Humanitarianism

David Rieff criticizes humanitarianism as an imperial hegemony that was imposed on the developing world by colonial rulers from Western countries. The writing is more of a detailed analysis of imperialism as a new form of liberation to humanitarian crises with key players not being the armed military men and women but unsuspecting volunteers who use medicine and syringes as has been seen in Syria, Libya and other countries like Iraq whose disasters bear similar characteristics to a horrific movie. In this book, Rieff shows how organizations, which serve in humanitarian conflict, try to alleviate the suffering of the civilians in these countries. The book paints a clear yet pensive picture of the horrors and risks that humanitarian aid workers have to go through in the duty to serve humanity. At the beginning of the book, we learned that David Rieff writing was done at the height of world Trade Center destruction in New York City and having done more coverage on major disasters as…

When addressing the idea of development as a component of humanitarianism, there are two schools of thought. One that we need to purely address the immediate needs of a population in crises; and the other that we need to address the immediate needs of the population while also building a sort of infrastructure so we do not have crises to that extent in the future. On a basic level, the idea of offering aid and promoting development seems the most logistical. Of course, it makes sense to provide…

ideals and values; thus creating, in contrast, a ‘bad’ to reflect the differences of other countries. These supposed shortcomings are the basis of the humanitarian discourse which has become an acceptable form of interference from dominant groups – prevalently Western governments. While many of the organizations which strive to create an impactful and helpful change in impoverished or repressed societies, they often base their actions off of the misconception that to become better, struggling…

Help or Hurt? Humanitarian Aid For over a century, the humanitarianism has represented compassion, courage, goodness, and heroism. It remains so in many ways today. Most of us feel compelled to donate or volunteer when we see images of a starving child, a displaced refugee, or when we hear news about a war-torn or natural disaster affected regions. It is heartwarming to know that there are so many organizations and individuals who so selflessly and courageously rush to help those in need. One of…

diplomats” (Wheeler 2011: 12). Celebrity humanitarianism is so commonplace today some even believe that it us “necessary [for] jump-starting [a] Hollywood career” (Kapoor 2013: 13). Development scholar Paul Collier characterizes development policies in the 21st century as being “heavily influenced by development biz and development buzz”: where the “biz” refers to “aid bureaucracies, aid agencies, and NGOs” and the “buzz” refers to the public interest inspired by the involvement of “rock stars…

The Role of Social Media in Humanitarian Computing Tyler Procko, Mohammad Alali and Zachary Hancock Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Abstract The use of social media as a form of humanitarian computing is a relatively novel area in the realm of technology. Probably the most prevalent use for social media with respect to humanitarian purposes is that of crisis analysis and intervention. In present society, social media platforms are implemented for almost every purpose, including…

Suffering is an ever-present concern across the globe and it spurs the need for charities and advocacy groups to help bring it to an end. Often times, celebrities become the voices of these charities and advocacy groups because of their popularity and impact on the public. This, however, strikes a controversy regarding the ethicality of having celebrities as public figures for humanitarian causes. It is debatable that celebrities’ vast influence on the public can negatively impact the cause.…

Humans have always owned a sense of survival in doing their best of what they can do to live, thrive, and survive such as the survival of the fittest however, we as humans feel the need to help those in need to help everyone for the better good of all. A way that we as humans fulfill the desire to help and better enable the prosperity of others is to donate foreign aid to other countries this has been done for a long, long time in which a group of people as in a country will donate money or…

INTRODUCTION When I discovered that I had to write a dissertation as part of a history honours course at the University of North London I naturally turned to the library and archive of my employer: the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain. The library is a treasure trove of fascinating archives and artefacts recording Quaker history over a period of 300 and more years. Discussions with the Head Librarian, Malcolm Thomas, narrowed the immense range of dissertation possibilities to…

The United States had a long tradition of expansion across the continent, but by the late 1800s, people started urging the U.S to start expanding overseas, following European’s model of imperialism. America’s actions in Cuba and the Philippines were the first steps in its quest to build an overseas empire. Many people say that for a complete explanation of U.S. actions in the 1890s, one would have to give equal weight to four motives: racism, nationalism, commercialism, and humanitarianism.…