Although I read this book back in March, it’s been a difficult to write up a review post on this fascinating and eye-opening book.  Over the past few years, I’d heard several instances of the NGO aide group called Doctors Without Borders & been fascinated by the stories of heroics and helping.  Hope in Hell: Inside the World of Doctors Without Borders was on my Amazon list for year & I finally received it through PaperbackSwap, but it sat in my TBR pile for about a year before I finally got up the nerve to tackle such a tough and heart-breaking book that tells stories from the  more war-ravaged regions and disaster-struck areas.

There are a few chapters about the history of the group more widely known around the world as Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF), but the majority of the book depicts the various types of outreach the group does through individual stories of volunteers in various countries.  I thought the quote from the Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in December of 1999  “For MSF, this is the humanitarian act: to seek to relieve suffering, to seek to restore autonomy, to witness to the truth of injustice, and to insist on political responsibility.” was a great summary of group’s mission statement.

The majority of their work takes place in either war zones or following natural disasters that create a humanitarian crises where food & medicine are needed to prevent the imminent death of tens of thousands.  They have warehouses of pre-packed supplies ready to move when a natural disaster situation strikes.  Many of their missions may be short term to re-establish basic services that the government is unable to provide, but there are several places they have nearly permanent branches as the government remains unable to provide basic health and food services for years on end.

Unlike many other NGO’s, MSF receives the majority of its funding from private donations and isn’t beholden to the countries/governments or the U.N. to make decisions or follow rules.  This has often made them a target for criticism in situations like Iraq or Afghanistan, where they are refusing to take a political side in the wars & administering aide to those who are fighting on both sides.

Reading the stories of the doctors, nurses and other volunteers making due with the most basic and rudimentary of tools to provide meals, perform basic health tasks and delivery sanitation services to prevent (further) disease outbreaks was humbling to see them accomplish so much with so little.  The focus of the organization is to have national staff assisting as much as possible and have the volunteers organizing and supervising them so that they are empowered to have the skills themselves when the volunteers and/or MSF leave the region.  The book is filled with numerous stories of the atrocities that come with war or genocide, but hearing how it forever changed the volunteers lives was convicting to me.  It’s so easy to get stuck in our small little world with all of our problems forgetting how many people out there are in much worse situations- often without any food or even basic healthcare.

I really do believe that organizations like this one and many other non-profits are playing an invaluable role in impacting suffering worldwide in ways that really make a huge difference to large groups of people.  While the book is both sad for the horrors witnessed, the redemption is found in the volunteers who are striving to alleviate suffering in the face of such difficult situations.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Slowly working out the details, but I think we can pull of a 10 day Peru trip in July.

My March book was The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, which is an examination of America’s world view that influences our foreign policy decisions.  How we see ourselves dictates how we see others & our role in the global political arena.  A brief walk through the history of our country, beginning with Manifest Destiny until we were a global super-power that emerged from the carnage of World War II through our abundant natural resources and entrepreneurial spirit.  I do love America & recognize how unique and special our country  and especially our people are, but I by no means think we are superior or have all the best of everything to the detriment of all other countries.  But this exceptionalism has been pounded into our national psyche and we rarely stop to wonder how our country has done wrong or erred in the past.  This desire to be bigger & better was a source of decades of positive growth through the 20th century, but which lead us to a crises of Profligacy. Um, yea I had to look that word up too.  I ignored it the first few times, but it’s the central theme of the book.

profligacy

1. dissolute or immoral behavior.
2. reckless and extravagant spending or behavior.

Profligacy is the main topic of the first chapter which details the careless wastefulness of the United States- both individual citizens and our government in general.  In America, the ultimate sacred tome is freedom.  Freedom above all other things, but what does freedom really translate into?  The freedom to buy everything & do anything you want.  Freedom is buying the biggest house you can, driving the largest car you can, and running up the largest credit card bills you can manage.   The white picket fence in a tree-lined yuppie neighborhood with a 2-car garage and 2 kids is the American Dream that so many chase after.  Looking at the history of our national debt and trade deficits in the US, we are taking in goods & sending money overseas at astronomical rates.  All this consumption drives our need for cheap goods, cheap energy (namely foreign oil), and cheap credit.  In order to secure those things, our foreign policy has been severely misguided by lavish lifestyles and addiction to a capitalistic freedom.  This insatiable desire for the freedom & security has lead us to a political and military crisis.  You know there is something wrong when, instead of asking citizens to sacrifice and support our mission, our President tells the country to continue shopping as we entered the last war.