(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
[emergency relief memos] In recent years, I have thought of Jan Egeland with pride. At the UN he found his format. On the BBC and CNN, he has emerged as a brave and consistent advocate for the victims of the war. From the position of UN Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Egeland is now back in Norway and has known (or been called?) To write about his experiences. Except that the title, It Benefits, is as inspiring as a Social Democratic milk campaign from the 1950 century, one should have expectations for such a book.
Easy to read and effective
Many of them are fulfilled. The book is easy to read and effective, not so unlike the man himself. He draws sketches from a war-torn landscape with a quick stroke of paint: We follow the author from Ivory Coast to Iraq, from Colombia to Sudan, from the tsunami-hit countries around the Indian Ocean to the Middle East, and finally from Zimbabwe to Uganda. The speed is great, but it is engaging to follow the everyday life of a humanitarian operations manager.
The descriptions from Colombia – which Egeland has known since he was 19 – are one of the highlights. This also applies to the Middle East and the Oslo process, where he even incurs a touch of criticism of the Nobel Committee: It gave the Peace Prize to two Israelis and one Palestinian, while the team behind the agreement insisted on treating the parties equally. The meeting with the guerrilla leader Joseph Kony, who leads the northern Ugandan Lord Resistance Army, one of the world's most brutal resistance movements, will also be remembered.
Infrastructure
But it is also interesting what Egeland does not write about. He is, for example, very careful about the so-called "oil for food" scandal in Iraq, which led to the entire UN system being investigated and Kofi Annan's son being accused of corruption. The author is also extremely sparse with personal characteristics – unless people can be described as "skilled", "brave" or "committed" – and the political dynamics that can explain a conflict are largely sacrificed in favor of detailed descriptions of the UN logistical modus operandi.
It is in itself impressive that one can write an engaging book where so much of the action is related to infrastructure and logistics. Still – I look forward to the day Egeland no longer writes as a (hyper) active player in this arena, but as a man with important experiences. No one doubts Egeland's unwavering commitment to all who are affected by war and disaster, but next time we will have a book whose purpose is greater than to make us support the UN as a project. We're already doing that. Next time we will go deeper, to the human, and to that which creates war and peace.
The truth?
Jan Egeland appears to be idealistic, knowledgeable, action-oriented and creative. Before he ended up in the UN, I sometimes thought that he had an annoying inclination to equate himself with Norway (possibly a result of growing up in the inner circle of social democracy). In this book, Norway's role in the world, «the Norwegian model» and the like are toned down.
The annoying, slightly missionary side of him still appears here as well. Egeland often claims that he says "the truth as it is". I always get a little jealous and a little scared when people claim such things. There is a difference between lying and acknowledging that there are some parts of the truth that you have not fully grasped. Egeland's bird's perspective may provide an overview, but not necessarily depth, which is most evident in the chapter on the Ivory Coast. It also gives him a tendency to describe acts of war as "incomprehensible" and "insane", something I do not think he really means. War is highly charged with meaning, even when the consequences for civilians are grotesque and inhuman.
If it works? Egeland argues better for the necessity of the UN project than he manages to convince through examples. A suggested alternative title could be: “It's hopeless. And we do not give up. "
