FP:How America Is Funding Corruption in Pakistan

BY AZEEM IBRAHIM

"When [Musharraf] looks me in the eye and says, ... 'there won't be a Taliban and won't be al Qaeda,' I believe him, you know?" So said George W. Bush of then Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in September 2006. The U.S. president's trust had been forged in a deal made five years earlier: Pakistan would train, equip, and deploy its Army and intelligence service in counterterrorism operations, and Washington promised to reimburse its partner with billions of dollars in weapons, supplies, and cold hard cash. The plan was simple enough, and since 2001, the United States has lived up to its pledge, pouring as much as $12 billion in overt aid and another $10 billion in covert aid to Pakistan.

But today, as the Obama administration re-examines the deal, there is devastating evidence that the billions spent in Pakistan have yielded little in return. For the last eight years, U.S. taxpayers' money has funded hardly any bona fide counterterrorism successes, but quite a bit of corruption in the Pakistani Army and intelligence services. The money has enriched individuals at the expense of the proper functioning of the country's institutions. It has provided habitual kleptocrats with further incentives to skim off the top. Despite the U.S. goal of encouraging democratization, assistance to Pakistan has actually weakened the country's civilian government. And perhaps worst of all, it has hindered Pakistan's ability to fight terrorists.

Read the rest of the article @FP America is Funding Corruption in Pakistan

Also, don't forget to read: Country Briefs: Pakistan

Typhoon Morakot hit southern Taiwan

john0928 from Taiwan, has posted several breathtaking clips, where you could see the power of this typhoon.


Hotel building collapse ! Typhoon Morakot hit southern Taiwan badly !




Typhoon Morakot record rains in south Taiwan, over 2800mm in just 3days !


Broken Bridge ! Typhoon Morakot cause sever damage in southern Taiwan

BBC: China in DR Congo aid deal

It's a scene that - with just a few changes - you might have found in the central African bush in the late 19th Century.


Alongside, a deferential African bearing a long pole. The two are barely able to communicate with one another.

You're reminded, irresistibly, of images of Victorian era explorers such as David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley, hacking their way across the continent.

But this foreigner comes from a country that suffered from colonial exploitation itself.

Biggest deal

He's Chinese, an engineer, and his assistant's pole is not for beating down the vegetation. It's a global positioning tool, taking satellite readings to plot the exact course of a road that's about to be built.

The pair belong to an advance team of surveyors deployed to the Democratic Republic of Congo by a massive state-owned firm based in Beijing, the China Railway Engineering Corporation, or CREC.


DR Congo Timeline

And the new road they're planning will be the first fruit of the biggest single deal China's ever done in Africa, worth $9bn.

Due to be signed in Beijing in the next few days, it gives DR Congo $6bn of desperately needed infrastructure - about 2,400 miles of road, 2,000 miles of railway, 32 hospitals, 145 health centres and two universities.

Watch the documentary:
China in DR Congo aid deal


read the rest of the article: China in DR Congo

source: BBC