Is Humanitarian Design the New Imperialism?
17th July 2010
Bruce Nussbaum is one of the worst SWPL handwringers I’ve encountered in years.
Reading the article, it becomes plain that the not-invented-here objections raised (by native members of the Crust) reflect a dislike of having traditional power relationships disrupted than any actual, demonstrable flaws in the projects.
Our foreign aid programs have the same gauntlet to run — unless they’re funneled through the local wa-Benzi (who extract their customary percentage), they run the risk of being denounced as ‘imperialism’; the local wa-Benzi know this and know well how to game the system.