Watching news in our days is not for the faint-hearted. Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan are reminding us every day on the brutality of life. The current storms in the Western Cape, the early hurricane season and the heat-waves are making it very clear that nature was not a top priority for human mankind – and that we have to catch up to survive. Politically the drama around the US election, the strengthening of right-wing and fascistoid political forces in Europe, only topped by the semi-religious authoritarian white macho cult around the man, who claims to make America great again questions the well-being of democratic systems. African countries continue to have their very own challenges.
It seems that after the pandemic and all the shutdowns with their often nonsensical rules have created a deep mistrust into politics and triggered the yearning for simple black and white solutions.
But not only that: it becomes more and more difficult to determine what is right and wrong. One could for example that the impression that bombing a school or a hospital has different moral implications depending on who fires them in a war. Looking at the reporting of the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the ambivalence of reporting and making ethical judgements on the terror, people have to endure becomes visible. It becomes very confusing – even on a sub-conscience level – and this created another grounds for the liking of black/white solutions.
If you look at all the crisis – one of the consistencies you will see is the work of NGO’s. If there are real and legit, they don’t follow politics and public opinion, but they see the person as a human being, they see the victim of unrest, the victim of social disadvantage, the situation of helplessness – and they care, they walk with the people, they change the perception of people being causalities to being again a human being.
How much more suffering would we see if brave doctors and medical staff of non-governmental organisations would not dare to stay in Gaza, knowing that their life is on the line?
How much more suffering would we see if NGO’s in Europe would not organise assistance into Ukraine?
But we don’t have to go to extreme situations.
Looking at the HIV pandemic in South Africa around 2000 – what would it have looked without NGO’s at the forefront of assisting those living with HIV – even going to court to force government to stop the neglect they defended till it was legally not possible any more?
Looking at Covid, but also at the continuous challenge of poverty unemployment, GBV, refugees… You name it. It is the NGO sector and civil society keeping often situations from collapsing into chaos. It is the grounded work of small and big role-players in this sector doing so.
Looking again at the bigger picture, one can observe that especially authoritarian regimes like to prohibit NGOs, especially when they are receiving international funding. Russia and Egypt are two examples, you hear now also such suggestions even from a certain part of USA politics.
Obviously, NGO’s also have black sheep in their midst and not seldom, ideologists and fundamentalists as well as lobbyists create NGO’s to hide their intentions. Those attempts undermine the work of true NGO’s, and it seems to be difficult in our digital age and time to determine on first sight, which organisation is legit with no hidden agenda. Sometimes only time will tell.
But at the end, we all should realise the importance of the small and big, the local, national and international non-governmental organisations keeping the balance and contributing to our society in a way, people often not realise. They also remind us about our own humanity in the times of madness.
Filed under: Networking, Politics and Society, Reflection, Society and living environment, Gaza, humanity, israel, news, NGO, non-governmental organisation, palestine, social disadvantaged, Sudan, Ukraine
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