Condemned to Repeat by Fiona Terry

Background on the Author

• Fiona Terry was the Head Research Director of the French section of Doctors Without Borders when it withdrew from the Rwandan refugee camps in Zaire.
  • She says they withdrew after discovering that the aid intended for refugees actually ended up strengthening those responsible for the genocide.
  • In the book, she includes  documents from the former Rwandan army and government that were found in the refugee camps after they were attacked in late 1996. The documents illustrate how combatants manipulated humanitarian action to their benefit.
• Fiona Terry has spent most of the last 20 years involved in humanitarian operations in different parts of the world, including northern Iraq, Somalia, Liberia, Sudan, North Korea, Sierra Leone and Angola, before spending three years with the ICRC in Myanmar.

Major Concepts Related to Our Coursework

• Neutrality
  • Fiona Terry makes the case that many aid organizations have rejected neutrality, particularly since 9/11. She says that aid organizations have instead directed their aid in accordance with Western political agendas (particularly in the cases of Iraq & Afghanistan).
  • Throughout the book, she questions if aid workers should disassociate themselves from their political views in conflicts. She believes that theoretically, yes they should. However, due to her astounding knowledge of the humanitarian aid sector, she is very clear that she believes the time of neutrality has passed – She does offer the caveat that neutrality has been done away with based on multiple factors, such as the militarization of the affected communities for example. So it’s worth nothing that she doesn’t blame aid workers entirely for what she perceives to be the end of neutrality. She presents the scenario of aid workers offering humanitarian assistance to the armed opposition. Emphasizing to her reader that these are real life situations that aid workers have to deal with.
• Repatriation
  • Essentially a process in which aid workers compel refugees to go back to their home country under the assumption that the hostile conditions are no longer present.
  • Humanitarian agencies (specifically UNHCR) have taken it one step further and cut off food to refugees so they’d be forced to go back, often getting killed on return or pushed back out of their home country yet again. What’s interesting about this is it is yet another example of humanitarian aid organizations exacerbating conflict rather than coming in and helping. This reminds me of our Skype chat with Genevieve and the story she shared with us.
  • In the book, this is one of Terry’s main issues that she tackles and it connects to the humanitarian imperative. She argues for integration over repatriation.
• “Refugee-Warrior” Communities
  • Terry argues that international aid unwittingly plays into the hands of rebel movements. The result is “refugee-warrior” communities: militarized refugee camps that use their protected space to fight against their home state.
  • The protections accorded by international law and humanitarian assistance DO help refugee camp-based guerrilla movements gain control over the civilian population (ex. Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, Tutsi refugees who fled Rwanda, and Afghan refugees in Pakistan)
  • The result, Terry concludes, is a deep paradox at the heart of humanitarian action: The international community’s good intentions have created structures of aid and protection that, when injected into disintegrating states without authoritative rule, often fuel violence rather than reduce suffering.(This is essentially the thesis of the entire book)

Key Takeaways

• This book is very informative, there was a lot of information I never knew, specifically terminology and practices that are specific to Humanitarian Aid that I learned (Terms like “repatriation” and “refugee-warrior communities”).
• However, the book is a frustrating read at times. Terry never takes that necessary step to give her own, well thought-out plan of action to overcome this paradox. There are a few pages of vague suggestions, where she waxes on but essentially is just saying “stop forced repatriation,” but not much more than that. We know from her background where she stands in terms of the Nightingale-Dunant debate, so maybe therein lies the answer I’m looking for. However, her background in research and her credibility as an insider in the humanitarian world makes her the perfect person to lay out a plan of action, but it isn’t in this book. Definitely worth reading though, if only to become more aware of this serious problem.
• Also, the book is written in an academic style, so there is theory and some quantitative analysis involved. Which I liked because it allowed me to see the “bigger picture” in some instances, while she also included anecdotal stories and case studies to supplement the flow of the book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J45cWdDEbm0&t=498s

The book that I read for our class book reviews is Letters Left Unsent by J. It was fairly recently published in 2014 and is a shorter non-fiction book that looks into what it is truly like to be a humanitarian aid worker. In this novel, it contains many different published blog posts that are brought together from J.’s time as an aid worker. It is very interesting reading his stream of thoughts over the years, and to be able to read stories of what he has seen being an aid worker, but also his perspective on the sector in general, and its flaws and successes. He makes the reader question the humanitarian aid sector and really thinks about people’s motivations and the good vs the bad. As J. states in the beginning, it is not a happy book, but he has gotten confirmation from many other aid workers who agree with what he is writing, and have said it is what they are thinking as well. There are many important lessons about being in the aid sector throughout the book that are emphasized by his personal stories.

This book relates to a lot of what we have talked about in class, as his blog posts reflect heavily on how best to be an aid worker. He highlights the humanitarian imperative, which has been a topic of discussion for our class and states, “We must not just sit and watch while the problems of our fellow humans go unattended. There is something called the humanitarian imperative. When we witness that suffering, it is important that we do something and do it with confidence” (J. 4). Although it is important to get involved, as we have discussed in class, J. questions exactly how people should be involved (SOC: 376). He continues to mention that one should not “just do something” in order to feel good. J. reflects on when he first started as an aid worker, and the adrenaline rush that he got from it, and the reasons many people first join the sector. He makes an interesting point and says that if you don’t know what you are doing, they very best thing might just be to do nothing. J. “strips away the romance of the job, expositing it as just that: a job” (Carr).

“The disappointment and frustration at discovering the wide gulf between what we at first believe humanitarian aid is capable of and the reality of what it in fact delivers is indescribably deep” (J. 136). Towards the end of the book, the blog posts reflect on the wide gap between what humanitarian aid should do and what it is doing. I gained more insight into what is actually involved in the humanitarian aid sector, and many more points that I had not thought about prior to this class. Although it is frustrating to think about the many problems in this sector and how it seems nearly impossible to fix them all, J. does end the book on a positive note. He questions why he still is involved in humanitarian aid, answering that he still enjoys it and he still believes. According to him, humanitarian aid is not “irreparably broken” there are some successes as well as failures, but there is still a very long way to go in order to make it better (J 147).

Discussion Questions:

• What do you believe is our greatest problem with the humanitarian aid sector today?
• Do you think that the sector can be fixed?
• Do you think that there are more successes or failures with humanitarian aid, is it doing more harm or good?

This is a photo of aid efforts after the earthquake in Haiti, one place that J. went.

References:

SOC 376: “Being/Becoming a Global Citizen”

Letters Left Unsent. Evil Genius Publishing, 2014.

Carr, Edward. Open The Echo Chamber, 27 Nov. 2014.

Human was the first science fiction book written about humanitarian aid, which put an interesting twist on the typical books we have read in class about aid workers real life experiences.  From the knowledge I have gained on the aid sector I was able to understand the underlying story behind the futuristic terminology.  The twist was that the humanitarian response was called for on planet Earth, a planet exploding in chaos after a detonation ten years earlier, experiencing violence from a group trying to come to power, called the Rtulan.  

The Rtulan are a “large reptilian, vaguely hominoid species… impervious to the conventional weapons available to the Native Earth Humans…continued to steadily deplete earth of its basic substance and no one appeared to stop them” (J, pg 27).  In this scenario the Rtulan are similar to an extremist group which we have learned of rising to power while the state is in terror, and end up taking advantage of the inhabitants and resources given by aid organizations.

The Native Human Earth, Caine and Connor, have been trying to fight the Rtulan off, however with no success the System human’s from plant Xaxoni are introduced to provide aid to Native Earth Human.  By giving aid to those who are living in the midst of extreme situations, almost mirroring the distraught crises that we have discussed occurring in the global south, they are also breaking their neutrality since this builds up the army that Caine has been trying to grow.  This causes more of an eruption of violence from the Rtulan, as they now want to show their power to the System Humans as well as the Earth Humans.

From the beginning there is a sense of ethnocentrism coming from the System Humans, portraying Earth as a “desolate, dying, planet inhabited by uncivilized, warlike peoples…who were suspicious of anything or anyone that threatened to move them out of the previous millennium” (J, pg 24). Generally we have seen this ethnocentric view coming from the group with the upper hand, who is doing the delivery of aid. Additionally, the white savior complex has a large presence in the book, displayed from the System Humans. Some of Earth Humans have made remarks toward the aid workers saying;  “Your ways are not always ours..” Bo (J. pg 59), or “You’re not from here. How can you possibly know what we want?!” (J, Pg 34). Clearly, the earth humans are in need of help, and so are people in countries of crisis today, however it is important that groups going into assist have adequate knowledge on the culture of the country and background of the crisis, or inhabitants will be upset with the “invasion” of their land.

Nassandra the protagonist, a system human, experiences Earth differently than her co workers.  She begins to see that the line between System Human and and Native Earth Human is much thinner, that they are more alike than different.  Nassandra connects with the Native Earth Humans, which makes them feel more comfortable with her presence, by drawing attention to the number of fingers they both have, “five fingers”. 

In this book I also am able to see the harsh realities that do occur in times of crisis in which we have learned about.  For example, Caine’s last resort at fighting the Rtulan is by employing children to train them to be soldiers, which we would view as unethical.  The imagery of Connors son, Zeke, struggling to fire an M-94, and then being held at gunpoint by the Rtulan, and minute later finding his grandfather wounded, reinstates the fact that children are not equipped for a job involving such physical and emotional toll. 

We later learn that the System Human’s have an alternative motive in providing aid to the Earth Humans, to keep them alive, so they can find what gene they missed in the production of System Humans.  System Humans are soon to be extinct as they are missing a crucial component in their makeup, so they are trying to keep Earth Humans alive to find this.  Nassandra’s journey on earth has allowed her to realize that she is so similar to the Native Earth Humans, and enjoy being there despite the terror.  She finally realized that System Human’s have an interdependent relationship with Earth Human, and they are all crucial for their existence. 

SOC 376: “Being/Becoming a Global Citizen”

J. Human. 2016

The book that I chose to read for our class book review is Where Soldiers Fear to Tread by John Burnett. It was published back in June of 2005 by Bantam Dell Publishing. This book reminded me a lot of the accounts we read in Emergency Sex. In this narrative, we follow the moral career of the author, John Burnett, in his experience in Somalia. John initially joins the cause for the money not thinking about the potential dangers and horrors he would face while in the field. It is evident that coming into this position he doesn’t grasp the full extent of humanitarian aid. He states, “when we joined this relief mission, we were told it should be safe, that we would be among friendly people who welcomed our help,” (Burnett 2). Throughout the book, however, he experiences the realities of this line of work. Almost immediately after arriving in Kismayo, he is almost shot by a lone gunman. What phased John the most was when he offered a young boy a fig bar, not thinking of what could happen, and the boy was later attacked by fellow children and later died. John can’t help but think that this is his fault and his eyes become opened to the fact that his small act of kindness is easily overshadowed by the violence in this country. Aside from the atrocities he witnesses, throughout the book John starts to realize the dishonesty of the UN. He was told that he would be pulled out of the mission if violence came involved and also received false information by the WFP about he mission. He also realizes that much of what happens on the field is covered up, as a UN worker shot a woman in a riot and it was not publicized. Realizing the dishonesty he has experienced, he says “I am beginning to feel this is getting out of hand, that I am mere fodder, a pawn in some larger context with no game plan. Expendable.” (Burnett 2).

This book highlights many of the important topics we have discussed in this class by providing a first hand account of the humanitarian aid sector. The book discussed several times the real reasons that people get involved in this line of work. John states that it is unlikely that someone sitting at home on their couch would see an atrocity on TV and go out to save the world without expecting anything in return. This reminded me of the Social Exchange Theory in that humans don’t typically give without expecting something in return, (SOC376: 2/13/19). John himself even admits that money was a big factor in why he wanted to go to Somalia. In addition, John’s account sheds light on the bureaucratic biases of the UN. He states that he feels the UN doesn’t even know he is there and that he feels expendable. The United States Institute of Peace says that “Somalia has become a symbol for the unacceptable costs of humanitarian intervention.”

What I gained from reading this book is another account of the atrocities that relief workers experience on the field. It is one thing to read about the horrors that have occurred in Somalia but it’s another to actually read about them from someone who was there and can provide a detailed description of what he experienced. I think many aid workers go into a mission not grasping the full extent of what they’re getting themselves into and I think John was no different. In this case, I don’t think he was warned or prepared by the WFP before going into the field about what he would experience.

Questions for the class:

How can the UN and other relief organizations better prepare relief workers for going out into potential dangers in the field?

Who do you think the target audience was for this book and other accounts similar to this?

Do you think the UN has the obligation to disclose everything that happens in the field?

Works Cited:

Burnett, John. Where Soldiers Fear to Tread. Bantam Dell, 2005.

United States Institute of Peace. “Restoring Hope: The Real Lessons of Somalia for the Future of Intervention.” USIP, www.usip.org/sites/default/files/sr950000.pdf.

SOC 376: “Being/Becoming a Global Citizen” (SOC 376: 2/13/19)

In the fictional novel, Honor Among Thieves, it highlights several of the key topics learned throughout the course. The book follows the World Aid Corporation in Cambodia as they are recently given a very generous grant of five hundred thousand dollars. The terms to the grant were fairly open and allowed the main characters who were located in Cambodia to assess the issues around them and develop a plan of action. As the novel progresses it shows the structure and operations day-to-day of an NGO as Patty and Mary-Anne (aid workers in Cambodia) have to deal with outside factors such as their hard-headed boss Todd and CEO Julianna. The grant which the World Aid Corporation has received has a massive potential to make a real difference in Cambodia and assist those who are desperately in need. After surveying the local communities for those most in need both Patty and Mary-Anne decided upon Baray Santuck, a small farming community outside Phnom Phen stricken by poor rainy seasons and increasing debt, as their most viable location. The group decides that cash-transfers, health education, and food were the most effective way to solve the communities issues. However, Maxima Enterprises (the company providing the grant) had been behind closed doors attempting to expand into a local factory, which also produced clothing products called Naga Apparel, but in order to do so needed to have tangible evidence of benefitting Cambodia. Naga Apparel was a glorified sweatshop that had been caught years prior in human trafficking and was attempting to join forces with Maxima in order to gain a better brand image.

From this novel, it is very apparent how flawed the humanitarian aid sector truly is. The divide between organization and people on the ground integrates the humanitarian aid imperative as well as flag planting. There were countless NGO’s both large and small in Cambodia and all providing some sort of “difference” for their communities but how much really was it doing? One of the passages which highlighted the humanitarian imperative the most in the novel was, ” The problem is in the NGO world brand loyalty very quickly overshadows actual, like, performance in the real world” (J. 116-117). Rather than actually make a difference or cause change within the humanitarian aid sector, businesses corporations and people were to solely focused on personal gain and image. Another passage which also exemplified the issues within the aid sector that I felt J. crafted very well was, “The thing to understand,” Patty was speaking again, “and that I figured out far too late, is that for all of their originally laudable, altruistic intentions, NGOs become primarily about ensuring their own survival, pretty much within minutes of forming” (J. 116).

Discussion Questions:

How do you think the Aid Sector can solve the divide between corporate and boots on the ground?

Will the aid sector ever be a conglomerate of several different NGO’s merging to solve various issues in each country?

Works Cited:

J.. Honor Among Thieves (p. 120). Evil Genius Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.

https://www.phnompenhpost.com/fiction-novel-takes-cynical-look-cambodias-aid-industry

For my book report I chose to read the book Aid on the Edge of Chaos. This book provides a compelling look at the faults in the aid system much like other books and articles that we have read. The book was written by Ben Ramalingam. Ramalingam has a long history in aid work including being part of an organization that is geared around testing aid organizations effectiveness, learning and, performance (Institute of Development Studies, 2019). He has written a number of pieces about how aid work can improve and even believes that aiming on improving the healthcare in poor countries will not fix global inequality (Ramalingam, 2016). This viewpoint that he takes, that there is no one direct action that will improve the aid system, is the basis of his book, Aid on the Edge of Chaos.

The book really highlights how globalization has played a factor in the lack of solutions within the world of aid. In a world of globalization everything is connected and interwoven meaning that we can’t just fix one thing and expect the whole system to follow suit. There are so many players, both NGO and government aid, that already within themselves are unorganized so trying to change something across the whole industry would be near impossible. The book directly ties to what this course is all about: how to be a global citizen in the world of, for lack of a better word, imposters. Throughout this class we have talked about the success and pitfalls of humanitarian aid. We constantly ask questions in the class about how to fix the various problems in the field and rarely, if ever, do we actually come up with an answer. That is what Ramalingam’s book is all about. He presents the issues that are within the aid industry. He presents various possible solutions but none of them fix every single problem. This shows that even people within the industry, people that literally study it for a living, can’t even come to a concrete solution or set of solutions to fix the problems within aid work.

This book presents a lot of information occasionally in a language that is hard to understand. Luckily, with a sociological background one can decipher the language in the text. Ramalingam talks about how theories about societal organization are imperative to understand when approaching a problem like fixing aid (231). He talks about being able to recognize simple versus complex organizational problems. Our world is progressing a rate that is far faster than what our society is able to keep up with. In the past, we have been able to, relatively, define society into organic and mechanical solidarity. These concepts help distinguish and describe relationships if they are based on common values and beliefs or based on the services people can provide for each other. Today, these lines are not as distinct as they once were. The lines between common values and beliefs and the services one can provide as all comingled with each other to the point where it is hard to distinguish what is tying society together on a level deeper than capitalism. Getting at the deeper root as to why people are providing this aid work, and even why there is corruption, could be the first step to reworking the system for the better. There are small pockets within the aid industry that are finding solutions. On pages 331 to 338, Ramalingam illustrates how in Niger a simple solution is what fixed a seemingly unfixable problem. This goes to show that sometimes within sociology we are so wrapped up in finding a theory to explain a problem that we miss a potential solution right in front of our faces. Ramalingam goes on to explain how, when looking for even the simplest of solutions, we have to look at social, political, and environmental factors. If we just look at the cleanliness of a city as it relates to a influenza outbreak but not at the political set up that lacks the infrastructure for a sanitation department then we are missing a huge piece of the puzzle.

These compelling points that were made all throughout the book have deepened my understanding of the aid sector, the problems with it, and why there is no one cookie cutter solution for all of it. The world is growing in its’ complexity; globalization, military ties, and political gain all play a factor in this complexity. Our world is so intricately tied together that we can’t just look at one party for the solution or as the source of all the problems because there are so many players involved with it. It is crazy to think about how many nations and small players are out there going unchecked in their aid work. Be it for capital gain, political alliances, or strategic military moves the sectors has a lot of work to do before it with ever be where it needs to be. My biggest takeaway from this book was that though there are many problems that seemingly have no solution that does not mean we should stop searching for an answer. This sector can get exhausting but we should never become complacent with the way things are, that simply won’t do. I hope to carry this knowledge into my future be it in the sector or not.

Discussion questions:

What do you think is the biggest problem facing humanitarian aid work today?

What different factors play a role in the disconnectedness of aid work?

If a large organization to check the effectiveness of all organizations feasible or will it ever be?

At its current state is aid work doing more harm than good?

References

Ben Ramalingam. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.ids.ac.uk/people/ben-ramalingam/

Britannica, T. E. (2010, February 09). Mechanical and organic solidarity. Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/topic/mechanical-and-organic-solidarity

Ramalingam, B. (2015). Aid on the edge of chaos: Rethinking international cooperation in a

complex world. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ramalingam, B. (2016, October 09). Healthcare innovations won’t cure global health inequality– political action will | Ben Ramalingam. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/oct/09/healthcare-innovations-wont-cure-global-health-inequality-political-action-will-world-health-summit-berlin

Book review

Prompt
For this post you are to review your book by responding to the items below:

• Basic bibliographic information about the book.
• How the book relates to specific course themes or topics.
• How you can use any of the sociology you have learned in this course or others to more incisively analyze the content.
• What you personally gained from reading the book.
• Questions for discussion that the class can address generated by the content of the book.

Rubric

• Due by class time Monday, April 24th.
• Late posts will be downgraded at least one letter grade.
• Comments to at least three colleague’s posts by April 26th by 10:00PM EST.
• At least three citations: at least one from text and/or other assigned reading, and at least two from outside academic sources.  Note:  you are to read/watch/listen to all of the material in the hyperlinks in the parent post above; your contact with the material should be apparent in your post.
• List references at the bottom of the page (MLA format).
• At least one photo and/or video link.
• Minimum 0f 500 words (excluding references).
• Grade will be based on quality and quantity of response to the post prompt including adherence to the above benchmarks.
• Keep in mind that you are writing for a broad audience that is educated and interested in this topic; infuse your post with the sociology you are learning/have learned in a non-jargonistic manner

As a shorthand for the longer, more detailed grading rubric above this SOC summary may be useful.

• S = demonstration of understanding and application of sociological concepts, theories, etc. germane to the topic, especially those taking about in the text and in class
• O = organization and structure overall; flow of ideas, appropriate and contextualized use of images and videos, proper documentation of sources
• C = analytical creativity; going beyond obvious restatement or simple examples and pushing boundaries of thought and perspective; finding outside academic sources beyond the obvious

Please check Assignments/Assignment 11 before you Publish.