No access to war zones without payment, whatever form it may take. Especially if you're a humanitarian. Warlords try to siphon off as large a proportion of the value of aid supplies they can. During negotiations with INGOs (international non-governmental organizations) in Liberia, the then president Charles Taylor demanded 15 percent of the value of aid, to be paid to him in cash. The Liberian war victims weren't the only ones who had to eat, after all. Taylor's troops did, too. In Somalia, the entrance fee charged by warlords ran to as much as 80 percent of the amount the aid supplies were worth. And according to the head of the UN mission in southern Afghanistan, Talatbek Masadykov, in 2006, aid organizations in Uruzgan handed over one-third of their food aid and agricultural support to the Taliban (96).The author goes on to cite several additional cases of humanitarian organizations having to pay warlords and other generally bad people in order to help the people in need. Polman says that there is a lot of time and effort that goes into the rebuilding process, which may ultimately be too much.
In war zones, there's no chance of fair competition, since after a peace accord is signed it takes years for law and order to be restored. Constitutions have to be written, elections have to be organized, and warlords and army commanders hold on to power, having transformed themselves into members of the highest post-war business and political circles, with whom INGOs negotiate (100).Polman says that "aid organizations are businesses dressed up like Mother Teresa" (177) because these organizations often take advantage of the people who are donating them and the people whom they are helping. The media tries to make these organizations look like generous, good people, and while it is likely many of the people are actually concerned for other people in need, some people are more concerned with bettering themselves financially. In the United States, the Susan G. Komen Foundation is notable for such actions. Under the guise of wanting to find a cure for breast cancer, they actually are more concerned with fundraising money for themselves. The Komen Foundation has sued more than 100 charitable organizations for using the word "cure" in their organization's names, which is honestly both greedy and counterproductive on their part. Goodwill, who accepts charitable donations of all kinds - notably, clothing - is another example, as they often underpay their employees who cannot find work anywhere else due to their mental and physical disabilities as their CEOs make a combined more than $30 million. All of this is done legally due to outdated tax loopholes that the government has yet to close.
In order for humanitarian aid to be successful, journalists, the public, and governments need to be aware of when they are dealing with greedy people who look to take advantage of the poor, disabled, and otherwise oppressed people. Journalists, first off, need to be able to honestly report when NGOs are not properly maintaining the health and general well-being of people they promise to help. The public needs to recognize organizations that abuse their power and resources to better themselves rather than benefit humanity and look to make the world a better place. However, this needs to be done at the costs of the CEOs and heads of organizations rather than the people that would benefit. The public can look for organizations that actually run their charities correctly and actually do not seek profit like they claim they do. Finally, governments need to step in and monitor these programs and make sure that people who do not need or deserve the benefits to be cut off from their money, food, water, and other resources.
No comments:
Post a Comment