The Chronic Nature

of Acute Crisis

in Humanitarianism

Doug Henry, University of North Texas

Vulnerability and Development

Disempowerment in action

Well, we didn’t want to encourage that “sectionality…” If you put all the people from one place together, there’s a chance they’ll organize a meeting against the administration.

-Kolomba refugee camp, Guinea

Being as I was now a resident of LA, they would not give me a trailer there, because they could not put a person from LA in a MS trailer… even though I’d lived my whole life in MS… God forgive me for moving right before the storm.

-Katrina survivor, Louisiana

We’re just like animals behind a fence here, walking around in our own shit.

-Saffi, Majihun Rd. IDP camp, Sierra Leone

…Treating us like cattle… theytold us, “I want y’all to go back over there by the Superdome and y’all just wait ‘til they sendbuses for y’all.”

-Will, Katrina displaced, Texas

I think that any relative who took in a relative ought to be able to get support… I can’t get rental assistance ‘cause I’m living with relatives… but look at all the money I saved the government!

-Will, Katrina displaced, Texas

…It’s not only the refugees that suffer inside the war… we the citizens who are feeding them and supporting them, we’ve gotten nothing. Even now our farms are exhausted.

-Guinean citizen, Kolomba, Guinea

“New Humanitarianism”

New paradigms?