Killing with Kindness or How the West was Won

"NGOs are such a force multiplier for us, such an important part of our combat team." (Collin Powell, 2001).
I think this quote really sums up what Mark Schuller's Killing with Kindness is really about. NGOs are a force multiplier in that they are an extremely effective way of taking over a weakened state and using it to forcibly multiply the amount of imperialist power in a given geographical area. I had always known "that not all NGOs are 'good' NGOs," as a professor of mine had once stated, but the way in which these nations are so obviously blighted by these NGOs, more to be read as corporations, in order to advance a capitalist agenda. I really appreciated Schuller's use of the term "trickle-down imperialism" because that's exactly what the principle goal of so many of these organizations is. Imperialist agents hide behind go-to remarks such as NGOs are "non-political" organizations when touting the mishaps of dealing with crisis, only as a means to assert increased governmental control in a state that has already been systemically denied any government representation on behalf of the people who will actually have to live and thrive in this state after the camera crews have gone back to Los Angeles. In reading the lived experiences of the Haitians in Chapter One of Schuller's text I was reminded of Danticat's Brother, I am Dying when she explains that while the US was occupying Haiti in the early 20's Haitians were not delusional as to why the United States was involved and the greed that came from wanting to acquire 40 percent of their economy.
In the Farmer piece I really appreciated the way he discussed the nature of structural damage especially in comparison to the crises that have taken place in the US. You can't help but notice the political underpinnings of using tragedies like Hurricane Katrina and comparing them to the failure of the new Healthcare website. Clearly, there is a systemic blinding of the public. The way in which Hurricane Katrina has been depicted as an event that was "over in one week" and an ignorance to the understandings of the lived experience that alters one's understanding of any event. If these instances of forcibly stripping nations of autonomy and imposing a structure of power that is not observant of their individual needs in order to grow our economy, there is a blinded public weak at the knees for government "intervention."