der Spiegel's English site has a piece on aid for Africa which flies in the face of the 'common sense' approach, i.e., throw money, problem gone. The piece opens in Rumbek in the south of Sudan where the 'aid workers are thirsty and the beer is flowing,' a place which

threatens to become a bitter example of how development aid doesn't really help. Again and again finance is hurriedly provided for one project after another, without any evidence of a convincing overall concept. The money is just thrown at projects as quickly as possible. In this case, Norway has made $500,000 available for just 500 refugees in the camps. The windfall immediately sparked off further need and a second camp, this time home to 345 people, has sprung up. It is the Italians who are footing the bill for the new camp.

Money is, for the Europeans, the solution to all of Africa's problems. But despite yearly payments of, at last count, some $26 billion, the majority of the continent resembles something approaching one big emergency military hospital.

Aid is fine, of course, but dependency breeds dependency and indiscriminate aid feeds corruption.

This is a concern for President Bush, and the chorus is large.