Dr. Peter A Singer, OC

In Busia, western Kenya, Agnes Okose carries sputum samples to the laboratory in a lunch cooler. She is a TB survivor and a volunteer. American aid paid for her trips until late January. Now her snack stall does. In a clinic nearby, a patient also told Stephanie Nolen of the New York Times that his country simply cannot afford its own health care. That view is what this essay aims to overturn. Take Marabi — a composite of four aid-exposed African countries: Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana. $10B a year on health. Donors fund a fifth of it. This round of cuts takes $525M. That same health spending already returns $1.7B a year to the treasury. Seventeen cents on every dollar. No one writes it down. So it cannot be defended, borrowed against, or argued for. Three plays, priced: • Raise health taxes. $150–300M a year, all cash, legislated in one budget cycle. • Scale the delivery models that already work. About $280M a year. • Book the return, so a finance ministry can see what it owns. The catch is timing. The aid stops now; the return builds over years. They cross around year six, and roughly $1B has to be financed in between. That bridge is the ask. More aid would be better. But the money these countries already earn is theirs — and the first task is to put it on a page where a finance minister can see it. Link in first comment.

I’m appalled by the targeting of two Jewish-owned bakeries in Toronto. Antisemitism has no place in our communities, and it is an attack on the values of inclusion and respect that define our country. I stand with the community as authorities hold those responsible accountable.

A message from Naheed Nenshi