Ayo
Our Crisis ... Somebody's Business
"Forty Aid Agencies in Nairobi Warn of Impending Famine in Kenya". That headline about ten years ago was shocking. Forty?! And all they can do is warn?
Then last year, as the run-off election in Zimbabwe loomed, President Robert Mugabe expelled the aid agencies, even though Zimbabweans depended on them for food. While the ban was in place, 'undercover' reports by the 'international' news media (glorying in their defiance of Zimbabwe's laws) bombarded the world with harrowing stories of infrastructure breakdown, hyper-inflation, shortages, cholera and starvation. It was so bad that people had been reduced to eating rats! Although there was some defence by bush meat fanciers that rat-eating was not necessarily a sign of starvation, after the election, the situation remained so dire that Mugabe allowed the aid agencies back. Asked how they would get urgently-needed relief to the beleaguered population, a representative explained that because they had been working in Zimbabwe for thirty-six years, their procedures were so well-established that they only had to pick up and continue as before.
Thirty-Six Years?! They had been there for thirty-six years, yet as soon as they left, Zimbabweans began starving? Since the debacle of the refugee camps established in Congo after the Rwanda genocide, where there seemed to be some sort of unspoken and unholy alliance between the Interahamwe Hutu militia and the aid agencies that kept the refugee population prisoner in the camps, there has been a healthy suspicion about some humanitarian organisations. But still, one believed that they were at least putting their own mantra: "Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, you feed him for life" into practice. So why should their departure put the "fishermen" at risk?
And now comes the disturbing news that American actress Mia Farrow has embarked on a 21-day hunger strike to protest the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. Farrow, who is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, hopes to raise awareness that the Sudanese government is risking lives by expelling the aid agencies. American voters will then pressurise President Barack Obama who in turn will make the Sudanese government allow the expelled agencies back! Reassuring her YouTube audience about her own health, Farrow lamented:
"A doctor is coming to check me out. And I was thinking, gee, the people in Darfur don't have doctors because Doctors Without Borders [Médecins Sans Frontières] was expelled. The well pumps are breaking because Oxfam isn't there to do maintenance."
Of course, if aid agencies weren't able to pass on any skills or knowledge to Zimbabweans in thirty-six years of relative peace, one shouldn't be surprised if they haven't passed on much in war-torn Darfur. I mean: How many local people Oxfam has trained in pump maintenance? How many Sudanese doctors has MSF trained? Or would that put some do-gooders in danger of having nowhere to do-good?
By the time you read this, Farrow should have successfully ended her water-only fast. But she hopes to start a chain of other celebrities, each fasting in succession for 21 days until ... what? Until the aid agencies are back in business!
Is this really what Darfur, Sudan, Africa needs? One can understand that in the face of unrelenting American hostility, the United Nations decided to make itself appealing – to Americans – by selecting some famous fine faces as Goodwill Ambassadors, making UNICEF a cuddly charity with multi-lingual greeting cards and so on.
But is it a substitute for policy? If Mia Farrow succeeds in pushing Darfur back onto the American media agenda, she may preserve the chain of African dependence on Western charity, but what has that to do with peace in Darfur? Although the African Mission in Sudan has morphed into the AU/United Nations Mission in Darfur, even 'peace-keepers' will only crystallize an already intolerable situation in the increasingly violent camps. There is a new joint AU/UN mediator, but we hear more about the 'peace process' because it is 'sure' to be disrupted over President Omar Bashir's indictment by the International Criminal Court than because of any progress towards actual peace in Sudan.
One thing seems certain: in all this, despite droning repetition that "Africa is the centrepiece of our foreign policy", Nigeria – which under Obasanjo was a significant (if unsuccessful) player in the Darfur peace process – will be just an onlooker. Yes, we will provide troops, but that's just business for the Army. And if the trouble in Sudan continues? Well, that will just be business for somebody else!
From: kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Director of Water Programs, charity: water, New York, Projects in Africa
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Date: Wednesday, November 10, 2010, 8:00 AM
charitable organizations are legally supposed to list how much of one's contribution goes to overhead expenses and how much to the project. some are much better than others.
ken
At 06:19 PM 11/9/2010, you wrote:
"Compensation:
A competitive compensation package will be offered to the successful
candidate."
This is always the annoying catch with these yeye American and European "charities." The compensation package is always the catch. By the time they pay for the brand new Pajero Jeep or Land Rover of this new employee, one or two free tickets back home to America or Europe per year, competitive incovenience allowance, a villa in the city from where to take episodic excursions to that bush Africa that needs charity water, a driver, and a chain gang of domestic aides, very little will be left of the $2 billion that this new employee is supposed to raise in order to facilitate the re-invention of charity.
Ask Bono.
Pius
--- On Tue, 9/11/10, Jessica Matthews <devnetjobs@gmail.com> wrote:
- From: Jessica Matthews <devnetjobs@gmail.com>
- Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Director of Water Programs, charity: water, New York, Projects in Africa
- To: "USA Africa Dialogue Series" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
- Date: Tuesday, 9 November, 2010, 19:16
- Director of Water Programs
- charity: water
- www.charitywater.org
- New York, NY
- charity: water is focused on providing clean, safe drinking water to
- 100 million people in the next ten years. To do this, charity: water
- is scaling its staff, its countries of work, its international
- partnerships-and they are-inventing charity in the process.
- The DIRECTOR OF WATER PROGRAMS will:
- • As a member of charity: water's Executive Team, help lead the
- organization and drive the cultural values that make our organization
- distinct.
- • Drive charity: water's program strategy and build partner capacity
- to fund $2B in projects over the next 10 years.
- • Have ownership of all funds sent to the field for project work.
- You'll deploy, monitor and report on $10-20M in project funding this
- year, growing to $500M per year over the next 10 years.
- • Develop and lead people and systems to manage continual influx of
- complex project data, and to scale exponentially over the next 5-10
- years.
- • Develop and manage high-level relationships with NGO leaders, water
- experts, field engineers and community workers, driving testing and
- broad adoption of viable new technologies and best practices.
- • Drive quarterly project funding planning, including vetting and
- negotiating partner project proposals and coordinating funding
- capacity with fundraising and accounting teams.
- • Represent charity: water in the global safe drinking water,
- sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector.
- • Uphold charity: water's commitment to transparency and efficiency by
- holding partners accountable for financial and project status
- reporting.
- We are looking for a truly remarkable individual to join the senior
- leadership team. The ideal candidate will display these unique
- qualities:
- • At least 5 years experience and expertise in international
- development, preferably focused on programs providing clean drinking
- water and hygiene and sanitation training to impoverished communities.
- • Experience with designing and managing scalable systems to track,
- organize and analyze complex project data.
- • Proven relationship skills with ability to develop and leverage
- productive relationships with NGO executives, water experts, engineers
- and field workers.
- • Strong communication skills, with ability to speak authoritatively
- at conferences, in meetings and on video.
- • Analytical, detailed and numbers-oriented approach to planning and
- budgeting.
- Education:
- Bachelor's degree is required. Advance degree a plus.
- Travel:
- Travel internationally at least 12 weeks per year.
- Compensation:
- A competitive compensation package will be offered to the successful
- candidate.
- For more detailed information, go to: http://devnetjobs.tripod.com/9november2010-charitywater.html
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unsubscribe@googlegroups.comKenneth W. Harrow
Distinguished Professor of English
Michigan State University
harrow@msu.edu
517 803-8839
fax 517 353 3755 --
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