To be absolutely disgusted about the OXFAM revelations?

[yolofish]

Forgive me if there is already another thread but I couldnt find one...

So Haiti: devastated by an earthquake. Head honchos come in - and they host a party in which young Haitian girls appeared wearing nothing but Oxfam tshirts - literally nothing else, according to today's Sunday Times.

Oxfam does amazing work of course. but gets £32m of tax payers' money year in year out - and this happened 7 years ago.

I am truly disgusted by these events.

Indeed, Tova, and you could take "western" out of that sentence and it still be true.

(I've been talking about "western", but that's because of my experience where I was.)

yolo Thank you for that. You are indeed a new charity, which can make a difference. As I also work in the charity sector, I am well aware that different trusts have different rules and requirements. If you operate out of property they may want minimum terms on a lease if you don't own it, for example.

I also used to work in PR. While you are right in that major events - like general elections may get in the way occasionally - presumably you were ready to go and then the election was called. You merely needed to postpone everything by six weeks. In October, your founder was featured on national TV. She won a major, major award. You were featured on Channel 4. Perfect time to capitalise on all that coverage and to launch the appeal. All that free publicity.

I do honestly think that if you can reach the right people, and back up the claim of just £2.5m and one year to sort this out, the funding will be there very swiftly. And I do genuinely wish you luck.

thanks shatners! I do think we will do it. I am still in PR, but the trouble sometimes is that events move on... and the politics involved meant that once the election was over we had some other issues blah blah, still working with some really top people in NHS as well as 'our' consultant, but dont want to go off half-cocked! We were so proud of the Inspirational Woman thing, was so emotional; and then the C4 docu; we punch above our weight in PR terms for sure.

Perking I sometimes read posters here stereotyping men from certain countries as rapists. You have no idea, no idea, how Western men are seen in some of those countries – and with reason.

It's men, isn't it? But I suppose each country likes to think their men are not as bad...

What a shame that women the world over have to waste time catering to these demanding arseholes - think how much valuable aid work could be done with that time!

This article from 2014 sickened me at the time...
Humanitarians have a right to a private life, and that includes a sexual life.
...
Making decisions on the best way for staff to visit brothels is a familiar dilemma for some humanitarian logistics managers.

When looking for that article, I came up with these two as well:
February 2017
Over the last few years, the humanitarian community has at last begun to talk about the sexual violence that occurs within the sector. It has been an open secret for a long time... One of several disturbing trends to emerge has been the number of cases where aid workers have been drugged and raped by colleagues.
November 2017 The UN, NGOs, donors – we’ve worked for them all, and every situation has involved some level of sexual harassment or sexual violence on the part of our male colleagues.

Indeed, MissMoneyPlant.

I hadn't read those particular Guardian articles, but I think the paper's been covering this issue for some time.

missmoney that first article is disgusting. Is it really strange to think that if you are sent on a job somewhere your instincts should be to do the job, not who you could shag either willingly or for money?? Maybe that's a bloke thing... which does seem to be where it always comes back to.

phoebemac Yes I perceive it that way too despite being very angry over this.

Don't quote me, but it reminds me of an interview I saw on Russia Today with the somewhat disgraced founder of Kids Company. If I remember correctly, she implied quite heavily that the media suddenly focused on her charity after she was approached by police officers in relation to the child sex inquiry that subsequently (and some, like myself, would say conveniently) became kicked into the long grass through various 'failures' to appoint an appropriate leader for the inquiry that stayed around for more than 10 mins.

I think the implication was that there were possibly children or people under the umbrella of the charity who might have had some sort of, lets say ideas, about facts pertaining to the said inquiry. Then suddenly bingo, her charity rightly or wrongly comes under intense scrutiny. Then and again she could conspiracy theoring to hide her own imcompetence. Who knows?

Sometimes I think these things are a diversion away from things that inpunge the interests of the rich and powerful. Even Weinstein. I feel there's worse going on in Hollywood and he's just the fall guy of the moment.

Quite, Yolo.

Makes me wonder if aid work would be more beneficial if it was dominated by women who actually want to improve things for everyone in the country, because they actually see women as human beings too...

So many men seem to view sex as an essential, like air or water. Possibly the relief of sexual urges is essential, but to be blunt... an orgasm is an orgasm, surely? You don't technically need someone else present to relieve that particular urge. The companionship humans need can surely be met to some extent with friendships with those aroud you, especially those in the same situation/also doing aid work. It's not the same as a romantic relationship, of course, but then coercing someone into sex (eg. with money) is hardly a respectful relationship type situation either.

Which means these men don't simply want (a) an orgasm, or (b) companionship, no, they want (c) to stick their cock into another person, whether that person wants it or not.

I've heard feminists say sex (for men) is about power, not sex. (Or something like that). All sounded a bit abstract to me, but think I'm starting to understand.

I think we have to careful about tarring all male aid workers with the same brush. I'm sure there are a great many who are disgusted by this and some may even have been the whistle blowers.

Men who want to abuse, and weak men incapable of saying no to themselves, will always find their way into organisations that grant access to exploited people.

And in some countries women aren't respected at all, so male workers are somewhat needed in those scenarios.

It tends to be women who shout the loudest about these things

I know NAMALT but fuck sake, I do wish that those who aren't "like that" were a bit more vocal against these activities which let's face it are often written off as "boys will be boys" .

So don't leave it all to the women, decent chaps - join women, feminists even, in the fight against the exploitation and abuse of women and children. Call out your co-workers, team mates and friends when they behave badly. Stop looking the other way!!!!

As my daughters and I say to our male relatives and friends, definitely #notallmen but jesus fucking Christ, it's enough of you to make us not trust most of yiu.

people need to realise that it's sadly the case that there will sometimes be terrible goings-on in big organisations.

No, what you are talking about is accepting it. We don't have to accept it, and it is OUR BLOODY MONEY. We have a right to question where it is going. It's also stealing from the poor Haitian's who would otherwise have benefited. Saying things like this should be hushed up to avoid criticism of the foreign aid budget is borderline evil. You're accepting the exploitation of woman as an unfortunate side effect.

On another note, the Brendan Cox thing is true. Save the children had formal complaints from 12 women.

You're accepting the exploitation of woman as an unfortunate side effect.

Absolutely - and this perpetuates the abuse or women and children and supports rape culture!

It is fucking disgusting.

And sadly....as Perking has highlighted, it's endemic, it's everywhere.

I'll have to dig it out later, but someone on another thread about this shared an article about the UN.

They were fucking abusing women and children in BOSNIA, when they were supposed to be peacekeepers.

In fact a lot of allegations about abuse of vulnerable and traumatized woman and children in war torn countries, from Sierra Leone to Europe, all over the fucking world.

THE UN.

It's all of them.

It's everywhere.

All these men pretending to help the most vulnerable.....and all they really want to do is abuse them.

Fuck em all.

I think it's way more common than we think.

*I know NAMALT but fuck sake, I do wish that those who aren't "like that" were a bit more vocal against these activities which let's face it are often written off as "boys will be boys" .

So don't leave it all to the women, decent chaps - join women, feminists even, in the fight against the exploitation and abuse of women and children. Call out your co-workers, team mates and friends when they behave badly. Stop looking the other way!!!!*

*I know NAMALT but fuck sake, I do wish that those who aren't "like that" were a bit more vocal against these activities which let's face it are often written off as "boys will be boys" .

So don't leave it all to the women, decent chaps - join women, feminists even, in the fight against the exploitation and abuse of women and children. Call out your co-workers, team mates and friends when they behave badly. Stop looking the other way!!!!*

oops sorry, bold fail - I just wanted to say how much I agree withthe above.

ffs double post fail too!!

I've stopped saying NAMALT.

I sadly have come to the conclusion that it is the vast majority of them.

I thought, naively, that I was safe with my hard-core lefty male friends.

Nope.

Years of abuse, sexual assault, all by "caring" environmental, animal rights, anti racist type activists abd some very fucking eye opening conversations recently has taught me that they might be even fucking worse than upfront sexist pigs.

I really am thinking now that on some level every bloke feels superior to us.

I’m disgusted and desperately disappointed.

It is so vile, even though I’m confident I know good men, it does shake you. I’ve read before that places like Kabul are party central thanks to NGO cash and personnel washing around. This adds a really sinister cast to things.

The thing is LightDrizzle I thought I knew loads of good men.

One by one they have proved me wrong.

Even my lovely Dad and DP have had moments I hadn't noticed before.

I don't think my Dad or DP don't love me, or women, but I was shocked when I realised even they had little moments of ingrained sexism. (Which I call out every time)

I don't necessarily think all men hate us, but I do think almost all of them have an ingrained narrative that women are lesser.

I honestly think Oxfam will have to close. I not only would never donate now but I wouldn’t go into one of their shops. Because whatever measures they are made to put in place I couldn’t trust them. I’m so livid about this. Exploiting the poor and vulnerable is just deplorable.

I think lots more of this in other charities will also come out of the wood work.
Good article here today by the wonderful Julie Blindel:
www.independent.co.uk/voices/oxfam-prostitution-charity-aid-workers-haiti-un-peacekeepers-a8206646.html

One of the chapters in Sue Lloyd Roberts book is about UN peacekeepers and sex trafficking:
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00Z7C2W7K/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1&tag=mumsnetforum-21

On Channel 4 news now an ex employee is talking about how some of the volunteers in the Oxfam shops have been harassed.

I wonder how many of them were on workfare and felt they couldnt report because they didnt want to risk a sanction.