"Can you give our group a two-hour talk on US Foreign Assistance?" asked Bill Kemper, Program chairman of the Corvallis Academy for Life Long Learning. Having worked overseas within the Agency for International Development (AID) for nearly 25 years, plus several years in connection with the Peace Corps, I was happy to comply. Preparation for that presentation led me to jot down many personal observations and anecdotes. I'd been telling some of those...