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Students: recognize complexities of humanitarian aid |
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Thursday, 01 November 2007 |
College students have a general infatuation with the world around them. We study abroad, we talk about joining the Peace Corps, we protest violence in third world countries, and for the more fortunate few, we travel recreationally to exotic locations and show off our pictures on Facebook.com.
While this may represent a love of exploration and adventure not unique to American college students, it is important for us to recognize our motivations in being so fascinated with the world around us.
In spite of the fact that the world is open for us to learn about and engage with, as college students, we should take time to understand the theories that lie behind our involvement in worldly issues.
Studying anthropology has brought me into a realm of thinking that is constantly complicating itself.
The modern discourse in anthropology is no longer content with merely presenting ‘cultures’ in an
interesting way; the postmodern critique of the field, starting in the 1980s, began discussing problems
that lie in ethnicity representing a group of people.
This discourse ranged in subjects from the necessity of describing the self-analytical situation of the
anthropologist to the validity of any person speaking for another.
After studying for a few semesters, I can sum up what I’ve learned by saying this: nothing is as simple
as it appears. Complexity is a virtue.
This said, I’ve started to wonder about our obsession, as college students, with the exotic, the
outsider, the Other.
Why are we so focused on setting our sights externally? Being a country with a colonialist background,
I begin to wonder if our modern-day fascination with the foreign is today’s Orientalism, a 19th century
movement fetishizing West Asian locations.
Or is it simply the continuation of colonialism - the domination of those “less fortunate than us?”
Colonizers, too, felt they were providing assistance to the less civilized, and that in controlling
“primitive” nations, everyone would benefit.
Granted, our worldly humanitarianism appears to have relocated itself into a place of more egalitarian
hopes for such lofty ideals as “world peace” and “equal rights for all.”
But how different is it?
As Americans, we’ve been trained to believe we’re a world superpower, and therefore, our responsibility
lies in helping out the people that aren’t members of world superpowers—namely, everyone else.
In focusing on every unfortunate situation existing in the world, from famine and civil wars in Africa to
oppression of religious practitioners in China, are we simply engaging in a historical practice of utilizing
others’ problems to increase our own self worth, both individually and nationally?
A bold question, to be sure. I feel it necessary to state that I’m not opposed to humanitarian action.
On the contrary, I respect students who are involved in providing awareness to others and desire to
use the opportunities given them to make the world “a better place,” whatever that may mean.
The real issue lies in the deep motivations that drive us forward.
Have we taken the time to truly understand the situations that we’re representing, studying the histories
and voices of the people we discuss? Are we making culturally biased assumptions about the moral
problems we’re attempting to correct?
The response I’ve sometimes heard to this example is that fields such as Sustainable Development
focus on this idea of aiding people in improving their own infrastructures, rather than simply giving
countries money and thereby maintaining power over them. This movement into a theoretical
understanding of situations rather than a face-value sensational reaction to the world’s tragedies is the
only way humanitarianism can be truly productive.
I think awareness and caring about issues is important. However, I think students should take the time
to recognize their own understanding of the world around them and the forces that motivate this
understanding.
Anna Donlan, a senior technical photography major from Atlanta, is a photographer.
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