Hope in Hell

Humanitarian aid currently tackles some of the worse crisis in the world, from New Orleans to Uganda. Yet, as effective as governments, the UN and NGOs are at delivering aid, they are also at times totally ineffective. Lack of financial muscle, targeted donations, the ever shifting focus of the media from one disaster to another, and simply the lack of caring for our fellow humans, all contribute to escalating disasters around the world. National Geographic takes a look at a few recent disasters: the US Gulf Coast hurricane flooding; South-East Asia tsunami; the earthquake of Bam, Iran; war torn Afghanistan; and the armed insurgency of northern Uganda. There are stories of hope within the hell, helplessness and frustration of aid workers -- ordinary people, in extraordinary jobs, bringing a little hope and respite.

We've all heard the stories of official inaction in New Orleans. The American Red Cross was ordered to stay out of New Orleans by Homeland Security during the initial days of the disaster -- and the government bureaucrats held back on professional aid workers and aid shipments while they discussed how best to deploy them. All this from the country that just several months ago, responded to the call for help from South-East Asian countries, with a massive humanitarian effort. During those early days in New Orleans however the best came out of some people.

"On Friday afternoon [Sept. 2nd] a late-model Chrysler barreled around the corner from Julia Street and headed south on Convention Center Boulevard. It jerked to a stop in front of the building, and a young man with cornrow braids wearing a giant T-shirt and baggy jeans stepped out. A young woman who rode in with him threw open the trunk, which was filled with crates of orange drink. As people from the crowd swarmed the car, she shouted that the delivery was specifically for women with young children."

There are heroes, but the world sometimes does little to help them. Sometimes the world forgets, and humanitarian aid arrives too late, or just never gets where it should go. Promises are made when a disaster is on the international stage, but when the attention wanes, so are the promises forgotten. $131M was promised for earthquake relief in Iran, but only about $17M actually made it. There was overwhelming initial response from the world to the tsunami disaster in South-East Asia -- so much so, that the professional humanitarian organizations found themselves competing and being distracted, by amateurs. Even the Scientologists showed up. The media made the tsunami the biggest thing happening in the world. Makes you wonder if some of the 'volunteers' were there to help those in need, or to feel good about themselves. The HIV/AIDS pandemic takes as much life as the tsunami every three weeks -- but where's the outpouring of help?

"Dr. Kees Rietveld, a veteran humanitarian health worker remarked, 'Somehow, people just seem to accept that Africans are starving or getting killed. It's no big deal. But when you have blond Swedish children or a Czech fashion model swept away by some tidal wave, that's a totally different matter.'"

At the same time as the world is doing little to help those providing humanitarian aid, so too is getting worse for aid workers on the ground. They've become targets in the countries they operate in. In Afghanistan, Iraq and various parts of Africa, it has become acceptable to take aid workers hostage or kill them. They've become targets, and as a result, it is worse for the civilians stuck in hell. Take northern Uganda, where the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has been waging a 19 year insurgency to topple the government in order to establish strict Christian rule. At night, the LRA sneaks into villages to kill, mutilate and kidnap children to serve as slaves and fighters. NGM tells the horrifying story of a little boy, Dick.

" 'I could hear them come into the village. There was a lot of shouting. They came to our hut and pointed guns at us. We were very scared.' The men forced him and six other boys, including his brother, to loot the trading post. 'We put everything on our backs. They beat us and pushed us into the bush. Then we had to walk.'
 Once in the bush, the boys were distributed as personal slaves or soldiers to the commanders. As for the captured girls, they were offered to individual rebels as soldiers, sex slaves, or wives. Those who would not obey, or who cried, were beaten; some were killed.
 Dick received basic military training and was often forced to watch civilians being tortured and murdered. Sometimes he and the other boys had to stab or bludgeon people to death; otherwise, they too would be killed. 'Then we had to drink their blood,' he said, fidgeting with his fingers. 'They made us drink so that we became part of the dead people. This way we all killed.' "

The stories are horrifying, yet how many in the world know about Dick or the other children like him in Uganda? Why don't we want to know? Why aren't we helping? Why aren't we doing something about this? Unfortunately, it's politics and short term gain. There is no romance in the setting about to make long term changes for the better. So hell continues.