Cyclone Pam: Vanuatu slams aid agencies
Yesterday I posted about Cyclone Pam, reposting a friends thoughts with some of my own.
This article from SHANE COWLISHAW IN VANUATU AND SIOBHAN DOWNES for Stuff confirms some of what Graham was talking about yesterday.
On a slightly different take, I find alot of the reporting trobling as well. Too often it seems that the first people in are the reporters, not aid workers or government officials. How helpful it all is really. Planes filled with people to report on the events, rather than materials that might be needed.
Todays article rasies a good question for me. Reporters need disasters to give them something to do, and they have to report so so that they can sell copy to pay their wages. The bigger the story the better - it will get more headlines, so you get more pay. We saw it here with Rena. Even here part of the story was the slow response and incompetence. It sells.
Aid workes need disasters too. It pays their way. They rely on donations and govenrment support to be able to do what they do. And I am sure they do ti really well and altruistically. But there is always a level of self interest in all this. So with all the aid agencies and governments, I can see how easy ti would be for the locals to loose control. How do the co-ordinate it all. How easily are the locals heard. What are the underlying assumptions at play in the Aid agencies?
I also recognise that we need the press to get the story out so that people like me donate to the aid effort. That is why aid agencies need to get there name out there, to encourage people like me to give. All very tricky.
This article from SHANE COWLISHAW IN VANUATU AND SIOBHAN DOWNES for Stuff confirms some of what Graham was talking about yesterday.
On a slightly different take, I find alot of the reporting trobling as well. Too often it seems that the first people in are the reporters, not aid workers or government officials. How helpful it all is really. Planes filled with people to report on the events, rather than materials that might be needed.
Todays article rasies a good question for me. Reporters need disasters to give them something to do, and they have to report so so that they can sell copy to pay their wages. The bigger the story the better - it will get more headlines, so you get more pay. We saw it here with Rena. Even here part of the story was the slow response and incompetence. It sells.
Aid workes need disasters too. It pays their way. They rely on donations and govenrment support to be able to do what they do. And I am sure they do ti really well and altruistically. But there is always a level of self interest in all this. So with all the aid agencies and governments, I can see how easy ti would be for the locals to loose control. How do the co-ordinate it all. How easily are the locals heard. What are the underlying assumptions at play in the Aid agencies?
I also recognise that we need the press to get the story out so that people like me donate to the aid effort. That is why aid agencies need to get there name out there, to encourage people like me to give. All very tricky.
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