Linda Polman (born 1960 in

Amstelveen Amstelveen () is a municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands with a population of 92.353 as of 2022. It is a suburban part of the Amsterdam metropolitan area. The municipality of Amstelveen consists of the historical villages ...

) is a Dutch freelance journalist and author of three books on humanitarian aid and intervention: ''

We Did Nothing In Modern English, ''we'' is a Grammatical number, plural, Grammatical person, first-person personal pronoun, pronoun. Morphology In Standard English, Standard Modern English, ''we'' has six distinct shapes for five word Morphology (linguist ...

'', ''War Games'', and '' The Crisis Caravan''.

Author

''We Did Nothing''

Polman's book ''We Did Nothing: Why the Truth Doesn't Always Come Out When the UN Goes in'' was first published in 1997 in Dutch and later published in English. Martin Woollacott reviewed the book along with the book ''

A Problem from Hell ''"A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide'' (2002) is a book by American Samantha Power, at that time Professor of Human Rights Practice at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, which explores the United States's underst ...

'' by

Samantha Power Samantha Jane Power (born September 21, 1970) is an American journalist, diplomat and government official who is currently serving as the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development. She previously served as the 28th ...

, for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. He concluded: "We have yet to work out properly how the post-twin towers interventions relate to those that went before. But there is obvious irony in the fact that while previously, as these books illustrate so clearly, determination was often lacking to deal with crises that most people agreed were serious, there was no shortage of it when the Bush administration moved to deal with a crisis on which there was no global consensus at all." The book was also reviewed by Hugh O'Shaugnessy in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'' alongside ''Never Learn to Type: A Woman at the United Nations''.

''War Games''

Polman's book ''War Games: The Story of Aid and War in Modern Times'' argued that humanitarian aid intervention often ended up fueling wars and making them worse. Her book cited the example of the

Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed H ...

, where humanitarian groups facilitated the flow of aid to

Hutu The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic or social group which is native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they form one of the p ...

militia who were involved with the killing, rather than the

Tutsi The Tutsi (), or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi (the other two being the largest Bantu ethnic ...

who were genocide victims. Her work was discussed in ''

''. The Humanitarian Policy Group at the

Overseas Development Institute ODI (formerly the 'Overseas Development Institute') is a global affairs think tank, founded in 1960. Its mission is "to inspire people to act on injustice and inequality through collaborative research and ideas that matter for people and the ...

issued a written response to the book.

''The Crisis Caravan''

Polman's book ''The Crisis Caravan: What's Wrong with Humanitarian Aid?'' was reviewed in ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

'', '' Foreign Affairs'', and the '' Huffington Post''.

Media appearances

Linda Polman has appeared on ''

The Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central with release shortly after on Paramount+. ''The Daily Show'' draws its comedy and satire form from ...

'' to discuss her book, '' The Crisis Caravan''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Polman, Linda 1960 births Living people Dutch journalists People from Amstelveen