Foreign aid: best value for your buck

As every American has an idea on how to deal with the challenges of a balanced federal budget, some suggest that U.S. foreign aid should be trimmed, if not eliminated, as wasteful spending.
 
My late husband worked 25 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, serving in Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Bolivia, Guatemala, the Republic of Upper Volta and Nicaragua.
 
I can tell you that foreign aid is far from wasteful spending, and indeed it’s probably that one part of the federal budget where taxpayers get full return on their money.
 
There are misconceptions about how much of the federal budget is devoted to foreign aid. Many even suggest is up to 25 percent.
 
According to the government website foreignassistance.gov, the federal government disburses about $58 billion a year in foreign assistance through more than 20 agencies. The U.S. Agency for International Development roughly manages $37 billion, less than one-half of 1 percent of the federal budget.
 
Federal spending abroad is crucial to help maintain our leadership in the world while furthering our foreign policy interests in developing democratic governments that in turn create the basis for a free market economy.
 
Those who decry U.S. assistance as wasteful contradict this nation’s long history of helping other nations through programs that alleviate poverty while contributing to health and disease prevention, literacy and small business development, all of which is beneficial to the United States.
 
Spending 1 percent of the federal budget to fulfill these goals is certainly my taxpayer money well spent.

I love my mango tree

I am in the midst of mango season in my back yard. 
 
I got my mango tree in 1992 at Walmart during a tropical fruit sale. The poor bud looked like a fallen branch of a dying tree when I planted it. On windy days it would dangerously bend all the way to the ground and come back up like a spring only to bend again at the will of a breeze.
 
I dreaded a summer storm.
 
It took at least four years for it to grow enough to be called a tree, having to fight Florida's cold spells in the winter, and little or too much rain in the summer.
 
Then one summer, a gust of wind in a tropical storm cut its young trunk in half. You could see the broken limb sticking out lifeless from the ground.
 
But the next summer I noticed some fresh leaves hatching from the otherwise dead stick. The miracle of nature I thought, and left it alone.
 
The tree took off like crazy after that. It seemed as if in agony and hurt, it took its time to heal and when ready, blossomed with vengeance. I never put one ounce of fertilizer on it. The tree did it all by itself.
 
I would witness in awe from the side window of the family room how the tree would change from one day to the next.
 
I was elated when I saw the tree what seemed liked covered with snow in the late winter of 2000. It was full of tiny yellowish flowers that would in time bear fruit.
 
But my first harvest gave me a bad rash.
 
The mango plant (Mangifera indica L.) native to southern Asia, especially Burma and eastern India, produces oleoresin, an oil-like substance present in the sap, bark, leaves, skin and root. The rash is an allergic reaction that takes place on the skin where the oleoresin touches. It's not the fruit that causes the allergic reaction as often believed.
 
I decided to stay away from mangoes for a while anyway, which wasn't so hard since the next year gusty winds took care of the flowers and the tree had no fruit at tall.
 
Then in 2003 the tree went nuts. You wouldn't believe the size of those mangoes and the number of them, and their flavor. Harvested mangoes 9 inches long. I'm not kidding.
 
The next year, on August 15, 120-mile winds from Hurricane Charley completely uprooted my bountiful tree. The tree broke the roof when it fell on top of it breaking our power and phone lines.
 
The sound of chainsaw became an habitual sound in Cape Coral and my back yard. Had to chop the trunk in order to remove the fallen tree from the electric lines.
 
But what do you know, the next summer bush-like branches covered the bump on the ground.
It took the tree four years to recover and bear fruit again.
 
This year I’m enjoying one of my best harvests. Not only these mangoes are huge but they’re like no other mango in richness of flavor. I peeled it and devoured it, the juice streaming down my mouth.
 
I also make mango chutney, mango juice, mango marmalade, mango sauce, mango shakes.
 
Looking at the mango tree is a habit, when I wake up and the sun reflects on its huge trunk and at night when I close the blinds before I go to bed.
 
I love my tree and I’m so proud of it.

Try tortillas this Fourth of July

Celebrations this 4th of July might include less hot dogs and burgers and more tortillas, ceviche, menudo and tostones.
 
Hispanics accounted for 56 percent of the U.S.’s population growth from 2000 to 2010.
 
The 2010 Census counted 50.5 million Hispanics in the United Sates, making up 16.3 percent of the total population. One in 6 Americans is Hispanic.
 
Those who now fear Hispanics will sing the national anthem in Spanish or that English will cease to be this country’s language, you can relax.
 
Naturalized foreign-born U.S. citizens and immigrants in general are the most devout and patriotic of Americans.
 
People who complain that Mexican, Colombian or other Latin American flags are waved at gatherings would do well to understand that waving a flag from one’s native country has nothing to do with feeling less American. For most immigrants, to live in the United States is a success story, one that is envied around the world.
 
Hispanics of Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban origin or descent remain the nation's three largest Hispanic country-of-origin groups, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. Immigrants from El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Colombia comprise the combined fourth largest group.
 
More than 6.6 million Hispanics voted in the 2010, a record for a midterm election, according to an analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center. Hispanics also were a larger share of the electorate in 2010 than in any previous midterm election, representing 6.9 percent of all voters, up from 5.8 percent in 2006.
 
With the coming congressional reapportionment changes, Hispanics will likely play a larger role in national politics in the future. Florida, a key swing battleground in recent presidential elections, has gained two House seats due in part to the growth of the Hispanic population.
 
We will do well this 4th of July to reflect on the dramatic shift in the racial and ethnic makeup of the American population. Fewer than half of the nation’s 3-year olds are Caucasian, supporting the premise that the America of tomorrow will be comprised of a “minority” majority.
 
This new tapestry of people in America will continue to live under the “All men are created equal” of the Declaration of Independence, no doubt, for centuries to come.

Providing the social conditions for a free market economy to work

Some people are suggesting that it’s time for U.S. citizens to pay for the benefits they enjoy.   

I do believe the price we pay for living in the United States today is truly negligible. Paradoxically, that may be why our economy continues to lag.

The tax revenue as a percentage of the GDP is only 24 percent in the United States compared to the United Kingdom, 34.3 percent; Sweden, 46.4 percent; Spain, 30.7 percent; Germany, 37 percent.

The Unites States’ tax-to-GDP ratio is more in line with developing countries, South Korea, 25.6 percent, Turkey, 24.6 percent, Chile, 18.2 percent, Mexico, 17.5 percent.

This is perhaps why the American people cannot afford the benefits most developed nations afford, among them, affordable health care, free higher education, state-of-the art public transportation services and a fair policy of social welfare.

But we all seem to be OK with this state of things. In effect, I have trouble sorting out my feelings about this. 

On the one hand, I do not want to pay more taxes simply because I cannot afford to pay more.

On the other hand, if what I pay in increased taxes means a decrease in my expenses in gasoline, health care and college education I can see why this would make sense - of course as long as I trust the government to do its job.

Now, would allowing the government to take care of the cost of some of my wellbeing be better for the economy in the long run? 

I was in Spain last year and saw first hand the benefits of a country with an incredible amount of citizen services. I also watched its economic downturn.

Spain is the fifth largest economy in the European Union. What came to be known as the “Spanish Miracle” gave Spain the fastest economic development in Europe since the 1960s.

But this success proved to be unstable basically because  what drove it was a housing bubble, much like the one in the United States.

The problem there as here was the lack of competitiveness in a global economy. Many of the jobs created during the housing bubble were low wage and low skill while the more lucrative industries remained sluggish.

But for the sake of comparison let’s look at what happened in Germany.

Germany saw its highest rate of economic growth in two decades, with an annual 3.6 percent GDP growth in 2010. German households have the second lowest (after Sweden) debt levels in Europe. Germany’s budget deficit is the lowest in Europe. Its unemployment rate is 7.4 percent.

Now remember that the tax revenue as a percentage of the GDP in Germany is 37 percent and in Spain, 30.7 percent compared to the U.S.’s 24 percent.

What’s the difference in their economies?

Germany is a manufacturing and export powerhouse. Their high taxes pay the incentives to entice world investors to come to this country by providing all the services developed nations are expected to provide like affordable health care, an education system that technically trains its workforce, and a transportation system that is an energy saver.

In short, their high taxes provide the right social environment for a free market economy to work.
Shouldn’t we have a major change in mindset and a true and honest way to confront what will face eventually in the future?