All men are not, contrary to popular belief and certain t-shirts, rapists. Some are very nice. But at times it does kind’a feel like its part of the male condition to ‘lead with yer nob’ and ask questions later, taking advantage of any and every person, sexually, that you can possibly entice, bribe, coerce, blackmail or physically overcome in the process.

And when you read of such things happening at Goldman Sacks, you just think ‘fucking bankers’, in that case, quite literally. And when its Hollywood, there’s a ‘well what d’ya expect?’ kind of attitude that goes with ‘the territory’. A century ago, being an actress was seen in the same light as being a prostitute.

But charities are different. They come with an implicit morality that (certainly) banking and definitely show-biz, don’t. You HAVE to act in an ethical and considerate way when your headline brief is to ‘help people’. Increasing their suffering or giving them food in return only for sexual favours kind’a misses the point. By a fucking mile.

The problem escalates, once whistles are blown. In the case of Oxfam, that’s not the only thing which was blown. Because Oxfam and the others, so it now transpires, have been aware of these problems for years. And faced with the shameful, immoral actions of some of their workers, they chose to try a cover-up. Or, at very least, keep it ‘in house’. Or ‘in Haiti and Chad’, perhaps. But, again, this was not a stag weekend in Las Vegas, where what happens there stays there, this was a systematic and continuing cycle of abuse. So the logic in sending a habitual sex-fiend from Chad over to Haiti was never really going to be a ‘cure’ of his demons, was it?

And cover-ups make the organisations as guilty as the perpetrators. Like the church when they did, and still do, cover up sexual abuse because admitting it might affect their moral standing. Tossers. Covering it up makes them part of the problem rather than any possible solution. It makes them enablers.

And when ‘Christian Aid Overseas’ becomes tarred with the same brush, how good does that make Christians feel? When you adopt the moral high ground it gives you a far greater distance to fall.

Happy righteous Tuesday

A xxxx