Oxfam alleged prostitution cover-up

[HairyBallTheorem]

BBC article here

I read the Times article in the print version at lunch - front page lead article, plus two inside pages devoted to it, so if anyone could link with a share token this would be great.

It's about a group of men, senior in Oxfam's Haiti relief programme, having parties with prostitutes (some of whom may well have been under the age of consent). Someone blew the whistle, and the men were removed from Oxfam, but mostly through being paid off rather than sacked. The Times alleges Oxfam then systematically covered up the abuse so as not to cause ructions among the general public whose donations they rely on.

I know there have been other threads in the past, including posts from women who've worked for NGOs saying it's absolutely endemic. (About the only two names which pop up as not being involved and having decent policies against aid workers sexually abusing the vulnerable women and children they're meant to be helping are Christian Aid and MSF).

Does anyone have any thoughts on any sort of campaigning that could be done to get charities to clean up their act.

Fucking scumbag bastards.

I no longer give any credence to whatever politics men spout. Too often have I seen it bear little or no resemblance to their actual moral character.

Fucking hell Hairy that link!

From the article...

She discovered numerous individuals in the Bosnian and UN police (which was made up of some 1,800 officers from 45 countries) who were not only using trafficked prostitutes but were on the traffickers’ pay-roll

They were paid to give warnings on raids, return girls who escaped or, when rescued girls were repatriated ('dumped somewhere on the border’, according to Bolkovac), let the traffickers know where they could collect them so they could be 'recycled back into the system

Free access to the girls was an added perk

The UN mission in Bosnia finished in January 2003 but the abuses did not end there

In fact, Jacques Paul Klein, the head of the UN mission in Bosnia, went on to lead the UN mission in Liberia, where he presided over similar scandals

Recent years have seen allegations of sexual exploitation by UN peacekeepers in the Ivory Coast, the Congo, Columbia… The list goes on

But UN personnel have hitherto been protected by diplomatic immunity – meaning they can’t be prosecuted in their mission country – and political expediency

So being in the UN, or an NGO, or any fucking charity or aid org is basically a front for evil cunts to get their rocks off all over the world, with immunity from prosecution and a large budget to boot??

Fucking fuckfaced cuntweasels.

Fuck men.
Fuck this bullshit.
Fuck all of it.

I am so so so angry.

FUCKING CUNTING HELL.

Fucking fuckfaced cuntweasels.

Fuck men.
Fuck this bullshit.
Fuck all of it.

I am so so so angry.

FUCKING CUNTING HELL.

YY to all of this. So profoundly disturbing yet not the least bit surprising.

Why is it again that us silly women don't want them in our spaces?

They can't even be trusted in fucking warzones, when they are being paid to protect people, where they are supposed to be saving peoples lives, where they are supposed to be bringing "peace"

Why the actual fucking fuck would I trust them in a refuge or toilet???

I mean.'..they literally can't stop raping and exploiting women, even trafficked, terrified abused underage girls who have been through immense trauma.

But yeah, if they stick on a fucking dress that makes it all so fucking hunky dory.

What Lana said. All of it.

The UN stuff is an ongoing scandal that no fucker ever reports.

The Oxfam thing doesn't surprise me one little bit

This was the first thing I read this morning and I'm not any better able to articulate myself 12 hours later.

FUCKSAKE will have to do.

(I can only get sharetokens to work on OH's apple device- not on android or pc. You can set up a Times account for free and get 2 free articles a week)

I've heard some things about the guy who started MSF too. I can't check them out but it's made me very wary.

This is not just an issue with men. I know of several female charity workers doing the same - it is more to do with an abuse of power of those who have access to funds and those who don’t

I have a subscription try this link

Minister orders Oxfam to hand over files on Haiti prostitute scandal

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/top-oxfam-staff-paid-haiti-quake-survivors-for-sex-mhm6mpmgw?shareToken=14795aab700e23fb7c62e9986ede0890

I read about it this morning - still can't find the right words to fully express my disgust/hurt/anger/naivety

Here is the first article

Disaster zones are a magnet for sexual predators

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/disaster-zones-are-a-magnet-for-sexual-predators-h9nz0pbz7?shareToken=64310d93b693783c29a5280b37fbf714

There's a thread about this on AIBU - few comments sadly!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3163997-AIBU-to-cancel-my-direct-debit-to-Oxfam

Lang, you are spot on, I used to work in the sector and stuff I know about is deplorable, I have no faith in charities run like corporates, the misuse of funds is hair-raising, local charities are usually crying out for support and much more honest IME

I wish I was surprised, but I spent too much time in places where these kinds of orgs operate as a child. The women who work for the orgs sometimes try to intervene, and it never makes any difference.

Fucking pigs. I feel so sick reading about this. I had a weird idea earlier, about setting up a charity to ensure that charities don't endulge in this sort of vileness, and then I thought how grim it was that this situation was even needed. Also sad because I was always really sceptical about exposés of charities as I thought it was then r/wing press trying to make charities look bad. It reminds me of those UN 'peacekeepers' who were doing similar.

And the Times is reporting that some of these men went on to get new jobs with charities as Oxfam did NOT share the information with the new employers.

I will never support oxfam again.

Do you ever wonder these organizations don't change their hiring process?

Men are empowered because they're are enough men to feel safe. What if they flipped the system? What if our military was 90% female? What if volunteers abroad were kept female? I know it would require a change in the way they go about hiring and might take a while at first to change demographics but it's such an otherwise simple answer to a terrible problem.

What depresses me is that it’s all classes of men. You’d expect men who were in the charity sector, who were there to help disadvantaged people, who understand the dynamics of poverty and inequality, to be different.

Awful. Absolutely awful.

To echo previous posters the whole "Corporation posing as Charity" set up for organisations such as Oxfam is in so many ways rotten to the core and in need of rebuilding.

The main topic of this thread notwithstanding, the profligacy with funds for the Staffs own ends can be shocking.

For example, it is surprising the number of people that play the system to get cushy overseas postings with full medical care, accommodation, school fees etc paid for then use it as en excuse to take 2 or three maternity leaves IN COUNTRY while the charity has to provide cover on an equivalent basis... I'm sure those that donate in the U.K. aren't really aware of how these employment contracts are set up.

Packs of career NGO types scheming to get the next round of funding put their way from DFID, AUSAID or the like and quite openly admitting that it's more to do with being able to maintain their lifestyle and status rather than being about getting the support to the end user and getting best value from the funding. So much time and money wasted on patronising "capacity building" workshops for intelligent and capable locals that just want to be self supporting... there are many good people out there but collectively it's rotten, exploited on all sides in so many ways.

I will say from direct experience that from what I've seen of MSF (in their Carlos denominations) they do try their level best to avoid this sort of thing as far as possible and are the only large NGO that I would consider donating to directly

Carlos? *various

Theres a similar thread elsewhere so I've just copied and pasted what I wrote there -

I spent my younger years on a Caribbean Creole island and tbh aid workers and overseas priests were the worst for trying to accost you on the way home from school. Once you reached around age 13 you knew it was time to work out ways to dodge them. & they regularly used prostitutes too. My mum told me it was the same in her time. It's not a "wow" thing, we all knew the score. & our parents reiterated often strict instructions to aim not to be anywhere near foreign aid workers

Im quite surprised it's news here although I'm glad that it is. I wonder if somehow it's going to be explained away in "not all Aid workers" fashion, or being deemed lies/over-reacting eventually. Oxfam would deny it wouldn't they but their reputation stinks in several countries re certain activities. It isn't just them tho. Sad situation all round.

More in today's Times
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/new-shame-for-oxfam-h5nq8lmfn?shareToken=8e2a67d96a520d4a8f6f68af1e934468

@LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett they have been doing some brilliant opinion pieces recently on women’s rights

This is not just an issue with men

Fuck off with your "women do it too". This is about male entitlement, not the fact that persons of any sex can be corrupt