Thoughts on humanitarian aid to the developing countries:
Will this type of aid defeat poverty and prevent humanitarian crises?
No, because this type of aid is geared towards consequences and not the source: such as risk of life during an armed conflict or natural disaster or poverty and social disintegration and scarcity for the masses resulting from an unqual sharing of public spending.
Does this mean to say that humanitarian aid should be eliminated? No. Now less than ever.
It's not just a matter of spending money but of once again seeing ourselves as belonging to the same group of people on Earth: Humanity. To quote Leonardo Boff: "The first act that distinguished us from other animals was the will to hunt and eat in groups for the common good. Cooperation is the fundamental law of the Universe and of human life."
That is what makes Capitalism so perverse - it puts the whole emphasis on one individal competing against the other. It is unsustainable in the long run because of the tension, conflict and environmental deterioration it generates.
Globalization promotes global inequality. However inefficient or self-interested humanitarian aid may be, without it the world would have shattered into a thousand pieces way back carrying us all back to a more primitive time."
(Carmello Gallardo, UN Food Security Program Coordinator)
