By Shelterboxuk Tommy Tonkins This photo was taken on January 11, 2011. This photo belongs to shelterboxuk's photostream
To the extent that media has promoted humanitarian aid in Haiti, it has played a role in the “creation of the conditions” that have led to the cholera epidemic. In the most literal sense, since cholera has not been present in Haiti for a substantial amount of time, it has been posited that humanitarian aid re-introduced cholera to Haiti. The media coverage of the earthquake and aftermath inspired the international humanitarian action, however it is a hypocritical situation in the sense that the cholera epidemic was ameliorated due to sympathy inspired by the media coverage and resulting aid. One must always bear in mind that the media is not objective and it will always be influenced by the, “agents, aesthetics, politics, and economics” (Askew). If there were no media coverage in the first place Haiti would probably be in an extreme situation even without the introduction of cholera, due to their extenuating circumstances (extreme poverty and political corruption). So although media played a complicit role in the creation of conditions under which the cholera epidemic occurred the benefits of the humanitarian aid could be said to outweigh the disaster that is the cholera epidemic.
According to the article, "Alms Dealers" by Philip Gourevich, media brings attention to human suffering instigating the implementation of humanitarian aid projects. This aid contributes to the perpetuation of war and conflict via. humanitarian relief and financial relief for the government. Florence Nightingale points out that, “by easing the burden on war ministries…volunteer efforts could simply make waging war more attractive, and more probable”( Gourevitch). Gourevich argues that governments as well as rebel factions in the past have escalated violence against civilians in order to draw the attention of the international community and receive aid. However, he differentiates between aid to victims of wars and aid to victims of natural disasters. In the case of natural disasters there are fewer possibilities of escalating violence parallel to aiding victims (Gourevitch). Therefore, even if you can’t provide aid without facilitating conflicts during a wartime it may still be possible to provide aid during the aftermath of a natural disaster since the worst it will get is generally right after and it can theoretically only get better. The cholera epidemic may have been ignited by the U.N., but it was exacerbated largely because Haiti is one of the poorest nations and was unprepared to deal with the first let alone the second natural disaster, the hurricane and subsequent flooding. The cholera epidemic shows how aid may have been detrimental in this situation and in a round-about way also then the media coverage that promoted humanitarian conditions that led to cholera. One could say that if humanitarian aid was not there in the beginning then the cholera epidemic would not have happened, but the lives lost to cholera have not yet outnumbered the lives saved in the aftermath of the earthquake.
I agree with Florence Nightingale that humanitarian aid in regards to wars may not be in the best interest of the receiving persons, but I do think that in the instance of natural disasters in which the government or politics are not the cause, humanitarian aid is beneficial. All of the examples in the article were in instances of war and rebel fighting in which the funding and aid perpetuated the war for a longer amount of time and caused more damage. In times of natural disaster the peak of the damage is the immediate aftermath after which conditions can only be made better. It has not been resolved whether or not the aid purveyors actually brought cholera or not.
Bibliography
Askew, Kelly
2002 Introduction, In The Anthropology of Media: A Reader, Kelly Askew and Richard Wilk eds. Pp. 1-13. Malden Mass, Oxford: Blackwell.
Gourevitch, Philip 2010 Alms Dealers. The New Yorker. Oct 11, 2010, 102-109.
Related links:
http://www.haitiregeneration.org/home
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9123000/9123062.stm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shelterboxuk/5348371833/in/photostream/
No comments:
Post a Comment