Withnail
Well-Known Forumite
Me dear ol' Da could only really give you specifics for the Swedish budget.
Certainly there was, in the Cold War era, an enormous amount of 'strings' attached to 'Aid' from the usual suspects - UK, France, and the USA, we're all looking at you... - whereby big 'aid' funded projects like hydro-electric-massive-infrastructure type arrangements were essentially predicated upon the fact that the 'arrangement' would be 'facilitated' by UK/French/US companies and financed accordingly.
I know for a FACT, though i am once removed, that in the 1960's the University of Dar es Salaam was glazed with money from China. Why? Because the money to do the same job from the USA - stipulating US materials & fitters with a contract that only qualified US fitters could make any repairs - did NOT stack up. China was in its 'little red book' phase, it was doing its 'hard' power softly - its 'Aid' came without any economic strings whatsoever.
On the back of that, i do have an original 1967 'little red book', which was given to everyone 'on site' at the time.
'Overseas Aid' is not, and never has been, altruistic.
Certainly there was, in the Cold War era, an enormous amount of 'strings' attached to 'Aid' from the usual suspects - UK, France, and the USA, we're all looking at you... - whereby big 'aid' funded projects like hydro-electric-massive-infrastructure type arrangements were essentially predicated upon the fact that the 'arrangement' would be 'facilitated' by UK/French/US companies and financed accordingly.
I know for a FACT, though i am once removed, that in the 1960's the University of Dar es Salaam was glazed with money from China. Why? Because the money to do the same job from the USA - stipulating US materials & fitters with a contract that only qualified US fitters could make any repairs - did NOT stack up. China was in its 'little red book' phase, it was doing its 'hard' power softly - its 'Aid' came without any economic strings whatsoever.
On the back of that, i do have an original 1967 'little red book', which was given to everyone 'on site' at the time.
'Overseas Aid' is not, and never has been, altruistic.