What can US foreign aid accomplish? Let Fred Burkle explain how much

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What can US foreign aid accomplish? Let Fred Burkle explain how much
Pioneer of disaster medicine tells an inspiring American story — and a powerful counter to fearful MAGA nonsense

By Paul Rosenberg
Contributing Writer
Published February 8, 2025 9:00AM (EST)


(Salon) One of Donald Trump's first vengeful acts in his second term as president was to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization. As we’ve all heard over the last week or so, the first government agency he and Elon Musk have sought to destroy is the U.S. Agency for International Development, better known as USAID. Both organizations are crucial for sustaining global public health. They save millions of lives every year, and doing significant work to prevent further collapse into global chaos.

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Somewhat like the late Jimmy Carter, Fred Burkle offers an inspiring contrast to so-called leaders like Trump or Musk, and an example of America can and should represent in the world. This country tells itself a lot of fibs about how good and great it is — but there are people who don’t just believe them, but devote their lives to making them come true. Burkle’s memoir, "Water on the Moon," which as its subtitle observes chronicles his career of service from the Vietnam War to the present, shows what that looks like in action. It offers us hope for building a future beyond Donald Trump’s presidency, along with a gritty factual account of what organizations like WHO, USAID and their partners actually do, as opposed to Trump and Musk’s right-wing fantasies.

When I interviewed Burkle back in 2019, he told me that bullies never really grow up, which is why authoritarian leaders around the world have more in common with one another than the people they lead. But the rest of us can and do change — often dramatically so, and “Water on the Moon” tells a story of personal transformation and global public service.

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On Burkle’s second day in Vietnam, he was called to see a woman who was having difficulty giving birth. When he got there, everything was fine, except that her baby, he discovered, was one of two wriggling black mounds covered by swarms of black flies, which were "devouring the remnants of the placental membranes." Most Westerners would be instinctively revolted, and Burkle was initially shocked before coming to appreciate "the centuries-old symbiotic relationship between these villagers and the black flies, a tradition upheld in their birth customs.” ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/02/08/what-can-us-foreign-aid-accomplish-let-fred-burkle-explain-how-much/