I always follow the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation podcasts for some of the best food for thought available today. Paul Kennedy is one of the best hosts with his "Ideas" show. This is a very thought provoking hour long debate at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

Many people who are bleeding hearts and want to help others and who feel so guilty when not enough is done - often have poor judgement with how they are trying to help those who receive their aid. I have visited many a homeless shelter, for example, which is run by a very strained and odd set of ideas about what is ethical and what is constructive in terms of their assistance programs.

This includes Dambiss Moyo, who is a Zambian who gives a wonderful first hand account of what she sees occurring around aid which is distributed in Africa. She is very adamant that what is needed is investment and development, rather than the aid which breeds corruption. One thing she pointed out in this debate was that governments in Africa don't provide public services. That job is done by aid organisations instead. This is such a powerful effect that one of her friends who was talking about elections joked that they should be voting between aid organisations, rather than choosing between candidates for government.

Hernando de Soto was another speaker here, and he pointed out a realisation that we have forgotten on the dusty pages of history books somewhere. Hundreds of years ago, we had big debates about property rights in the West. Now, these days we have these fools who call themselves "libertarians" who misinterpret all this historical literature. They have a specter of big bad government in mind, and fret when someone in town loses their property to an eminent domain claim by the state. Indeed, what folks in olden days were talking about when they addressed property rights was a fact about economics. You can't have a functioning economy, without the investments being backed by assets. He was particularly angry about what has been done to the Native Americans in the Usa. They're stuck in a 19th century treaty agreement in which they have dead assets. Their land cannot be sold or used in ways which other land outside reservations can be. It cannot be used to back investments.

So the lesson is that people who care about others need to really have their ears open to those who have experienced the hardship which they are concerned about.

The munk debate on the proposition: Foreign aid does more harm than good - (mp3 - 25 megabytes - one hour)