The Corruptions of Unchecked Humanitarianism

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/11/the-corruptions-of-unchecked-humanitarianism

Philip Gourevitch, writing in the New Yorker:

It got to the point where the armless and legless had piles of extra prosthetics in their huts and still went around with their stubs exposed to satisfy the demands of press and N.G.O. photographers, who brought yet more money and more aid. In the obscene circus of self-regarding charity that Polman sketches, vacationing American doctors turned up, sponsored by their churches, and performed life-threatening (sometimes life-taking) operations without proper aftercare, while other Americans persuaded amputee parents to give up amputee children for adoption in a manner that seemed to combine aspects of bribery and kidnapping. Officers of the new Sierra Leone government had only to put out a hand to catch some of the cascading aid money. ... The corruptions of unchecked humanitarianism, after all, are hardly unique to Sierra Leone. Polman finds such moral hazard on display wherever aid workers are deployed. In case after case, a persuasive argument can be made that, over-all, humanitarian aid did as much or even more harm than good.

by Editor  |  Nov 8, 2010 at 11:06 am Related Topics:  Non-Profits receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list