Early Synopsis

Early Synopsis of The Road to Hell by Michael Maren:

So far Maren has mainly been telling a story of Chris Cassidy, who is an aid worker in Somalia (presumably before Maren arrives). The story illustrates the failures of US aid abroad. So many things get in the way of the aid helping those who are in need. The entire process is so politicized and so incredibly poorly put together, it is really remarkable more hasn't been said about these problems.

What most people do not realize is many of these "starving" countries have enough food to feed their citizens, in fact, in some cases they are exporting food. If the corrupt government exports food and starves people, aid agencies roll in with their bags of food and Land Rovers (Maren makes a point about how aid workers always drive Land Rovers. He mentions them almost ever other sentence; utilizing them as a means to show the inefficiencies and corruption in aid agencies). The aid workers bring contracts to the government who allows big mansions and beach clubs to be made for the aid workers while they skim some money off the top, making themselves rich. So as long as we come there and give them contracts, we fuel starvation; it is a self perpetuating system. Along with that, as soon as we give food, we make people reliant on our food, never allowing them to find a way to become self sustainable. It's a terribly cruel system.

More to come in a few days.