- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: McClelland & Stewart; 1st Edition edition (April 20 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0771053053
- ISBN-13: 978-0771053054
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.7 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 590 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#240,864 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #28 in Books > History > Africa > Rwanda
- #70 in Books > Professional & Technical > Medical > Nursing > Home & Community Health
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Booklist
Leyton aims to make outsiders understand what is going on in Rwanda and many other countries and what makes workers for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)--which, as an independent organization, gets physicians more quickly into places where they are needed than, say, the UN--throw themselves selflessly into such horrible situations. Few will be able to read his devastating book without crying or becoming infuriated. Leyton, an anthropologist, focuses especially on MSF work in Rwanda during the genocides of 1994 and 1996, giving not a glossy media report but a down and dirty account, featuring individualized men, women, children, civilians, soldiers, and politicians as well as statistics. Genocide, he argues, is civilization's main tool for neatening populations and boundaries, and far from being a primitive invention or an African aberration, it is a European practice, begun by the 1895 and 1915 Turkish genocides of the Armenians. Black-and-white and color photos add much to Leyton's forceful, eye-opening text. William Beatty
Book Description
When the rapes and massacres, the plagues, the famines, the floods, or the droughts erupt in far-off places, the world stands still. MSF does not.
They are the “smoke jumpers” among international aid organizations. While others are often stymied or delayed by bureaucratic red tape, the men and women of Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF) move in. They provide food and clean water. They dig latrines. They set up first-aid stations and field hospitals. They treat all-comers according to need. Often they are the last to remain in situations abandoned by others as too dangerous.
The risks they take are moral and ethical as well as mortal. They are acutely aware that giving aid is controversial. Does it really do any good to save a child from murder one day when it will probably starve in the weeks ahead? Is it appropriate to bring expensive western medicine into a country that, in the long run, can’t afford it? Should relief be given to civilians who are being starved on purpose, as part of a cynical political game, by a local warlord?
Elliot Leyton and Greg Locke saw something of the implications of these and other questions when they travelled to Rwanda in the fall of 1996. There they found themselves plunged into a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. Hundreds of thousands of people were on the move. Armed militias and hostile armies lurked in the background. Mass starvation, plague, and an eruption into civil or criminal violence were immediate possibilities. The two Canadians, one an internationally recognized expert on the psychology of killing, the other an experienced photo-journalist, had a rare opportunity to observe MSF in action at a time when the stress was enormous and its resources were stretched to the limit.
They watched and listened, to the perpetrators of violence and their victims, to the survivors and those who gave them assistance, and, above all, to the people of MSF who dedicate themselves to saving lives because, in the words of one MSFer: “The world can afford a humanitarian ideal.”
The result of Leyton and Locke’s research is an extraordinary written and visual record of small miracles performed in the midst of catastrophe.
They are the “smoke jumpers” among international aid organizations. While others are often stymied or delayed by bureaucratic red tape, the men and women of Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF) move in. They provide food and clean water. They dig latrines. They set up first-aid stations and field hospitals. They treat all-comers according to need. Often they are the last to remain in situations abandoned by others as too dangerous.
The risks they take are moral and ethical as well as mortal. They are acutely aware that giving aid is controversial. Does it really do any good to save a child from murder one day when it will probably starve in the weeks ahead? Is it appropriate to bring expensive western medicine into a country that, in the long run, can’t afford it? Should relief be given to civilians who are being starved on purpose, as part of a cynical political game, by a local warlord?
Elliot Leyton and Greg Locke saw something of the implications of these and other questions when they travelled to Rwanda in the fall of 1996. There they found themselves plunged into a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. Hundreds of thousands of people were on the move. Armed militias and hostile armies lurked in the background. Mass starvation, plague, and an eruption into civil or criminal violence were immediate possibilities. The two Canadians, one an internationally recognized expert on the psychology of killing, the other an experienced photo-journalist, had a rare opportunity to observe MSF in action at a time when the stress was enormous and its resources were stretched to the limit.
They watched and listened, to the perpetrators of violence and their victims, to the survivors and those who gave them assistance, and, above all, to the people of MSF who dedicate themselves to saving lives because, in the words of one MSFer: “The world can afford a humanitarian ideal.”
The result of Leyton and Locke’s research is an extraordinary written and visual record of small miracles performed in the midst of catastrophe.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Level Appraisal,
By A Customer
This review is from: Touched By Fire: Doctors Without Borders in a Third World Crisis (Hardcover)
The criticisms I can aim at this book are few: there's some needless reiteration of points made early on and some loss of context in the wash of events described. Both are stylistic and really just matters of taste.Knowing only what an outsider can glean about MSF, this seems a wholly objective, balanced assessment of the group(s), its membership(s) and the circumstances, compromises, and pervasive questions attendant to both. The very real limitations and dangers of international aid are presented frankly, as is the selfless dedication of the MSF staff. Individuals are not squeezed into comfortable categories; the complexities, even the occasional flashes of swagger or ugliness, of each participant are served up with relative detachment. As an introduction to the politics and human costs of genocide (admittedly from a singular, but coherent political perspective), it's hard to beat. The photographs, which portray a parallel narrative, are likewise honest, and both stories are rendered with sufficient feeling expose what is truly uplifting about MSF.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Level Appraisal,
By A Customer
This review is from: Touched By Fire: Doctors Without Borders in a Third World Crisis (Hardcover)
The criticisms I can aim at this book are few: there's some needless reiteration of points made early on and some loss of context in the wash of events described. Both are stylistic and really just matters of taste.Knowing only what an outsider can glean about MSF, this seems a wholly objective, balanced assessment of the group(s), its membership(s) and the circumstances, compromises, and pervasive questions attendant to both. The very real limitations and dangers of international aid are presented frankly, as is the selfless dedication of the MSF staff. Individuals are not squeezed into comfortable categories; the complexities, even the occasional flashes of swagger or ugliness, of each participant are served up with relative detachment. As an introduction to the politics and human costs of genocide (admittedly from a singular, but coherent political perspective), it's hard to beat. The photographs, which portray a parallel narrative, are likewise honest, and both stories are rendered with sufficient feeling expose what is truly uplifting about MSF.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The clearest explanation of "why" aid workers do it.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Touched By Fire: Doctors Without Borders in a Third World Crisis (Hardcover)
Of all the texts I have read concerning Africa and its political/economic problems, this is the best contribution to understanding the motivations of those involved in providing humanitarian assistance. It represents ultimately a message of hope which counters the many pessimistic texts covering this area. The hope is neither misplaced or naive, but is a product of a level of understanding on the part of the authors rarely grasped I think by similar authors. Highly recommended.
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