"I genuinely struggle to understand how, in so many areas of life we are very quick to say, “do it right, or don’t do it at all…” Yet when it comes to the very complex, high stakes endeavor of alleviating poverty in the context of another culture we are too often similarly quick to shrug off misguided attempts to “help” as perfectly acceptable because at least the person did something."
— Tales from the Hood once again raising an important misconception about poverty and the solutions, good intentions are not enough.
"We all go into humanitarian aid work out of mixed motivations, some “good”, some less so. But it is often difficult to admit to others our personal motivations – it’s supposed to be all about making the world a better place. Few of us would ever dream admitting that we’re all in this searching as well. We’re supposed to be coming to this whole aid thing with all the answers. It is hard for us to acknowlege that just like a suburban divorcee taking some time away, we’re also looking for meaning."
— Another (insightful?) take on being a humanitarian aid worker from Tales in the Hood
"The reality of aid work is that it is a lot of text- and spreadsheet-bitchery. It is a lot of hunching over a laptop computer, late at night in sweltering heat (or bitter cold) banging out a report to satisfy a needy internal constituent who fails to understand the context. It is a lot of meeting donor reporting deadlines in particular donor formats. It is a lot of arguing with people who see the world very differently. It is a lot of trying to understand, and then explain why things have not gone as planned. It is a lot of documenting what has been done (text bitchery) and communicating what one plans to do (more text bitchery). It is a lot of re-re-connecting to the internet every 7.3 minutes so that you can continue your skype conversation because some cubicle-farmer at HQ is forever riding your ass about your international cell phone bill. It is about keeping the demons of ethnocentrism sufficiently at bay that you do not totally alienate the local staff and counterparts with whom you must work (because no matter how cool or awesome or even hot they are, there will come a day when they totally piss you off, and rightly or wrongly, in your heart in a moment of weakness you’ll blame their culture)."
— Tales from the Hood on the reality of being an aid-worker.
