Bureaucracies kill people and other complaints

Tim Worstall has a riveting article that underscores the gap between common perceptions and reality when it comes to the idiocy of how UN and EU aid-programs are administered:

So the World Food Program, that part of the United Nations that deals with such things is right on the case, yes? They have acted promptly? They have correctly identified the problem as a lack of purchasing power, not a lack of food? They have shipped in money so as to encourage local production in the future rather than dumping food? They have, in short, done us proud alleviated starvation as fast as possible and with the least possible future side effects?
No. Unfortunately not. They appear to have done exactly the opposite of all of those things.

Do read the whole thing. The damage is such that it is incredible to me that these policy disasters aren't the talk of the day. Here is an interesting page that tries to assess another scandalous "environmentalist" idea that is causing death and havoc across the developing world. Eurocrats and German environmentalists should be ashamed of themselves for letting this happen without protest, while whining about Bush.
Finally, in what for me is a rare exercise, I would also like to commend the BBC News website for this balanced article (via Junkscience) on the hurricanes and global warming:

The latest to succumb was the British newspaper The Independent, which screamed on its front page: "This is global warming", above an alarmingly portentous graphic of Hurricane Rita's projected path.
But is it global warming?

See here for approving comments from an eminent skeptic. On the other hand we have this article, with the headline: "Arctic ice 'disappearing quickly'", which, to say the least, does not present a complete picture.