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Chasing Chaos de Jessica Alexander

Chasing Chaos

Autor Jessica Alexander
en Limba Engleză Paperback – 15 oct 2013

Imagineați-vă praful dens al Rwandei în 1994, unde o tânără internă, înarmată doar cu idealism și dorința de a schimba lumea, pășește în ecoul unui genocid care a lăsat în urmă o tăcere asurzitoare. Chasing Chaos nu este doar o cronică a asistenței umanitare, ci o incursiune viscerală în spatele cortinei de siguranță a organizațiilor internaționale. Descoperim aici că realitatea de pe teren nu seamănă deloc cu broșurile lucioase ale fundațiilor: este o lume definită de haos, decizii imposibile și un amestec bizar de tragedie și hedonism defensiv. Notăm cu interes cum Jessica Alexander refuză să se portretizeze ca o eroină imaculată; ea ne poartă prin taberele de refugiați din Darfur, unde gestionează destinele a 24.000 de oameni, până în Sierra Leone și ruinele din Haiti, fără a ascunde petrecerile alimentate de alcool sau relațiile efemere care servesc drept mecanisme de supraviețuire psihică. În aceeași familie cu Beyond Good Intentions, volumul adaugă o dimensiune personală și adesea ireverențioasă, transformând analiza sistemică a ajutorului internațional într-o odisee a maturizării brutale. Dacă în lucrările sale dedicate publicului tânăr, precum This Is the Earth, autoarea sublinia puterea colaborării pentru un viitor mai verde, aici ea explorează limitele acestei puteri în fața corupției, epuizării și birocrației. Reținem o evoluție narativă fascinantă: de la tânăra naivă care crede că poate salva totul, la cinicul „călit” de ororile văzute, până la vocea finală a unui realist critic care înțelege că, deși ajutorul este imperfect, reziliența umană rămâne singura ancoră reală.

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Specificații

ISBN-13: 9780770436919
ISBN-10: 0770436919
Pagini: 386
Dimensiuni: 131 x 203 x 27 mm
Greutate: 0.34 kg
Editura: Crown Publishing Group (NY)

De ce să citești această carte

Recomandăm această carte oricui dorește să înțeleagă ce înseamnă cu adevărat munca umanitară, dincolo de știri. Cititorul câștigă o perspectivă onestă asupra dilemelor etice și logistice din zonele de conflict. Este o lectură esențială pentru cei interesați de relații internaționale, dar și pentru cei care caută o poveste autentică despre pierderea și regăsirea sensului într-o lume aflată constant în criză.

Despre autor

Jessica Alexander este un specialist cu vastă experiență în domeniul asistenței umanitare, activând de peste un deceniu în unele dintre cele mai dificile regiuni ale globului. Deși în cariera sa literară a colaborat la scrierea unor cărți pentru copii ce promovează responsabilitatea ecologică și socială, precum This Is the Earth sau This Is the Dream, prin volumul Chasing Chaos ea își demonstrează capacitatea de a aborda teme complexe și mature. Locuiește în Atlanta și continuă să fie o voce critică, dar implicată, în analiza politicilor de ajutor internațional.

Descriere scurtă

Jessica Alexander arrived in Rwanda in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide as an idealistic intern, eager to contribute to the work of the international humanitarian aid community. But the world that she encountered in the field was dramatically different than anything she could have imagined. It was messy, chaotic, and difficult—but she was hooked.
    In this honest and irreverent memoir, she introduces readers to the realities of life as an aid worker. We watch as she manages a 24,000-person camp in Darfur, collects evidence for the Charles Taylor trial in Sierra Leone, and contributes to the massive aid effort to clean up a shattered Haiti. But we also see the alcohol-fueled parties and fleeting romances, the burnouts and self-doubt, and the struggle to do good in places that have long endured suffering.
    Tracing her personal journey from wide-eyed and naïve newcomer to hardened cynic—and, ultimately, to hopeful but critical realist, Alexander transports readers to some of the most troubled locations around the world and shows us not only the seemingly impossible challenges, but also the moments of resilience and recovery.

Recenzii

“Terrific new memoir...It's Wild in Sudan.” —Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist and co-author of Half the Sky

“A no-holds-barred description of what it is like to travel to world disaster sites and engage in the complex, challenging, nitty-gritty work of making a difference across lines of culture, class, age, gender, and perspective.  In telling the story of her decade as a young and passionate humanitarian aid worker Jessica Alexander also manages to tell us the best and the worst of what this work is like and to speculate on the aid establishment—how it has changed, where it works and what its limits are.  A must read for anyone with global interests—and that should be all of us.” —Ruth Messinger, President, American Jewish World Service

“Chasing Chaos examines the lives that aid workers lead and the work which aid workers do with honesty, clarity, and warmth. While the book is peppered with hilarious anecdotes—it is also salted with tears. Honest, genuine, heartfelt tears. This life and this work that aid and development workers embark upon so often oscillates wildly between stomach bursting laughter and shoulder seizing weeping—Chasing Chaos captures these oscillations, and the doldrums in between the ends of the spectrum, perfectly.” —Casey Kuhlman, New York Times bestselling author of Shooter
 
“During ten years of working with the sick, the hungry, and the injured, Jessica Alexander touches and is touched by victims of genocide, earthquakes, tsunamis, and bombs.  The compelling quality of this book is Alexander’s honesty, sharp observations, and conversational prose. With humor and insight, she shares the intimate details of her everyday life. Even if you’re a seasoned traveler, this entry into the world of humanitarian aid organizations—the good, the bad, and the frustrating—is fascinating.” —Rita Golden Gelman, author of Tales of a Female Nomad 

 “In Chasing Chaos, Alexander takes us to a place where few outsiders can go, cracking open the rarefied world of humanitarianism to bare its contradictions--and her own--with boldness and humor. The result is an immensely valuable field guide to the mind of that uniquely powerful and vulnerable of beasts: the international aid worker.” —Jonathan M. Katz, author of The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster

“Not only is Jessica Alexander a wonderful writer—her clear, evocative prose transported me into refugee camps in Darfur, war-trials in Sierra Leone and post-earthquake Haiti—but she is honest about the complexity of 'doing good,' without being defeatist. Funny, touching and impossible to put down, this book should be required reading for anyone contemplating a career in aid, and for all of us who wonder how we can make a useful contribution to a better world, wherever we are.” —Marianne Elliott, author of Zen Under Fire: How I Found Peace in the Midst of War 

"A fresh, very readable, highly personal account of the trials and tribulations of a young aid worker as she confronts the daily realities— the good ,the bad and the very uncomfortable—of life dealing with some of the most important humanitarian challenges of the last decade." —Ross Mountain, Former Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General and Humanitarian Coordinator, United Nations

 “You'll start Chasing Chaos because you are interested in humanitarian aid. You'll finish because of Jessica Alexander's irresistible story telling: her honesty, her humanity, her wackadoodle colleagues, her dad. I loved it.” —Kenneth Cain, author of Emergency Sex: and Other Desperate Measures

 “A hardened idealist's challenging look at the contradictions, complications, and enduring importance of humanitarian aid.” —Robert Calderisi, author of The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn't Working

 "Jessica Alexander’s Chasing Chaos is a must read for anyone concerned with helping those in need. Americans are some of the most generous people on Earth in reaching out to those coping with disasters, both natural and manmade, but how we give and what we give can make the difference between saving lives and only making a bad situation even worse. The path to hell really can be paved with good intentions, as Ms. Alexander perceptively describes and as I have seen during my own twenty plus years working in Africa and the Middle East, including many tours dealing with the same countries Alexander portrays. She knows of what she speaks." —Christopher Datta,
Former American Foreign Service Officer and author of Touched with Fire: Based on the True Story of Ellen Craft


Notă biografică

JESSICA ALEXANDER spent much of the last decade responding to humanitarian crises across the globe. A former Fulbright scholar, she has worked for various NGOs as well as UN agencies. She has a dual masters degree from Columbia and is currently working toward her PhD.