{"id":748,"date":"2017-03-11T15:10:05","date_gmt":"2017-03-11T20:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/?p=748"},"modified":"2017-10-25T11:27:01","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T15:27:01","slug":"putting-out-fires-with-gasoline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/?p=748","title":{"rendered":"Putting out fires with gasoline"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Humanitarian aid work is more and more like firefighters. We are not the ones in charge of pursuing those causing the fire to stop them, we just jump from one emergency to the other, and that will not change things for good.”<\/em><\/p>\n

-40yr old female expat aid worker<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Putting out fires with gasoline
\n<\/strong>Just a short rant as I deal with my demented\u00a0news feed.<\/p>\n

The need for a coordinated, well resourced aid sector is, arguably, more acute just now than at any other time in\u00a0history. The latest news from the UN\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0reports 20 million people- mostly children- are in danger of famine and starvation right now.<\/p>\n

To be clear this is a human made disaster. War and famine ‘feed’ each other in a demented death spiral, continually, not just yet again.<\/p>\n

These humanitarian crises\u00a0are human made but, as the female expat aid worker\u00a0notes above, those in the sector are just going from house to house trying to put out fires. \u00a0Could it be that they are -in part- using gasoline-laced water to out out these fires and that
\ngaso\"images\"line is the same that is powering the lifestyles and livelihoods of the neoliberal economy driven global north?<\/p>\n

A call to action?<\/strong>
\nGoing\u00a0back through the data from our survey I came across this:<\/p>\n

“Aid work, human rights instruments etc I think are most important for setting normative global cultural imperatives. “<\/em> \u00a0– 40 yr old female,\u00a0HQ based<\/p>\n

I have argued in previous posts that if indeed [sociologist Emile] Durkheim was right in asserting that there is such as thing as a collective consciousness then aid and development workers are the conscience of our collective consciousness. \u00a0As such they should not just react to those in need but as well proactively work toward “…setting normative global cultural imperatives.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, summits<\/a> are good. \u00a0Taking principled stands, such as with MSF’s withdrawal from participation in the WHS<\/a>, is also good. \u00a0 Establishing and urging the adherence to a sector-wide core standard<\/a> is very good, but still surely reactive.<\/p>\n

What more can be done to have aid worker\u00a0voices\u00a0more demonstratively part of the conversation about how we organize and live our lives? \u00a0Focused with the right kind of organizational lens the collective insights of sector workers could move the needle forward. \u00a0It may be worth a try, but I suspect there are few if any social engineers visionary or powerfully positioned enough to construct such a lens.<\/p>\n

\"images\"<\/a>A reason to professionalize the sector<\/strong>
\nThere are many good reasons to continue moving forward in ‘professionalizing’ the sector, and the one I am suggesting here is\u00a0to have aid worker\u00a0voices heard at the highest levels. \u00a0I know that this is tilting at windmills, but if humanity has hope it lies not with politicians<\/a> or CEO’s but with those who know the most about our needs individually and as members of this unevenly globalized world. \u00a0We need to follow our conscience.<\/p>\n

May we all continue the\u00a0struggle to ensure pathways to dignity<\/a> for all, including ourselves.<\/p>\n

To rant back click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Humanitarian aid work is more and more like firefighters. We are not the ones in charge of pursuing those causing the fire to stop them, we just jump from one emergency to the other, and that will not change things for good.” -40yr old female expat aid worker   Putting out fires with gasoline Just … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Putting out fires with gasoline”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[172093],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-posts-on-the-humanitarian-aid-industry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}