Does humanitarian aid prolong wars?
Posted on December 16th, 2011
Ravindra Wickremasinghe
Linda Polman believes the business of international aid – from Ethiopia to Rwanda to Afghanistan ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” is only helping gangsters and fighters, while innocent victims suffer on
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ … All too frequently, according to Polman, the result is not what it says in the charity brochures. She cites a damning catalogue of examples from Biafra to Darfur, and including the Ethiopian famine, in which humanitarian aid has helped prolong wars, or rewarded the perpetrators of ethnic cleansing and genocide rather than the victims. Perhaps the most striking case in the book deals with the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda in which the Hutu killers fled en masse across the border to what was then Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). There, in Goma, huge refugee camps were assembled and served by an enormous array of international agencies, while back in Rwanda, where Tutsi corpses filled rivers and lakes, aid was not so focused. The world was looking for refugees, the symbol of human catastrophe, and the refugees were Hutus. This meant the militias that had committed the atrocities received food, shelter and support, courtesy of international appeals, while their surviving victims were left destitute.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Worse still, Polman believes the aid enabled the Hutu extremists to continue their attempt to exterminate the Tutsis from the security of the UNHCR camps in Goma. “Without humanitarian aid,” she writes, “the Hutus’ war would almost certainly have ground to a halt fairly quickly.”…
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/apr/25/humanitarian-aid-war-linda-polman/print
Qaddafi’s death: Will the ICC launch a war-crimes investigation?
International Criminal Court prosecutor Ocampo is asking the UN for authority to investigate the death Libyan leader Qaddafi as a war crime.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Last Post in Iraq: this is the death knell of the American empire
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ What was intended to be a demonstration of power turned into the most costly boomerang in history, in both blood and treasure
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¢ John Bolton: withdrawal from Iraq heralds a world of instability
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/15/iraq-death-knell-of-us-empire
‘It’s OK, You’re Allowed to Laugh.
The incredibly awkward comedy stylings of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It’s not easy for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to make light of world events. Every day, he is required to comment with solemnity and pathos on the world’s afflictions: a car bombing in Iraq or Afghanistan, a bloody crackdown on protesters in Syria, a flood in Pakistan, an earthquake in Haiti, or the prospects of a nuclear war with North Korea. But as the holiday season approaches, bringing a host of year-end anniversary events, Ban gets an opportunity to crack wise now and again.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Which begs a serious question: How funny is the secretary general?…
Uninformed ‘vital for democracy’
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Uninformed individuals are vital for achieving a democratic consensus, according to a study in the journal Science.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The researchers say that they dilute the influence of minority factions who would otherwise dominate everyone else.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ This is because they tend to side with and embolden the numerical majority.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16206336
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December 16th, 2011 at 8:26 pm
Humans were animals at the onset of civilization.
Prove that they are different now.
Those who are developed [to gods] are a minority.
December 17th, 2011 at 11:25 am
The “humanitarian bleeding hearts” of the west allowed the Tamil-Tiger supporters to settle in the west and collect and even extort money and send it out to the Tigers to buy ARMS. The “human rights” agencies have got infiltrated by LTTE typea and some Sinhalese Catholics who support the LTTE. WE saw how Norway gave “aid” to Sri lanka. They give “international aid” to support the separatist agenda which fits in with the political program of the west.
In summary, Humanitarian aid is mostly another arm of the Western agenda.