 |
|
|
|||||
The U.S. government gives other nations $68 billion of foreign assistance annuallymore than any other country. Over half of this sum is managed by the U.S. Agency for International Development, including funds for programs aimed at fighting hunger and disease outbreaks, providing humanitarian relief in war zones, and supporting other lifesaving programs such as the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. President Donald Trump suspended most U.S. foreign aid on January 20, 2025, the day he took office for the second time. The next day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a stop-work order that for 90 days halted foreign aid funding disbursements by agencies like USAID, the United States Agency for International Development. A week later, dozens of senior USAID officials were put on leave after the Trump administration reportedly accused them of trying to circumvent the aid freeze. The Office of Management and Budget is now pausing and evaluating all foreign aid to see whether it adheres to the Trump administrations policies and priorities. Im a scholar of foreign aid who researches what happens to the U.S. governments local partners in the countries receiving this assistance when funding flows are interrupted. Most of these partners are local nonprofits that build schools, vaccinate children, respond to emergencies, and provide other key goods and services. These organizations often rely on foreign funding. A reckless move Aid to Egypt and Israel was spared, along with some emergency food aid. The U.S. later waived the stop-work order for the distribution of lifesaving medicines. Nearly all of the other aid programs remained on hold as of January 29, 2025. Many development professionals criticized the freeze, highlighting the disruption it will cause in many countries. A senior USAID official issued an anonymous statement calling it reckless. InterAction, the largest coalition of international nongovernmental organizations in the U.S., called the halt contrary to U.S. global leadership and values. Of the $35 billion to $40 billion in aid that USAID distributes annually, $22 billion is delivered through grants and contracts with international organizations to implement programs. These can be further subcontracted to local partners in recipient countries. When this aid is frozen, scaled back, or cut off altogether, these local partners scramble to fill in the gaps. The State Department manages the rest of the $68 billion in annual U.S. foreign aid, along with other agencies, such as the Peace Corps. How local nonprofits respond and adapt While sudden disruptions to foreign aid are always destabilizing, research shows that aid flows have fluctuated since 1960, growing more volatile over the years. My research partners and I have found that these disruptions harm local service providers, although many of them manage to carry on their work. Over the years, I have conducted hundreds of interviews with international nongovernmental organizations and these nonprofits local partners across Latin America, Africa, and Asia about their services and funding sources. I study the strategies those development and humanitarian assistance groups follow when aid gets halted. These four are the most common. 1. Shift to national or local government funding In many cases, national and local governments end up supporting groups that previously relied on foreign aid, filling the void. An educational program spearheaded by a local Ecuadorian nonprofit, Desarrollo y Autogestión, called Accelerated Basic Cycle is one example. This program targets young people who have been out of school for more than three years. It allows them to finish elementary schoolknown as the basic cycle in Ecuadorin one year to then enter high school. First supported in part by funding from foreign governments, it transitioned to being fully funded by Ecuadors government and then became an official government program run by the countrys ministry of education. 2. Earn income Local nonprofits can also earn income by charging fees for their services or selling goods, which allows them to fulfill their missions while generating some much-needed cash. For example, SEND Ghana is a development organization that has promoted good governance and equality in Ghana since its founding in 1998. In 2009, SEND Ghana created a for-profit subsidiary called SENDFiNGO that administers microfinance programs and credit unions. That subsidiary now helps fund SEND Ghanas work. Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee and the Grameen Bank, which is also in Bangladesh, use this approach too. 3. Tap local philanthropy Networks such as Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support and Global Fund for Community Foundations have emerged to promote local philanthropy around the world. They press governments to adopt policies that encourage local philanthropy. This kind of giving has become easier to do thanks to the emergence of crowdfunding platforms. Still, complex tax systems and the lack of incentives for giving in many countries that receive foreign aid are persistent challenges. Some governments have stepped in. Indias corporate social responsibility law, enacted in 2014, boosted charitable incenives. For example, it requires 2% of corporate profits to go to social initiatives in India. 4. Obtain support from diaspora communities Diasporas are people who live outside of their countries of origin, or where their families came from, but maintain strong ties to places they consider to be their homeland. Local nonprofits around the globe are leveraging diaspora communities desire to contribute to economic development in their countries of origin. In Colombia, for example, Fundación Carla Cristina, a nongovernmental organization, runs nursery schools and provides meals to low-income children. It gets some of its funding from diaspora-led nonprofits in the U.S., such as the New England Association for Colombian Children, which is based outside of Boston, and Give to Colombia in Miami. A push for the locals to do more Trumps stop-work order coincided with a resurgence of a localization push thats currently influencing foreign aid from many countries. With localization, nations providing foreign aid seek to increase the role of local authorities and organizations in development and humanitarian assistance. USAID has been a leading proponent of localization. I believe that the abruptness of the stop-work order is likely to disrupt many development projects. These projects include support to Ukrainian aid groups that provide emergency humanitarian assistance and projects serving meals to children who dont get enough to eat. To be sure, sometimes there are good reasons for aid to be halted. But when that happens, sound and responsible donor exit strategies are essential to avoid the loss of important local services. Susan Appe is an associate professor of public administration and policy at the University at Albany, State University of New York. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Category:
E-Commerce
Theres a growing trend in Silicon Valley where engineers are therapizing themselves with ChatGPT . Well, not exactly therapy, but using self-reflective prompts to unlock profound insights into their lives. Its like getting advice from a friend whos exceptionally skilled at active listeningexcept shes 300,000 years old and has lived over 100 billion lives (it doesnt quite make sense, but neither does the time were living in). I visited the Commons, one of the founding hubs of Cerebral Valley in San Francisco, where a community of Claude and ChatGPT superusers gathered to discuss AI for inner work. This mostly Gen Z group shared their unconventional tactics for using AI to catalyze personal growth and self-discovery. One participant explained how he uploaded all his journal entries from age 10 to Claude to analyze pivotal moments of growth. He hadnt realized the profound impact of his immigration to the U.S. until Claude pointed out how it still shapes his sense of home today. The host discussed how she uses it as a Jungian analyst to interpret her dreams, highlighting how effectively it uncovers unconscious patterns. Personally, I use large language models to enhance my relationships. After several failed attempts to truly hear each other during heated arguments with my partner, I recorded one of these discussions and uploaded the audio to NotebookLM. The AI revealed where we were misunderstanding each othershowing how wed talk past one another when triggeredand uncovered the unproductive patterns in our dynamic. This led to a breakthrough conversation where we genuinely listened. While the relationship ultimately didnt work out, I credit AI with helping us reach a deeper level of mutual understanding and respect. How to foster connections, not replace them While concerns about human-AI relationships altering dynamics are valid, AI is here to stay. The real question isnt whether AI will be part of our livesit already is. The pressing question is how we design systems that foster connection, not replace it. Used mindfully, AI can enhance our relationships, offering new ways to understand ourselves and each other, ultimately helping us grow. These methods may enhance how we deliver care in therapy. Therapy has long been about the delicate dance of self-understandingtherapists attuning to the unsaid, guiding clients toward truths both desired and feared. What if AI could sit in the wings, not as an observer but as a collaborator, capturing threads too subtle for the human mind to detect? This isn’t about machines delivering platitudes or algorithms attempting empathy. Its about systems integrating into the therapists workflowoffering transcription, analysis, and even creative interventions based on psychodynamic or cognitive principles. AI can identify themes in client narratives, highlight emotional shifts, and provide therapists with data-driven insights that informnot dictateclinical judgment. For example, an AI assistant transcribing and organizing session notes might suggest that a clients recurring references to freedom coincide with ambivalence toward a career decision. Or it could flag a subtle shift in tone that hints at an underlying conflict the therapist might explore. Far from diminishing the therapists role, these tools enhance their ability to stay present, ensuring no vital detail is overlooked. The skepticism surrounding AI often stems from the fear that technology will replace human connection. But we, as a collective, have the power to decide. AI can honor the sanctity of the therapeutic relationship, staying in the background like a skilled psychometrist or note-taker, allowing therapists to fully engage in connection. Challenges and opportunities Real challenges remain. How do we ensure these tools are trained on diverse and representative data? How do we guard against bias? Most importantly, how do we design systems to stay humbleaware of their limits and deferring to the therapist’s expertise? What excites me most is the potential for AI to support somatic practices in therapy. Growing evidence shows the body plays a crucial role in processing trauma and achieving emotional regulation in ways that talk therapy cannot. With AI handling the cognitive load of administrative tasks, therapists can focus more on facilitating somatic therapiesapproaches that engage the body through techniques like grounding exercises, mirroring, and physical presence. In this vision, AI enables individuals greater access to self-understanding. Clients can individually identify patterns, process insights, and build awarenesswork that can be done outside traditional therapy. With AI managing these aspects at a low cost, therapists can focus on interventions requiring empathy, presence, and connection. The future of therapy could balance AI-driven self-discovery with somatic and relational work, ensuring transformative healing. In mental health, technology must follow humanity. The best AI systems amplify therapists capabilities without overshadowing them. This emerging era of augmentative AI could empower practitioners to go deeper, help clients feel more seen, and make healing more precise, without losing its art. The question to ask perhaps isnt about whether AI can do what therapists do. Its how AI can help therapists do what they do betterwith clarity, presence, and attunement. As these tools quietly find their place in therapy rooms, the possibilities for transformative growthfor both clients and cliniciansare just beginning. Angelia Muller is cofounder and CEO of Attunement.
Category:
E-Commerce
As of this writing, the future of TikTok hangs in the balance, and swaths of TikTok refugees are popping over to RedNote. RedNote is Chinas version of Instagram with around 300 million users. This is a bad idea. Ive been astounded at how cavalier people have been about it. I get a whiff of two distinct sentiments underlying this behavior: A defeatism around being farmed for data, resulting in a Who cares, what does it matter? attitude. A presumption that Americawith its corporate oligarchs, big tech monopolies, and titanic military industrial complexis just as bad as China, if not worse. These points are simply not rooted in the real world. It does matter for us as individual and as Americans who has access to our data at scale. Those adopting RedNote as an F-you the U.S. governments TikTok ban are cutting our countrys nose off to spite its face. I know, I know Big Tech is predatory Ill be the first one to call out the predatory nature of Big Tech. Twitter/X selling user data to surveillance firms and law enforcement with zero oversight. Facebook manipulating users through their news feeds on top of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. YouTube becoming a pipeline for radicalizing young men. Instagram damaging the mental health of children, particularly girls. The buying, selling, and manipulation of our data and our minds has become so commonplace that its nihilistically accepted as a fact of life. Big Tech is almost always backed by Big Finance. ByteDance, which owns TikTok, is backed by Sequoia Capital China, General Atlantic, SoftBank, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs, among others. RedNote itself enjoys backing from American-founded VCs like GSR Ventures, who, along with GGV Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Walden International, among others, have invested more than $3 billion in Chinese technology companies linked to the countrys military, surveillance, and human rights abuses. Are we cooked, as the kids say? Maybe, but thats no reason to turn up the temperature on ourselves. The frying pan is better than the fire. Care about yourself Unlike TikTok, which stores American user data on U.S. servers owned by Oracle, RedNote would collect your data and send it straight to China. Why should you care your data is being harvested, and where its going? Firstly, this data can be used against you in phishing attempts and identity theft, ordeals that can impact you for decades. While criminals are doing the phishing and identity-thieving in the U.S., Id bet its being performed by more sophisticated, capable attackers in China. Your online content could be used to create deepfakes that fool other victims. Secondly, youve probably heard some version of TikTok is a psyop. I dont believe this is overblown. The Chinese version of TikTok restricts content under a certain age to educational, scientific, artistic, and otherwise more enriching content. It also limits how long minors under age 14 can use it40 minutes each day, only between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. We are getting a more toxic version of TikTok. You may have at least a vague notion of how social media is diminishing your attention span, distracting you from meaningful relationships, or warping your worldview. This is intentional as part of TikToks cognitive warfare efforts. Thirdly, there is value in being able to perceive the world for what it actually is. China is notorious for censorship, and Im quite curious to see how Chinese RedNote users respond to content involving, say, Tiananmen Square or Chinas arbitrary detaining of Uyghur Muslims. If China will censor and manipulate its own people to this degree, imagine what theyll do to you. Care about the nation Theres a lot of f America going around these days, and I guess I get it. We live in a country united only by the vigilante slaying of a healthcare CEO. Trump, Palestine, school shootings, childcare costs, recession, Big Oil, military contractors, microplastics we didnt start the fi-yer! We have to remember that our country is not any of these things. This country is We The People. The everyday folks grinding it out day after day. Were getting up in the morning and going to work. Raising our kids. Paying bills. Finding small ways to enjoy life and not let it drive us insane. Sometimes voting feels like pissing in the wind, but even though the lobbyists and corporations have huge sway over our government, our government is accountable to us. We can openly shout them down and vote them out. The administrators of our government are still subject to the law, unlike members of the CCP. At the end of the day, were all in this big American boat. Whether youre proud to be here (like I am) or not, this is your boat. Jumping ship to RedNote would only exacerbate the schisms and grievances were all so tired of already. Because thats what the Chinese government wants. They dont have to have a precise aim, only to make us more confused and fractured. Dont fool yourself about China RedNotes Chinese name, Xiaohongshu, more directly translates to little red book. This name refers to Chinese dictator Mao Zedongs Little Red Book, which contains over 260 political aphorisms like political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Styled after philosophical texts like those from Sun Tzu and Confucius, Little Red Book was key to builing a cult of personality around Mao and enacting his Cultural Revolution. His ministry of culture mandated every Chinese citizen own a copy and carry it with them. Mao would have loved RedNote, and TikTok, to be fair. Its safe to say that RedNotes name is more than a wink and a nod to the dictator, the personage of state power manifest. While many fresh American users are loving getting to know regular Chinese people, it isnt these people who are the threat. Its the fact that the Chinese government can use whatever data it wants for whatever purposes it wants. Thats just how their regime is set up. Most of what we complain about here in America, China is doing to a much greater degree, from the forced labor and even sterilization of Uyghurs to arresting monks in Tibet for their religious beliefs to silencing whistleblowers and journalists to harassing Taiwan with its military. That regime has been busy in regards to the U.S. over the past several years. Theyve infiltrated networks within Americas telecommunications, energy, water, and other infrastructure sectors. Theyve stolen our military technology. Theyve hacked U.S. government departments and targeted U.S. citizens who have been critical of China China is a clear and present danger. They arent playing nice, and we shouldnt play into their hands. No matter how much it might entertain us.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||