Alms Dealers: Can You Provide Humanitarian Aid Without Facilitating Contact? By Philip Gourevitch - Response

Alms Dealers: Can You Provide Humanitarian Aid Without Facilitating Contact? By Philip Gourevitch 

Quote:

Polman - “Sowing horror to reap aid, and reaping aid to sow horror, she argues, is “logic of the humanitarian era” (Gourevitch 5).

Response:

On my first reading of the text, Alms Dealers: Can You Provide Humanitarian Aid Without Facilitating Contact?  By Philip Gourevitch, I found that Polman’s words were quite thought provoking.  I found myself repeating her words in my head and sticking with me since the reading.  It makes so much sense in this day and era while humanitarian aid has become such a reflexive concept.  There are many sides to the argument of aid being beneficial or a hindrance to countries involved.  On the surface, humanitarian aid can be great for a country in need; they receive food and goods, help building a government system (if needed), and a way for the citizens to make money and become more self-sustainable and self sufficient.  On the other hand, humanitarian aid can be a bad thing.  When thousands of people come in to “help” a nation in need, many citizens are left confused, displaced, and/or lost.  More often than not, the humanitarian groups are there as a logo, rather than an actual group of people trying to help.  I think that adds to the conundrum of spreading horror to receive aid, and receiving aid to spread horror.  There is a disconnect in that respect too with the cause and the people involved; that is why humanitarian aid can become a volatile notion. The lack of aftercare when the situation is “solved” or has come to a “resolution”, coupled with the  infatuation of media coverage on the subject prove to conclude that humanitarian aid is not 100% good or bad.  It is a catch-22 in many ways.

Questions:

1. Can other entities sought out as being good and just (various non-profits, etc) also be unjust and a hindrance to making things better?
2. Why is the obvious choice in Western thought to default to humanitarian problem solving?  Is it something for Westerners to feel good about; to feel like they are “helping”?
3. How is it that humanitarian aid can do more harm more than it does good?  An entity founded completely on the goodwill of nations and relief work seem like they would get many good things done rather than the bad.