Post #6

A NGO, a non-governmental organization. It is defined as “any non-profit, voluntary citizens’ group which is organized on a local, national or international level. Task-oriented and … perform a variety of service and humanitarian functions, bring citizen concerns to Governments, advocate and monitor policies and encourage political participation through provision of information.”

Depending on the NGO and what they are particularly focusing on, some travel internationally and work to give humanitarian aid. These NGOs going to areas riddled with war and other dangerous, crisis-stricken areas to give aid is hopefully a good thing, however, Linda Polman argues in her book Crisis Caravan that this isn’t really always the case.

The main concerns that Linda Polman raises in her book are that NGOs, INGOs (NGOs working internationally), and MONGOs (what Polman says are “My Own NGO” run by people who believe that they can do better than “real” NGOs) are all prolonging war and giving resources to war lords by going into these war torn areas in need of aid.

Polman tells readers to imagine that you end up in a refugee camp in Darfur where soldiers or war lords end up using you for your efforts by demanding money and using the money from sold aid supplies for weapons. As the reader continues, it’s very evident that Polman agrees with Florence Nightingale’s belief that “aid fails in its purpose if the warring parties use it to their own advantage” rather than aiding no matter what (2).

The big questions, the main concerns are whether the claims made by NGOs giving out humanitarian aid are neutral and that they can still be held up when that same aid they are trying to provide has become something more of a war strategy. Another concern was that there are times where there may be too many organizations trying to give aid and not assisting in a helpful and effective way.

Polman says that “Aid organizations are businesses dressed up like Mother Teresa” (177) because of the way journalists portray them. There aren’t many journalists that work in the aid industry. Rarely do journalists investigate and raise questions when it comes to aid organizations. Additionally, many times “journalists reporting on an aid campaign are also financed, or at least accommodated, by one of the aid agencies” (177).

Because humanitarian aid barely costs us anything, according to Polman, this is why the public doesn’t really raise deeper questions. Meanwhile, warlords in poor, war-heavy countries find this aid to be immensely helpful (177).

In order to make humanitarian aid successful, journalists, the public, and governments must start investigating and asking deeper questions to open discussions about what is happening when organizations are trying to give aid. The hard but critical questions must be addressed. They must be asked. As Polman states, “If we do decide to pay aid organizations to go somewhere, we should demand they explain exactly what they think they’re going to achieve there and how” (179). If these questions aren’t asked, then aid organizations could potentially cause more harm than good by going in and attempting to give inadequate aid.

As mentioned earlier, there may be times where there are too many organizations and they may go into a country without asking or investigating what they need. As such, will doing something and providing aid without asking if they need it cause harm? Maybe. But this is why we must question and talk about how to go into a crisis zone, who or how many organizations need to go, what kind of legislation or international law will help.

Source:

Polman, Linda, and Liz Waters. The Crisis Caravan: What’s Wrong with Humanitarian Aid? Picador, 2011.