Military and aid
I receive a lot of press releases from NGOs and agencies lately, which I publish on The NonProfit Press
Yesterday, I received an offer from a PR company distributing video and images for the US military. They asked if I'd be interested in using some of their material.
My answer was rather short.
Thanks for the offer, but I have to decline. The involvement of the US military in humanitarian aid in the recent years has severely damaged the image of neutrality and impartiality of aidworkers, and as such greatly contributed to the targeting of aidworkers by terrorists.
Specifically for the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions, I deplore the way the US has tried to integrate a humanitarian response as part of their plans to attack a foreign sovereign country, bringing down the threshold of engaging in military interventions abroad.
I am a fervent supporter of the segregation between military and humanitarian roles.
Peter. Flemish, European, aid worker, expeditioner, sailor, traveller, husband, father, friend, nutcase. Not necessarily in that order.
2 comments:
wow, that's interesting... i basically want to work on women's development projects within a context of international security. can you write more on your take on this? i'd be really interested to know more about your perspective. I have yet to get into this kind of work, so I'm happy to hear all sides (well, I would be even if I were already in this field of work, but it's even more interesting right now while I'm researching grad programs). Thanks!
Miki,
see also these posts:
http://www.theroadtothehorizon.org/2008/08/news-relief-agencies-criticize-us.html
and
http://www.theroadtothehorizon.org/2008/08/news-un-and-us-more-than-one-letter-of.html
Hope this helps,
Peter
Post a Comment