Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T22:42:40.361Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - The stranger's keeper: on aid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2009

Fuyuki Kurasawa
Affiliation:
York University, Toronto
Get access

Summary

Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life.

(Nelson Mandela in Bedell 2005: 64)

Humanitarian action is more than a technical exercise aimed at nourishing or healing a population defined as ‘in need’; it is a moral endeavor based on solidarity with other members of humanity.

(Terry 2002: 244)

Our lives matter. The five million people in South Africa with HIV matter, and the millions of people throughout the world already infected with HIV matter. So it is not simply a question of cold statistics we are putting to you, but a question of valuing every person's life equally. Just because we are poor, just because we are black, just because we live in environments and continents that are far from you does not mean that our lives should be valued any less.

(Achmat 2003: xv)

Introduction

To be one's sister's or brother's keeper: a seemingly innocuous yet potentially ethically infinite injunction to help others, especially when they find themselves in situations of extreme vulnerability. Perhaps to tame its prescriptive weight, most of us have chosen to interpret it in a restricted fashion by applying it primarily, or even exclusively, to members of fairly circumscribed and proximate moral communities.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Work of Global Justice
Human Rights as Practices
, pp. 126 - 156
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×