USAID

So as school ends, this post just sat in my draft box for much of the semester.  I don’t know why… but here goes.   

The American government is notorious for spending our money. By no means do I oppose big government – reasons for government tend to outweigh reasons against it – but rarely do I actually see my tax dollars at work. Yes, everyday when I drive down the highway, or turn on the faucet to clean water, but those basic tenets of my life aside, actually seeing American tax dollars hard at work is very relieving. The U.S. Department of Defense just asked for some ridiculous amount of money to fund the “wars” in Afghanistan and Iraq (to the sum of $150 billion, I believe), so clearly I am not seeing results there. A bridge to nowhere in Alaska is also a waste of my tax money. But interestingly enough, I have had the pleasure of utilizing several gifts from the American people. The USAID, or United States Agency for International Development is the group responsible for the dispersal of billions of dollars worth of aid worldwide, and lucky as I am, I now classify myself as a benefactor of American aid here in Cairo!

The “reputable” institution known as the American University in Cairo is a private institution and considered by most the best school in the Middle East. Funnily enough, this private institution receives millions of dollars worth of American aid. Adorned on one of the walls in the lobby of my building illustrates that my building is a gift from the people of the United States. Congratulations! your own private instutition cannot even afford to build housing in one of the cheapest cities in the world. They are reliant on the American taxpayers, who clearly don’t need health insurance for the poor children, voting rights for the most oppressed people in a democracy (DC residents!!), or bridges that don’t collapse into mighty American rivers. My school can afford a new $400 million campus in New Cairo but they can’t even afford housing for its students (let alone maintain it to livable, American standards, since this school seems to preach “The American Way” of education).

Don’t worry – it’s not only my multi-million dollar residence hall that has been donated by the American people. Walking on Greek Campus downtown, I notice another plaque… this time on the side of our library. Yes, the big, ugly, hulking building on campus was built by the American taxpayers. This, so I am told, ensures the freedom of the word (i.e. Hosni Mubarak’s censors can’t walk in and shut it down), but I think that the University would have enough clout that should we actually build our own library and fill it with books that are uncensored, we would be able to do it. I mean, my professors regularly talk about their hatred not only for the Egyptian government, but also the American one, as well. So the library is a gift from the American people. Guess what else is? All the library scanners are. And most of the computers are. The projectors. The laptops. Most technology around here has a USAID sticker slapped on it, as if we are supposed to appreciate the donation from the Americans and forget about how the whole administration has created more of a problem than they have solved, both in Iraq and all around the world. It sickens me on both ends: the fact that a private institution in Cairo – one that charges $15,000 a year in tuition, when the average family makes about 10% of that a year – cannot afford to deliver a world-class education to its students ($$$) without the help of the American people? And that the American government allows this to actually occur.

Since when did Gucci-wearing, Egyptian millionaires need to use Microsoft Office 2007 with the super-updated image library and internet servers on par with the Pentagon? American University in Washington doesn’t even have Office 2007. Furthermore, half the students here don’t even use the technology provided; it’s the international students who actually do work and utilize the library. The only reason the local Egyptian students ever use the library isn’t even for educational purposes! since the library provides a sort-of natural sunblock for those sitting in its shadow. Imagine if America knew their tax dollars were being consumed by a bunch of rich snobs as a form of sunblock?

Man, they would be upset.

Only to be surpassed by realizing that more of their tax dollars are being wasted on an unwinnable war. But hey – at least some U.S. tax dollars are going towards blocking something.  Cause it’s not like the Democrats are even making a valiant effort to blocking the war.