There is also the question of unintended side-effects. The provision of food
aid is notoriously difficult precisely because of the distortions it can impose on local
economies and livelihoods, and its ambiguous role in the political economy of
conflict. Even more troubling, David Rieff notes that while UN officials can justifiably
assert that their humanitarian endeavours have saved many lives across the world,
“their presence has also cost lives by raising in people who might have succeeded in
fleeing and saving themselves the false confidence that they would be protected.”
Rieff refers to those Rwandans bereaved because of just “such a waste of hope.”^58
Similarly, Alex de Waal with respect to famine, argues that “[the] greatest harm
done by the humanitarian international is to create delusion”. For him, this delusion
takes on a triple character:
Western governments and donating publics are deluded into believing the
fairy tale that their aid can solve profound political problems, when it
cannot. The humanitarians deceive themselves about their own importance.
Most significantly, local people (“recipients” or “beneficiaries”) are deluded
into believing that salvation can come from other than their own actions.
Some tangible material benefits (many fewer than are commonly believed)
are delivered, but at the cost of sustaining this tremendous, institutionalized
delusion. Meanwhile, the real reasons why people survive and conquer
famine are obscured.^59Rieff’s view is very clearly that “it is impossible to really do no harm”.^60 This links to
Rieff’s sense that it is important to acknowledge that the context of
humanitarianism is failure, and therefore thinking that we can step into hell and do
no harm must always be entirely illusory.^61 Conceivably, some situations that
prompt humanitarian rescue may be very simple cases of help being called for and
granted. But the scenarios in which humanitarianism currently functions are rarely
that simple. Moreover, if the act of rescue can be understood in a way that is
devoid of harm for rescued and rescuer alike, the question remains of what means
58
59 Rieff, A Bed for the Night , 13.
60 de Waal, Famine Crimes , 221.
61 Rieff, A Bed for the Night , 22.
Ibid., 304.