by Linda Polman. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2010. 229 pages.
ISBN: 978-0-8-50-9290-5. $23.99 (hardcover).
Reviewed by Bert Ventura
The Crisis Caravan by Linda Polman is a narrative that vividly illustrates how a multibillion dollar industry has grown up around the humanitarian aid business; and while NGOs and IGOs compete for their share of the billions in aid money, the warring parties and rogue governments are benefitting the most from the aid. Ms. Polman, an Amsterdam based freelance journalist, has spent the last fifteen years reporting from war ravaged locations around the world. She is an excellent storyteller who vividly brings to life the grim realities of human suffering and the too often futile efforts of aid organizations in a manner not often seen.
Polman suggests that governments and private donors have lost sight of the real tragedies and give money based solely on newspaper headlines and not the extent and urgency of human suffering. Throughout the chapters, she takes the reader on a tour through war zones and manmade humanitarian crisis' in Africa and the Middle East. She highlights the frustrations of a Liberian doctor who while working diligently to help amputee victims of the Sierra Leone genocide, has his efforts and successes played down by western politicians vying for publicity. Polman also discusses the frustrations felt by Afghan citizens who helplessly watch as their government and other corrupt entities siphon off billions of dollars from aid money intended to rebuild their country.
Polman's conclusions are sensible and clear-eyed. She proposes the question: If aid has become a strategic aspect of warfare that more often than not benefits the aggressor instead of the victim, should nothing at all be done? She answers her own question by suggesting that the option of "doing nothing," while not what she advocates, should not be taken off the table if it is the best option available. In other words, all options must be equally considered even if it means saying no to aid. She also asserts that the aid system should not be exempt from fair criticism because "too much is wrong with it."
Given the author's determination to strike a chord with the reader regarding abuses in the delivery of humanitarian aid, The Crisis Caravan is a must read by policy makers, private donors, aid workers and military professionals. It will definitely change the way one looks at humanitarian aid.
Major Humberto O. Ventura, a U.S. Army Civil Affairs officer with service in Iraq and Latin America; he is currently working towards his M.S. in the Defense Analysis Department at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School.