I have been following the Kayla Mueller tragedy, the young woman who was in Syria on a Doctors Without Borders mission, and it boggles my mind why someone would feel compelled to travel to places like Syria where the incidence of kidnapping of foreigners is dangerously high? I get the altruistic nature of their mission, but why not go to Turkey instead and stay there under heavy guard!? This whole thing just turns my stomach and I’m deeply saddened that these idealistic kids are just not being realistic.
Well for one thing, Syria lest we forget is in Africa, a place known for having crappy health care systems, and even worse education systems, and even FEWER doctors so DWBs are needed more desperately here than in better off places in Turkey.
Because staying in Turkey under heavy guard doesn’t help the victims of terrorism in Syria?
Hindsight is always 20-20… DWB does a lot of good around the world… and it’s not just made up of “idealistic kids.” Plenty of realistic medical and political veterans also take part. When things get too tough in certain areas, they do pull out. (Just like the Peace Corps and many other humanitarian organizations.)
The young woman was not actually “on duty” so to speak with DWB when she was kidnapped. I don’t mean to lessen the horror of what happened to her by saying this; I only mean I don’t think DWB can be held responsible for her kidnapping.
From the NY Times in Feb 2015:
Honestly, there are risks no matter where you go. The vast, vast, vast majority of people on humanitarian missions return just fine. People are willing to put their own safety at risk in order to help others- thankfully!
What happened to Kayla is a tragedy but it is also an anomaly. It’s not typical of what MSF volunteers experience. That’s something important to keep in mind.
ok as I said, I get the motivation for going to the aid of war torn countries in the past BUT, given the climate of violence and widespread acts of terrorism occurring presently, why do foreigners keep going to the middle east? I have had friends that have gone to Afghanistan and Iran with DWB, but that was decades ago. I just can’t see it today, sorry to say but it seems like a suicide mission. And I’m not referring strictly to the “idealism” of kids with respect to DWB. @Romani, I agree there are risks wherever yes, but placing yourself in front of a missile isn’t a risk, it’s insane you can’t convince me otherwise. If it were my kid, I’d say no way. Sorry, plenty of work to do here at home. I am an immigrant and I have never traveled back to my homeland because of the travel advisaries. Is that me being risk averse for my own skin? heck yes, but I have a family that I would like to see grow up. I just think there’s other ways to be altruistic without being a hero. Flame away at me if you want.
She placed herself in front of a missile? I missed that part of the story.
Why do people keep going to the middle east (or insert other “dangerous” place here)? Because they believe that all human life is valuable AND, once again, the vast majority come home just fine. You just don’t hear about the thousands and thousands of people that come home without issue. They don’t make for a good headline.
By the way, she was 26. You, as a parent, could say whatever you like but ultimately you would not be able to stop your 26 year old child from volunteering with MSF (or insert other agency here). On the same subject, she was 26. She wasn’t a naive 18 year old who had never stepped outside of her house.
you’re my kid no matter your age, and my grown kids still respect my opinion as concerns their health and welfare. And, yes, I believe placing yourself, as a civilian on the front lines when you have no defense training is like standing in front of a missile, pardon the hyperbole. Kayla Mueller was “married” to this ISIS group’s leader, was repeatedly raped and tortured and I honestly don’t care about the statistics of the ones that came back in one piece because she very much did not, one is enough! I just feel that it could have been easily prevented. Leave those territories to people trained in defense.
“Well for one thing, Syria lest we forget is in Africa, a place known for having crappy health care systems, and even worse education systems, and even FEWER doctors so DWBs are needed more desperately here than in better off places in Turkey.”
Syria is not in Africa.
My kid spent two years plus in Rwanda in the Peace Corps. It never dawned on me to tell her not to go.
These developing countries are the ones who need humanitarian efforts…not other ones where there is already an infrastructure of help.
Poster #1, regardless of the correctness of your geography, what matters is not what continent Syria is located in, the fact that it’s currently a hotbed of terrorist activity is enough, in my opinion, to keep foreign civilians out. Turkey is on the border, Syrian refugees flee to Turkey and they could be helped there by DWB with much less threat of kidnapping and violence to these young women.
We had a medical doctor in our town a few years ago who was arrested for purportedly feeling up and groping some of his female patients. He posted something like a $1 million bail bond and some how he skipped bail and went to Syria where US officials apparently won’t/can’t/don’t care to get him. I never understood how he sneaked out of US out on bond because I figured US officials must have grabbed his passport. He’s reportedly still in Syria.
Fine, so you wouldn’t “let” your 26 year old go to any area of conflict. Your choice; your kid’s choice.
Clearly, volunteers and professionals working for humanitarian organizations feel differently. A vast majority of them don’t end up being kidnapped, raped and killed because they’re attached to groups that know what they’re doing, manage risk and withdraw if they need to, all while saving and improving the lives of people in need. I say, God bless 'em.
I agree: Doctors Without Borders are heroes.
I’m sorry for my sucky geography. I shud hav checked before I said something stupid like that, but I was trying to liken Syria to countries like my own in West Africa like Nigeria. Syria, like the northern regions of Ghana and Nigeria needs help. Not the well off parts like Turkey. Nigeria has a problem with Boko Haram. Does that mean no one “without defense” (ie guns) shud go there?
When American civilians are kidnapped, it puts American government in the position of having to negotiate with terrorist and it puts our military in harms way unnecessarily to rescue those hostages. I think it is a waste of our tax $$$$.
It is admirable some people put other people’s need above their own safety. If that’s the case, they decided to take the risk with full knowledge.
“Nigeria has a problem with Boko Haram. Does that mean no one “without defense” (ie guns) shud go there?”
@RerunGirl
The U.S. and Canadian governments advise their citizens against traveling to parts, or all of, Nigeria. In fact, Canada advises against all non-essential travel there.
Apparently there are no people needing medical treatment in this country. No mentally I’ll homeless, no alcoholics, no drug addicted, no people in rural areas far from clinics, no children who have never seen a doctor…that it’s necessary to go half way around the world to help.
Plenty volunteers trying to address those problems here, too. In fact, many post-Peace Corps volunteers continue to work in the U.S. as part of VISTA and other US-oriented groups.
@RerunGirl
Syria is in Asia.