The
world cannot function without the work that charity organisations like The Red
Cross, Oxfam, Save the Children, and all the others perform. They are there
when disaster strikes and they come to the rescue on a timely basis so they are
hardly noticed. Were they not there the void that they would leave would be
enormous.
A
scandal has blown up surrounding certain sex `practices committed by some of
the male volunteers who go into areas of death and destruction and admittedly it
looks bad. However, upon examination what really happens and is it all that
bad?
If you
talk to a man who always has a bag packed for immediate departure from his own
comfort zone to fly into places that have been struck by a tsunami, a major
hurricane, fire, landslide, etc; a man who has seen too much for one man to
see, the story he would tell you has a different look entirely.
Take
Haiti for example, a place where he has been a couple of times in response to
one crisis after another. When the team arrives they find no roads, no shops,
no food, no potable drinking water, no shelter, and no nothing except human
beings in dire need of help. They roll up their sleeves and dig in bringing
invaluable assistance to all who need it.
First
water and food followed immediately by throwing up tents for shelter. They have
Doctors without Borders to provide medical help; they help with the burial of
bodies in an effort to contain the threat to health.
Meanwhile,
you are a woman with children and you have lost all that you had which was not
much to begin with. You only have the rags on your back and your children who
are entirely dependent on you. The volunteers have provided food and water and
shelter for your family, now you are thinking of rebuilding your life. You are
blessed with being a woman of some modest charms so you will try and market
that to acquire some money from this army of men who have come to help.
It’s not
just one woman who has this thought, they all do and when the men are faced
with so many women who are so desperate for this type of assistance you almost
feel like it’s your duty to perform this type of civic service, and not to do
so seems churlish.
For
those of us not impacted directly because we are worlds apart from what is
happening on the ground in such zones it’s easy to see the moral side as judged
by our standards, and we miss the point that it is not our men who do the
asking, but rather it is the women who do the offering, which is really begging.
I
personally can’t think of anything I would less want to do than to put my own
health at risk by joining in such unregulated behaviour. I’m sure that some of
the men do reluctantly join in because the money they pay the women is put to
good use, and after all they actually beg for this type of help; and some of
the men actually look forward to this as a mischievous perk that offsets the
discomfort they face when in the field. I’m sure that in so far as they are
concerned if they are not allowed to give the women what they need someone else
can take their place with the charity.
Volunteering
overseas in locations that have been hard hit by weather and natural disasters
is not the same thing as serving in one’s homeland even if the same type of
calamity has happened. We likely have higher standards to uphold so I think we
have to reserve judgement country by country.
It would
be a shame if any charity that was doing good and appreciated work should stop
functioning because we in the more “civilized” countries spoke too hastily.
Whether
the men who do assist such poor women through sex are married or in solid
relationships at home that would be betrayed by such actions is another subject
for another forum.
Copyright
© 2018
Eugene
Carmichael
