Is foreign aid depressing?

I'm gonna go with yes, usually. 

Chris Blattman's blog post on this question makes me feel a little more optimistic though.  Point #2 basically sums up my feelings about development work:

Aid can only speed this diffusion [of technologies] or accumulation [of capital] a little. Ultimately it’s up to the Africans or South Americans or Central Asians. If you’re not from there, the best you can do is help those willing (or unable) to help themselves.

Development organizations that come in with elaborate, top-down plans designed to End Poverty (ahem, IMF, World Bank, Millenium Development Goals ... you know who you are) are only raising people's expectations for what foreign aid should be able to accomplish, so we're more likely to be disappointed and cynical when it inevitably fails to make radical change.

One thing I like about Peace Corps is that it gives its workers a more modest goal: find out what people in your community want and use your skills, connections and education to help them get it.  I know I'm not going to fix the problems of Senegal -- that's for Senegalese to tackle. But inchallah I can help my village eat a little better, die tragically a little less often, and feel empowered to continue making small steps forward on their own well after I've left.

I recently read NYU professor Bill Easterly's book The White Man's Burden, which is a great exploration of this idea that foreign aid as the savior of poor countries is not only inaccurate but harmful, and that aid workers would do better to focus on narrower, attainable goals.  I highly recommend the book, along with his blog Aid Watch.