Why does * have such an interest in the "Millenium Challenge Account"?

[w8liftinglady]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6293259.stm
-quote-
I ask that you fund the Millennium Challenge Account, so that American aid reaches the people who need it, in nations where democracy is on the rise and corruption is in retreat.
-end quote-

I have tried to find more information on the inside working of this
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Millennium_Challenge_Corporation
..what's the pay off,oh,wise DUers?

[crikkett]

1. Meybe he promised it to Paraguay.

[acmavm]

2. What the hell is it? I had to keep turning the speech off because

I kept getting too pissed off to watch (temporarily). Then I'd go back. Then I'd turn it off.

I missed this part.

[hobbit709]

3. He and his boss Cheney are probably

getting a cut of the action.

[w8liftinglady]

4. allow me to kick for the night crew

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. It gives him a way of saying "I support international aid"

while giving right wing American think tanks the chance to direct which countries that aid goes to (eg the Heritage Foundation gets to grade the candidate country on its trade policy). In the 90s, the World Bank and IMF seemed to direct their money to countries which followed their recommendations on privatisation and similar economic policies - but that has often ended up making things worse for the populations of those countries, so those bodies have backed away from that policy. This way, the US can keep pressuring countries to alter their economies as the right wing establishment sees fit.

There is something to be said for checking that aid goes somewhere it won't get diverted into corrupt officials' bank accounts, or won't be used to favour one group over another in a country; but the MCA gives the job of this oversight to some dubious bodies (and some OK ones, eg the WHO and UNESCO).