Archivo etiqueta «Ayuda humanitaria»
By Conor Foley, a humanitarian aid worker (THE GUARDIAN, 14/05/10):
The humanitarian aid industry is big business. According to the Overseas Development Institute it was worth about $18bn (£12bn) in 2008 and employed over 300,000 people – a huge increase in recent years. Aid agencies also have growing political clout, playing a leading role in shaping foreign policies of western governments towards humanitarian crises – sometimes even helping to trigger foreign military interventions.
Yet the industry is subject to very little external scrutiny, lacks accountability and is widely believed to often do more harm than good.
There is … Seguir leyendo
By Linda Polman, the author of the forthcoming War Games: The Story of War and Aid in Modern Times (THE TIMES, 18/01/10):
Aid workers have already baptised the earthquake in Haiti a “historical disaster”. It will rate high in the annals of the humanitarian aid world because of the number of victims and scale of the destruction. But the rescue operation is also becoming notorious for the slowness with which aid is reaching the victims. Five days after the quake hit, many places are still largely bereft of international aid.
Not through lack of funds, supplies or emergency experts. … Seguir leyendo
By Sam Kiley, a former Africa bureau chief of The Times (THE TIMES, 23/10/09):
The Horn of Africa is in the grip of the worst drought for 47 years! Some 23 million people are threatened with starvation! When you see children on TV with distended bellies keening over their dying parents, it would be inhuman not to be moved to tears. But do them a favour. Sit on your hands.
The situation is ghastly to be sure. But, as Christmas approaches, the most intelligent response to this latest disaster is to quote Ebenezer Scrooge and cry “bah, humbug”.
African … Seguir leyendo
By Laurent Vieria de Mello, president of the Sergio Vieira de Mello Foundation (THE WASHINGTON POST, 19/08/09):
Six years ago today, my father, Sergio Vieira de Mello, was killed in a tragic attack in Baghdad that changed the face of the humanitarian world. A truck filled with bombs exploded in the United Nations compound, killing 22 humanitarian workers and wounding many more. Some who were not physically hurt were psychologically wounded. Even years later, many remain vulnerable.
My father headed the U.N. team in Baghdad. A few days before he was killed, he wrote: “The situation is indeed difficult. … Seguir leyendo
The writer works with the UN World Food Programme in Kabul. His name is not being used to protect his identity (THE TIMES, 19/08/09):
Last month, while I was visiting my family in southeastern Afghanistan, my mobile rang. I didn’t dare answer it.
I recognised the number — it was a colleague I work with at the World Food Programme (WFP) office in Kabul — but I couldn’t risk being overheard speaking to her in English.
Most of my relatives in Paktia province don’t know that I work for the United Nations. I tell them I run a private business … Seguir leyendo
By Conor Foley, a humanitarian aid worker (THE GUARDIAN, 22/07/09):
The announcement that the United Nations has a record $4.8bn funding gap for its 2009 aid programmes may not strike some observers as news. For the last two decades, in particular, the UN has lurched from one financial crisis to another. Although the size of the latest shortfall is unprecedented, the basic problem is that the world’s politicians have consistently failed to stump up the resources that the UN needs to fulfil the tasks that they demand of it or to set up a system of effective managerial oversight … Seguir leyendo
By Anna Husarska, senior policy adviser at the International Rescue Committee, which has been working in Afghanistan since 1988 (THE WASHINGTON POST, 10/07/09):
The new commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, announced: “The Afghan people are at the center of our mission. In reality, they are the mission.” The four-star general was wearing military fatigues, but his wording sounded civilian. Indeed, when President Obama explained in March how the United States plans “to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he ordered a “civilian surge” in Afghanistan. But make no mistake: The … Seguir leyendo
By Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist and a fellow at the Pacific Council on International Policy; author of Descent Into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia (THE WASHINGTON POST, 13/06/09):
Even before the explosion Tuesday at the Pearl Continental Hotel killed at least 16 people in Peshawar, Pakistan was at the center of global attention. Yet for all the concern about terrorism, the world has been stunningly indifferent to the plight of the more than 2.4 million people who have fled the Swat Valley, where the Pakistani army is … Seguir leyendo
By Kamila Shamsie (THE GUARDIAN, 13/06/09):
Almost every day the news out of Pakistan offers evidence of growing support for military action against the Taliban in Swat, and growing antipathy towards the Taliban itself. The rightwing media, which had urged the government to make peace deals, is falling over itself in praise of military advances.
But straightforward approval for military action is not the whole story. An article in one of Pakistan’s papers a few days ago reported that tribesmen in Upper Dir had besieged 200 Taliban and killed a number in response to the Taliban’s bombing of a mosque. … Seguir leyendo
By Nick Young, chief executive of the British Red Cross (THE GUARDIAN, 28/02/09):
In the Gaza Strip, over one month on from the end of the conflict, tens of thousands of people are still struggling to rebuild their lives. We in the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, supported by large donations from the British public, mounted a massive response during the conflict with thousands of staff and volunteers delivering medical care, clean water and food. These unsung humanitarian heroes got to work as soon as fighting began, often risking their own lives, and haven’t stopped since.
Throughout … Seguir leyendo
By Jim Hoagland (THE WASHINGTON POST, 16/11/08):
While world leaders gathered here to unleash soothing words on the financial tsunami swamping their economies, the daring “responsibility to protect” doctrine adopted by U.N. members three years ago was being buried in the killing fields of eastern Congo.
For the sake of your bank account, hope that the international community can protect dollars, euros and yen more successfully than it protects the lives and safety of people who happen to live in failed or rogue states.
In three years, “never again” has become “sorry about that.” Humanitarian intervention — proudly proclaimed as … Seguir leyendo
By Camilla Cavendish (THE TIMES, 26/09/08):
Biting the hand that feeds the world doesn’t seem like a great strategy. But at the United Nations, it’s normal. Last year, in a masterstroke, the UN General Assembly put Zimbabwe in charge of Sustainable Development. Yesterday, the world leaders who gathered at the UN in New York found a new excuse to rage against America, the world’s biggest aid donor, for having the cheek to try to save the West from recession.
“Using the bailouts of the international banking system,” the Chilean President said, “the scourge of hunger on the planet could have … Seguir leyendo
By Robert D. Kaplan, a national correspondent for The Atlantic and a fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 14/05/08):
More than 60,000 people may have died as a result of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, and at least 1.5 million are homeless or otherwise in desperate need of assistance. The Burmese military junta, one of the most morally repulsive in the world, has allowed in only a trickle of aid supplies. The handful of United States Air Force C-130 flights from Utapao Air Base here in Thailand is little more than … Seguir leyendo
By Simon Jenkins (THE GUARDIAN, 14/05/08):
You don’t have to be cynical to do foreign policy, but it helps. A sigh of relief rose over the west’s chancelleries on Monday as it became clear that the Chinese earthquake was big – big enough to trump Burma’s cyclone.
To add to the relief, Beijing was behaving better than it has over past calamities. Since this might have been thanks to the west’s “positive engagement” with China’s dictators – even awarding them the Olympics – we could possibly take credit from the week’s tally of disaster. Sorry about that, Burma.
The Burmese … Seguir leyendo
By Anne Applebaum (THE WASHINGTON POST, 13/05/08):
They are “cruel, power-hungry and dangerously irrational,” in the words of one British journalist. They are ” violent and irrational,” according to a journalist in neighboring Thailand. Our own State Department leadership has condemned their “xenophobic, ever more irrational policies.”
On the evidence of the past few days alone, those are all accurate descriptions. But in one very narrow sense, the cruel, power-hungry, violent and xenophobic generals who run Burma are not irrational at all: Given their most urgent goal — to maintain power at all costs — their reluctance to … Seguir leyendo