Monday, February 23, 2009

wrong

According to all empirical evidence, this is not how it works:
"If we give the money to the widows, they will spend it unwisely because they are uneducated and they don't know about budgeting. But if we find her a husband, there will be a person in charge of her and her children for the rest of their lives."
- MAZIN al-SHIHAN, director of a city agency in Baghdad, on his plan to pay
men to marry Iraqi war widows.


Again and again, studies of development aid, microfinance, remittances, what have you, show that when women manage the money, the money is invested in the family (health, education, savings), whereas men usually blow it on themselves.

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