When somebody sent me this invitation from Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, I thought at first it was a joke from the Onion. What do you think of the Davos rich and powerful going through the “Refugee Run” theme park re-enactment of life in a refugee camp?
Can Davos man empathize with refugees when he or she is not in danger and is going back to a luxury banquet and hotel room afterwards? Isn’t this just a tad different from the life of an actual refugee, at risk of all too real rape, murder, hunger, and disease?
Did the words “insensitive,” “dehumanizing,” or “disrespectful” (not to mention “ludicrous”) ever come up in discussing the plans for “Refugee Run”?
I hope such bad taste does not reflect some inability in UNHCR to see refugees as real people with their own dignity and rights.
Of course, I understand that there were good intentions here, that you really want rich people to have a consciousness of tragedies elsewhere in the world, and mobilize help for the victims. However, I think a Refugee Theme Park crosses a line that should not be crossed. Sensationalizing and dehumanizing and patronizing results in bad aid policy – if you have little respect for the dignity of individuals you are trying to help, you are not going to give THEM much say in what THEY want and need, and how you can help THEM help themselves?
Unfortunately, sensationalizing, patronizing, and dehumanizing attitudes are a real ongoing issue in foreign aid. David Rieff in his great book A Bed For the Night talks about how humanitarian agencies universally picture children in their publicity campaigns, as if the parents of these children are irrelevant. A classic Rieff quote: “There are two groups of people who like to be photographed with children: dictators and aid officials.”
Former World Bank President Wolfowitz with a few children
Alex de Waal in his equally great book Famine Crimes (and continuing writings since) writes about “disaster pornography.” He gives an example of a Western television producer in Somalia in 1992-93 who said to a local Somali doctor: “pick the children who are most severely malnourished” and bring them to be photographed.
Here’s a resolution to be proposed at Davos: we rich people hereby recognize each and every citizen of the globe as an individual with their own human dignity equal to our own, regardless of their poverty or refugee status. And Davos man: please give Refugee Run a pass.
58 Comments
Ironic, innit? While my first response was WTF shock, on reflection one wonders if such an “experience” would not be good for “Davos man” to undergo, if only to get a second hand idea, once removed, of life on the other side?
It feels bad enough when I meet with those at the base of the social and economic pyramid during the course of my work and hear their stories, knowing that at the end of the day I have a different world to go home to.
thank you for sharing.
Seems like someone had a bright idea that they failed to pass through the filters of common sense and decency.
I can see how someone might think this is a good idea if they don’t put much stock in their fellow human.
It only furthers the perception that there are two classes of people involved: us and them. I don’t approve.
“humanitarian agencies universally picture children in their publicity campaigns, as if the parents of these children are irrelevant”
Humantarian aid agencies put children at the forefront of their direct marketing, because they have statistical evidence that those images are measurably more effective at soliciting donations than campaigns without.
Seems to me if you’re looking for evidence-based approaches and demonstrable effectiveness in the aid industry, Prof Easterly, this is one aspect of the sector of which you’d be in favour.
The Refugee Run gives the wrong idea to Davos Man – that being a refugee is just a set of economic circumstances. The refugee camps and IDPs I’ve visited and worked with suffer from debilitating characteristics that this Refugee Run will not convey: overwhelming discouragement and the feeling of powerlessness.
While Davos Man may want to empathize, no short-term activity will replicate the human condition of a refugee. This is the indignity of the activity.
I’m guessing that someone in a position of authority had a brainwave and no underling dared to say “That’s stupid.”
a quick thought:
might you post a Davos invitation to a “Rich Reception” or something like that, where all the poor people at Davos are invited to a champagne reception so they can get the feel of what it’s really like to be a rich person….?
This is incredible.
While I have no doubt that this will elicit alot of donations, like everything else it will be interesting to see if their is any measurable outcomes, not outputs (money raised). A rise in the dignity of refugees (how do you measure that and by what standard)?
Its like the ‘native reservations’ in Huxley’s, “Brave New World” where one could gawk and experience a day in the life of one less fortunate. What comes after the refugee run? A day in the life of a child soldier? Amazing.
I love the idea of a “Rich Reception” to go along with this – brilliant. But really, how about a contest to find out whose bright idea this was, PLEASE?? Such a brainwave really does deserve some recognition, don’t you think?
My hope is this: someone with a wicked sense of humor and a short fuse at the UNHCR organized this self-consciously ridiculous and offensive “event,” to attract the wealthy and foolish, but, when the Davos folks show up, there’s nothing there but an empty, mostly dark room with angry field staff from, say, Chad. The aidworkers them admonish the startled would-be participants and demand that they grow the hell up.
Amazing how some of the highest-ranking schmucks in the ODA agencies have the least amount of sensitivity for or understanding of the issues they deal with.
For an organization trying to raise donations for the less fortunate, one has to wonder how much money was expended to develop Refuge Run.
The idea of a reality entertainment venue based upon the refuge experience is odious in the extreme. It seems to reflect the pervasivness and insidiousness of the use of emotional manipulation to persuade a target audience which seems to have superceded classical rhetoric and the use of logic and reasoning.
Thank you for standing up so firmly against this degrading spectacle. If anything is missing it is the reminder that the current financial crisis, caused among other by the negligence and lack of responsibility of many financial regulators and financiers who might be present in Davos, will most certainly cause many millions more of refugees to have to run.
Glad you started a blog, you have a lot of important contributions to make. thought “the white man’s burden” was brilliant.
Just a quick one, to say thanks very much – I write on humanitarian issues (http://humanitarianrelief.change.org), and this brought a much-needed smile. A somewhat cynical smile, but a smile nonetheless.
Absurdity aside, the event illustrates, better than anything else I’ve seen in a while just how wide the disconnect can be between those deciding policy, and any realistic sense of what the situation is like on the ground.
Finally, I too love Development Thinker’s idea of a corresponding “Rich Reception”.
I couldn’t disagree more – with you and apparently every commenter on this blog. Role playing is a powerful way of learning. The Davos men and women who will participate have far more chances of learning lessons than if going through a lecture on the dire situation of refugees. That’s a very politically correct reaction and not something we’re used to coming from you.
While you’re at it, why not trash darfurisdying.com? A game on Darfur, how scandalous!
What is scandalous is the gap between the rich and the poor, between the refugee and the Davos wo/men. What would be ridiculous is if Davos wo/men were to seek pity for their experience as fake refugees or pretend that they really experienced it. Of course, they won’t get the full experience – and I don’t wish it on anyone. But if they learn something through this – and I believe they will – then congratulations to the UNHCR and I’m sure no refugee will be worse off for it, quite the opposite.
I’m very glad that you started this blog by the way. The Elusive Quest for Growth is one of the most entertaining and informative book on development out there. I hope that your blog will attract a large readership of all stripes.
In the interests of scrambling up from his jade bunker to mark out a fresh patch of moral high ground, Easterly again manages to stab himself and others with the wrong end of the stick.
How much does Easterly know about this Refugee Run?
Asserting that those behind the event “have little respect for the dignity of individuals [they] are trying to help,” is the typically dismissive conclusion Easterly jumps to when he bumps into something that “searchers”, or indeed victims, are actually attempting to do.
“not going to give THEM [victims] much say in what THEY want and need, and how you can help THEM help themselves”
Are refugees involved in the crafting of this activity? Does the activity essentially provide “them [a] say in what THEY want and need?” Is it, in fact, an instance of “THEM helping themselves” by muscling their way into the rarified air of WEF?
Of course, I understand that there were good intentions here, that Easterly really wants rich people and big agencies to stay clear of a line that divides effective social action from dehumanizing victims. However, I think a dismissive and uninformed critique crosses a line that should not be crossed. Sensationalizing and patronizing blog posts, with no exposure to the reality, show little respect for the dignity of the individuals involved and achieve nothing constructive. This is the folly of a great deal of Easterly’s work.
The process of assisting an individual becomes easier to appreciate through practice and more difficult to appreciate through research and academic writing. Practice is where Easterly needs to go in order to start over on a sensible footing. That a few “searchers” made a gaff by poorly wording their marketing material is unfortunate, but it is no reason to torpedo an effective action.
Does this refugee run powerfully influence the minds of participants and raise their sensitivity and respect for refugees and thus fight the status quo of dehumanization? Would William like to post comment on the Holocaust Museum, Dialogue in the Dark, the International Red Cross & Red Crescent Museum…? Has he visited any such site and remained unmoved and/or unwilling to redouble his efforts to drive effective change? Who then struggles with dehumanization?
I don’t like the fact that a “VIP event” is associated with this activity but surely it is a consequence of taking one’s social action to a venue like Davos where, sadly, everything is by definition a “VIP event”.
Let’s turn this puzzle around a few more times before we discard it as silly and broken.
whether for good reason or ill reason the fact that leaders are showing interest in helping the poor cannot be a bad thing.
Dear William:
Could I take another perspective on this, one based in personal experience? I can understand why at first glance you and your readers would think this is debasing and was created by someone(s) who know little about what it means to be a refugee. When such an opportunity to participate was first presented to me here in Hong Kong (where the Refugee Run started) I had similar thoughts. But I was wrong and so are you.
Having now participated in the Refugee Run, along with others who before doing so had little interest in refugees and little knowledge about how devastating a refugee’s life is, I can tell you this run completely changed our perceptions and moved us toward concrete action on their behalf. You see, it has taken people from inactivity and made them activists, it has taken people from cold disengagement to warmly integrate the trials of the homeless into their secure world in order to make a positive difference, and it has taken the needs of the refugees previously considered irrelevant and made them relevant. This is not a bad thing, not exploitation, but a good and necessary step in the right direction, even though it is still not enough.
Therefore, having seen this transformation within myself firsthand I encourage you to try the Run. Go see it for yourself, and then judge it. Come back here to your space and judge it even more severely or commend it to these 14 others who have commented before me. I urge you to do so not as one who cannot understand your stated critique thus far, but precisely as one who once had the same criticism but now holds praise for the advent of the Refugee Run in Davos.
Sincerely yours,
Mark
The ‘Refugee Run’ is certainly something completely different and having taken part in one myself it has made a big difference to my understanding of what it’s like to be a refugee.
I appreciate it’s hard to get the full picture of what the Refugee Run is about from an invite but let me share with you what it was like for me – not a Davos VIP but a twenty-something from London, and someone who certainly puts stock in their fellow human being.
Prior to taking part in the Refugee Run my experience of refugees was not a very personal one – it involved watching the news, scaremongering in the media and seeing refugees as a mass of people. I don’t have the opportunity to fly to the refugee camps of Sudan but I do want to understand more about the lives and realities faced by so many.
None of this prepared me for that 1 hour glimpse into what refugees face day in and day out. ‘Us’ and ‘them’ was turned on its head. Some of the ‘soldiers’ were played by refugees themselves. Afterwards one of these ‘soldiers’ shared his story about fleeing from Congo and living in refugee camps in Malawi. I’d never heard first-hand, and with fresh eyes what a refugee camp is really like. Women being raped on the way to the toilet, daughters sold into prostitution, those that were meant to be protecting you in fact harming you.
One of the comments posted already, stated that the run will not convey ‘the overwhelming discouragement and the feeling of powerlessness’. I can tell you this is exactly what I felt, exacerbated by the knowledge that for me it would be ending and I could go back to my own home after. That night I slept very badly waking every few hours dreaming I was being forced at gun point from my home. I felt both relief realising I was in my own bed but also great sadness picturing those for whom this is real. I’d never dreamt this from a book or news report.
I am not pretending I have experienced the full extent of being a refugee and I thank God that I don’t have to. I just happen to have been born in a country where I’m not forced to flee. This experience prompted me to speak more to refugees around me and to respect their dignity and rights more fully.
So Mr Easterly: why not give the Refugee Run a try?
Just wondering if any of the above people have actually participated in a “Refugee Run” and spoken to any of the participants from the business world?
(Although I do like the idea of a corresponding “Rich Reception”!)
It’s high time the rich countries pay back all the debt incurred during their colonial reign, and slave trading in most poor countries. These poor countries owe nothing to the rich as policies like those of IMF and World Back led to plunder, looting, war and theft, especially in Africa.
Hence, rich countries shouldn’t consider themselves as philanthropists working selflessly to ‘civilize’ the so-called ‘savages’. It’s their duty. Teach the poor to rely on their own resources (like traditional medecines) rather than crying down their skills and knowledge as being inferior, inefficient, and replacing them with Western ideology; another form of dependence and slavery.
Do the ends justify the means?
That is the issue at stake.
Like all ethical dilemmas, it is subjective.
I propose UNHCR should raise some more money, hire some bureaucrats, and start a new “UN High Commission Ethics”.
The goal: abolish ethical abuse in development by 2015.
The means:
- An Annual Ethical Development Review;
- Bi annual “Ethiconference”;
- Developing a series of ethical performance indicators, constantly revised and updated with an unreplicable methodology;
- “Ethics Portal” an expensive online GUI that makes access to the data almost impossible, developed by Satyam.
That would solve the problem.
PD: Be careful what you wish for….
I worked in refugee resettlement for several years, and we had a camp reenactment to raise refugee awareness in the community. It was not meant to be any sort of “reality entertainment.” It was not thought to provide an immersion experience. It was meant to raise awareness. It was meant to let people know that folks are in camps for years. It was meant to start conversation. I don’t see a reason to be outraged at UNHCR other than the tacky exclamation point at the end of the tag line. It is easy to forget that the Davos Man is, after all, a man, and while he will return to banquets and luxury bedding, he might just be thinking about how so many others are spending their nights. We need new and creative ways to raise awareness and funding, and this event qualifies.
I think the “Refugee Run” is a tremendous idea. Here are some other great ideas for tasteful consciousness-raising:
1) A “Ghetto Gala” where you have the chance to experience inner-city childhood in a comfortable, exclusive atmosphere. Watch a CGI simulation of your best friend’s brains getting blown against a wall by a policeman’s service pistol, engage in a lighthearted role-play telephone conversation with your imprisoned father, taste government-surplus cheese and generic cooking lard (accompanied by local organic Neuchâtel wine) purchased with realistic colorful “food-stamps”, learn to lower your expectations from life as our pleasant dark-skinned hosts portraying high-school dropouts discuss their frustrated aspirations (suitable for the whole family!).
2) The “Taliban Tomfoolery” pavilion, where our attractive attendants will playfully slap cleanshaven men in the face, giving them a thrilling taste of what it would be like to be publicly executed for beardlessness. For our female guests we will prepare a short, pleasant quiz on basic subjects of history and literature, and if any of your answers suggest schooling in your past, we will splash your face with a light aromatherapy spritz that you can pretend is battery acid. Our homosexual guests will be whisked away from the group by a phalanx of masked men, and while they enjoy an informative tour of local wineries, the rest of the group can imagine what it would be like if they had instead been kidnapped and beheaded for perversion.
These are all delightful proposals; shame on all of you for misunderstanding how to educate the public, especially the finer elements of the public.
Dr. Easterly (and other contributors),
To say your work has been, for me, life-changing in the long-term and cathartic in the episodic short-term is an understatement. My life work may easily align with yours as my professional life sharpens. This to say, please post regularly, continue to be an unpopular but necessary voice, and thank you for what you do.
Bill – when I saw this, I honestly thought you’d been duped, probably by The Onion or someone like that. I’d like to think the UNHCR and the other sponsors of this event have their hearts in the right place. But what on earth were they thinking?
Dear Mr. Easterly,
I am afraid that your sensational posting is missing the point.
1) First of all, “Refugee Run” is not a new concept. Other groups like MSF/
Doctors Without Borders have done similar events in the past. Here is a link to an article about one of the events: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20081107-9999-1m7doctors.html
2) You should attend the event before making such sweeping judgments. I have not been to the event, but it sounds like you haven’t either and you are painting it in the absolute extreme. By calling it a “theme park” that is really off base. From what I
gather, these set ups are tastefully done and can be very powerful for
those who go to them.
Kind regards,
Anne
Perhaps it is the flyer (alliteration, “VIP event” and the unnecesary use of the exclamation point) that make this event seem so offensive and out-of-touch. MSF has managed to host many “Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City” educational events without exploiting those they are trying to help. It seems like the intent is good, but UNHCR could have used some help in framing the whole idea in a more compassionate and sensitive way.
You can find a two-week mission trip to impoverished areas at any of ten thousand churches or a thousand schools. That way you can get the “experience” while actually doing some %$@*# good.
This reminds me of the “Nostalogie pour le boue” that was apparently a very popular pastime for the french aristocracy just before the guillotining started.
You would travel to the countryside outside of Paris, live in a cottage for a few days and playact at being a peasant.
Marie Antoinette’s celebrated sensitivity to the hunger of the poor was, no doubt, the result of just this kind of OJT.
This sounds like a good idea to me. I would just like to know what distance they’re doing, as that clearly will affect their technique.
It seems to me that a 5k would be a bit too short and therefore not worth the price of admission; but a full marathon would require a decent amount of effort and if there’s one thing idiotic bleeding hearts truly hate it’s actually doing work.
Most likely I’d figure a 10k or a half marathon as they’re fairly short but they sound impressive.
How realistic is the ‘Refugee Run’?
Do they chase you with U.N. soldiers, intent on rape? If so, my advice is RUN….no I mean it, RUN!
If the Gulfstream can fly them to Davos, it can certainly take them to Darfur. This is just insulting to the people who actually suffer daily atrocities. If you’re in Davos, stick with the local attractions.
Sheeeesh. It would be in bad taste for the Onion to run this as a parody, let alone how this reflects on the UN to actually build this themepark refugee experience. I understand some very realistic versions of this theme park already exist in Rwanda, Darfur, etc etc. A refugee run VIP event? Are there points and prizes? In Davos? Confirming and exceeding all of my expectations of the UNHCR.
or perhaps a “Davos VIP Run!” themed experience in which the poor huddled masses could get a taste of the UNHCR lifestyle?
Bill -
Slightly off topic but do you have an opinion on the representation of poverty in “Slumdog Millionaire” ?
Keith A.
Expensive running shoes-check
State of the art hydration backpack-check
GPS-check
Stylish and sexy thinsulate outfit-check
EMT’s and ambulances on call-check
Well marked route-check
Sauna and whirlpool after the run-check
Gourmet meal over which you can discuss your harrowing experience-check
Yep, just like real refugees.
Will the “refugee run” include simulated rapes and child abuse by UN peace-keepers?
All in the interest of realism of course.
making a judgment on an event not personally experienced -check
thus influencing many others to form conclusive opinions without themselves having experienced said event – check
deciding on the validity and worth of said event based on the wording of said event’s invitation – check
formulating conclusions about the heart and motives behind said event with zero input from those who have organised it and are involved – check
expressing and generating high levels of cynicism towards an event that, as most activities in this life, has to actually be experienced first hand before one is qualified to comment – check
Yep, that’s journalism!
Dear Mr. Easterly,
I always hope that journalists will write according to one of the rules of excellent journalism, which I understand to be ‘good research precedes good reporting’.
Obviously your interest has been piqued. An emotional response, to whichever extreme, may be expected. I do feel though that your response is perhaps premature and unprofessional. You might have signed up for the Refugee Run, and written about it after.
But maybe you will credit yourself with a well-researched response to the Refugee Run yet.
Trudy
Yes, I have to go with Mazza (and the other less derisive commenters) here:
Sadly, Bill hasn’t been to the event and mischaracterises it pretty badly. It’s not a theme park but a simulation event, and while it of course does not subsitute for or comprehensively encompass the real experience of a refugee (and who on earth claimed that it would?) like other simulations when done well, it can be very powerful tool to open the participants to realities other than their own.
I have seen the simulation run many times, have been involved in running it many times in Australia, and had a hand in putting it into the form it currently takes (though it was not my idea originally).
In the context of a situation in Australia that became politically very inhospitable towards refugees and asylum-seekers, I have seen this simulation be instrumental in challenging and changing people’s prejudices against refugees. And as other commenters have noted, refugees themselves have often been involved in running the simulation and sharing their own experiences.
If it was run well in Davos and raised even a tiny bit of awareness and empathy for refugees among participants then I would say that is a good thing, surely??!!
The positive comments about the run have included more than a few who chided those of us who haven’t experienced it for criticising it. People have found the experience meaningful and dislike others speaking ill of what was transformative to them. I imagine this sounds entirely plausible to them as they write it.
The fact that they cannot even entertain the idea that this was a shallow experience – that there is no self-monitor that says “gee, maybe these people who work with the downtrodden have a perspective I should listen to” only reinforces my initial impression.
If the net result is more money for the poor, especially regugees, then I suppose I should put up with whatever show has to be put on to make that happen. But regarding this as an ennobling experience smacks of the French aristocrats onstage in “Marat-Sade.”
Yeah, AVI, for me the main problem wasn’t so much people criticising the event without having experienced it (though there are some obvious problems with that…)
It was more the assumption (based on what I’m not sure) that this would of necessity be a shallow, insensitive or dehumanising spectacle ( to quote just a small selection of Bill’s and other’s words).
A simulation is a teaching tool. Nothing more or less. If it raises awareness, empathy and challenges people to ask questions, then it has done its job. I don’t get why Bill and some commenters here seem to want to suggest that such a teaching method is inappropriate, or illegitimate in this context.
Of course there is a gap between the experience of a refugee and the experience of most WEF participants. That’s the point of holding such an event, to bridge that gap in a small, and certainly partial way, though in a way that brings together both cognitive and affective learning and reflection.
Of course it has to be done well. We all agree on that. Which, of course means with appropriate respect for the real, lived experiences of refugees, with the involvement of refugees themselves, and with appropriate caution about the limits of what a simulation activity of any kind can do.
I didn’t see anything in Bill’s post that showed that it wouldn’t be or couldn’t be done well. Just an outright rejection of the attempt with some snide digs at the organisers.
And like you, I hope that this event provides people at Davos with opportunities and avenues to make practical responses to the needs of refugees.
This reminds me of a “protest” on Vanderbilt campus in the mid ’80s when some students stawed for a few days in a shanty town they built on Alumni Lawn to get the university to divest from South Africa. When the school paper asked for peoples’ opinions one “poor little rich girl” commented that “I wouldn’t want to sleep there, but if they do I guess it’s alright.”
Astonishingly:
“The exhibit received a seal of approval from a genuine refugee, Raphael Mwandu from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “The things you see in this simulation are the same as those in the camps,” he said, adding that it would help let people “know what is going on in our world so that they can meet together and find solutions.”
A genuine refugee just happened to be at Davos?
Oh look. That’s a press release from UNHCR. Quelle surprise. And they wonder why people don’t take them seriously.
Paul C said:
Given that UNHCR co-organised the event, I would imagine that they arranged for Paul Mwandu to be there to share his experiences as part of the activity. Again, that sounds like a good thing to me. And one that answers some of the other objections about it being dehumanising or degrading or not involving and respecting real refugee experiences.
As to your other comment: Which people don’t take UNHCR seriously? And on what grounds?
I’m reading a lot of blanket assertions, but I haven’t read anything that actually explains your hostility to this event…
‘A genuine refugee just happened to be at Davos?’
Yes, I suppose that’s as hard to believe as reading that someone like Richard Branson gave this simulation a go, and his 2 word summation of the experience was,
“Beautifully done.”
Oh, hang on, he was obviously coerced into saying that by all those menacing soldiers waving AK-47s.
As the third comment points out humanitarian agencies probably focus on kids in their publicity campaigns because they think that that will bring in the most money. But more generally children are often the focus of redistributionist arguments because people can’t claim that their suffering is their own fault, as they can with adults.
As a friend and colleague of Raphael Mwandu, I can tell you that he works for the (non-UN) Hong Kong organisation that presented the event, and has helped run the Refugee Run for many hundreds of people over the past few years. He was not invited by the UNHCR but came as part of the staff from Hong Kong.
Raphael’s advice and experiences, along with the advice and experiences of many other refugees we work for and alongside in Hong Kong, have contributed to the development of this simulation activity, which has been running for a number of years.
As many other commenters have said, the Refugee Run has been a powerful means of helping people (school groups, corporate groups, government groups, other interested people) empathise with refugees, to realise they are individual people with families and ambitions like anyone else, instead of seeing them as an amorphous group to be pitied, annoyed by, or even despised.
Don’t underestimate the potential power of such experiences, especially if you have never taken part in it yourself.
I fully shared Easterly’s reaction but seeing that the “run” has defenders I want to clarify my position.
I have not seen the “Refugee run”, it might be extremely good, but what is reflected in the invitation, which is what we have seen, is definitely not good. Saying “You will meet a rebel attack, navigate a mine field and battle life in a refugee camp. … A debrief will follow in which you will discuss your experience. It will be an experience you will find impossible to forget.” conveys the possibility that you will be able to really experience the horrors.
The Holocaust Memorial Museum and that someone mentions as a comparable example shows you much of the horrors, in a very respectful way, but I have never heard it dare to say something that visiting it “you will be able to live the experience”.
And come on the “(Spoiler alert: No harm will come to you!)” is just inexcusable.
Again I thank Easterly for starting to spell out some real criticism into the area of aid, which in its ranks has too many mutual admirers commending and appreciating each other’s efforts.