The Myth of the Humanitarian Golden Age That Never Existed

Philosophy question of the week: if a former FCDO official laments a world that never existed, on a podcast barely anyone listens to, did it really happen at all? Unfortunately, yes it did happen, and while his career coincided with the UK's enabling of genocide in Gaza, he only left when the department wanted to shed its dead weight. He was never a humanitarian, always a corrupted functionary of Empire, and now he's un Fonctionaire sans Frontieres.

Colum Wilson, former head of the FCDO's "humanitarian" department, gave a podcast interview to The New Humanitarian in August 2026, admitting "UK aid" now serves national interest, that humanitarianism has been subsumed by realpolitik, and the system can't reform itself.

The strangest part is, he framed this as some form of tragedy, a fall from a "golden era" when aid was "pure", when ministers listened to "humanitarian" arguments, when the UK government did "good", as it was "the right thing to do", I know, try not to laugh.

He confesses, yet doesn't realise. If memory serves correct, he signed off Business Cases that established the UNHCR Agadez Prison Camp, worked on Ebola responses that funded WHO sexual abuse of women and girls, and supported UK crimes taking place in Syria breaching international law. He confesses, but he doesn't say, "I was complicit, I enabled the system, I stayed because I liked doing what I was doing." Instead, he says, "The world has become a colder and crueller place, we need to smell the coffee." He can't see the world was always cold and cruel, and he, his job and department was part of making it that way.

Read my exclusive investigation, "Inside the longest refugee protest in history", first published in Waging Nonviolence, in 2026, which shows the Agadez detention camp in Niger, funded by the UK and the EU, is a direct product of the system Wilson served, whereby refugees have been held there for years, denied resettlement, subjected to medical neglect, illegally arrested/deported for protesting, and have even been murdered. https://wagingnonviolence.org/2026/07/agadez-niger-longest-refugee-protest/

Wilson ran the department that funded this system, spending 20 years inside of it, yet in the podcast he's seems to want to make out he is a victim of it, when he's a perpetrator systemic violence, he just wont admit it, or hasn't realised it yet. Neither removes his complicity in the crimes of the British Government, which he dutifully served for decades.

Read my article, "The Blood on British Hands" published in Gazatte in 2026, setting out how the UK has enabled genocide in Gaza, which Wilson's department made possible. https://gazatte.co/opinion/2026/08/05/the-blood-on-british-hands 

The "golden era" he describes never existed, a myth that allows him to believe he was doing good while serving Empire, covering for it's past, present and ongoing crimes against humanity. Wilson says, "It was the heady days of, you know, the end of history had come. The victory of the neoliberal world order. We used to do humanitarian and development work writ large because it was the right thing to do."

His failure of introspection on his role in enabling criminality shows, as he still believes there was a time, the early 2000s he says, when UK "aid" wasn't about national interest, when humanitarianism was pure, when ministers listened. But throughout Wilson's entire 20-year career, the UK was enabling Israel's crimes against Palestinians, and still is.

In 2006, Israel bombed Lebanon, the UK? Silent. By 2008-2009, during Israel's Operation Cast Lead, which murdered over 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza, including hundreds of children. The UK? Never suspended arms sales. During 2014, and Israel's Operation Protective Edge that killed over 2,200 Palestinians in Gaza, I managed the UK's emergency response to that phase of the genocide standing in Al Shifa hospital's emergency department listening to the doctors, I saw the UK government's complicity firsthand. Wilson was inside the system then, where was his "humanitarian argument" then?

In 2021, Israel bombed Gaza again. The UK? Still not suspending arms sales, still covering for genocide. And finally, in 2023-2026 and Israel's "final solution" in it's genocide in Gaza. The UK? Supplies weapons, intelligence, diplomatic cover and military support to the 21st century version of the Nazis. While the government he worked for arrested those who protested genocide, refused to prosecute those who enabled it, refused to investigate British citizens who perpetrated it as part of the IOF. What did Wilson do during these years? Remained silent.

Wilson's "golden era" is a complete fantasy, a story he must tell himself to justify his career. The aid system has always served Empire, the "end of history" is propaganda he swallowed and is now repeating. Wilson's "golden era" wasn't a time of isolated incidents, it was a period of systemic, documented abuse, corruption and institutional cover-up the aid sector has spent decades trying to hide, just like the Catholic Church.

In my 2024 investigation for Declassified UK, I expose the FCDO in, "Gaza: Revolt in the Foreign Office", whereby up to 300 FCDO staff were revolting against UK complicity in Gaza, asking to see the legal advice, but they were silenced. Wilson was inside the system at the time, where was his "humanitarian influence", did he sign the letter? https://www.declassifieduk.org/gaza-revolt-in-the-foreign-office/ 

The aid sector was already broken in the early 2000s, it has always been broken, and he's actually right about about one thing, it will never be reformed. It needs to be abolished, entirely. Wilson's myth collapses when confronted with reality, as he laments the loss of a humanitarian age that never was, lamenting the loss of a time when he could pretend crimes weren't happening in plain sight.

West Africa Sex-for-Aid Scandal - "We used to do humanitarian work because it was the right thing to do", Colum Wilson

In 2001-2002, a leaked report by UNHCR and Save the Children UK documented "widespread" sexual exploitation in refugee camps in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, aid workers trading "oil, bulgur wheat, tarpaulin or plastic sheeting, medicines, transport, ration cards, loans, education courses and skills training" for sex with girls aged 13 to 18.

His "Golden Era" includes widescale paedophilia., where in some cases, parents were forced to encourage their children to be sexually exploited to bring income into the family. Children as young as four were sexually harassed and raped by aid workers from the "Golden Era". A teenage girl in Liberia said, "They use food as bait to get me to have sex with them." Paedophilia, rape, sexual abuse and harrassment has never been dealt with by the aid sector, it continues to be covered up to this day.

The Oxfam Haiti Scandal - "The world has become a colder and crueller place", Colum Wilson

In 2010, Oxfam aid workers in Haiti, including the Country Director, used child prostitutes while responding to the earthquake. Again, paedophilia happening in plain sight in the aid sector he laments as "Golden". These aren't just a few bad apples, the barrel is toxic and is a magnet for predators.

Oxfam eventually dismissed four staff and allowed others, including paedophile Roland van Hauwermeiren, a "phased and dignified" resignation, while the charity kept trustees, the Charity Commission and the Department for International Development were only informed seven years after the fact when a journalist broke the story, and they have never disclosed the full extent of these crimes even to this day. I know, because I read the reports.

Van Hauwermeiren went on to work for Action Against Hunger, which was never informed of his previous behaviour by Oxfam, thereby charities in the aid sector knowingly enable paedophilia. Helen Evans, Oxfam's head of safeguarding, raised concerns that no one took action on her claims.

SOS Children's Villages: Decades of Abuse (2013-2023) - "You make a trade between influence and proximity", Colum Wilson

In October 2025, SOS Children's Villages finally revealed its founder, Hermann Gmeiner, committed sexual and physical abuse over decades before his death in 1986. Eight cases were documented and "compensation" aka hush money, paid between 2013 and 2023, ranging from only €5,000 to €25,000 per victim.

Reports also emerged of children in Syria being separated from their families and transferred to SOS centres under unclear circumstances, with some later returned to authorities. An investigation in 2025 uncovered deeper institutional culture of cover-up, for decades of child rape, sexual predation of women and widespread sexual abuse.

There were even cases of children being trafficked across international borders for abuse by SOS Children's Villages staff. This organisation should be closed down as a danger to children, not allowed to remain open, abusing children.

Save the Children UK: Bullying and Harassment - "It was far easier to make a pure humanitarian argument to ministers", Colum Wilson

Between 2012-2018, a Charity Commission report found "serious failures" in how Save the Children UK handled harassment claims against senior staff, including it's Chief Executive Justin Forsyth and former policy chief Brendan Cox. Brendan Cox, now widow of Jo Cox MP, was sexually harrassing women in his workplace while his wife, and mother of his children was alive, who would go on to be murdered by a far right extremist.

There were 13 complaints of general bullying and five complaints categorised as sexual harassment between 2016 and 2018. I knew at the time, as insiders confided in me, I reported my concerns to internal management and nothing was done, as "Save [the Children UK] are our biggest NGO implementing partners". Despite being told this, I fought internally to remove a prestigious Emergency Medical Team contract I was Senior Responsible Owner for, of £2 million from them, despite relentless pressure from Save the Children management, including Forsyth complaining to the head civil servant at the time in DFID, Mark Lowcock. I succeeded in defunding them. What did Wilson do?

The charity's public statements were described as "unduly defensive" and created the impression of "downplaying the seriousness of the allegations". The former chairman, Kevin Watkins, admitted the charity failed its female staff, saying: "I as chairman at the time must take responsibility for that". Watkins went on to become the Chief Executive after allowing Forsyth to walk away, not fired, but given a reference so he could go and work at UNICEF. It's an Old Boys Club of abusers.

The WHO DRC Ebola Sexual Abuse Scandal - "It was a massive pleasure and privilege to work inside government", Colum Wilson

During the Ebola outbreak in Congo in 2018, over 80 aid workers, including WHO, MSF and Oxfam (them again) staff, were implicated in sexual abuse and exploitation. This was the largest ever sexual abuse case in it's 75 year history.

A year-long investigation by The New Humanitarian (who platformed Wilson's discraceful interview I am critiquing) and Thomson Reuters Foundation revealed 51 victims were plied with drinks, raped, and in some cases, became pregnant and were abandoned. WHO Africa Director Matshidiso Moeti called the allegations "deeply horrific and heartbreaking".

Yet the UK government continued to increase funding to the WHO throughout, knowing it was paying the salaries of rapists and abusers. Staff who were allowed to leave WHO without being fired, later found work with MSF, birds of a feather and all. The FCDO continued to fund the WHO while it covered up sexual abuse, increased WHO funding from £50m to £114m per year, and failed to prosecute or hold accountable any perpetrators.

Read my investigation, "UK aid is funding sexual abuse" first published in Declassified UK, in 2024, whereby the UK was funding WHO while it covered up sexual abuse in the DRC, the FCDO knew and increased funding anyway. https://www.declassifieduk.org/uk-aid-is-funding-sexual-abuse/ 

Wilson says he left his position as head of the FCDO's humanitarian department in 2025, but he doesn't say why. In the podcast he frames himself as a humanitarian who chose to leave, but he doesn't mention he didn't resign in principle, because he didn't. He took a huge payoff as part of an exorbitant redundancy package, which I wont reveal here, but it is substantial, as the FCDO wanted to shed its dead weight.

He didn't leave because he couldn't stomach the UK's complicity in Gaza, he left because it was financially rewarding for him to do so. Which is ironically, very representative of the aid sector, only doing things for financial gain, rather than because of morals or ethics.

Wilson stayed for 20 years, serving the system he now pretends to critique, being rewarded by it, and when the system finally decided he was surplus to requirements, he took the money and skipped off, now doing podcasts about how sad he is the world has changed.

Wilson is personification of what I term "The Temporal Alibi", an article first published in Gazatte in 2026, as he believes the system was once good and has since been corrupted, and he can't see or admit the system was always corrupt, and he was part of it. https://gazatte.co/articles/the-temporal-alibi-how-the-american-left-uses-palestine-to-avoid-their-reflection

Wilson says the system can't reform itself, which is one of his most damning admissions: "The system is too heavily embedded to be able to do fundamental self-reform. It won't wish itself out of existence." Yet he stayed for 20 years. He says, "You make a trade between influence and proximity." He knew he was compromising, staying anyway. He says, "We had the job of setting the policy direction for the UK's humanitarian portfolio, which at its peak amounted to £1.2 billion." He enjoyed the power, liked being close to the levers, yet what did his "influence" ever really achieve? He didn't change the system, no matter how much he tries to convince himself, the system changed him.

Throughout his career, Wilson's "humanitarian influence" did nothing to stop the UK's complicity in Gaza, nothing to suspend arms sales. The UK didn't stop funding the aid system, never held Israel, a criminal state, accountable.

Wilson isn't a humanitarian who was betrayed by the system, he's a functionary who served it, was rewarded by it, was paid off by it, and now laments its decline while still unable to see his own complicity in it.

His "end of history" comment shows the propaganda he has swallowed, and that he can't see it's problematic conatations is worrying. Francis Fukuyama's thesis that liberal democracy had won and history was over was propaganda then and is propaganda now. "The victory of the neoliberal world order" was a "heady day", according to Wilson, yet it's the exact same neoliberal world order that has destroyed the humanitarian sector he claims to love. He's therefore celebrating the very machinery that made his "work" impossible and dismantled it.

1. You say there was a golden era when the UK did humanitarian work "because it was the right thing to do", when exactly was that? Because during your entire career, the UK was enabling Israel's crimes in Gaza, knowingly funding sexual abuse, and covering up for British crimes in Syria.

2. You left your position, took a payoff as part of a redundancy package. Why do you present yourself as a humanitarian who chose to leave, when you were paid to go, and would you like to reveal how much your payoff by Empire was?

3. You say you made a "trade between influence and proximity", what did your influence actually achieve? Please name a single policy you changed, a single abuse you stopped, a single arms sale you suspended, or a single genocide you prevented?

4. In 2024, up to 300 FCDO staff formally raised concerns about UK complicity in Gaza and asked to see the legal advice on whether the UK was breaching international law. Did you sign that letter? If not, why not? If you did, why did you stay?

5. You say the system can't reform itself, yet you stayed for 20 years. If you knew the system was beyond reform, why did you stay?

6. You say the "golden era" was the victory of the neoliberal world order, but that same order destroyed the humanitarian sector you claim to love. Do you not see the contradiction?

7. You worked in the department that funded the WHO while it covered up sexual abuse, funded the Agadez detention camp, and funded UK complicity in genocide. Do you accept any personal responsibility for the suffering your funding enabled?

8. You say the world has become "colder and crueller", but you were inside the system for 20 years. When did you first notice it was cold and cruel, and why did you not leave then?

9. You believe there was a golden era when aid was pure. Do you accept your entire career was spent serving empire, and your "humanitarianism" was a mask for complicity?

10. I resigned and blew the whistle on crimes FCDO was committing, I walked away, I didn't take a payoff, yet you stayed, took the money, and only left when paid to do so. Have you done any introspection on your role in the violence the UK commits overseas?