Quote:
Originally posted by Say_hello_for_me
I've always sort of liked these people, and I certainly wish them no harm. Still, these tidbits were interesting, to say the least.
"MSF, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999, has been working in Afghanistan for 24 years — through a decade of Soviet occupation, a brutal civil war and the rise and fall of the repressive Taliban. A French staffer was killed in 1990, but they have never withdrawn until now. "
So the premise isn't just that they help others. The premise is that they help others when its safe?
and then there is this from the same Chicago Tribune article
>>The aid group also called on the U.S. military to halt its expanding use of humanitarian work to win over skeptical Afghans.
U.S. and NATO (news - web sites) troops are running a string of so-called Provincial Reconstruction Teams across the country, setting up clinics, digging wells and doing other work normally carried out by civilians.
...
Blurring the distinction "puts all aid workers in danger," MSF secretary-general Marine Buissonniere said. <<
Mmmm, hmmm.
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I think there is more going on here than their people being unsafe. They are also finding their effectiveness compromised, and they are finding that they are being put into a political position against their will, since the US and the Afghani government are using them and other aid workers as a political chit, limiting access or granting access based on how it serves political ends.
There's a very difficult debate in the relief world as to whether it is better to be an independent force that maintains autonomy from the "locals" or whether it is better to work organically with the local organizations. Most of the organizations with political as well as relief oriented goals want to work organically, but who they want to work with differs (the US wants to work with political allies, left-leaning organizations want to work with their political allies, certain, but not all, church groups want to work with affiliated local religious organizations). Doctors without Borders has always been in the camp of organizations that maintain autonomy, and this position is consistent with others they have taken in the past.
