Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures

Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures, by Heidi Postlewait, Kenneth Cain and Doctor Andrew Thomson, is the memoir of three young people who join the United Nations (UN) in Cambodia with a dream of making the world a better place. Set in the 1990s, the book was published in 2004.

Thomson is a New Zealand-born physician who is inspired to work in Cambodia after meeting a mature age Cambodian medical student in his Auckland University class. Postlewait is a New York social worker who is struggling to make ends meet after the end of her marriage. Cain is an idealistic Harvard graduate who does not want to go into corporate law.

The three stories intersect through the years from Cambodia, to Somalia, Haiti, Rwanda, Bosnia and Liberia. This is the first account from UN workers on the front line and an honest memoir about the successes and failures of the UN.

"Brutal and moving in equal measure, Emergency Sex (And Other Desperate Measures) explores pressing global issues while never losing a sense of the personal. Deeply critical of the West's indifference to developing countries and the UN's repeated failure to intervene decisively, the book provoked massive controversy on its initial publication. Kofi Annan called for the book to be banned, and debate was sparked about the future direction of the UN. Brilliantly written and mordantly funny, it is a book that continues to make waves.^[1]"

Other critiques were not impressed by the book to say the least. The Guardian humoristically claimed that you should not become an aid worker if "Your favourite book about aid is Emergency Sex." ^[2]

The New Yorker was similarly dubious about the behaviour of the authors of the book. It quoted Shashi Tharoor, the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information (and an overseer of the peacekeeping mission in the former Yugoslavia, which is criticized in the book), by stating that “It didn’t seem right for people to work for the organization and trash it the way these people did.” Doing so while collecting a paycheck, he said, was “slightly contemptible. It further noted that "“Emergency Sex,” with its tales of drug use and disillusionment and its emphasis on personal drama, is not a typical whistle-blowing tract. (“I want to rip my clothes off, rip Yusuf’s clothes off, and just fuck him right there.”) But the authors do make a number of serious allegations of corruption, negligence, and inadequate leadership, particularly with regard to the genocides in Rwanda and Srebrenica." It also mentionned the comments of the authors, which could be described as reckless at best, while noting that at least one of the authors would like his job back "Thomson, who is from New Zealand, is stationed in Geneva for the remainder of his term. “I think Shashi Tharoor has put himself and the organization on a really slippery slope,” he said, “and at the ugly bottom of that you run into historical revisionism and Holocaust deniers.” Be that as it may, Thomson would be happy simply to have his job back. “I want to go on serving as a doctor to the staff,” he said. ^[3]

Stage adaptation

Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures was adapted for the stage by Australian playwright, Damien Millar.

It won Griffin Theatre Company’s annual Griffin Award for an outstanding new play in 2007.

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