U.S. Suspends JEEP Aid

gManZboy writes "As noted last week, the USAID's JEEP (Job Enabling English Proficiency) program has been using U.S. taxpayer dollars to train students in the Philippines to work at outsourcing call centers. An update: After Congressman Tim Bishop and a colleague protested to USAID, USAID decided to suspend funding to the effort. 'In response to the concerns you have raised, the Agency is suspending its participation in the English language training project in Mindanao pending further review of the facts,' said USAID deputy assistant administrator Barbara Feinstein, in a letter Monday to Bishop. 'Furthermore, the Agency has established a high-level taskforce to review these matters.' Bishop says that USAID needs to find ways to assist developing regions without compromising the jobs of U.S. call center workers"

Comments

Really Reads:

[Fluffeh]

You forgot to line the pockets of the right people in an effort to make a quick buck. I would dearly love to see if any of the call centres getting this aid and training have investments from US politicians or friends of them. Never underestimate a woman scorned, but never ever underestimate a polly who you "forgot" to pay.

Re:Really Reads:

[Taco Cowboy]

You forgot to line the pockets of the right people in an effort to make a quick buck

... and that of using the money of citizens from country A to train citizens from country B to compete with against the citizens from country A

Re:Really Reads:

[BenJCarter]

Wait, so the Democratic politician who stood up to end this ridiculous program meant to move US jobs overseas is the bad guy?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and bet that you're planning to vote for Mitt Romney.

What about the Republican Congressman Walter Jones (R-N.C.), that co-wrote the letter? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you probably think the Democrats are the good guys, despite the fact that Obama nominated an RIAA shill to be solicitor general. I don't think it's Democrats vs Republicans as much as it is politicians and their friends vs us.

Why?

[Rouphis]

Tell me exactly why it is our responsibility to find ways to assist developing regions. There are americans that would love call center work. It beats a lot of other bad jobs.

Re:Why?

[DragonWriter]

Tell me exactly why it is our responsibility to find ways to assist developing regions.

Because when they fail at developing in a way that produces legitimate exports, they instead develop in a way that produces, for instance, narcotics and terrorists as their exports.

Which, humanitarian concerns aside, also has adverse effects on the US economy.

Re:Why?

[Jeeeb]

Tell me exactly why it is our responsibility to find ways to assist developing regions. There are americans that would love call center work. It beats a lot of other bad jobs.

Well in regards to the Philippines in particular there is the rather ugly history of America buying the islands of Spain and then invading them, crushing the Philippines independence movement and ruling them as a colonial power for about 50 years. So you could say there is some moral responsibility there.

For aid in general there are 3 good self interest arguments.

1. Economics: There are more people in Pakistan than Japan or Germany but wanna guess which ones America trades more with? Germany and Japan of course with trade volumes many times greater than American trade with Pakistan. The wealth of those two countries has created enormous new markets for American products. Yes trade involves job losses but the point is that the opportunities created outstrip the losses.

2. Security: Poor undeveloped countries cause security problems. Look at Somalia. If you can it's better to spend some money helping them develop rather than having to continuously deal with the security problems that you otherwise get.

3. Security 2: Aid is the act of buying allies. If the West isn't going to buy then others (China, Russia, Iran) might just step in.

Aside from self interest developed countries giving aid to developing countries has been a long standing principal. In terms of aid per capita the US gives quite generously but it is by no means the most generous. From memory the U.K is the biggest giver per capita. Aid programs like this are simply keeping the US in line with other developed countries in giving aid.

Re:Why?

[dreamchaser]

Except it isn't capitalism when the government is spending tax dollars on it, so your example is flawed. Yes, yes I know government is in the pocket of corporations but since you decided to talk economic theory I had to point that out. Real capitalism would have companies who wanted to outsource funding the training.

Re:Why?

[Fluffeh]

It we are talking theory, lets throw in some game theory. A clever capitalist would spend a fraction of the cost of all the training on lobbying and then have the government foot the bill while making use of the facility to train his new outsourced workers.

Re:Why?

[gmhowell]

Tell me exactly why it is our responsibility to find ways to assist developing regions.

Because when they fail at developing in a way that produces legitimate exports, they instead develop in a way that produces, for instance, narcotics and terrorists as their exports.

So it's a big protection racket? At least you're honest.

Re:Boohoo

[Anonymous Coward]

No. It's Americans complaining that we are being taxed so that some local fatcat business owner can get an even sweeter deal offshoring jobs. The fatcat is welcome to save money by offshoring and anyone is welcome to compete for the jobs (even at insanely low wages), but neither is entitled to use taxpayer dollars to do so. Choosing to not send your money to your competitors is not racist -- it's common fucking sense.

wtf

[girlintraining]

Bishop says that USAID needs to find ways to assist developing regions without compromising the jobs of U.S. call center workers"

Does our esteemed congress critter realize we conquered the Philipines, and for awhile owned it after WWII? This isn't like offering education programs in Iraq; Some of them are still legally US citizens. We destroyed their infrastructure -- the least we can do is help these people improve their economic infrastructure, of which literacy is an excellent first step. The issue of corporations outsourcing to this country is a separate problem, and one that will not be solved by plunging these people back into illiteracy.

There is a word for men like Bishop, and that word is 'asshole'. This guy's screwing them over for short-term political points in an election year. They deserve economic aid; It's part of the treaty we signed with them along with a mutual defense pact. Plus with the crap in North Korea going down, can we really afford to be pissing on these people's backs? We may need their military support, and they'd be a lot more willing to give it if we were making good on our treaty obligations.

Re:Boohoo

[NetNed]

Is it me or is the race card becoming like the boy that cried wolf? Really, 9 times out of 10 now I instantly discount anyone that brings race as either a flamebaiter or someone that uses it as a crutch for their own short comings. It's like every forum has to have a person that stretches as far as they can to inject racism in to a topic.

Nice that they feel so strongly about it that they posted anonymous.

What crud:

[Hartree]

This just means that more of the work will go to Luzon where they have more english speakers and better infrastructure.

Creating jobs in Mindanao to help with many of the endemic problems there is a good thing (tm).

It's unlikely that any jobs that would have been outsourced to Mindanao would have stayed in the US anyway. They would have ended up in other places in the Philipines or in Bangalore India or $english_capable_low_cost_location.

(Engage rant mode:)

Bishop is a Democrat and Jones is a Republican, so this is a bipartisan shortsightedness. But it'll get them votes in the short run and that's the truly important thing.

Hey, I'm sure the Moro Islamic Liberation Front approves. Poverty and ignorance is great for maintaining low level wars.

Better not teach them any other skills either. They might do something that would compete with the US in areas that wouldn't be outsourced. We could just make the spreading of ignorance the cornerstone of our foreign policy. What a concept.

Slashdotters are great at talking about how little others know about world politics and how the problems facing other societies end up on your own doorstep. Maybe some of them should take their own advice.