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Liked It Rated 5 stars “Very well written, very easy to read, despite the gruesome subject matter. Orbinski deals with very tough issues that are of concern to those in the humanitarian aid community...can you become part of the problem, how do you help everyone, when do you walk away and what are the repercussions, is...” see full review » see other reviews »

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  • Rated 5 stars

  “Very well written, very easy to read, despite the gruesome subject matter. Orbinski deals with very tough issues that are of concern to those in the humanitarian aid community...can you become part of the problem, how do you help everyone, when do you walk away and what are the repercussions, is there a greater good and how do you justify it?”

  Julia G wrote this review Saturday, November 29 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No

  
  
  • Rated 4 stars

  “All in all, I'm not sure what to say about this one. Orbinsky is trying to draw a distinction between politics and humanitarianism that I think is conceptually dangerous - it's well past time we stop thinking of politics as what goes on behind closed doors between white guys in suits and start recognizing it in our daily lives. Or so I think. But who am I, right? Well, I'm someone that happens to think that in a holistic world where everything is connected, every decision matters politically.
  
  Oddly, Orbinski seems to be coming from the same place here, and maybe he draws the distinction between humanitarianism and politics to make compassionate action more immediately accessible to his readers and in his own life. Certainly, he has taken such action, and certainly, it is detailed here. But part of me thinks this book was written about 5 years earlier than it should have been, with much more of the book dedicated to Orbinski's working out his post-traumatic demons gained after years of working in the world's most dangerous, forsaken and deranged places with MSF. More time may have given Orbinski the emotional and mental space to have crafted a more logically cohesive argument of just what it is that is required for humanitarian action in a world where politics is so removed from humanitarian efforts. As it is, An Imperfect Offering is still a solid work that does a powerful job of illustrating the sheer necessity and impossibility of navigating the divide between the two, even if it gives few answers on how this is to be done.”

  Shauna T wrote this review Sunday, November 16 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No