Tag poverty

Humanitarian aid is sold as neutral and benevolent. On the ground, it is an outpost of empire. It registers, sorts, and disciplines the people it claims to save, and leaves untouched what wrecked them. In Palestine, it normalises occupation and freezes life in permanent limbo. In Sudan, it retreated and left devastation behind. In Congo, it manages displacement while extraction rolls on. States have even captured zakat and turned it into prestige and bureaucracy. Still, communities feed each other. Palestinian crowdfunding, Sudan's Emergency Response Rooms, and Team Congo RDC bypass the gatekeepers and put resources in people's hands, with no donor hierarchy. Share this work, and strengthen the mutual aid ecosystem.