Fear and Self-loathing in Humanitarian Space

The brilliant Hugo Slim in his essay ' A Call to Alms' says;

A sense of neo-colonial guilt, which can verge on self-hatred, lurks just below the surface of many individual humanitarian vocations and has a pernicious effect on humanitarian purpose and morale.

Slim is the only writer on humanitarian matters whom I have come across who has pinpointed this issue which I have seen so much evidence of among my peers, but rarely heard discussed. The uneasiness we feel about the neo-colonial nuances of what we do, and our frustration with the ineffectiveness of some projects can translate into feelings of negativity that threaten to take over.

Sometimes it's hard to distinguish between a healthy dose of self-satire which helps us laugh about the issues we deal with, and the self-hatred which Slim refers to. We humanitarian workers have to be able to laugh at ourselves, and I think we need to to be able to laugh at situations that really aren't funny. I find this blog; http://stuffexpataidworkerslike.com/ a great instance of aid workers poking fun at themselves, and I find most of the entries hilarious and very recognisable.
I  recently saw a cartoon video posted on Facebook entitled 'Aspiring Aid Worker Interview'.The tagline reads: This is a satirical look at the challenges of professional aid and development work with idealistic activists with good intentions. I haven't reposted it partly because it seems to have been removed for copyright reasons.  A young man with a robotic voice tells an interviewer with a robotic voice that he wants to be an aid worker, and gets put straight about how useless and uninformed and naive his ambition is, and how he doesn't need to go overseas. It was posted by a fellow humanitarian, and several other of my humanitarian friends 'liked' it, and commented on how funny it was. The young man protests 'But I have a Master's degree! I use words like 'empowerment'!' Speaking as one with a Master's degree, who uses words like 'empowerment', I'm not sure that I think this is laughable. If we don't believe in what we do, how do we expect anyone else to?