“We are band-aids born of affluent guilt and survive almost entirely on the donated profits of unjust privilege and power.” “WTO, WB and IMF policies and corrupt/ignorant/criminal national elites matters million times more any humanitarian program implemented by NGOs.”   Some thoughts as I continue reading, sorting and making sense of  aid worker voices on the future of humanitarian aid [Note:  I am working on a long post (chapter) on this topic, but I wanted to get this out separately.] So, I have been reading through -in many cases re-reading and re-reading…- the 311 narrative responses to the “future of humanitarian aid work” (Q60) on our aid worker survey and I am struck over and over again with the depth of thought put into some of the responses.  Though there were many who responded from a short term or narrow view, many were clearly of the ‘35,000 foot’ and long term perspective. … Continue reading Big picture critique of the aid sector