Not because it criticizes the world of foreign aid, which, though it certainly saves lives, can also be bureaucratic, paternalistic, and blind to unintended consequences in a way that's both farcical and tragic. But Dead Aid really doesn't deserve the hype. In a way, it's heartening to see any book about development in Africa - hardly an inherently sexy subject - becoming such a sensation. Of course, once Moyo's supporters got hold of the e-mail, they accused ONE of launching a campaign to discredit her, creating even more buzz. "We are concerned that if her book gets traction it could lead to a gutting of assistance to Africa, including for important programs like PEPFAR, the Global Fund, AGOA and education funding," it said. Clearly spooked, the ONE campaign, the anti-poverty nongovernmental organization co-founded by Bono, sent out an e-mail to African supporters asking them to rebut the book. The New York Times magazine called her "The Anti-Bono." The Daily Beast headlined its piece on the book, "Is Angelina Bad for Africa?" Moyo has appeared on TV - from The Charlie Rose Show to The Colbert Report - and all over the radio. They're sick of being lectured by celebrities like Bono and Angelina Jolie, and Moyo has tapped into a nascent backlash. Plenty of compassion-fatigued Westerners seem eager to hear this.
"Aid has been, and continues to be, an unmitigated political, economic, and humanitarian disaster for most parts of the developing world." "Millions in Africa are poorer today because of aid misery and poverty have not ended but have increased," she writes. Her short, polemical book, Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is A Better Way for Africa, blames aid for nearly every ill Africa has endured. Moyo, a Zambian economist with degrees from Harvard and Oxford and experience at Goldman Sachs and the World Bank, goes beyond offering a critique of foreign aid and the Western, liberal consensus that sustains it. At a time when capitalism is in worse repute than it has been in decades, here comes a sharp, highly credentialed, and - not incidentally - gorgeous African woman hymning the salvific promise of free trade and international capital markets.
It's not surprising that Dambisa Moyo has become an overnight intellectual celebrity, especially on the right.
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