Today, a global citizen is defined as anyone who works to make the world a better place (VIDEA). Humanitarian aid is defined as aid and action designed to save lives, alleviate suffering and maintain and protect human dignity during and in the aftermath of emergencies (“Defining Humanitarian Aid”). In 1980, The World Book Dictionary defined humanitarian as “a person who is devoted to the welfare of all human beings,” and aid as “help or assistance (Barnhart & Barnhart).” More or less these definitions are the same as they were 33 years ago, but it is the perception of a global citizen and humanitarian aid by other people that has changed over the years. Through reading other blog posts on these topics, various research and reading books about global citizens and humanitarian aid, I have learned that these definitions should probably be changed because they are giving a false meaning to the words “global citizen” and “humanitarian aid.”
After reading War Games, In the Eyes of Others, and Emergency Sex, it is clear that humanitarian aid is not what it appears to be. Western cultures come across as very ethnocentric in their work of humanitarian aid, though the United States can act like a coward sometimes in its’ efforts to bring peace to warring countries. Also, the money that naive Americans are donating to humanitarian aid funds, because it seems like a good cause, is often getting taken in transition, so their efforts to help someone in need is pretty much pointless.
In War Games, by Linda Polman, it mentions that “we have local customs authorities who want to squeeze out money from our relief supplies. We have guerrilla leaders and paramilitaries and generals and government people who basically don’t care if people die as long as their prestige is massaged (Polman, 88).” This statement in itself says that not every cent of humanitarian aid money is put towards relief for others. People of a higher social class don’t seem to care whether or not the people in their country receiving help get it or not. As long as they continue to be flourished with luxuries. Knowing this information, I find it hard to believe that people are still donating money to relief funds. In the following video, President Obama announces an extra $155 million will be sent to Syria for humanitarian aid. But how much of this money will actually go towards helping those who need it? With $155 million we could be helping many people in our own country, which should be our first priority.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQoEJbTOTLo
In the book In the Eyes of Others, it dissects how humanitarian aid is seen by people in other countries. This book focuses on the impact of Western cultures going into foreign lands and attempting to repair what has been broken. However, this book uncovers the truth about humanitarian aid and how ethnocentric the work being done can be. In one part of the book about humanitarian aid perceived as western domination, it states, “humanitarian aid is the ‘showcase’ for Western domination of Africa, the symbol of poverty (Abu-Sada, 117).” People in Western cultures believe that they are superior to other nations and this book by Caroline Abu-Sada definitely proves this. When traveling to other countries to provide humanitarian aid, people of Western cultures try and infuse their culture on the people they are there to help. Sometimes this is done unintentionally and other times it is done on purpose. You can’t just go into another country and expect everyone to start acting like you just because you believe where you come from is better. A personal experience of mine, when I traveled to Jamaica on a service trip, reminded me of a Western culture influencing people in another country. The group I was with did not intentionally try to change the people of Jamaica, but it is clear to me that we had some influence on the children at the school we worked with. I remember one of the kids at the school took my phone one day and started playing music, a song by Akon, a popular artist in America. The student had never heard of him before but fell in love with the song. Little things like this happened throughout our trip, and I am just now realizing that we, as Westerners, had an impact on the people of Jamaica through culture whether we meant to do it or not.
Counter to this, America and Western cultures can also be cowards in a time of war when other countries need help. In Emergency Sex, the war in Haiti is talked about at one point. As things were getting worse and worse, America decided to send a ship of soldiers over to help bring peace to this warring country. It is mentioned that the American ship arrives and “a gang of drunken macoutes (a militia in Haiti responsible for numerous deaths and rapes) with crude weapons…so President Clinton orders the American soldiers and their chip to withdraw from the docks and from Haiti. It’s too dangerous (Cain, Postlewait & Thomson, 170).” It goes on to say that the Americans could have easily taken out the macoutes, but this shows an act of fear on the Americans part. If we are so ethnocentric and wanting other countries to be like us, are we saying that we want them to be cowards? I would certainly hope the answer is no.
In conclusion, humanitarian aid is not at all what we expect it to be and probably wouldn’t know without a little research. To be a good global citizen, we do not have to travel 12+ hours on a plane to a country that is broken and needs help. We can start by helping our own country, which is far from perfect. Messing with other countries is how humanitarian aid gets its’ negative views from other people. As one of my peers said, “before a country can go fixing others, it must fix itself (Dash Jepsen).”
Poverty statistics in America
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