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Aid and Other Dirty Business: How Good Intentions Have Failed the World's Poor [Paperback]

Giles Bolton
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
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Book Description

3 July 2008

Do you know why Africa is so poor? What really happens to your charity money? Why do trade rules fail African countries and yet cost you too? We've heard it all before: the corrupt leaders, heartless global corporations, the wicked World Bank.

But the answers are much closer to home... and so are the solutions

When Giles Bolton began working in the world of aid and development, he travelled to Africa convinced that he could solve problems, save villages and sing songs with the locals under a shimmering sunset. The reality proved rather less romantic, and far more shocking...

Aid and Other Dirty Business is a radical, brilliantly readable and totally original approach to the seemingly unending problem of poverty in Africa. It may change your life, but, more importantly, it will help you change the lives of others.


Frequently Bought Together

Aid and Other Dirty Business: How Good Intentions Have Failed the World's Poor + Dead Aid: Why aid is not working and how there is another way for Africa + The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It
Price For All Three: £20.52

Buy the selected items together


Product details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Ebury Press (3 July 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0091914353
  • ISBN-13: 978-0091914356
  • Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 2.3 x 19.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 128,410 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

"Superbly lucid and readable" (Guardian )

"[A] heartening book on Africa and remedies for its plight ... Bolton doesn't rant or preach ... he balances hard facts with strong ideas" (Independent )

"If you've ever wondered why Africa is still poor, this is the book for you ... Bolton writes with energy and directness" (Metro )

"Engaging, absorbing and enlightening - everyone interested, from the aid worker to the armchair activist, should invest in this book. If Poor Story doesn't win your heart and mind to the cause of ending extreme poverty, nothing else will" (Oxfam website )

"A vivid account of the everyday problems facing African countries" (Financial Times )

Book Description

A startling insight into how the West is failing Africa and what we can do about it - by an aid industry insider

Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A non-partisan view of the problems 7 July 2009
By Marko
Format:Paperback
A readable account of the ins and outs of aid and trade in sub-saharan Africa by someone who has worked in the field but has now stepped aside to give a non-partisan view.The book looks at the efforts of Charities,Government and International Organisations in the aid field and how these efforts are dwarfed by the inequities of trade arrangements.The impact of aid and trade on people in Africa is highlighted with examples drawn from the author's on the ground experiences.The book asks what you would do if you were in power in an imaginary african state outlining the demands on your budget and the unreliability of your income sources.The book brings home the failure of the wealthy nations of the world to deliver on their promises and the need to keep the pressure on Governments to deliver for the poorest and the weakest.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing approach to a serious business 3 Aug 2008
Format:Paperback
This is a compelling read enabling people outside of the fields of Aid and Development to challenge their own thinking about charity and where the feel-good money goes.

The book is written with a good balance of facts and figures interspersed with personal anecdotes that lighten the mood whilst still driving home the practicalities of living in Africa.

I believe this book was aimed at people like me, who have a slight, but apathetic concern about the effects of the mismanagement of globalisation, of domestic subsidies and who are happy to assuage the conscience with a donation to any charity that offers up suitable images of people in crisis believing that they have made a contribution.

Its easy to read, but not easy to forget.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for the most part 19 Feb 2010
Format:Paperback
But it gets a little repetitive towards the end of the book once the real meat of the issues have been tackled and the author sets about a "call to arms".
This book is as much about globalisation and international trade agreements, and how they effect developing countries, as it is about direct aid. As a result this book ties in very nicely with "Globalization and Its Discontents" by Joseph Stiglitz. Indeed many of the issues raised are similar if not identical. Most interestingly both authors have experience working from opposite ends of the aid/finance spectrum and yet come to the same conclusions.
All in all a friendly chatty style that moves along at a decent pace. A recommended read.
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