It’s possible – just- to read Oxfam’s wealth report and agree, yes, every thing is going to the Canes canes.
It’s also possible to read that report and understand what the real problem being addressed is:
But enough of the details – what, really, is happening here? The sensei we need to turn to is C Northcote Parkinson. His great insight was that the real aim of any organisation is to perpetuate its own existence. Bureaucracies are no different from other organisms in this sense. This is where Oxfam has a problem.
Originally founded to provide famine relief in Greece, it became a charity focused upon the alleviation of global poverty. Their problem is that extreme poverty is a problem well on the way to being solved. The solution was the one Oxfam didn’t deign to mention, more markets, more capitalism – globalisation, in short.
As poverty worldwide recedes, Oxfam runs into a problem about its own continued existence. For once the horror to be alleviated is dealt with, what is the point of the offices, the brand, the nice jobs with no heavy lifting? That presumably explains why in recent years they have changed tack and now insist that wealth inequality is the root of a new dystopia.
Oxfam is looking for a reason to continue to exist. That’s the true explanation here.
Just as, having ministered all it can to our “poor,” the American welfare state is fighting mere inequality, also searching for more Huddled Masses abroad to whom to give Free Stuff.
I dislike this because the urge of Oxfam and other so-called NGO’s to support ‘refugees’ means we end up supporting all the losers and haters fighting in and raiding across the borders of the powers-that-be. The Western Sahara, Mauritania, Syria and Yemen come to mind, though there’s plenty of others. I’ll willingly agree that the governments of such places are at least as shitty as those who wish to replace them, but, in addition to the slaughter and destruction we finance, Oxfam wishes to dump all those displaced by the chaos on us. I’d argue for saving our money and… Read more »
“Oxfam ? F***ing amateurs, mate”.
……according to Brendan Cox