ACJC/Humantarian Aid/HweeLing/10s416

The author from the first paragraph states that “countries off the international radar will receive little or no aid from the companies”. The author means to say that the less developed countries that do not take part actively in global activities tends to receive lesser help from corporations in times of disaster as compared to the more developed countries that part actively in global activities. I agree that most companies offer international aid is mainly due to a few reasons. These reasons include gaining popularity among the public, hoping to gain from the country’s resources and attempting to interfere in the country political issues. Despite that fact, I feel that it is being too over-generalised to say all corporations and aid organisations have the same motive. There are still non-profit organisations that have no hidden motives and solely want to do their part for the unfortunates. For example, the United Nations Organisations and World Vision have no ulterior motives and solely aim to overcome poverty and injustice. Hence, I say that self-interest being the motive behind charitable acts only applies to some cooperation and organisations.

The author from the second paragraph states that “emergency aid has come in form of loans, not grants”. This infers that after helping the disaster-strike countries, the disaster-strike countries are expected to repay the aid. Repaying the aid may not necessary be in term of money but in terms of using their country nature resources. I do agree with the author that international aid is no longer for free and has a price to pay for. This could mean that if the party offering aid does not gain any benefits, they may not provide any help. Thus, self-interest still becomes the drive to help them. However, this may not always be the case. There are still times where countries help without expecting anything in returns. For example, Singapore sent troops to SiChuan to help out in the tragedy that occurred in 2008, other organisations started charities programmes to help them and even one of the Singaporeans sponsored the SiChuan people working in Singapore air tickets to fly back to visit their family members. These kind acts came genuinely from the heart and were not driven by self-interest. Hence, I argue that not all charitable acts have other motives.