I was just meeting with some seed savers near Hue, Vietnam recently. It was unbelievable what they shared with me about the aftermath of the widespread use of “Agent Orange” there during the American War. They are still working hard to clean it all up. But now that USAID funding has been cut, they are stranded. Shameful. It wasn’t the Vietnamese who made this mess.
The silver lining in this fiasco is the Global South, which was fully reliant on the USA to provide basic support, can now introspect, hopefully shake the dust off, and work hard to regain their sovereignty.
Thank you for this thorough critique. Unfortunately, many federal US Agencies have their tentacles in poorer countries, and it’s likely those budgets surpass those of USAID. For example, USDA, which invests in “creating new markets” ie selling US crops abroad. These agencies have also been targeted, but perhaps not to the degree USAID has.
The backlash against Trump's slash-and-burn tactics has fostered a too-rosy view of what he is destroying. The tactics are stupid and cruel. But we must keep trying to see the issues clearly. Thank you for this post.
I was just meeting with some seed savers near Hue, Vietnam recently. It was unbelievable what they shared with me about the aftermath of the widespread use of “Agent Orange” there during the American War. They are still working hard to clean it all up. But now that USAID funding has been cut, they are stranded. Shameful. It wasn’t the Vietnamese who made this mess.
The silver lining in this fiasco is the Global South, which was fully reliant on the USA to provide basic support, can now introspect, hopefully shake the dust off, and work hard to regain their sovereignty.
Thank you for this thorough critique. Unfortunately, many federal US Agencies have their tentacles in poorer countries, and it’s likely those budgets surpass those of USAID. For example, USDA, which invests in “creating new markets” ie selling US crops abroad. These agencies have also been targeted, but perhaps not to the degree USAID has.
Thanks for the great piece. I wrote about China's role in this issue here https://chinahealthpulse.substack.com/p/no-china-wont-replace-usaid-but-here would love your thoughts!
The backlash against Trump's slash-and-burn tactics has fostered a too-rosy view of what he is destroying. The tactics are stupid and cruel. But we must keep trying to see the issues clearly. Thank you for this post.