Just What is AID?

Hello to everyone in Canada...Eh!  Until we moved to Africa to work my world view was fairly narrow on what AID was.  My genral belief was that you helped out by having a couple of foster kids on your fridge and that developed nations of the world responded to food crisis and natural disasteers with food and shelter support.  This is a good thing but only a small part of what AID really is.  We also see elite rock stars and celebrities talking about AID and how we should all pitch in more to help.  We have even seen celeberty construction builders like Mike Holmes make a cameo appearance in some God forsaken part of the world endorsing Charity A, B or C...
Formal international AID was first concieved by the Breton Woods group prior to the end of WWII.  The idea was to set up a formal international monetary fund to help rebuild war torn Europe.  The IMF and World Bank were formed and provided short term loans to contries that required assistance to rebuild after WWII.  These countries did rebuild and repayed their loans within about five years after WWII.  It is important to note that these countries also had highly skilled labor, professionals and constitutional systems in place and/or easily re-constructed.
Leading up to and during the era of the Cold War the developed nations of the world exercised their authority over countries like Africa through development loans through IMF and WB.  This provided a measure of geopolitical control over the region providing strategic security against attack from hostile forces (real or percieved).
At the end of the Cold War the climate changed in countries like Africa.  They were demanding independence from colonial rule and such the British, French, Belgians and Germans to name a few afforded independence over a period from about the end of 1950 to mid 1960.  There was a mass exodus of white people who were in positions or high decision making, governance, social service delivery and the like.  There was a huge brain drain followed by a vacum filled with less educated people to take over such positions.  Countries collapsed financially and socially.  The IMF and World Bank among other lenders continued to give more loans with more conditions on the loans for development and AID.  At the same time they would forgive past loans.
These huge sums of money were transfered into the treasuries of the countries supported.  It has been estimated that as much as 25% has been grafted or stolen by the leaders in power and utilized for their own gratuity.  One can imagine the problems this has caused.  In fact, over the past 50 years of AID the countries who recieve the most AID have the highest rates of poverty!  Go figure.
From a cultural perspective the employees of government, say in Kenya, do not take ownership of their resources.  They used to be agents for the colonizers and would have the passive aggressive stance to take what they could without being caught.  Now they see their own in high government doing the same, so they do the same.  The graft runs through every single institutions in Kenya.  Some other countries who have negotiated AID or refused seem to do better overall.
The AID community has tried to modity their policies at the international level but the culture has not changed too much in the past 50 years of AID.  There are some agencies like the United States Administration of International Development (USAID) that now channel some of their monies to Non Government Agencies (NGO) so the government recieving the AID can not as easily steal it for their own personal use.  The AID community as a whole is also attempting to instill some ownership to the people they try to help.  This is also not working very well as the past history of colonialism is still fresh in the locals mind.  They really do not want to be taught how to lead by a white person, or Chinese person etcetera.
For myself at this time, and from what I have gleened personally, the best bet would be to leave Africa to Africa.  As some Africans have stated "we need to work this out on own, without AID.  Many bad things will happen, but in the end we will build our own accountable government and yes current governmets will fall."
I tend to agree.