Essay Sample on Politics of Food Aid and Food Assistance in a Humanitarian Context

Introduction

I found Jose Ciro Martinez and Brent Eng article was very educative and exciting in nature. Though, most of the ideas they presented I approved, there were those few among the many points which I would want to dispute. Firstly, I would like to venture in detail about the relationship between emergency food aid and sovereignty as well as politics especially scenarios where there was conflict, and this was the subject matter of their writing. I want to point out that in most circumstances emergency food aid is directly related to politics. The reason I say so is that most leading authorities use this opportunity as a weapon to campaign for their subsequent term and also, the opposition seizes this chance to reveal how the government has neglected its mandated role to serve the people (Martinez & Eng, 2016).

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I agree that emergency food aid was not neutral. "What we can say with some certainty, though, is that emergency food aid is not neutral, nor can it ever be" (Martinez & Eng, 2016, p. 173). This declaration is very valid. It is clear when the relief organizations claimed that their operations are based on neutrality frame yet their respective allocations of the government and opposition-controlled territories are unequal in Syria. From my experience, such aids are always biased and to be a beneficiary of them, it depends on how close you are to the godfathers of these organizations. Therefore, most of those who benefit from these services are those who do not have critical needs of food and hence living those dying of hunger an empty-handed. Thus, this may be the probable answer to Jose Ciro Martinez and Brent Eng's statement about the neutrality of emergency food aid in the context of humanitarian.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I enjoyed reading this piece of writing which was well articulated via its consistency flow of points. It gave me the chance to decisively reflect upon how neutral the relief organization in providing the emergency food aid have become concerned in times of conflict. Therefore, Jose Ciro Martinez and Brent Eng elaborated numerous valuable points that will be of assistance to many scholars on their research work about the implications of humanitarian enterprise. Also, in the study about how emergency food aid is correlated with politics and sovereignty. (Martinez & Eng, 2016, p. 171) "In this article, we have undertaken a first attempt at assessing these relationships through the scrutiny of the Syrian case. We have attempted to demonstrate how the importance of subsidized food to Syria's prewar welfare practices."

References

Martinez, J. C., & Eng, B. (2016). The unintended consequences of emergency food aid: neutrality, sovereignty and politics in the Syrian civil war, 2012-15. International Affairs, 92(1), 153-173.