How could we possibly refuse to help? People are being torn from their homes and their countries and many are being killed just because they aren't of the right race or religion. Everyone looks back at Hitler and says "If only we had intervened sooner, maybe ..." well this is sooner.
All the people who were run from their homes are now in refugee camps, and the have nothing, would you let them all sit their unprotected from their oppressors with nothing to eat and no way to heal their wounds? To do that would be inhumane. Done they not deserve shelter and food because they were forced from their homes by war and killing? And what about the children, what rights do they have if they have lost parents and are now on their own with such emotional scaring? Are these people any less deserving of food and medicine than you and I are? If anything they are more.
Now that most have begun to recover from the war, should we stop our help, now that they are no longer in immediate danger? Or should we try to help them reconstruct their lives in a way that leaves little chance for something like this ever happening again? Why not continue providing medical aid and help to educate people?
Helping to provide an education for people is a key part in prevention. Once people have an education they can get a job, leave the poverty in which they were susceptible to numerous diseases and lead a good life. While this does not apply directly to what has happened in the Balkans, in general, it is a good policy for foreign relation to help with education because it is less costly in the long run than providing medical care for the diseases it helps to prevent.
What about private organizations? What can they do that the government can't? They can help put roofs on houses (St. David's Relief Foundation ) and they can try to give children another chance at their childhood (Global Children's Organization). They are more intimate and although they have a smaller affect than government aid does, in some ways they have a better one. Global Children's Organization (GCO) is teaching the next generation about hate, and that it doesn't have to exist between the nationalities and religions in the Balkans. By bringing a diverse group of children from all over the Balkans to a small island and letting them befriend each other before the learn who is from what city is the best way to make sure that this type of ethnic hate does not happen again in the area. The kids put a face to the enemy and see that they are people too, and hopefully, when they grow up, they will remember that one fried from camp and they won't continue on the hate from their parent's generation.
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Data from the NATO Home page |
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Crimes Against Culture (the former Yugoslavia) by Colin Kaiser Picking up the pieces in the Balkans (Yugoslavia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina) by Geoffrey Stevens Towns of Trouble (ethnic strife in Brcko, Mostar) - Economist Newspaper Ltd. Saving Foreign Aid by Michael E. O'Hanlon and Carol Graham http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/example/ande1058.htm |
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The official NATO website detailing their role in Kosovo Global Children's Organization is a private organization that runs a summer camp for children that have been affected by the war in an attempt to give them some sort of childhood memories. St. David's Relief Foundation has projects going on to help rebuild the devastated cities in the Balkans |
