I think it's important to be mindful of the politics and power behind the trope "humanitarian aid" especially in cases of territorial conflict. As I found in Sri Lanka, whether it was ongoing humanitarian assistance from UNICEF or relief for the tsunami disaster, political actors of all kinds, as well as advocacy organizations, capitalized in various ways on being seen to give and to receive aid. I'm eager to see what the various investigations will uncover once they get underway.
Margo
Dr. Margo Kleinfeld
Associate Professor
Department of Geography and Geology
University of Wisconsin - Whitewater
Whitewater, WI 53190-1790
office: 262.472.1087
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From: A forum for critical and radical geographers [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Deb Ranjan Sinha [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2010 7:59 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Augebrachte Narrenschiffe/Ship of fools
Actually Thomas, the aid organization IHH [Foundation for Human Rights and
Freedom and Humanitarian Relief (its German sister organization is
Internationale Humanitare Hilfsorganisation and the Dutch branch is
Internationale Humanitaire Hulporganisatie)], operates in over a hundred
countries and has consultative membership status in the United Nations Economic
and Social Council. Recently, it has been involved in aid efforts in Haiti.
But perhaps none of these facts really matter....
Deb.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Doerfler" <[log in to unmask]>
Or, to put it the other way round: what the hell brought these people to ship
aid to Gaza and not to one of the 10.000 other sites of humanitarian desaster?
Ask them, you will be surprised. <snip>
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