Aid in those countries and Russia goes into the hands of the political leadership. Some of it, sometimes, if the interested party is doing the work, will wind up accomplishing something. I don't think the World Bank cares.

For instance, a road building project in Tanzania may get done with German foreign aid if a German company is doing the building. And in that case, up to but not over 80% of the funds might be available, probably closer to 50%.

The World Bank knows that, too. If I know it, those folks know it. And I don't think they care. I think they want the concessions which come with the loans, aren't as much concerned with direct repayments. In fact, default leads to more concessions.

As an aside, after a vacation I offered to clean up the remote areas of one of the parks in an East African country. I wrote the government saying I'd hire 10 people for two weeks to clean, if they would provide the tools. We'd need some picks and shovels to dig latrines and garbage pits, what they had were full. I didn't want to buy 'em and leave 'em there. We would use the dirt from our digging to cover over the mess they had. These were remote areas in remote parks, and the "facilities" weren't more than holes in the ground with boards over them. We're talking more primitive than anything I've ever seen in the US.

I got a reply from the Park saying they turned it over to some government agency in the capital. I wrote that agency, copies to the Park Service, got a letter back saying they were considering my request, please provide financial information.

Wrote back saying I'd hire the people locally through a park tour operator, pay them directly, and didn't anticipate any other expenses. I added that should they see fit, they could supply a Park Ranger to oversee the work and ensure the legitimacy of the project. They have lots of Rangers.

No answer, ever. I wasn't too surprised, there was othing in it for the folks in the capital and I wasn't going to put anything in it for them.

(It wasn't as generous as it may sound. The people would have cost $50 a week, including feeding them and the profit for the tour operator doing the hiring. And tips, too, so it would have been, realistically, about $75 a week, each, for the workers. Ten people for two weeks would have been $1500. It cost more to fly over there. At the time the per capita income for that country was around $150 per year, so for them the two weeks pay would have been a non-trivial amount, had the government cared.)

Anyway, that is where I think the $300 million went. May be wrong.

Arf