News release

For immediate release
Nov. 3, 2009

Mount Royal University’s first “Ideas that Matter Book Panel” tackles the issue of foreign aid

(CALGARY — Nov. 3, 2009) Mount Royal University's Department of General Education invites you to attend its first "Ideas that Matter Book Panel,” on Fri., Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. at Pages on Kensington (1135 Kensington Road NW).

The first book being presented by the University and Pages is William Easterly's provocative White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So
Little Good. Easterly, an economist at New York University and former Senior Staffer at the World Bank, argues for a rethinking of aid and questions the efficacy of the West's approach so far. Easterly launches an attack on the "foreign aid" mainstream, including the World Bank, suggesting many donor agencies design programs to reflect their own interests and little to reflect the interests of those they are claiming to aid. The current foreign aid model requires new frames of reference.

Mount Royal's Department of General Education has invited Dr. Barry Cooper from the University of Calgary's Department of Political Science, Dr. Jennifer Brenner from the Alberta Children's Hospital to join Professor Naheed Nenshi from the Bissett School of Business of Mount Royal University to engage in a conversation about Easterly's challenge to our current foreign aid model. The discussion will be moderated by Brooks Decillia from the CBC.

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Media contact:
Fred Cheney, Media Relations Officer                 Karim Dharamsi, PhD
Office of External Relations                                    Department of General Education
Office: 403.440.5195                                               Mount Royal University
Cell: 403.542.7904                                                  Office: 403.440.8658
mediarelations@mtroyal.ca