No Martyrs Here

Sometimes, someone else simply says it better - in this case, that would be the blog Wronging Rights, which replied to a recent Nicholas Kristof column in the New York Times, on The Sin of Doing Good Deeds.  Kirstof spends the column wondering about the role of for-profit companies in the aid sector.

Before arguing that for-profit companies do, in fact, have a role, Kristof takes the time to laud poverty-striken aid workers:

"I confess to ambivalence. I deeply admire the other kind of aid workers, those whose passion for their work is evident by the fact that they’ve gone broke doing it. I’m filled with awe when I go to a place like Darfur and see unpaid or underpaid aid workers in groups like Doctors Without Borders, risking their lives to patch up the victims of genocide.

I also worry that if aid groups paid executives as lavishly as Citigroup, they would be managed as badly as Citigroup."

To which Wronging Rights responds:

"Why on earth would you admire someone for going broke? There are plenty of good reasons to admire aid workers, like "doing a good job" and "helping people." But going broke, in and of itself, is not an admirable thing to do. It is sad, and should be avoided where possible. Aid organizations should be evaluated on their success, not on how impoverished their workers are. Some do more harm than good, and we shouldn't admire them, even if their workers are broke. And some do more good than harm, and if their workers are broke, Kristof should be outraged, not impressed. No organization or program can be sustainable if it regularly ruins its workers financially.

Kristof's concern that NGOs will be as badly managed as Citigroup if their workers are paid like Citigroup's is equally baffling. Does he think that aid workers, drunk on the heady brew of six-figure salaries, will decide to securitize rule-of-law trainings without concern for the risk of future coups? Is he scared of a collapse of the vast bed-net default swaps market?"

Hear, hear, and the sound of thunderous applause.

[Photo of Nicholas Kristof from www.guernicamag.com]