Yes, I am aware of this problem.

I too believe in "Trade not Aid" but that doesn't mean I need to be a fundamentalist about it.

I am also against governments giving out aid, because them being governments, they tend to give it to other governments, which in poor countries are often not more than glorified criminal gangs.

Giving to private charities with a local presence is a different story though.  There is nothing wrong with aid in certain situations, eg. when a real emergency is being addressed.

I hate to play devil's advocate, but how does making VIM qualify one to vet charities for effectiveness?

A lot of people barely even consider that, or they see the projects the charity is doing and ASSUME they are effective. I'm not saying this charity isn't effective, I'm saying that being the VIM guy doesn't necessarily qualify him to be a good judge of that. 

I know a low of people in even higher positions than "the VIM guy" who blindly donate to Susan G. Komen for the Cure (pink ribbon campaign) without realizing that they are a bunch of corrupt shills for the cancer industry more interested in confusing people about cancer and causing secondary cancers rather than actually preventing it. Corporate behemoth. Being someone in a high place doesn't mean you automatically get +100 spidey sense when it comes to charities.
Some charities aren't even corrupt, they are just ineffective. Looking at their websites you wouldn't necessarily be able to tell the long-term effect of their projects or whether there are more effective ways to spend that money.

The best "give money to Africa" charity I have found is one that teaches subsistence farmers agriculture techniques geared to growing in drought/desert conditions, and gives them specific varieties of fruit trees that grow excellently in drought conditions. This yields results. Building water treatment plants and clinics and schools is a very western approach as we're kind of skipping past the most basic needs.

For reference.  I'm donating money to Bram Molenar.  His work has made my life 100x easier.  It's up to him to do with the money whatever he wants.  If he wants to donate the money to a charity in Africa, that's his decision.  Having made that decision publicly may change people's inclination to donate (knowing the money will ultimately go to whereever he designated), but it doesn't change my decision. 

I'm a huge fan of Vim.  Just donated 0.3 BTC

what is "vim" ?

I like vim much, and would like to donate too. But I'll rather wait for the btc address to be shown somewhere officially, for example here: http://iccf-holland.org/donate.html or http://www.vim.org/sponsor/index.php

QFT. This is good advice. I'm a happy user of `setxkbmap -option caps:swapescape`. I noticed the other day that google chromebooks go so far as to replace capslock with a kind of quick-search button.

FTR : http://iccf-holland.org/bitcoin.html

What's that ?