Reflections On Humanitarianism
By Iqbal Alimohamed
19 August, 2010
Countercurrents.org
Today, 19th August, is World Humanitarian Day, declared by the United Nations to honor humanitarian workers who have lost their lives in the cause of duty. The Day is a tribute to the memory of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the late Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, and 21 of his colleagues, who were killed in the tragic bombing of the United Nations Headquarters in Baghdad on 19th August, 2003. It is also a call on governments to ensure the safety and dignity of all humanitarian workers, including journalists, as they go about their difficult tasks. Above all, It is a day for all of us to reflect upon the meaning and essence of humanitarianism in our own individual lives. For, as Socrates remarked, “An unexamined life is not worth living.”
Humanitarianism has been best defined as an ethic of active compassion extended universally and impartially to all human beings. It makes no distinction as to color, caste, creed or culture. It has its roots in the imperatives of common human decency and the “do-as- you- would- wish- to- be- done- by” maxim preached by our grandparents. It emphasizes the role of character, conscience and conviction. It demands a sense of deep outrage against willful wrongdoings, and the moral courage to confront and challenge them. Above all, it requires the grace of humility whereby, in the words of Nelson Mandela, “as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to also do the same.”
Humanitarianism has two faces: “Volunteerism” and “Philanthropy”. Volunteerism has its roots in the belief that governments cannot be expected to do everything for their peoples or to solve all their problems. The driving force is the spirit of community, good neighborliness and acknowledgement of shared personal responsibility, often without monetary compensation. Volunteerism is best inculcated from early childhood by parents and teachers, as part of a normal education and upbringing. It takes the form of school-based activities such as charity walks to raise funds for vulnerable children in poor countries and, in later life, to participation in civic movements and activities geared to improving social services, such as care for the elderly, or combatting discrimination. Philanthropy, born of the spirit of practiced volunteerism, inevitably manifests itself in the ready willingness, resources permitting, to promote human welfare through donations, endowments and foundations for charitable and humanitarian causes.
Humanitarianism, with its twin components of volunteerism and philanthropy, has been an age-old and evolving characteristic of societies going back to ancient and medieval civilizations, fighting the scourges of war, human rights abuses such as slavery and incarceration, or founding and supporting private foundations for the promotion of worthy causes such as medical research, the arts, education social services. For example, the institution of the concept of “Wakf” or “Trust” - the permanent dedication by a Muslim, of personal property for purposes deemed pious, religious or charitable-has its origins in the Traditions of the Prophet of Islam and assumed rigid legal form two centuries later, long before the concept of Trusts was introduced in England. Indeed, faith-based groups and communities everywhere have found solace and encouragement from injunctions to care for one another. Jesus admonished that loving one another is the greatest of all God’s Commandments. In Islam, the Holy Koran reminds us that ”We created you.... and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other” and the Torah commands us to “love thy neighbor.” The principle of caring for one another and of social justice, is fully entrenched in all religions.
Today’s societal structures, however, are being severely tested by the economic and political failures of our times, compounded by immense ecological challenges, both man-made and natural: the recent disastrous floods in Pakistan, massive earthquakes, landslides and brush fires elsewhere, the ongoing Middle East conflict, dangerous standoffs in the nuclear arena are some examples. This scenario is an affront to every individual’s dignity and demands, more than ever before, humanitarian intervention of a more robust and urgent nature.
I have been both blessed and privileged to have been a part of the United Nations’ humanitarian endeavors in several regions of the world. I have, sadly, witnessed at first hand, the suffering and sense of sheer despair and hopelessness on the gaunt faces of old, crippled, starving men, women and children trying to survive in squalid conditions, in sprawling refugee camps in Africa. I have seen large boatloads of surviving Vietnamese “boat people” happy at last to make landfall after perilous sea voyages, having suffered savage pirate brutalities of rape, torture and killing. And I have experienced the utter frustration of dealing with unyielding government bureaucrats and corrupt elements, while often having to live in fear of threats to personal security.
Humanitarian work is intrinsically distressing and can be both emotionally and physically draining, but each iota of success achieved carries with it a renewed sense of exhilaration and satisfaction, reminding us, in the words of Sir Wilfred Thomas Grenfell, a Canadian medical missionary, famous in his lifetime, but now largely forgotten: ”The service we render to others is really the rent we pay for our room on this earth”
My dear departed friend and former colleague, Sergio, and his 21 humanitarian colleagues in Baghdad dutifully paid their rent for their short stay on this planet and, like many others before and since them have done, made the ultimate sacrifice of their lives, in an exemplary show of courage and commitment for a cause they firmly believed in. It now remains for us all to ensure that their deaths will not have been in vain.
Iqbal Alimohamed is a former senior UN official and served as the UNHCR Regional Representative in Malaysia, Japan, Australia and the Sudan. He is an active member of the Geneva Writers Group and live in Geneva, Switzerland
