest of the eight levels of charity was strengthening the name or hand of the poor brother or person with a loan or going into business with him because then his dignity is preserved and he isn’t beholden to you. Dr. Meir Tamari writes on this topic at My Jewish Learning.Today’s WSJ opinion page has an article and an eye-popping chart about how tariffs discriminate against third world countries. Sri Lanka, one of the hardest hit by the tsunami, was paying $249.2 million (mostly garment industry), but the Scandanavian countries with 12 times more exports to the USA paid only 227 million.
The duty rate on products from “rich” European countries is about 1% while the average rate on Sri Lankan goods is over 16%, according to this editorial. The author suggests that when Bill Frist gets back home, he bring up the idea that the best aid may be “strengthening the hand” rather than providing more gifts and aid.
Posts
2 comments:
You know, I was just out snowshoeing (my daily exercise whilst here), and I was thinking that if we were one-quarter as aware of the systemic issues of global disparity as we are of such disasters, the world would be a much better place.
By this, I am not advocating anything but all-out disaster assistance, but we could do so much more at other times. Fair trade is a good example.
What's this: a liberal and a conservative finding common ground? Harrumph, can't let that happen again. People will talk.
You're a closet conservative and I'm a former liberal. Snowshoes? We're having flood warnings--highest water since 1957.
Post a Comment