Here's another twist to the 'K50 million for Fiji Elections' saga, actually this can be described as 'feeling the salt being rubbed into the wound' if you ponder on it.

Last week we heard how Mista Prime Minista had kindly agreed to aid Fiji in its 2014 'democratic' elections. Seems the majority of ministers and businessmen saw the positives of PNG doing this and those of us who thought it ridiculous were only a few.

Is it just me or does anyone else see the irony of our aid-needy government aiding the government of Fiji with K50 million?  Especially when a majority of our major health centers are in urgent need of renovation, medical supplies and qualified health workers? Not to mention the number of critical bridges and roads that need urgent repair in order to boost the rural economy and deliver much needed goods and services! Funnier still wasn’t lack of adequate funding one of the core reasons our very own elections had so many hiccups?

By Tim Anderson

Aid worldwide runs at more than $120 billion per year (World Bank 2011a), yet there is very little correlation between this expenditure and the often stated goal of poverty reduction. The failures of aid are legion. Yet this ‘development assistance’ has become a massive and semi- permanent global industry which in western countries is often erroneously equated with ‘development’. Nothing could be further from the truth. Aid programs, despite the stated good intentions, certainly deserve some critical scrutiny.