Acton Institute Powerblog

Promoting free societies characterized by liberty & religious principles

Search results for "aid to africa"
June 07, 2005

Live 8: Saving Africa?

Much has been written in recent weeks about Live 8, a series of concerts that will take place on July 6 in London, Paris, Berlin, Rome and Philadelphia. The name refers not only to the original Live Aid concerts that took place in 1985, but is also a reference to the G8 meetings that will be taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland at the same time as the concerts. Continue Reading...
June 02, 2005

Bono: aid or trade?

Bono: Heart in the right place, head not quite there yet For those PowerBlog readers who don’t follow the world of rock and roll, the man in the photo on the left is Bono (aka Paul Hewson), the lead singer of the biggest rock and roll band in the world – U2. Continue Reading...
May 05, 2005

(In)Direct aid

An editorial in today’s New York Times attests to the severely myopic lens through which the editorial board views the world. In “A Better Way to Fight Poverty,” the editorial effusively praises a United Nations program for its work in showing how “direct aid can largely bypass governments, getting money and help straight into the hands of the people who not only need it the most, but also know what to do with it.” Continue Reading...
March 28, 2013

Diaspora-Driven Development

The African diaspora—nearly 140 million Africans live abroad—is such a major source of foreign income that it now outstrips foreign aid sent by Western donors. The money these expatriates send back home is collectively worth far more than the development donations sent by Western financial institutions, says Adams Bodomo: The exact amount of these remittances is unknown because not all of it is sent through official banking channels. Continue Reading...
February 06, 2006

Acton ad campaign update

Acton is wrapping up a three-month project that had print advertisements running in several publications: WORLD, Crisis and the Michigan Catholic. The idea is to get people thinking about the economic consequences of trade policies and the power of entrepreneurial creativity. Continue Reading...
February 16, 2024

Public Life, Private Vice in American Life

In his latest book, Moral Vision: Leadership from George Washington to Joe Biden, Marvin Olasky, author of the highly influential Tragedy of American Compassion (and Acton affiliate scholar), examines American history in light of a Turkish saying, “the fish stinks first at the head,” meaning that moral decay at the highest echelons of society inevitably affects the whole. Continue Reading...
February 06, 2024

The Abolition of America

Christopher Rufo is the American right’s man on fire. Perhaps no person has done more than Rufo to expose the true aim of identity politics and its enforcement arm, the diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) project: the abolition of American life. Continue Reading...
February 01, 2024

John M. Perkins and the Gift of Drawing Closer

Last month I wrote about John M. Perkins, who is black, and wealthy philanthropist Howard Ahmanson, who is white. Forty years ago, together in a hotel near the Mumbai, India, airport, they wanted their driver, a Dalit (“untouchable”), to have a room. Continue Reading...
January 26, 2024

St. Augustine Speaks to the Suicide of a Civilization

Americans are killing themselves in record numbers. According to a study published in August by the Kaiser Family Foundation, between 2011 and 2022, more than half a million lives were lost to suicide, with 2022 showing the highest number of deaths on record, an increase of 16%. Continue Reading...