humanitarian.info

There has been much kerfuffle about the latest MSF advert. Follow the links for more discussion and the video itself, if you can be bothered. I left a comment on those blogs, and I feel strongly enough to actually post something on this blog (which is dormant, by the way. I know, it doesn’t look it, does it? But it is.):

“There’s a little thing that MSF may have heard of (although they don’t subscribe to it) called the Red Cross Code of Conduct. Point 10 of the code states: “In our information, publicity and advertising activities, we shall recognise disaster victims as dignified humans, not hopeless objects.” This advert very clearly depicts hopeless objects rather than dignified humans, It also reinforces the stereotype historically peddled by British charities that They (the poor, the dark, the Other, however you want to view it) are helpless, and We are the only ones who can provide help.

“MSF does good work in the field, there’s no doubt about that, but by allowing this advert to be shown, you have shown that you are part of the problem, not part of the solution. Why not try to engage and educate the British public, rather than patronise them with this throwback to the worst 20th century fundraising tropes? These people are not just victims waiting for MSF to save them, and to pretend that they are is to sacrifice the reality of their lives for the sake of your media profile.”

That text was carefully selected so as not to offend anybody, because these are other peoples’ blogs, but here at home I can say what I want. I loathe this ad, and I loathe the people who made it (not personally loathe them, but politically loathe them). It is everything that I hate about the non-profit sector in the UK, and particularly the tropes it relies on for its fundraising. The world (and specifically Africa) is a black box of suffering; you don’t want to look inside, trust us, but give us your support and we’ll do something on your behalf. We’ll steal your agency, we’ll neuter you politically, and while we’re doing it, we’ll reduce the lives of the people who live inside the black box to a disembodied scream on your television screen.

This is exactly the same sort of advertising that sickened me when I started working in this sector, and that I promised myself I would not tolerate in the organisations that I worked for. I’m sick of treating the public like a bunch of fucking morons who can’t be expected to face reality, who can’t possibly be allowed to look inside the black box. If they did look inside, the danger is that they might see people who look a lot like them, and they might see that those people receive most of their support from their community, not from western organisations who turn up every now and then to spend the money that you gave them, and they might see that there may be better ways of supporting those people than through self-selected mediators.

My message to MSF-UK: go back to the Twentieth Century, and let the rest of the humanitarian community move forward. I’m being a little unfair, perhaps, but I never promised I was going to be fair.