A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis

Abstract

During the 1990s, the world bore witness to a startling number of\natrocities, from the much-publicized massacres in Bosnia and the genocide\nin Rwanda, to the lesser known civil wars in the Democratic Republic of\nCongo and the Sudan, which themselves claimed millions. To David Rieff,\nauthor of books such as Slaughterhouse: Bosnia and the Failure of the West and\nan experienced journalist who extensively covered Bosnia and Rwanda, the\nworld is a place where literally billions suffer with little reason for hope.\n"Human rights" and "international community" are ideas with good\nintentions, but with little substance or weight behind them. For Rieff, the\naid worker is one of the last remaining noble forces amidst this brutality.\nThe aid worker brings food, care, and hope to both innocent and guilty\nalike in the worst of circumstances. Quoting one aid worker, Rieff defines\ntraditional humanitarianism as "an effort to bring a measure of humanity,\nalways insufficient, into situations that should not exist."'\nBecause he holds the principles and acts of humanitarianism in such\nhigh regard, Rieff is deeply disturbed by the increased politicization of\nhumanitarianism and the military interventions undertaken in its name in\nthe 1990s. David Rieff's A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis is an\nemotionally raw and deeply personal argument that humanitarian\norganizations must be free from the constraints of the demands of donor\ngovernments and the broader ideological concerns of the human rights or\n"good governance" movements. Humanitarianism must be free to simply\naid those in need. In making this argument, the book provides a view into\nthe politics and subculture of humanitarian aid organizations, from the\nInternational Red Cross (IRC) to Doctors Without Borders (MSF); it takes as\nits examples the humanitarian crises of the 1990s, from Bosnia to\nAfghanistan.

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