Massive Disaster Aid a “Convenient Illusion”
// October 19th, 2006 // World Issues
“Massive public appeals by aid agencies in the wake of disasters are wrong and should stop, a senior Medicines Sans Frontieres (MSF) official said.
Gorik Ooms, head of MSF-Belgium, said such appeals did more harm than good and were based on a “convenient illusion” of benefit shared by nongovernmental organisations and the donating public.
Emergency donations are too late to be of use, and swiftly turn to poison as they encourage incompetent interventions by NGOs desperate to dispose of earmarked cash, he said during a debate at the London School of Economics.
“If we take this money we end up doing things we shouldn’t do,” he said. “Many NGOs don’t have real disaster relief capacity but they go for an appeal because it is a source of funding. NGOs that have real capacity are crowded out by those that don’t.”
Ooms urged NGOs to have the bravery to debate whether they should appeal for vast sums after emotive disasters.” Reuters AlertNet
I have worked in Disasters for 16 years. Any one can talk about failures but true genius suggests answers and also will take an honest look at what is correct about humanitarian response. The biggest are not always the best. In fact they are the one who have the best accountants to hide funds and make sure that each staff member has a brand new Land Cruiser no matter what the cost. Ask this guy how much money he makes working the system he criticizes. I have seen the little people holding the hand of the sufferer and while that may not matter to most it mattered to the one who had a companion during suffering. Try a Tsunami without releif. Proffesional pablum from the bully pulpit. Nice try.