through the path of violence. Therefore, in every community action, we are obligated to not conduct in what is called “hate speech”. On the one
hand, hate speech is a result or expression of an active closed attitude, which is a closed attitude driven to consider other groups of community
which are “different” to us as non-existent. Hate speech is born out of the instinct to annihilate variety or diversity. On the other hand, hate
speech will also infect the active closed attitude and spread violence towards community groups or nations that are “different” to us.
A passive open attitude also fulfils the obligation of non-violence towards groups that are “different” to us. However, this obligation is the
minimum for an active open attitude. In an active open attitude, we are also obligated to execute “linguistic hospitality”, by attempting to
understand “vocabularies” and “grammar” of the other group, so as to be able to “converse” or communicate with them, without losing our own
language and cultural perspective.
7.7 Reference
Arneson, Pat. 2007. Perspectives on Philosophy of Communication. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press.
Castells, Manuel. 2004. The Information Age: The Rise of Network Society. Malden, MA etc: Blackwell Publishing.
Denton, Robert K. ed.. 2000. Political Communication Ethics: An Oxymoron?. New York: Praeger.
Huntington, Samuel. 1996. Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order. New York: Simon and Schuster.
George F. McLean. 2004. Plenitude and Participation: the Life of God in Man. Washington DC: The Council for Research in Values and
Philosophy.
McLuhan, Marshall. 1964. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: Signet.
Naisbitt, John. 1994. Global Paradox. New York: Avon Books. Rawls, John. 1993. Political Liberalism. New York: Colombia
University Press. Ricoeur, Paul. 2007. Reflections on the Just translated by David
Pellauer. Chicago and London: Chicago University Press. Rorty, Richard. 1989. Contingency, Irony and Solidarity. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. Wilkins, Lee, and Coleman, Renita. 2005. The Moral Media, London
etc.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
8
ETHICS IN HUMANITARIAN AID
Tjahjono Soerjodibroto
8.1 Introduction
Communities in need of humanitarian aid, particularly in times of disaster, are sometimes considered as objects of a program; there are
even those that are abused by certain parties in order to pool funds from donors for their own benefit. When the tsunami hit Aceh at the end of
2004, for instance, there were a lot of humanitarian organizations emerging at the time of aid provision to the victims. However, the
number of organizations which ran unaccountable activities was not few. There were those that do not actually understand how to conduct
humanitarian aid. They merely channelled aid both in the form of funds or goods without concern whether it would be on target or not, without
concern whether it would have a positive or negative impact instead. In the aftermath of the Yogyakarta earthquake, a group of communities in
Bantul also had the opportunity to express their anger by putting up canvas signs stating that they are not tourist object for sheer display.
Humanitarian aid is quiet a complex activity in that it involves a lot of parties who usually have their respective agendas. To name a few,
there are donors who have their own expectations regardless of whether
they realize the complexity of its execution or not. The government, both central and local, also have their own programs which have or have
not been arranged so that every humanitarian aid programs are always fit into their bigger programs. Communities that receive aid are those who
bear direct impact as well as negative excesses that might happen. It is possible that values of daily habit, customs, or followed religion must be
put at stake; and it might also be extremely difficult for the parties involved to change or accept forced changes. Humanitarian institutions
assisting generally already have their aimed targets or their own respective ethical norms that must be applied on the field.
8.2 Ethics in Execution of Humanitarian Aid
Humanitarian aid is an effort in providing aid from donors to communities which life conditions are considered less fortunate due to
various circumstances. It could be caused by natural conditions or disasters, it could be man-made such as conflict among residents,
terrorism, or tyranny by a group of irresponsible rulers. Humanitarian aid can be in the form of direct funds, basic necessities, house
renovation, health services, education, and other aid provided to fulfil immediate needs. Aid could also be in the form of long term community
empowerment program carried out in stages, such as in the field of health concerning health against diseases andor hygienic way of life,
education, food sustainability, development of community’s economic capacity, building of supportive infrastructure, disaster risk reduction in
disaster prone areas, preparation in climate change adaptation, and so on.
An article in the BBC mentioned that the meaning of ethics concerns ‘the other’. It can be said that ethics refers to our attention towards
other’s interest outside of us, be it an individual or a community group. Therefore, when we discuss ethics in the provision of humanitarian aid,
it means how to provide humanitarian aid in the interest of others, which
is the receiver in need. The main focus is not the intentinterest of the parties providing and distributing aid. It is undoubted that there are
certain interests from the provider of aid, however, the main attention in ethics of humanitarian aid is thinking about the best interest of the aid
receiver community.
8.3 The Impact of Humanitarian Aid
Various humanitarian aids do not always have positive impacts although their initial aims were generally very noble. The lack of
understanding in several connecting factors could have an effect on the actual resultimpact; aid at times does not bring about optimum result or
in fact it could be far from the desired target. Humanitarian aid which can be regarded as positive ones are as follows:
1. Assisting in providing the most urgent need
A community group could be affected by disaster due to natural factors flood, earthquake, tsunami, prolonged dry season, etc. or
man-made factors conflict, war, terrorism, etc.. As a result, life of the community is disrupted and it could even endanger their life
stability. The community stricken by disaster would not be able to fulfil its needs food, water, medicine, and shelter so it would
require urgent form of aid. Humanitarian aid could respond to fulfil such immediate needs when natural disasters strike such as the Aceh
earthquake and tsunami, Nias earthquake, Yogyakarta earthquake, Mt. Merapi eruption, earthquakes in West Java and West Sumatera
as well as intercommunity conflicts in: West Kalimantan, North Maluku, Central Sulawesi, and Ambon.
2. Assisting to people lacking capacities
Among the impacts of disasters experienced by the community are people losing their livelihood in agriculture, farming, trade,
etc., inability to rebuild their homes, and damages to basic facilities
