A Reflection Two Humanitarian Articles

Introduction

Human life is very valuable and humanitarian is mainly concerned with promoting human welfare. The media has always played an essential role in representing humanitarian organizations. According to Calain (2013), the representations of the media of the suffering bodies from the medical humanitarian institutions have raised several ethical questions that deserve attention. These questions deserve attention since, normative action exists on medical ethics intersection, the perpetuation of disasters, illness, or famine stereotypes, and accidental encounters among the members of press and health professional members. On the other hand, Graham (2014) argues that the repetition of visual tropes has resulted in the development of visual expectations among the people (Congolese) who have experienced atrocity and conflict. The lose of hands by the Congolese has been the main area of interest since it shows that the use of an individual's body for outside presentation has been left out of the frame.

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The current humanitarian aid agencies do not justify their being with their wider political cause. Instead, most of their works are premised mainly on political work of assisting the victims of unnecessary violence and distress (Graham, 2014). Furthermore, the agencies do not link the images to the current political situation and opt to use text in connecting photographic subjects to the broad human suffering trends. In displaying famine icons and making de-contextualized appeals by the humanitarian agencies have been regarded as social destitution and political root causes of food shortages (Calain 2013). Therefore, the humanitarian institutions proceed in a thin line of political neutrality when they make appeals to the media to report famine and other disasters.

Displaying the suffering bodies by humanitarian organizations just like the media does is unacceptable since they place ethical values and norms of two disciplines into conflict. The disciplines include humanitarian action and clinical medicine (Calain, 2013). The main aim of humanitarian organizations should be saving lives, alleviating suffering, and maintaining human dignity. Unfortunately, Graham (2014) has a different point of view as he claims that it is okay for the organizations to display the pictures. The reason is that it is a self-representation of the way people are suffering. The physical images produced by these organizations usually shed light on the way people traverse the zones of visual culture with the sufferings they go through in life (Graham, 2014). Therefore, it means that even though the pictures are not the main objective of the humanitarian organizations, they help in understanding better the suffering some communities undergo.

The articles written by both Graham and Calain indicate that the humanitarian conflict images need another look. In the photos, there are visible things and hidden things. If there is need of exposing victims in the media as part of the humanitarian action, it is significant to consider humanitarian reasons have greater moral weight than respecting the autonomy of the victims (Calain, 2013). Furthermore, it is essential for the agency of the victims and kindness of the perpetrators to have a conversation with the locally needed self-presentation in complicating the simplified visual histories of people. One of the communities that should act an example is the Congolese. This issue is because, for the past years, visual framing and content of the humanitarian crisis subjects has affected the way the wider world understands and view the Congolese, their violence, and victimized heart of darkness (Graham, 2014). Yet, it is essential to understand that the unpublished and unphotographed things have remained unimaginable.

References

Calain, P. (2013). Ethics and images of suffering bodies in humanitarian medicine. Social Science & Medicine, 98, 278-285.

Graham, A. (2014). One hundred years of suffering?"Humanitarian crisis photography" and self-representation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Social Dynamics, 40(1), 140-163.