#4

What do traders and NGOs do for these cultures? 

This question is one that is of particular interest to myself because I have been studying the UN in depth in International Relations and thus I shall be answering what the UN, and the NGOs aligned with it, do for cultures. 

Ideals often reflect a process of thinking or a mindset. Thus, in order to better understand some of the conclusions I draw regarding the UN, it seems best to look at what is possibly their most famous document, The UN Declaration of Human Rights (linked here: http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html), which contains a variety of rights entitled to all human beings. Overall, this document seems to represent a very balanced protection of different aspects of life here on Earth. The Declaration does mention spirituality in that it garuantees the freedom to practice and change religion(Article 18), in reality this right is not promoted or well-held up in many of the UN's operations, in fact, more often than not the UN stays mum on the subject of religion and rather address other social issues such as racism or poverty. Now, both of the example which I just gave are important issues that need to be addressed, but spirituality is an aspect of life that must be faced, and in my opinion, the UN should make a point of addressing that fact more often. Am I saying that the UN is a terrible organization? By no means, although they are far from perfect, they do attempt to secure international relations as well as promote human rights accross the world, but nonetheless because of their lack of religious background(despite the fact that many of their human rights are similar to ideals found within the Bible and other religious texts), I believe they are a hinderance when dealing with people. This is equally applicable to both peoples from modern countries and those from less-developed nations. All people have a need for a spiritual presence in their life, some just don't look for it in, what many would consider, "traditional" locations(e.g. Isalm, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, etc). Even in our world where 16% claim to be non-religious, there is still an element of spirituality in their lives, such as luck, the form in which they express themselves spiritually is just different. Why is all this important? It briefly displays the fact that all peoples do have an element of spirituality in their life therefore it should be well-addressed by NGOs, such as the UN-who is considered a model for the world. 

Now onto the actual question. What do NGOs do for these cultures? Well, frankly, they promote their ideals. For example had the UN gone in before the missionaries, according to the UN Declaration of Human Rights, cannibilism would not be an acceptable cultural practice, which would result in the UN creating policies abolishing cannibilism in the Sawi tribes. Granted this is hypothetical and the UN doesn't technically have the power to stop anyone from doing anything, they would still promote their ideals and attempt to find diplomatic means to stop cannibilism in the country-thus changing the culture, or as some as so fond of saying "destroying" the culture. I really must protest the word "destroy" because destory implies that there is nothing left of the culture, and if one element is taken away a culture is still left with the other elements and therefore not destroyed. Bringing the focus back to the question, although the UN is concerned about human rights, they do have their own agenda and are always concerned about the balance of power-thus they(and any other NGO) are not objective or unbaised. They do educate people and promote equal rights, but at at cost, one that often takes its toll on improvished people groups and thier cultures. Many would consider them a more favorable person to send in first(at least when compared to a missionary), but it is important to recognize that there are hypocrites in all of us and that every organization has their own agenda.There is evidence of this hypocrisy in the fact that there are quite a few cases where UN workers have actually hurt the people they had come to help-intentionally (example one, example two, example three). This is heartbreaking-regardless of one's opinion of the UN-and should serve as a reminder of the fact that no one is perfect. 

Citations:

http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html

http://www.sikhsangat.org/news/uploads/1/un_logo.jpg