The Perils Of Aid Group Overexaggeration

"The problem is that U.N. agencies, USAID, its European counterparts (90 percent of relief funding still comes from the OECD countries), and NGOs almost all think that to get attention for a given crisis, they must use apocalyptic language and err on the side of overestimating the death, damage, and displacement that has been caused," author David Rieff writes in a Foreign Policy opinion piece. When organizations exaggerate, "they up the rhetorical ante that much more," he writes, adding, "In the name of mobilizing compassion, we are raising the bar to impossible heights" (6/9).