Livre d'Or

That's a good question, and I'm ashamed to say I don't know as much about this as I ought to. It's definitely a many-faceted argument. There is no question that direct aid is often needed, especially in the face of an acute disaster whether natural or man-made. So I wouldn't want to say that people in rich countries should never spend charitable money on urgent problems (including treatable disease and starvation) in resource poor countries. Just that shouldn't be assumed to be always superior to every other means of improving the situation in poorer parts of the world.

This is Teju Cole's much-reported essay about the white savior industrial complex; the name almost says it all, really! And this is a random recent article I found by Googling "Trade not aid", which is pretty damning, though I'm sure it's only one side of the story.