Unfortunately, my position in Haiti does not permit me to maintain a blog. I'll continue to write, but instead I suppose I'll have to send my ramblings to an editor, have them publish it, and then charge you $29 dollars to download it onto a kindle.
Lame on all accounts, I know.
Here's two blogs that aren't lame, though: http://penelopemc.wordpress.com/ and, of course, http://chrisblattman.com/
Good bye, God speed and good luck.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Saturday, April 3, 2010
A purpose for my rambling
I’ve been struggling to write an entry for this blog for a number of reasons, most prominently: I spend many hours on my laptop each day writing out reports, proposals, schedules, etc. and at the end of the day I hate to even look at the thing. But today is Saturday, so I decided that before I do any other work, I’d write something first. My other problem is that my inspiration these days is to question rather than explain. Yet, me asking a series of questions about Haiti in this blog may not make for very interesting reading (and anyways, we may very likely share the same curiosities). And a final reason for my writer’s block: I’ve switched agencies. I’m no longer with a medium-sized non-governmental organization. In fact, I’m no longer with an NGO strictly speaking (perhaps that gives it away?). I can’t say whom I work with because then I would be severely limited in what I can and cannot speak about. But, think of one of the largest, most well recognized symbols in humanitarian aid and you’ve probably got it right.
My job hasn’t changed very much; I’m still running a transitional shelter program. But, though my responsibilities have grown and become more complex, I’m tempted, at times, to see my work as slightly easier than before. This is because in medium sized agencies (and certainly small-sized agencies) you often have to do a bit of everything—logistics, finance, and administration, in addition to your programming role. In this way its kind of like running your own business—you may not be trained in HR (for example), yet you find yourself doing it. Working for a big agency means those resources are covered by people trained in them. So, you’re able to concentrate on your role.
In terms of the nature (quantity and quality) of work, the dichotomy more or less holds true: Large agencies reach hundreds of thousands of people with systematic, well-designed, well-implemented programs. Yet, there are a host of criticisms that can be applied. For example, some lament that big aid programs are comprised of inflexible interventions that are unresponsive to the rapidly changing context on the ground. And conversely, though it is overly simplistic it is not altogether incorrect, to say that small agencies are the opposite: Small agencies have a smaller gap between the context on the ground and the operational strategists. For this reason they can respond quickly to changes, and innovate more easily. But, due to economies of scale, their programs only reach a few thousand people—plus, their implementation may be inconsistent, their professional capacity weak, and their coordination spotty. Of course, coordination is critical, and when you have a hundred and one small agencies all with their pet ideals and agendas, it becomes nearly impossible.
This is why I’m always left shaking my head when the media and cyberspace pundits are critical of the ‘the humanitarian response’ in this emergency or that. Their ignorance is that they write of the response in the singular, rather than plural. A multi-dimensional crisis full of a complex network of actors is criticized as though it were a single, distinct narrative, with one protagonist—the humanitarian community—and one antagonist—the earthquake. This perspective, however, is so far from reality that the resulting discussion is worthless.
In order to have a proper discussion regarding the merits of the earthquake response in Haiti to date it is necessary to first consider each variable in its own accord: 1. The composition of the humanitarian community; 2. The composition of the Haitian leadership; 3. The composition of Haitian society (including the dirty words ‘culture’ and ‘religion’); and 4. The effect of the composition of international trade and foreign policy on all three.
So, viola! There you have the purpose of this blog: to explore each of these in-depth and hopefully learn something about life along the way. And to be very honest, that’s really why I enjoy aidwork. For me, it’s just as much about helping people as it is about learning about your own culture and society, and most importantly, about yourself. And here's some lessons I've learned along the way thus far (consider them as guideposts for our future research):
1. An extremely thin line separates our manicured, ordered and privileged civilization in Canada from the seemingly chaotic and desperate ‘third’ world. Never overlook small reminders of this, such as the mountains of trash after a summer of public service strikes in Toronto, or the senseless riots that can follow a playoff hockey game in Montreal or Vancouver. (Aside: a colleague from Atlantic Canada just arrives and exclaims, “This place is a pigsty! Why is there so much garbage everywhere?” Me: “No one comes to collect it and take it away.” Reply: “That’s no excuse. People aught to have some dignity and properly deal with it and care for their environment!” Me: “Do you really believe that?” Reply: “Yes, it’s the foundation for a sustainable community.” Me: “Do you recycle all your plastics, metals, papers, and compost?” Reply: “No, we can’t. It’s not possible. Its not like in Vancouver where every home’s got individually labeled recycle bins emptied every week by the… oh.”
2. No issue or problem stands alone. A famous Haitian proverb reads: "Beyond mountains, there are mountains." Problems in life have causes from other problems in history. If you “solve” a problem superficially, you will find it waiting for you in some other form later in your journey through life. The key is to acknowledge the interconnectedness of the issues, to recognize their ancestry and to dig to their common root.
3. Ignorance and want are not explanations for poverty and vice; they are merely points of departure for further discussion. That is to say, ignorance and want require their own explanations.
4. It is incumbent of the strong to strengthen with the weak, the rich to prosper the poor, the healthy to heal the sick. This is the first moral of any civilization, and can be traced all the way back to our earliest metaphor: the story of Cain and Abel.
So, there you have it. But, don't go calling me out when I stray off-topic to tell you about Haitian beer and beautiful beaches (among other things...). All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
PS - I lament the current state of international development academia, with its make-poverty-history fix of money and methods. Too much emphasis on economics and political science when all social problems, though crafted significantly by economics and politics, ultimately lead us back to culture. More anthropology please.
My job hasn’t changed very much; I’m still running a transitional shelter program. But, though my responsibilities have grown and become more complex, I’m tempted, at times, to see my work as slightly easier than before. This is because in medium sized agencies (and certainly small-sized agencies) you often have to do a bit of everything—logistics, finance, and administration, in addition to your programming role. In this way its kind of like running your own business—you may not be trained in HR (for example), yet you find yourself doing it. Working for a big agency means those resources are covered by people trained in them. So, you’re able to concentrate on your role.
In terms of the nature (quantity and quality) of work, the dichotomy more or less holds true: Large agencies reach hundreds of thousands of people with systematic, well-designed, well-implemented programs. Yet, there are a host of criticisms that can be applied. For example, some lament that big aid programs are comprised of inflexible interventions that are unresponsive to the rapidly changing context on the ground. And conversely, though it is overly simplistic it is not altogether incorrect, to say that small agencies are the opposite: Small agencies have a smaller gap between the context on the ground and the operational strategists. For this reason they can respond quickly to changes, and innovate more easily. But, due to economies of scale, their programs only reach a few thousand people—plus, their implementation may be inconsistent, their professional capacity weak, and their coordination spotty. Of course, coordination is critical, and when you have a hundred and one small agencies all with their pet ideals and agendas, it becomes nearly impossible.
This is why I’m always left shaking my head when the media and cyberspace pundits are critical of the ‘the humanitarian response’ in this emergency or that. Their ignorance is that they write of the response in the singular, rather than plural. A multi-dimensional crisis full of a complex network of actors is criticized as though it were a single, distinct narrative, with one protagonist—the humanitarian community—and one antagonist—the earthquake. This perspective, however, is so far from reality that the resulting discussion is worthless.
In order to have a proper discussion regarding the merits of the earthquake response in Haiti to date it is necessary to first consider each variable in its own accord: 1. The composition of the humanitarian community; 2. The composition of the Haitian leadership; 3. The composition of Haitian society (including the dirty words ‘culture’ and ‘religion’); and 4. The effect of the composition of international trade and foreign policy on all three.
So, viola! There you have the purpose of this blog: to explore each of these in-depth and hopefully learn something about life along the way. And to be very honest, that’s really why I enjoy aidwork. For me, it’s just as much about helping people as it is about learning about your own culture and society, and most importantly, about yourself. And here's some lessons I've learned along the way thus far (consider them as guideposts for our future research):
1. An extremely thin line separates our manicured, ordered and privileged civilization in Canada from the seemingly chaotic and desperate ‘third’ world. Never overlook small reminders of this, such as the mountains of trash after a summer of public service strikes in Toronto, or the senseless riots that can follow a playoff hockey game in Montreal or Vancouver. (Aside: a colleague from Atlantic Canada just arrives and exclaims, “This place is a pigsty! Why is there so much garbage everywhere?” Me: “No one comes to collect it and take it away.” Reply: “That’s no excuse. People aught to have some dignity and properly deal with it and care for their environment!” Me: “Do you really believe that?” Reply: “Yes, it’s the foundation for a sustainable community.” Me: “Do you recycle all your plastics, metals, papers, and compost?” Reply: “No, we can’t. It’s not possible. Its not like in Vancouver where every home’s got individually labeled recycle bins emptied every week by the… oh.”
2. No issue or problem stands alone. A famous Haitian proverb reads: "Beyond mountains, there are mountains." Problems in life have causes from other problems in history. If you “solve” a problem superficially, you will find it waiting for you in some other form later in your journey through life. The key is to acknowledge the interconnectedness of the issues, to recognize their ancestry and to dig to their common root.
3. Ignorance and want are not explanations for poverty and vice; they are merely points of departure for further discussion. That is to say, ignorance and want require their own explanations.
4. It is incumbent of the strong to strengthen with the weak, the rich to prosper the poor, the healthy to heal the sick. This is the first moral of any civilization, and can be traced all the way back to our earliest metaphor: the story of Cain and Abel.
So, there you have it. But, don't go calling me out when I stray off-topic to tell you about Haitian beer and beautiful beaches (among other things...). All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
PS - I lament the current state of international development academia, with its make-poverty-history fix of money and methods. Too much emphasis on economics and political science when all social problems, though crafted significantly by economics and politics, ultimately lead us back to culture. More anthropology please.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
The beauty of interruptions
Note: I wrote this post a few weeks back, but didn't get around to publishing it till now.
------
I am startled awake sometime around 5:30 because its started to rain. Its not a hard rain, but enough that I'm feeling it (I've taken to sleeping outside on an army cot—everyone else snores too loudly). Its still dark so I decide not to get up. I doze off again, but about 20 minutes later it appears as though the sky has opened up on me. Not true: the housekeeper is filling the cistern on the roof and it's overflowing into the courtyard like a waterfall. I jump out of my mosquito net and look around scratching my head: why don't they just put a bobbing cut-off switch on it? I realize its not stopping and start running to tell someone before the volunteer medical teams, now rustling around in their tents, are swept away by a tsunami. The housekeeper and I round a blind corner in the kitchen at the same moment and run smack into each other. No coffee yet, but I'm certainly awake.
Back at my cot I catch some of the falling water in my hands and wash my face. From the kitchen I grab a mug of espresso and stir in some non-dairy creamer (still slowly coming to terms with it). I pause and am reminded to smile by the sun, now rising over a distant mountain and peering through the kitchen window. Its a beautiful sight, but I can't help resent it; soon it'll be over 30 degrees and I'll be sweating like a... well, like a blan en Ayiti.
I read some emails for a bit—then I realize I am supposed to be putting together a spreadsheet of our distribution sites—I've left a little yellow sticky note on my chair (didn't work, I simply sat on it). My desk isn't really a desk, its a side table you'd put next to a sofa. It fits exactly two laptops—my mac and a PC I stole because I needed to run GIS software (yes, I know I could just run it on Parallels but I don't have time to whatever-whatever). It takes me 35 minutes to put together the spreadsheet because people keep coming in to talk. Plus, one of the new vehicles has a car alarm and its been going off for 5 minutes as they try to figure out how to turn it off. Suddenly I'm enraged (its about 30 feet from my office window) and storm out there intending to pop the hood and disconnect the battery. But, I get interrupted by another question. Actually, come to think of it, a lot of aidwork is just one successive interruption after another. You rarely accomplish what you intend—at least not in a linear order. And though I haven't quite pieced the theory together yet, I think there's something strangely beautiful and beneficial about interruptions.
Anyways, at 7:15 we have a formal team meeting which I am invariably late to even though it occurs just down in the courtyard. I always have an excuse, but the truth is that my ego dislikes meetings when I'm not in control of them.
I intend to leave the office by 7:45 to make an 8:30 meeting but am held up by more questions about this and that. There's always so much confusion in the morning, its staggering. The trick is to just remove yourself from most decisions—the important ones will still find you. Otherwise, people will always defer to you and no one will take a risk and grow from it. Another trick I use is to always go in three ways at once, intentionally. Its a way to hedge your bets against stalling when you run into a hurdle or two (or ten). This way, you should be able to accomplish at least one major thing out of the three you attempted.
Finally I get a chance to change into long pants and a collared shirt (they're the same I wore the day before—will anyone notice?) and I'm out the door. Oh... I did eat a boiled egg somewhere along the way—a little salt and pepper, marvelous.
Traffic is horrible. I sit in gridlock for an hour, spending most of the time reading a lesson's learned document by ALNAP on post-earthquake relief and recovery. It fascinates me mostly because its so clearly written and immensely informative and yet no one seems to know about it (I didn't either till a colleague handed it to me). I am on the one hand annoyed that I'll be late—I should have known, its my stupid mistake for not leaving earlier. But on the other hand I enjoy just sitting there, helpless to do anything about it, and totally content to just sit and be still. I take and make a few phone calls, but other than that I zone everything out.
I arrive at the UN base for the last half of the cluster meeting. The tent is crammed full of people. A few are aidworkers actually doing aidwork. But the majority are people who for some reason felt it right and proper to fly themselves into Haiti and attend these meetings. They have all sorts of important sounding titles composed of various combinations of the words Disaster, Emergency, Crisis, Rapid, Response, Relief, Humanitarian, Team, Unit, Group. And they always have witty NGO names abusing the proper use of numbers, like Right2Life and Unite4Life. After the meetings they're outside scratching their heads, frustrated at the UN, frustrated at the big NGOs, frustrated at the system,. The real reason they are frustrated is because they are—to speak bluntly—useless. They're disaster tourists, performing the penultimate rubber-neck of all: an earthquake. (Editors note: four fingers pointing back at me; we're all disaster tourists to some extent.) Let me end this tirade with the only three reasons to be in-country as an aidworker following a major disaster: 1. You were working in that country prior to the earthquake—or have significant experience there; 2. You (or your agency) have oodles of money; 3. You have significant experience in post-disaster response (ie., you know what you're doing). Enough about that.
Afterward outside the tent the meeting chair cuts me off to inform me in an overly curt manner that he is leaving the country and would rather not field my question—that I should find the Red Cross who are taking over as the new cluster lead. Its not what he said, its how he said it. I can't stand self-important people like him. Good for you, buddy, go home and show your pictures to your friends.
I check my email on my iPhone to make sure the spreadsheet was received—the UN provides free wifi so long as you know which exact spot on the base to stand in order to receive the signal. My driver's been kicked out of the base cause there's not enough parking. It takes me 5 minutes just to get him on the phone and find out where he is. Then we're back in traffic for the trip home. I'm tempted to say the meeting was a complete waste of time, but I did get a tiny piece of info that may prove significant down the road. Its too soon to tell, so why bother getting all upset?
Back at our office I sit down with a newly hired administrative assistant to train her in our voucher system. Prior to distributions we educate community leaders on how to create beneficiary lists based on need & vulnerability. Then we distribute vouchers to those people based on the lists the community leaders have provided. Its not a perfect check and balance but it works for now. The next morning the beneficiaries redeem the voucher at a pre-selected distribution point. Each family receives a tarp, hygiene kit and jerry can.
I made the vouchers on my laptop and printed them out on a tiny little travel printer—all 1500 of them. (No, no, it was not fun at all actually. But yes, I am proud of them.) They look like business cards actually, with our logo minus the contact info, and bar code that is useless. I just put it there to make the card look more official, and deter photocopied fakes (we also switch card colours every few days for this reason). Underneath the barcode is the phrase (in Creole): “let's work together to build back a better Haiti”--a nice little touch I think.
Anyways, going through the returned cards I discover there's a problem. Some people have written their names on them, which means they are spoiled and I have to rip them up into tiny little pieces (I don't trust anyone) and make new ones to replace them. Its an interruption in the system I hadn't counted on, and I'm annoyed at the wasted time. With each spoiled voucher I get more and more irritated, and I'm certain she senses my mounting annoyance. Perhaps that's why she spoke up: “Pour eux, ces cartes sont précieuses.” I'm stopped in my tracks; she's right, this card I hold in my hand is a precious thing if you've just survived an earthquake and are sleeping in the street. Suddenly I feel overcome with emotion. I swallow hard and take a moment to read some of the names: Dorien Renaud Laflippe. Marie-Martine Bernadette. Variola Redaline Milca. The names scream at me to be known more than just a number on a list. The careful penmanship, the full, complete spelling—its a cry for dignity. And here I was cursing them for interrupting my system, here I was tearing their dignity to pieces.
I bite my lip while she carries on sifting through the pile. I don't know yet how this attitude has negatively affected my relief work, but I'm certain it has, be it ever so subtly. It is a lesson I already knew, but sometimes need reminding: aidwork is first and foremost about the life of each survivor, as an individual. Allow them to become a faceless mass and you're soon drifting into an world of cynicism. I will have accomplished very little—perhaps even nothing to me—if after so many months here all I've done is simply give stuff out.
I take a few deep breaths (I hate to cry in front of staff), silently repent, and carefully slide a couple of the spoiled cards into my wallet.
PS – Its 2005 and I'm back in Darfur during a very long dry season. Through blood and sweat (and diarrhea), colleagues and I have built up a food security program that is feeding literally tens of thousands of people, in villages and camps spread across hundreds of kilometers. For all that effort, I feel numb; I need to go home. One night during my last week in Nayala a local tailor approaches me outside our compound. Its dark, but I can see he's as poor as the dirt I pee on. He asks me for my petzl headlamp because (quite rightly) he reasons it will allow him to work later into the evening. I lose it and proceed to lecture him for 10 minutes on the economics of entitlement: “nothing in life comes free” I finally end with. I'm sweating now and stiff-lipped, while he digs around in his pocket. I roll my eyes in frustration—what next? Then, out of these leathery hands the man produces the oldest, dirtiest piece of paper I've ever seen. I hold it up to the light, and my heart is pierced. I slide off the headlamp and hand it to him, along with his ripped and tattered five dollar bill, each tear carefully sewn back together with needle and thread.
------
I am startled awake sometime around 5:30 because its started to rain. Its not a hard rain, but enough that I'm feeling it (I've taken to sleeping outside on an army cot—everyone else snores too loudly). Its still dark so I decide not to get up. I doze off again, but about 20 minutes later it appears as though the sky has opened up on me. Not true: the housekeeper is filling the cistern on the roof and it's overflowing into the courtyard like a waterfall. I jump out of my mosquito net and look around scratching my head: why don't they just put a bobbing cut-off switch on it? I realize its not stopping and start running to tell someone before the volunteer medical teams, now rustling around in their tents, are swept away by a tsunami. The housekeeper and I round a blind corner in the kitchen at the same moment and run smack into each other. No coffee yet, but I'm certainly awake.
Back at my cot I catch some of the falling water in my hands and wash my face. From the kitchen I grab a mug of espresso and stir in some non-dairy creamer (still slowly coming to terms with it). I pause and am reminded to smile by the sun, now rising over a distant mountain and peering through the kitchen window. Its a beautiful sight, but I can't help resent it; soon it'll be over 30 degrees and I'll be sweating like a... well, like a blan en Ayiti.
I read some emails for a bit—then I realize I am supposed to be putting together a spreadsheet of our distribution sites—I've left a little yellow sticky note on my chair (didn't work, I simply sat on it). My desk isn't really a desk, its a side table you'd put next to a sofa. It fits exactly two laptops—my mac and a PC I stole because I needed to run GIS software (yes, I know I could just run it on Parallels but I don't have time to whatever-whatever). It takes me 35 minutes to put together the spreadsheet because people keep coming in to talk. Plus, one of the new vehicles has a car alarm and its been going off for 5 minutes as they try to figure out how to turn it off. Suddenly I'm enraged (its about 30 feet from my office window) and storm out there intending to pop the hood and disconnect the battery. But, I get interrupted by another question. Actually, come to think of it, a lot of aidwork is just one successive interruption after another. You rarely accomplish what you intend—at least not in a linear order. And though I haven't quite pieced the theory together yet, I think there's something strangely beautiful and beneficial about interruptions.
Anyways, at 7:15 we have a formal team meeting which I am invariably late to even though it occurs just down in the courtyard. I always have an excuse, but the truth is that my ego dislikes meetings when I'm not in control of them.
I intend to leave the office by 7:45 to make an 8:30 meeting but am held up by more questions about this and that. There's always so much confusion in the morning, its staggering. The trick is to just remove yourself from most decisions—the important ones will still find you. Otherwise, people will always defer to you and no one will take a risk and grow from it. Another trick I use is to always go in three ways at once, intentionally. Its a way to hedge your bets against stalling when you run into a hurdle or two (or ten). This way, you should be able to accomplish at least one major thing out of the three you attempted.
Finally I get a chance to change into long pants and a collared shirt (they're the same I wore the day before—will anyone notice?) and I'm out the door. Oh... I did eat a boiled egg somewhere along the way—a little salt and pepper, marvelous.
Traffic is horrible. I sit in gridlock for an hour, spending most of the time reading a lesson's learned document by ALNAP on post-earthquake relief and recovery. It fascinates me mostly because its so clearly written and immensely informative and yet no one seems to know about it (I didn't either till a colleague handed it to me). I am on the one hand annoyed that I'll be late—I should have known, its my stupid mistake for not leaving earlier. But on the other hand I enjoy just sitting there, helpless to do anything about it, and totally content to just sit and be still. I take and make a few phone calls, but other than that I zone everything out.
I arrive at the UN base for the last half of the cluster meeting. The tent is crammed full of people. A few are aidworkers actually doing aidwork. But the majority are people who for some reason felt it right and proper to fly themselves into Haiti and attend these meetings. They have all sorts of important sounding titles composed of various combinations of the words Disaster, Emergency, Crisis, Rapid, Response, Relief, Humanitarian, Team, Unit, Group. And they always have witty NGO names abusing the proper use of numbers, like Right2Life and Unite4Life. After the meetings they're outside scratching their heads, frustrated at the UN, frustrated at the big NGOs, frustrated at the system,. The real reason they are frustrated is because they are—to speak bluntly—useless. They're disaster tourists, performing the penultimate rubber-neck of all: an earthquake. (Editors note: four fingers pointing back at me; we're all disaster tourists to some extent.) Let me end this tirade with the only three reasons to be in-country as an aidworker following a major disaster: 1. You were working in that country prior to the earthquake—or have significant experience there; 2. You (or your agency) have oodles of money; 3. You have significant experience in post-disaster response (ie., you know what you're doing). Enough about that.
Afterward outside the tent the meeting chair cuts me off to inform me in an overly curt manner that he is leaving the country and would rather not field my question—that I should find the Red Cross who are taking over as the new cluster lead. Its not what he said, its how he said it. I can't stand self-important people like him. Good for you, buddy, go home and show your pictures to your friends.
I check my email on my iPhone to make sure the spreadsheet was received—the UN provides free wifi so long as you know which exact spot on the base to stand in order to receive the signal. My driver's been kicked out of the base cause there's not enough parking. It takes me 5 minutes just to get him on the phone and find out where he is. Then we're back in traffic for the trip home. I'm tempted to say the meeting was a complete waste of time, but I did get a tiny piece of info that may prove significant down the road. Its too soon to tell, so why bother getting all upset?
Back at our office I sit down with a newly hired administrative assistant to train her in our voucher system. Prior to distributions we educate community leaders on how to create beneficiary lists based on need & vulnerability. Then we distribute vouchers to those people based on the lists the community leaders have provided. Its not a perfect check and balance but it works for now. The next morning the beneficiaries redeem the voucher at a pre-selected distribution point. Each family receives a tarp, hygiene kit and jerry can.
I made the vouchers on my laptop and printed them out on a tiny little travel printer—all 1500 of them. (No, no, it was not fun at all actually. But yes, I am proud of them.) They look like business cards actually, with our logo minus the contact info, and bar code that is useless. I just put it there to make the card look more official, and deter photocopied fakes (we also switch card colours every few days for this reason). Underneath the barcode is the phrase (in Creole): “let's work together to build back a better Haiti”--a nice little touch I think.
Anyways, going through the returned cards I discover there's a problem. Some people have written their names on them, which means they are spoiled and I have to rip them up into tiny little pieces (I don't trust anyone) and make new ones to replace them. Its an interruption in the system I hadn't counted on, and I'm annoyed at the wasted time. With each spoiled voucher I get more and more irritated, and I'm certain she senses my mounting annoyance. Perhaps that's why she spoke up: “Pour eux, ces cartes sont précieuses.” I'm stopped in my tracks; she's right, this card I hold in my hand is a precious thing if you've just survived an earthquake and are sleeping in the street. Suddenly I feel overcome with emotion. I swallow hard and take a moment to read some of the names: Dorien Renaud Laflippe. Marie-Martine Bernadette. Variola Redaline Milca. The names scream at me to be known more than just a number on a list. The careful penmanship, the full, complete spelling—its a cry for dignity. And here I was cursing them for interrupting my system, here I was tearing their dignity to pieces.
I bite my lip while she carries on sifting through the pile. I don't know yet how this attitude has negatively affected my relief work, but I'm certain it has, be it ever so subtly. It is a lesson I already knew, but sometimes need reminding: aidwork is first and foremost about the life of each survivor, as an individual. Allow them to become a faceless mass and you're soon drifting into an world of cynicism. I will have accomplished very little—perhaps even nothing to me—if after so many months here all I've done is simply give stuff out.
I take a few deep breaths (I hate to cry in front of staff), silently repent, and carefully slide a couple of the spoiled cards into my wallet.
PS – Its 2005 and I'm back in Darfur during a very long dry season. Through blood and sweat (and diarrhea), colleagues and I have built up a food security program that is feeding literally tens of thousands of people, in villages and camps spread across hundreds of kilometers. For all that effort, I feel numb; I need to go home. One night during my last week in Nayala a local tailor approaches me outside our compound. Its dark, but I can see he's as poor as the dirt I pee on. He asks me for my petzl headlamp because (quite rightly) he reasons it will allow him to work later into the evening. I lose it and proceed to lecture him for 10 minutes on the economics of entitlement: “nothing in life comes free” I finally end with. I'm sweating now and stiff-lipped, while he digs around in his pocket. I roll my eyes in frustration—what next? Then, out of these leathery hands the man produces the oldest, dirtiest piece of paper I've ever seen. I hold it up to the light, and my heart is pierced. I slide off the headlamp and hand it to him, along with his ripped and tattered five dollar bill, each tear carefully sewn back together with needle and thread.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Croissant-shaped night
It seems like a good ten minutes or so before I realize I'm actually awake, and have been for about 10 minutes or so. Its cold out, but I'm hot. There's no wind per se, but my army cot sits on a balcony that overlooks the city; its naturally a bit breezy. Today was downright chilly--I even wore a sweater. Lying there contemplating the awkward struggle it would be to strip off my clothes in this mummy bag, I realize the moon forms a perfect crescent shape tonight.
Do Muslims ever look up at the moon during nights like this and think, 'whoa, its a perfect crescent--Allah's totally saying something to me.' Perhaps some do. And perhaps some skeptical Muslim friend reminds them, 'dude, it happens every month, get over it.'
There must be a Muslim equivalent of the Christian youth pastor, no? I can just imagine him and his wife at Mosques all across the Muslim world timing their youth events so they coincide with the crescent moon. I remember those church events where they told us overly coincidental sermon-stories and then coaxed us into filling out abstinence pledge cards. Always the acoustic guitar near the end. Always the overly smiley wife gently singing. I can just imagine it in the Muslim context: "kids, look -- the crescent moon! -- boy oh boy, what are the odds of that?... Praise be to Allah... now kids, look in your hearts and think about what He's trying to tell you tonight with this wondrous sign..."
Anyways, finally I think to check my watch. Its only 2AM. I'm annoyed because I felt like I'd be sleeping a lot longer. I was dreaming I owned a factory, in fact. It was hellish, and now that I'm thinking about it, I want to know why. Do I have an aversion to repetitive labour? Why is owning a factory a literal nightmare for me? As I lie here contemplating this newly significant life question my ears start to desensitize to the cacophony surrounding me. I'm interrupted by Haiti.
Every animal has its say at night; there's no humans around to shush them. The dogs clearly dominate the conversation, but cats, donkey, sheep, birds, and insects all get their chances. It seems to me mostly idle chat, but of course, I don't speak Creole and my French is basic. But, let's assume their criticizing the aid effort like everyone else.
Then, out of the darkness calls the most obnoxious animal of all in God's great arsenal. No, not the mighty mosquito (he's in a category unto himself). I speak of The Rooster. The rooster, I have come to learn, is quite social animal. He's also a neanderthal. When he's not annoying all the hens by trying to repeatedly mount them, he's shouting out to whomever will listen and retort with comments equally banal. Essentially, I have learned, the rooster is not that different than most guys I went to high-school with.
As such, at the top of his lungs, the rooster chimes in with this witty aside:
COCK-A-DOODLE DOOOOOooooooOOOOOoooo! (Editors note: It sounds nothing like that. Phonetically its something like, "EEEEaaaEEEEAaaaaEOOROEEAARROOOOOOEAAAAAARRRROOORORROOOOORRRRRrrrrrrrrr")
Then there's absolute silence for all of 3 seconds, as though the rooster had just farted and all the other animals were waiting for an apology.
Then from another part of the neighborhood, another rooster:
COCK-A-DOODLE DOOOOOooooooOOOOOoooo!
Then from another part of the city:
COCK-A-DOODLE DOOOOOooooooOOOOOoooo!
And on we go until its our neighbor's mouth-breathing bird again:
COCK-A-DOODLE DOOOOOooooooOOOOOoooo!
If I could request a miracle at this moment it wouldn't be world peace or relief for Haiti, it'd be 5 minutes with the ability to speak roosterese. Then I'd either swear at them every dirty word in the book, OR-- I'd break out my acoustic guitar, point out that the moon was the perfect shape of a crescent, and do those hens a big favour.
Do Muslims ever look up at the moon during nights like this and think, 'whoa, its a perfect crescent--Allah's totally saying something to me.' Perhaps some do. And perhaps some skeptical Muslim friend reminds them, 'dude, it happens every month, get over it.'
There must be a Muslim equivalent of the Christian youth pastor, no? I can just imagine him and his wife at Mosques all across the Muslim world timing their youth events so they coincide with the crescent moon. I remember those church events where they told us overly coincidental sermon-stories and then coaxed us into filling out abstinence pledge cards. Always the acoustic guitar near the end. Always the overly smiley wife gently singing. I can just imagine it in the Muslim context: "kids, look -- the crescent moon! -- boy oh boy, what are the odds of that?... Praise be to Allah... now kids, look in your hearts and think about what He's trying to tell you tonight with this wondrous sign..."
Anyways, finally I think to check my watch. Its only 2AM. I'm annoyed because I felt like I'd be sleeping a lot longer. I was dreaming I owned a factory, in fact. It was hellish, and now that I'm thinking about it, I want to know why. Do I have an aversion to repetitive labour? Why is owning a factory a literal nightmare for me? As I lie here contemplating this newly significant life question my ears start to desensitize to the cacophony surrounding me. I'm interrupted by Haiti.
Every animal has its say at night; there's no humans around to shush them. The dogs clearly dominate the conversation, but cats, donkey, sheep, birds, and insects all get their chances. It seems to me mostly idle chat, but of course, I don't speak Creole and my French is basic. But, let's assume their criticizing the aid effort like everyone else.
Then, out of the darkness calls the most obnoxious animal of all in God's great arsenal. No, not the mighty mosquito (he's in a category unto himself). I speak of The Rooster. The rooster, I have come to learn, is quite social animal. He's also a neanderthal. When he's not annoying all the hens by trying to repeatedly mount them, he's shouting out to whomever will listen and retort with comments equally banal. Essentially, I have learned, the rooster is not that different than most guys I went to high-school with.
As such, at the top of his lungs, the rooster chimes in with this witty aside:
COCK-A-DOODLE DOOOOOooooooOOOOOoooo! (Editors note: It sounds nothing like that. Phonetically its something like, "EEEEaaaEEEEAaaaaEOOROEEAARROOOOOOEAAAAAARRRROOORORROOOOORRRRRrrrrrrrrr")
Then there's absolute silence for all of 3 seconds, as though the rooster had just farted and all the other animals were waiting for an apology.
Then from another part of the neighborhood, another rooster:
COCK-A-DOODLE DOOOOOooooooOOOOOoooo!
Then from another part of the city:
COCK-A-DOODLE DOOOOOooooooOOOOOoooo!
And on we go until its our neighbor's mouth-breathing bird again:
COCK-A-DOODLE DOOOOOooooooOOOOOoooo!
If I could request a miracle at this moment it wouldn't be world peace or relief for Haiti, it'd be 5 minutes with the ability to speak roosterese. Then I'd either swear at them every dirty word in the book, OR-- I'd break out my acoustic guitar, point out that the moon was the perfect shape of a crescent, and do those hens a big favour.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Even if you don't build it, they will come.
This comes from a guy working with me on the shelter program, writing to various colleagues in shelter. Thought you'd find it interesting, and if you follow the picasa link, you can see pics of one area we're working in.
---------------------------------------
To whom it may concern,
We are concerned about something we found today at Camp de Benediction, one of the IDP camps where we have done distributions in the past. The camp has grown very rapidly in the last week and the camp leaders are trying to stop more people from moving onto the land.
In all the other camps it appears that people are erecting temporary shelters with the expectation that they will be moving out of the camps as soon as it is possible. All the other camps also know that they are either on private property or community land. However, in this camp we hear two versions of who owns the land. It is either owned by a large landowner or by the government. Whoever owns it there now appears to be more permanent structures being put up and there are also signs of pieces of ground being marked off as if with the intention of setting up a "squatter city".
There are photos of the camp and the issues below.
http://picasaweb.google.com/ogilvia/CampDeBenediction#slideshow/5444210233449886594
---------------------------------------
To whom it may concern,
We are concerned about something we found today at Camp de Benediction, one of the IDP camps where we have done distributions in the past. The camp has grown very rapidly in the last week and the camp leaders are trying to stop more people from moving onto the land.
In all the other camps it appears that people are erecting temporary shelters with the expectation that they will be moving out of the camps as soon as it is possible. All the other camps also know that they are either on private property or community land. However, in this camp we hear two versions of who owns the land. It is either owned by a large landowner or by the government. Whoever owns it there now appears to be more permanent structures being put up and there are also signs of pieces of ground being marked off as if with the intention of setting up a "squatter city".
There are photos of the camp and the issues below.
http://picasaweb.google.com/ogilvia/CampDeBenediction#slideshow/5444210233449886594
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
At the HIGHEST level--God notwithstanding.
This is undoubtedly the best attempt at spam I've seen yet.
I give it 10 points and the gold medal for A) originality, B) more or less correct use of the English language and C) causing me to read it twice.
--------------------------------------------------------------
From: un-conference@att.net
Subject: Update Invitation: Conference 16 - 19 March 2010.
Date: March 1, 2010 8:45:45 PM GMT-05:00
To: undisclosed recipients: ;
Reply-To: unevents@unitednationcc.org
United Nations Conference at the Highest Level on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development."2nd Segment"( 16 - 19 March 2010, @ The International Convention Center London, United Kingdom).
Dear Invited Delegate,
The United Nations is convening a four-day summit of Economists,Educationists,Administrators, Manufacturers, Researchers,Non-Governmental Organizations, Religious Leaders, Community Organizations Private Sector from 16 - 19 March 2010 in London (UK) to assess the worst global economic down turn since the Great Depression. The aim is to identify emergency and long-term responses to mitigate the impact of the crisis, especially on vulnerable populations, and initiate a needed dialogue on the transformation of the international financial architecture, taking into account the needs and concerns of all countries of the world.
The United Nations summit coming up in March was mandated at the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development, held in December 2008 in Doha, Qatar. Member States requested the General Assembly to organize the meeting “at the highest level”.
Registration to this Summit is "free". The United Nations General Assembly have made sponsorship available to support free travel costs and all-round return air flight ticket for all participant. Invited participants will take responsibility for hotel accommodation expenses at the Hyde Park Hotels London UK, the designated hotel that will accommodate all participant for the Global Financial and Economic Crisis Summit.
For more registration information, to participate in the United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development, contact the co-ordinators via e-mail: unevents@unitednationcc.org
For reservation contact the Hyde Park Hotels E-mail: reservation@thehydepark-hotels.net
Register Now!
Copyright © 2000-2010 United Nations. All rights reserved.
I give it 10 points and the gold medal for A) originality, B) more or less correct use of the English language and C) causing me to read it twice.
--------------------------------------------------------------
From: un-conference@att.net
Subject: Update Invitation: Conference 16 - 19 March 2010.
Date: March 1, 2010 8:45:45 PM GMT-05:00
To: undisclosed recipients: ;
Reply-To: unevents@unitednationcc.org
United Nations Conference at the Highest Level on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development."2nd Segment"( 16 - 19 March 2010, @ The International Convention Center London, United Kingdom).
Dear Invited Delegate,
The United Nations is convening a four-day summit of Economists,Educationists,Administrators, Manufacturers, Researchers,Non-Governmental Organizations, Religious Leaders, Community Organizations Private Sector from 16 - 19 March 2010 in London (UK) to assess the worst global economic down turn since the Great Depression. The aim is to identify emergency and long-term responses to mitigate the impact of the crisis, especially on vulnerable populations, and initiate a needed dialogue on the transformation of the international financial architecture, taking into account the needs and concerns of all countries of the world.
The United Nations summit coming up in March was mandated at the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development, held in December 2008 in Doha, Qatar. Member States requested the General Assembly to organize the meeting “at the highest level”.
Registration to this Summit is "free". The United Nations General Assembly have made sponsorship available to support free travel costs and all-round return air flight ticket for all participant. Invited participants will take responsibility for hotel accommodation expenses at the Hyde Park Hotels London UK, the designated hotel that will accommodate all participant for the Global Financial and Economic Crisis Summit.
For more registration information, to participate in the United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development, contact the co-ordinators via e-mail: unevents@unitednationcc.org
For reservation contact the Hyde Park Hotels E-mail: reservation@thehydepark-hotels.net
Register Now!
Copyright © 2000-2010 United Nations. All rights reserved.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Seems like a good bit of research...
Haiti has buried an estimated 52,000 victims since the earthquake on 12 January 2010. More bodies still lie under the rubble, but the total number of casualties will not surpass 100,000 - that's according to observation and research on the ground in Haiti, carried out by Radio Netherlands Worldwide.
This number is considerably smaller than the number of 217,000 victims the Haitian government claims to have counted so far, and far fewer than the estimated final count of 300,000 mentioned by President René Préval just last Sunday...
It goes on here:
http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/haiti-quake-death-toll-well-under-100000
This number is considerably smaller than the number of 217,000 victims the Haitian government claims to have counted so far, and far fewer than the estimated final count of 300,000 mentioned by President René Préval just last Sunday...
It goes on here:
http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/haiti-quake-death-toll-well-under-100000
Another perspective
I've copied and pasted an abridged version of an email from a colleague working on the same team as I. Him and his wife have been living in and out of Haiti for many years.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Dear all,
Hello again from Port au Prince (or near to it). I guess we are officially residing in Petionville and the Siloe neighborhood where much of our time has been spent is part of Delmas. All the places blend together so it is not obvious they are different cities. Today marks 3 weeks for us being in Haiti. We supposedly have one more week left. Probably we will extend it a little bit and will maybe transition into stove building with some of the folks in Siloe who have expressed interest in them before heading off to other parts of the country.
F did successfully get a large nearby house rented and the owner is frantically making repairs. The place we are in now that is serving as both a guest house for all the out of country people here and office space will transition into being just a guest house. With all the new people hired this week this place is bursting at the seams. Every available space inside is being used and there are a number of temporary pseudo offices set up around the yard.
F has also made great strides on her map work with Google Earth and all the different teams have really been a great tool to use from her efforts. We still have people coming and going and the people leaving all seem to mention to F how grateful and blessed they are to have been around her. We say to each other almost every day how wonderful it has been to have been doing this together.
Progress is being made in the field but the programs are still a long ways from being up on their feet meeting the needs of all the vulnerable people. The situation for homeless folks and those with damaged houses got more complicated early this week as we had a series of aftershocks Sunday and Monday night that really rattled the nerves of people that were beginning to finally begin to let their guard down. We were awakened at 1:26 am by one of two 4.7 aftershocks but fell back asleep pretty easily. For everyone who had been through the January 12th shock though they basically lost two nights of sleep. We had some rain a couple of other nights so many people are ending the week pretty tired and miserable.
The tent cities grew as a result of the aftershocks and at the very same time the powers that be who make big decisions decided that the crisis mode was over and it was time to stop giving out tarps and move to beginning to provide transitional shelters. Just when we had our distribution system to the point where we expected to be able to deliver 6,000 tarps this week we instead did two deliveries of 150 on Monday and that has been it. It will take a while to be able to pull off the implementing of a program for providing semi-permanent transitional shelters but we are at work now setting up the foundation for that.
The days are warm and humid. We have been pretty healthy for the most part although I spent a number of days with loose bowels. F and I are sleeping in a tent out in front of the house. We found ourselves laughing to ourselves a couple of mornings ago when the guy who was washes the vehicles out on the road just on the other side of the wall from us started washing the cars before 4 am. That made enough noise to wake us up but the pounding on the gate to try to wake up the watchman so he could get more water kept us awake. To make sure we didn't fall back to sleep the sensitive alarms on some of the vehicles kept going off in the washing process. We were glad we could laugh.
Last night just as supper was being served I was asked to go help get one of the drivers released from police custody. He had gotten pulled over because the license plate on the new vehicle wasn't in the proper location and was covered by all the supplies he was hauling. We made it home a couple of hours later without having to pay any fines or go through any big hassles. I was intrigued at the radio program that was listened to while we slowly made our way in the slow traffic up to to the police station. On two different stations we heard Haitian comedians making jokes about the earthquake and tarps and tent cities. I couldn't follow everything but it was obviously very clever humor and it seemed quite healthy to be laughing at such dire circumstances.
There continue to be numerous instances of people being in the right place at the right time to help needy people out. They feel like more than coincidences. We appreciate those of you thinking and praying for us and the folks here. One instance was a gal who had flown in to work for us and somehow none of us knew anything about her coming. Someone from here went through all kinds of struggle, delay and hassle to get to a meeting that ended up getting canceled. Just after that she ran into our new colleague who was very glad to see someone from the office. It doesn't feel like anything big or exciting has happened since we last wrote but we are still glad we have been able to be here.
There are more stories to tell but I will stop for now. There are also lots of photos but for some reason I am having trouble attaching them. Take care. Love, J and F.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Dear all,
Hello again from Port au Prince (or near to it). I guess we are officially residing in Petionville and the Siloe neighborhood where much of our time has been spent is part of Delmas. All the places blend together so it is not obvious they are different cities. Today marks 3 weeks for us being in Haiti. We supposedly have one more week left. Probably we will extend it a little bit and will maybe transition into stove building with some of the folks in Siloe who have expressed interest in them before heading off to other parts of the country.
F did successfully get a large nearby house rented and the owner is frantically making repairs. The place we are in now that is serving as both a guest house for all the out of country people here and office space will transition into being just a guest house. With all the new people hired this week this place is bursting at the seams. Every available space inside is being used and there are a number of temporary pseudo offices set up around the yard.
F has also made great strides on her map work with Google Earth and all the different teams have really been a great tool to use from her efforts. We still have people coming and going and the people leaving all seem to mention to F how grateful and blessed they are to have been around her. We say to each other almost every day how wonderful it has been to have been doing this together.
Progress is being made in the field but the programs are still a long ways from being up on their feet meeting the needs of all the vulnerable people. The situation for homeless folks and those with damaged houses got more complicated early this week as we had a series of aftershocks Sunday and Monday night that really rattled the nerves of people that were beginning to finally begin to let their guard down. We were awakened at 1:26 am by one of two 4.7 aftershocks but fell back asleep pretty easily. For everyone who had been through the January 12th shock though they basically lost two nights of sleep. We had some rain a couple of other nights so many people are ending the week pretty tired and miserable.
The tent cities grew as a result of the aftershocks and at the very same time the powers that be who make big decisions decided that the crisis mode was over and it was time to stop giving out tarps and move to beginning to provide transitional shelters. Just when we had our distribution system to the point where we expected to be able to deliver 6,000 tarps this week we instead did two deliveries of 150 on Monday and that has been it. It will take a while to be able to pull off the implementing of a program for providing semi-permanent transitional shelters but we are at work now setting up the foundation for that.
The days are warm and humid. We have been pretty healthy for the most part although I spent a number of days with loose bowels. F and I are sleeping in a tent out in front of the house. We found ourselves laughing to ourselves a couple of mornings ago when the guy who was washes the vehicles out on the road just on the other side of the wall from us started washing the cars before 4 am. That made enough noise to wake us up but the pounding on the gate to try to wake up the watchman so he could get more water kept us awake. To make sure we didn't fall back to sleep the sensitive alarms on some of the vehicles kept going off in the washing process. We were glad we could laugh.
Last night just as supper was being served I was asked to go help get one of the drivers released from police custody. He had gotten pulled over because the license plate on the new vehicle wasn't in the proper location and was covered by all the supplies he was hauling. We made it home a couple of hours later without having to pay any fines or go through any big hassles. I was intrigued at the radio program that was listened to while we slowly made our way in the slow traffic up to to the police station. On two different stations we heard Haitian comedians making jokes about the earthquake and tarps and tent cities. I couldn't follow everything but it was obviously very clever humor and it seemed quite healthy to be laughing at such dire circumstances.
There continue to be numerous instances of people being in the right place at the right time to help needy people out. They feel like more than coincidences. We appreciate those of you thinking and praying for us and the folks here. One instance was a gal who had flown in to work for us and somehow none of us knew anything about her coming. Someone from here went through all kinds of struggle, delay and hassle to get to a meeting that ended up getting canceled. Just after that she ran into our new colleague who was very glad to see someone from the office. It doesn't feel like anything big or exciting has happened since we last wrote but we are still glad we have been able to be here.
There are more stories to tell but I will stop for now. There are also lots of photos but for some reason I am having trouble attaching them. Take care. Love, J and F.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Tents, Tarps and Traps
If I had a dollar for every company that has emailed me about made-in-the-USA, ready in 15 minutes, pre-fabricated space-age shelters I'd actually have enough to buy one of them! Here's yet another company trying to convince us that a shelter for $4000 dollars is worth it.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/24/1498903/low-cost-cabins-offered-for-post.html?asset_id=Homes%20for%20Haiti&asset_type=html_module
I realize that people want to help, but they are working in a world that is so far removed from the reality here in Haiti that it boggles my mind at their audacity. The article above is so unhelpful to our work. I know USAID staff who tell me that there is so much pressure on them from Washington that people are actually talking about sending down the dreaded Katrina trailers! Remember those? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14011193/
How shelter plays out is quite simple: a group of agencies working in shelter (headed by IFRC and called the "shelter cluster") are essentially working off of two numbers: total number of dispossessed and total amount of funding. If this was a Star Trek movie these two numbers would line up rather nicely and we'd get everyone a shelter made with space-age material, complete with a blu-ray player so no one gets bored and starts to contemplate life.
But its not. There never is enough money (and there's many reasons why that is--none of which have to do with supply-side--more on that later). So we all more or less agree on a design that is feasible, meets Humanitarian standards, and is cost-efficient in order ensure every family that needs one gets one. I'm making it sound simple aren't I? That's for your benefit, because I've skipped a months worth of steps in between.
The point is: equitable coverage is necessary. You can't have one neighborhood getting a McMansion shelter and the other getting a piece of tarp. Its a huge trap to get sucked into this whole "let's give them dignity through a $4000 dollar cabin". Its a trap because it essentially reduces aidwork to a lottery. Some win big (they score a ShelterBox) and the rest get scraps. That's what causes riots break out (hell, I'd riot too!). So it seems prudent to ensure equitable coverage, right? Yes, most agencies think so as well. But some find it easier not to think in the first place (looking at you SHELTER-BOX).
It costs us $500 to build a simple shelter with four walls, a roof, and sufficient living space for 5 people. Now, mind you it isn't made from space-age technology, but it'll keep a hell of a lot of people from dying from pneumonia, etc.
Ugh. My blood's boiling. I'd better end this post. One final note: we'll build transitional shelters made with local labour and local materiels where available for less than $500. These shelters will last years--though we will begin re-building homes long before then. Meanwhile one shelter-box tent (complete with all of the little cups and spoons and towels and jugs--that are already readily available in PaP markets) shipped to Haiti will cost twice that, at least. I don't know the exact price, because they won't tell me. Given that they won't tell me, I'm certain its ridiculously high. How long will one of their tents last? And where will Shelter-Box be when we start to rebuild Haiti?
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/24/1498903/low-cost-cabins-offered-for-post.html?asset_id=Homes%20for%20Haiti&asset_type=html_module
I realize that people want to help, but they are working in a world that is so far removed from the reality here in Haiti that it boggles my mind at their audacity. The article above is so unhelpful to our work. I know USAID staff who tell me that there is so much pressure on them from Washington that people are actually talking about sending down the dreaded Katrina trailers! Remember those? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14011193/
How shelter plays out is quite simple: a group of agencies working in shelter (headed by IFRC and called the "shelter cluster") are essentially working off of two numbers: total number of dispossessed and total amount of funding. If this was a Star Trek movie these two numbers would line up rather nicely and we'd get everyone a shelter made with space-age material, complete with a blu-ray player so no one gets bored and starts to contemplate life.
But its not. There never is enough money (and there's many reasons why that is--none of which have to do with supply-side--more on that later). So we all more or less agree on a design that is feasible, meets Humanitarian standards, and is cost-efficient in order ensure every family that needs one gets one. I'm making it sound simple aren't I? That's for your benefit, because I've skipped a months worth of steps in between.
The point is: equitable coverage is necessary. You can't have one neighborhood getting a McMansion shelter and the other getting a piece of tarp. Its a huge trap to get sucked into this whole "let's give them dignity through a $4000 dollar cabin". Its a trap because it essentially reduces aidwork to a lottery. Some win big (they score a ShelterBox) and the rest get scraps. That's what causes riots break out (hell, I'd riot too!). So it seems prudent to ensure equitable coverage, right? Yes, most agencies think so as well. But some find it easier not to think in the first place (looking at you SHELTER-BOX).
It costs us $500 to build a simple shelter with four walls, a roof, and sufficient living space for 5 people. Now, mind you it isn't made from space-age technology, but it'll keep a hell of a lot of people from dying from pneumonia, etc.
Ugh. My blood's boiling. I'd better end this post. One final note: we'll build transitional shelters made with local labour and local materiels where available for less than $500. These shelters will last years--though we will begin re-building homes long before then. Meanwhile one shelter-box tent (complete with all of the little cups and spoons and towels and jugs--that are already readily available in PaP markets) shipped to Haiti will cost twice that, at least. I don't know the exact price, because they won't tell me. Given that they won't tell me, I'm certain its ridiculously high. How long will one of their tents last? And where will Shelter-Box be when we start to rebuild Haiti?
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Third times a charm?
For the second night in a row we've all been jolted awake by aftershocks. They're very short--maybe 2 seconds--but being a light sleeper, I'm immediately out of bed, heart racing (as it is right now). So its 2AM, I'm wide awake, full of adrenaline. Hurrah.
Half the team sleeps through them. Though, they also sleep through the light switching on, dogs howling, the roosters crowing, and their own damn snoring--which, for one of them, is the loudest I've ever heard. His snore sounds like he's half-way dead, and then suddenly fighting for life (I'm so tempted to help nature take its course). Anyways, In the morning I'm the boy who called wolf. "Aren't you the same Joel who jumped out of his cot mid-dream shouting because you were certain the house was coming down on us." Yes, ok fine, I admit I may have done that... while everyone else was sitting around playing cards in the same room.
Moving on, let me conclude by reporting that if you plan your escape, are quick out of a mosquito net (will take some practice), and do not suffer sleep apnea, you can flee your house before the aftershock ends. Its a remarkable feat, and you aught to be proud of yourself--but just make sure you're not dreaming the whole thing up first, and if you are, that no one's watching you...
Half the team sleeps through them. Though, they also sleep through the light switching on, dogs howling, the roosters crowing, and their own damn snoring--which, for one of them, is the loudest I've ever heard. His snore sounds like he's half-way dead, and then suddenly fighting for life (I'm so tempted to help nature take its course). Anyways, In the morning I'm the boy who called wolf. "Aren't you the same Joel who jumped out of his cot mid-dream shouting because you were certain the house was coming down on us." Yes, ok fine, I admit I may have done that... while everyone else was sitting around playing cards in the same room.
Moving on, let me conclude by reporting that if you plan your escape, are quick out of a mosquito net (will take some practice), and do not suffer sleep apnea, you can flee your house before the aftershock ends. Its a remarkable feat, and you aught to be proud of yourself--but just make sure you're not dreaming the whole thing up first, and if you are, that no one's watching you...
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Running on empty
Chers mes colleagues,
Every morning I try to get up and go for a run. We live in a mazed community of sorts. I think it deters crime because I've been jogging for a couple weeks now and I still get lost. I can't imagine a thief navigating it at night. Most days I run for 20 minutes in a daze, still trying to wake up. Then, I stop to catch my breath and realize I have no idea how to get back to the office.
I've been in Haiti 6 weeks now and have to admit I'm pretty much near burnout. The only team member who arrived before me left today. I cannot contribute much to discussions--my brain is fried. The good news is that I get 4 days off at the end of next week. So, I'll hop over to Santo Domingo, check into a hotel and try my best to do absolutely nothing.
I've been wanting to post something for a week now, but can't seem to follow through. So, I have a request. Would you please send me a question or comment? Ask or say whatever you want regarding Haiti, the emergency response, aidwork, or things along those lines, and I'll do my best to respond it as honestly as possible. I'll keep your questions and comments anonymous, so you don't have to worry.
My email address is joelkaiser.haiti@gmail.com.
Thanks...
PS - A few people have already written to me. People I've not met before. I apologize profusely for not replying. In fact, I was searching for those emails this morning and didn't find them. Please do write again.
Every morning I try to get up and go for a run. We live in a mazed community of sorts. I think it deters crime because I've been jogging for a couple weeks now and I still get lost. I can't imagine a thief navigating it at night. Most days I run for 20 minutes in a daze, still trying to wake up. Then, I stop to catch my breath and realize I have no idea how to get back to the office.
I've been in Haiti 6 weeks now and have to admit I'm pretty much near burnout. The only team member who arrived before me left today. I cannot contribute much to discussions--my brain is fried. The good news is that I get 4 days off at the end of next week. So, I'll hop over to Santo Domingo, check into a hotel and try my best to do absolutely nothing.
I've been wanting to post something for a week now, but can't seem to follow through. So, I have a request. Would you please send me a question or comment? Ask or say whatever you want regarding Haiti, the emergency response, aidwork, or things along those lines, and I'll do my best to respond it as honestly as possible. I'll keep your questions and comments anonymous, so you don't have to worry.
My email address is joelkaiser.haiti@gmail.com.
Thanks...
PS - A few people have already written to me. People I've not met before. I apologize profusely for not replying. In fact, I was searching for those emails this morning and didn't find them. Please do write again.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
"Should we send our best brains to Canada?"
I thought you all might find this email discussion interesting. It regards salaries paid to Haitian medical staff employed by international NGOs and how those salaries affect the local economy. On the one hand you have to pay enough to retain skilled professionals in the country. On the other hand you have to prevent the 'social earthquake' that higher salaries can create. While you read it keep in mind that the same arguments found here can be applied just about any trained professional in Haiti.
As with any email, start with the first one at the bottom and work your way up. If you have an opinion, please feel free to share it in the comments section. To paraphrase the last email: participate without fear!
PS- You may have concerns about me posting people's names and email addresses on my blog. Well, its an open email distribution list---anyone can join it. Therefore, I figure those people whose names appear in the emails already gave up their right to privacy when they signed up, d'accord?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please, let’s keep discussions respectful and open-minded. It’s the only way we will ensure the participation of all without fear of being scorned for their opinions. This is what we need in the new Haiti we are trying to build.
Regards,
Jean Claude Cerin
Représentant National - Haïti
Tearfund UK
P Prière de penser à l'environnement avant d'imprimer ce message.
P Please consider the environment before printing this message.
From: oneresponse.health-bounces@unocha-info.org [mailto:oneresponse.health-bounces@unocha-info.org] On Behalf Of gedeon gelin
Sent: 15 February 2010 12:58
To: 'Adam McKay'; LECKG@aol.com; CMHotmail; rlaroche rlaroche; jean paul bonnet; moralesc@hai.ops-oms.org
Cc: 'Frank C. Sabatino'; oneresponse.health@unocha-info.org
Subject: Re: [Oneresponse] Salaries for health care professionals in Haiti
Dear all,
I thank you for your comments about the salary that should be given to health professionals in Haiti.As a member of the ministry of health cabinet I will talk about your suggestions to the Minister of Health (Dr Larsen) and will be back to you with his comments and suggestions.
I would like to say a word on what Christian Morales [from WHO] said: "The pb( problem) by raising salaries without having a wider picture is that you contribute to the real risk of “a social earthquake” because of the inequalities introduced". I am really sorry to say that I strongly disagree with Christian Morales views because he is wrong. We just have to take a look at what he has as a salary at WHO. The problem is not rising the salary. We should create opportunity for all. Why people from foreign countries working in Haiti should have high salaries while very well trained haitian doctors and nurses who most the time speak english, french and spanish should receive a low salary?
The problem should be solved with honesty...Is it a strategy to send our best brains to Canada Dr Morales?
Respectfully,
Gelin
GELIN Gedeon MD
Msc in Tropical diseases control
Medical Epidemiologist
Independant consultant
--- En date de : Lun 15.2.10, jean paul bonnet a écrit :
De: jean paul bonnet
Objet: Re: [Oneresponse] Salaries for health care professionals in Haiti
À: "'Adam McKay'", "CMHotmail" <"rlaroche rlaroche"G>
Cc: "'Frank C. Sabatino'" oneresponse.health@unocha-info.org
Date: Lundi 15 février 2010, 13h37
Dear Friends,
I agree whole heartedly with the ongoing conversations. There is a real issue with what a person is paid and economic survival in Haiti. Creating a social earthquake would be counterproductive to advancing the greater good in Haiti. This is a conversation that cannot be ignored. Yes, the ministry of health needs to have input and probably final say.
This is in fact part of a bigger issue of a multi level economy. How can anyone making 4 dollars a day survive in Haiti? Where are they to live? What are they to eat. Certainly not in a restaurant, nor will they ever stay in a nice Hotel for a night. These economic issues must be resolved in order for the entire nation to move into the new century and stand strong without internal strife. While daunting a task not unresolvable. We in the healthsector can lead the way. Whatever salary is agreed upon we must discuss a persons ability to live on this salary. .The shortage of medical personal will in some respect determine the market place.
Points well made are to create a base salary with an incentive for working hard.. Point I will make is that no physician can stay in Haiti making 1,000 dollars a month . This is what is causing our brain drain. We need to capture all of the Doctors graduating from the school in cuba.
Realizing we cannot address all issues in one discussion, there is a problem with Doctors who only speak french, spanish and creole. How does one solve a language barrier when one must speak 4 languages to function with all??
I welcome ongoing dialogue and thank you for previous responses. Patience, hope and faith will get us there. now is the time to for Haiti to become a beacon of light for a troubled world. When all come together for the common good we can see miracles occur. The world is helping for the right reasons we must not forfeit this opportunity.
Peace and God Bless, Dr.Jean-Paul ( a caring person who has been visiting Haiti many times over the past 14 years)
--- On Mon, 2/15/10, rlaroche rlaroche> wrote:
From: rlaroche rlaroche
Subject: Re: [Oneresponse] Salaries for health care professionals in Haiti
To: "'Adam McKay'" , "'jean paul bonnet'">, LECKG@aol.com, "CMHotmail"
Cc: oneresponse.health@unocha-info.org, "'Frank C. Sabatino'"
Date: Monday, February 15, 2010, 6:37 AM
Dear colleagues,
This issue of salary should be discussed with the Ministry of Health and with the different professional asociations (Association Medical haitienne, Association des infirmieres licenciees, etc.) as there is an urgent need to employ haitian professionals from all venues: doctors, nurses, social workrs and so forth.
There is also a need to match what the public and private sectors offer currently in order to make the system sustainable amd not create a disparity that will be detremental to the general population which will not be able to afford healthlcare services once the emergency relief agencies are gone.
This is serious matter and I urge you to have an efficient subcommittee with all parties involed in order to assess the right salary for each category of personals. Sincerely.
Dr. LaRoche, President of the Association of Private Hospitals in Haiti
On February 15, 2010 at 2:54 AM CMHotmail wrote:
> Please remind yourselves the fact that salary in the public system is of
> 1,000 per month. The pb by raising salaries without having a wider picture
> is that you contribute to the real risk of “a social earthquake” because of
> the inequalities introduced. What we suggest is to offer a remuneration make
> of two items: salary (equal to the one in the public sector) + incentives
> (that may negotiated once a year and are related to results). In that sense,
> if you’re thinking for instance to pay a remuneration say of 4,000 (4 times
> higher than the one of the public sector), you may consider to offer 1,000
> as salary, 2,000 as incentives and to put 1,000 to a common baskets with
> other NGOs and cooperations to also offer an incentive to the public sector
> workers in order to limitate a bit the salary gap and the risk of social
> explosion.
>
> Yours truly.
>
>
>
>
>
> Cristian Morales
>
> Consultant Développement du système de santé et services
>
> Consultor Sistema de Salud y servicios
>
> WHO/PAHO-Haiti
>
> OPS/OMS-Haiti
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> De : oneresponse.health-bounces@unocha-info.org
> [mailto:oneresponse.health-bounces@unocha-info.org] De la part de jean paul
> bonnet
> Envoyé : 14 février 2010 22:23
> À : LECKG@aol.com; Adam McKay
> Cc : Frank C. Sabatino; oneresponse.health@unocha-info.org
> Objet : Re: [Oneresponse] Salaries for health care professionals in Haiti
>
>
>
>
> Dr. Leck, Adam McKay,
>
> Two years ago I had a lengthy discussion with Dr. Leger who was director
> of the State Hospital in Les Cayes. It was his opinion that a physician
> needed at least 4,000 US a month to live and raise a family. The system at
> the time was paying 2,000 a month. The problem with that salary is that the
> physician needed to pick up part time work in order to pay his or her bills
> and could not commit 100% effort towards any job. This created an
> underperforming or commited Doctor. I will review the attached files and
> send this e-mail to a close friend of 25 years who is an expert labor
> lawyer. He has offered to help in anyway possible to advance Haiti and the
> conditions of the less enfranchised.
>
> Blessings, Dr. Jean-Paul Bonnet
>
>
>
> --- On Sun, 2/14/10, Adam McKay wrote:
>
>
> From: Adam McKay
> Subject: Re: [Oneresponse] Salaries for health care professionals in Haiti
> To:
> Cc: oneresponse.health@unocha-info.org
> Date: Sunday, February 14, 2010, 10:07 PM
>
> Thanks for the inquiry Dr Leck. It's nice to see you are concerned about
> paying the fair wage and also maximizing employment of haitians
>
> We have a program called Employ Haiti -- www.employhaiti.org
>
> different levels of employees. We could also help with managing the
> workforce, payroll, accounting, etc..
> Our services are available to any non-profit or NGO operating here now. For
> the time being we are not set up to work with for-profit companies.
>
>
> Adam McKay
> Morrell Foundation
>
>
>
> On Sun, Feb 14, 2010 at 8:57 PM, > wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>
>
>
> Any ideas as to what the current salaries are for Haitian physical
> therapists, pediatricians, and RNs?
>
>
>
> Genevieve
>
>
>
> Genevieve Leck, MD, MA
> leckg@aol.com
> Haitichildren.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> If you no longer wish to receive these emails, please visit the following
> URL to unsubscribe:
>
> http://box585.bluehost.com/mailman/options/oneresponse.health_unocha-info.or
> g
As with any email, start with the first one at the bottom and work your way up. If you have an opinion, please feel free to share it in the comments section. To paraphrase the last email: participate without fear!
PS- You may have concerns about me posting people's names and email addresses on my blog. Well, its an open email distribution list---anyone can join it. Therefore, I figure those people whose names appear in the emails already gave up their right to privacy when they signed up, d'accord?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please, let’s keep discussions respectful and open-minded. It’s the only way we will ensure the participation of all without fear of being scorned for their opinions. This is what we need in the new Haiti we are trying to build.
Regards,
Jean Claude Cerin
Représentant National - Haïti
Tearfund UK
P Prière de penser à l'environnement avant d'imprimer ce message.
P Please consider the environment before printing this message.
From: oneresponse.health-bounces@unocha-info.org [mailto:oneresponse.health-bounces@unocha-info.org] On Behalf Of gedeon gelin
Sent: 15 February 2010 12:58
To: 'Adam McKay'; LECKG@aol.com; CMHotmail; rlaroche rlaroche; jean paul bonnet; moralesc@hai.ops-oms.org
Cc: 'Frank C. Sabatino'; oneresponse.health@unocha-info.org
Subject: Re: [Oneresponse] Salaries for health care professionals in Haiti
Dear all,
I thank you for your comments about the salary that should be given to health professionals in Haiti.As a member of the ministry of health cabinet I will talk about your suggestions to the Minister of Health (Dr Larsen) and will be back to you with his comments and suggestions.
I would like to say a word on what Christian Morales [from WHO] said: "The pb( problem) by raising salaries without having a wider picture is that you contribute to the real risk of “a social earthquake” because of the inequalities introduced". I am really sorry to say that I strongly disagree with Christian Morales views because he is wrong. We just have to take a look at what he has as a salary at WHO. The problem is not rising the salary. We should create opportunity for all. Why people from foreign countries working in Haiti should have high salaries while very well trained haitian doctors and nurses who most the time speak english, french and spanish should receive a low salary?
The problem should be solved with honesty...Is it a strategy to send our best brains to Canada Dr Morales?
Respectfully,
Gelin
GELIN Gedeon MD
Msc in Tropical diseases control
Medical Epidemiologist
Independant consultant
--- En date de : Lun 15.2.10, jean paul bonnet
De: jean paul bonnet
Objet: Re: [Oneresponse] Salaries for health care professionals in Haiti
À: "'Adam McKay'", "CMHotmail" <"rlaroche rlaroche"G>
Cc: "'Frank C. Sabatino'" oneresponse.health@unocha-info.org
Date: Lundi 15 février 2010, 13h37
Dear Friends,
I agree whole heartedly with the ongoing conversations. There is a real issue with what a person is paid and economic survival in Haiti. Creating a social earthquake would be counterproductive to advancing the greater good in Haiti. This is a conversation that cannot be ignored. Yes, the ministry of health needs to have input and probably final say.
This is in fact part of a bigger issue of a multi level economy. How can anyone making 4 dollars a day survive in Haiti? Where are they to live? What are they to eat. Certainly not in a restaurant, nor will they ever stay in a nice Hotel for a night. These economic issues must be resolved in order for the entire nation to move into the new century and stand strong without internal strife. While daunting a task not unresolvable. We in the healthsector can lead the way. Whatever salary is agreed upon we must discuss a persons ability to live on this salary. .The shortage of medical personal will in some respect determine the market place.
Points well made are to create a base salary with an incentive for working hard.. Point I will make is that no physician can stay in Haiti making 1,000 dollars a month . This is what is causing our brain drain. We need to capture all of the Doctors graduating from the school in cuba.
Realizing we cannot address all issues in one discussion, there is a problem with Doctors who only speak french, spanish and creole. How does one solve a language barrier when one must speak 4 languages to function with all??
I welcome ongoing dialogue and thank you for previous responses. Patience, hope and faith will get us there. now is the time to for Haiti to become a beacon of light for a troubled world. When all come together for the common good we can see miracles occur. The world is helping for the right reasons we must not forfeit this opportunity.
Peace and God Bless, Dr.Jean-Paul ( a caring person who has been visiting Haiti many times over the past 14 years)
--- On Mon, 2/15/10, rlaroche rlaroche> wrote:
From: rlaroche rlaroche
Subject: Re: [Oneresponse] Salaries for health care professionals in Haiti
To: "'Adam McKay'" , "'jean paul bonnet'">, LECKG@aol.com, "CMHotmail"
Cc: oneresponse.health@unocha-info.org, "'Frank C. Sabatino'"
Date: Monday, February 15, 2010, 6:37 AM
Dear colleagues,
This issue of salary should be discussed with the Ministry of Health and with the different professional asociations (Association Medical haitienne, Association des infirmieres licenciees, etc.) as there is an urgent need to employ haitian professionals from all venues: doctors, nurses, social workrs and so forth.
There is also a need to match what the public and private sectors offer currently in order to make the system sustainable amd not create a disparity that will be detremental to the general population which will not be able to afford healthlcare services once the emergency relief agencies are gone.
This is serious matter and I urge you to have an efficient subcommittee with all parties involed in order to assess the right salary for each category of personals. Sincerely.
Dr. LaRoche, President of the Association of Private Hospitals in Haiti
On February 15, 2010 at 2:54 AM CMHotmail
> Please remind yourselves the fact that salary in the public system is of
> 1,000 per month. The pb by raising salaries without having a wider picture
> is that you contribute to the real risk of “a social earthquake” because of
> the inequalities introduced. What we suggest is to offer a remuneration make
> of two items: salary (equal to the one in the public sector) + incentives
> (that may negotiated once a year and are related to results). In that sense,
> if you’re thinking for instance to pay a remuneration say of 4,000 (4 times
> higher than the one of the public sector), you may consider to offer 1,000
> as salary, 2,000 as incentives and to put 1,000 to a common baskets with
> other NGOs and cooperations to also offer an incentive to the public sector
> workers in order to limitate a bit the salary gap and the risk of social
> explosion.
>
> Yours truly.
>
>
>
>
>
> Cristian Morales
>
> Consultant Développement du système de santé et services
>
> Consultor Sistema de Salud y servicios
>
> WHO/PAHO-Haiti
>
> OPS/OMS-Haiti
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> De : oneresponse.health-bounces@unocha-info.org
> [mailto:oneresponse.health-bounces@unocha-info.org] De la part de jean paul
> bonnet
> Envoyé : 14 février 2010 22:23
> À : LECKG@aol.com; Adam McKay
> Cc : Frank C. Sabatino; oneresponse.health@unocha-info.org
> Objet : Re: [Oneresponse] Salaries for health care professionals in Haiti
>
>
>
>
> Dr. Leck, Adam McKay,
>
> Two years ago I had a lengthy discussion with Dr. Leger who was director
> of the State Hospital in Les Cayes. It was his opinion that a physician
> needed at least 4,000 US a month to live and raise a family. The system at
> the time was paying 2,000 a month. The problem with that salary is that the
> physician needed to pick up part time work in order to pay his or her bills
> and could not commit 100% effort towards any job. This created an
> underperforming or commited Doctor. I will review the attached files and
> send this e-mail to a close friend of 25 years who is an expert labor
> lawyer. He has offered to help in anyway possible to advance Haiti and the
> conditions of the less enfranchised.
>
> Blessings, Dr. Jean-Paul Bonnet
>
>
>
> --- On Sun, 2/14/10, Adam McKay wrote:
>
>
> From: Adam McKay
> Subject: Re: [Oneresponse] Salaries for health care professionals in Haiti
> To:
> Cc: oneresponse.health@unocha-info.org
> Date: Sunday, February 14, 2010, 10:07 PM
>
> Thanks for the inquiry Dr Leck. It's nice to see you are concerned about
> paying the fair wage and also maximizing employment of haitians
>
> We have a program called Employ Haiti -- www.employhaiti.org
>
> different levels of employees. We could also help with managing the
> workforce, payroll, accounting, etc..
> Our services are available to any non-profit or NGO operating here now. For
> the time being we are not set up to work with for-profit companies.
>
>
> Adam McKay
> Morrell Foundation
>
>
>
> On Sun, Feb 14, 2010 at 8:57 PM,
>
> Hello all,
>
>
>
> Any ideas as to what the current salaries are for Haitian physical
> therapists, pediatricians, and RNs?
>
>
>
> Genevieve
>
>
>
> Genevieve Leck, MD, MA
> leckg@aol.com
> Haitichildren.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> If you no longer wish to receive these emails, please visit the following
> URL to unsubscribe:
>
> http://box585.bluehost.com/mailman/options/oneresponse.health_unocha-info.or
> g
Time to switch hats?
Every country I visit I make up a new email address because after attending dozens and dozens of meetings, each of which require your contact information, these lists will--inevitably--be sold for spam.
So, its 4 weeks or so into this response and the spam has started to arrive. Mostly its from companies in the States, India and elsewhere trying to sell you tents, pre-fab houses and even celebrex.
In the last week I started to receive a few of the Nigerian-type "my uncle is the secretary to the Minister of Finance and needs to offload a billion dollars" spams. Aren't those boring? So passe. So 2001.
BUT! Then this little delicious morsel of spam arrived. It lifted my heart and confirmed that spammers do have brains and do occasionally use them. I felt like writing back and saying, well done sir, well done! Hey, what can I say, I appreciate innovation...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: johnking@zoomshare.com
Subject: United Nations Head Quarter Accra Ghana
Date: February 16, 2010 12:17:15 PM GMT-05:00
Attention,
I am Hon Dr John A King. I am the United Nations Presidential Task Force
Chairman for Refugees here in Ghana. I here by pass this information to you
that the Member of the Parliament is looking for God fearing person who can
be the Ambassador to the African refugees. The meeting was held yesterday in
the castle House in OSU. Your name has been nominated So that you can be the
Ambassador for the African Refugees.
I want you to forward all your details to us so that we can pass your
details to the United Nation Head Office in England and America so that
United Nation Head Office in England and America can put your name in the
registration Book for this appointment and send you official letter
regarding this appointment.
I wait to Hear from you.
Dr. John A King
The Presidential Task force Chairman
United Nations Head Quarter Accra Ghana
Accra Ghana
So, its 4 weeks or so into this response and the spam has started to arrive. Mostly its from companies in the States, India and elsewhere trying to sell you tents, pre-fab houses and even celebrex.
In the last week I started to receive a few of the Nigerian-type "my uncle is the secretary to the Minister of Finance and needs to offload a billion dollars" spams. Aren't those boring? So passe. So 2001.
BUT! Then this little delicious morsel of spam arrived. It lifted my heart and confirmed that spammers do have brains and do occasionally use them. I felt like writing back and saying, well done sir, well done! Hey, what can I say, I appreciate innovation...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: johnking@zoomshare.com
Subject: United Nations Head Quarter Accra Ghana
Date: February 16, 2010 12:17:15 PM GMT-05:00
Attention,
I am Hon Dr John A King. I am the United Nations Presidential Task Force
Chairman for Refugees here in Ghana. I here by pass this information to you
that the Member of the Parliament is looking for God fearing person who can
be the Ambassador to the African refugees. The meeting was held yesterday in
the castle House in OSU. Your name has been nominated So that you can be the
Ambassador for the African Refugees.
I want you to forward all your details to us so that we can pass your
details to the United Nation Head Office in England and America so that
United Nation Head Office in England and America can put your name in the
registration Book for this appointment and send you official letter
regarding this appointment.
I wait to Hear from you.
Dr. John A King
The Presidential Task force Chairman
United Nations Head Quarter Accra Ghana
Accra Ghana
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Changed the fonts
I couple people wrote and said that the font on this blog was hard to read. I reset it to good old Helvetica.
If you have any other suggestions, tell me.
If you have any other suggestions, tell me.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Me being annoying
Its late and instead of writing something out here, I thought I'd be lazy and just post a brief discussion I instigated amongst the humanitarian community in Haiti. It may not make any sense without the context, but perhaps it will be of some amusement... me and my big mouth.
You know how email correspondence works--start with the bottom email and read up to the last one directly below.
PS - I wasn't trying to be cheeky with Mr. Bataille, but felt his comments, although relevant, were a tad late and off-topic. Besides... http://www.wfp.org/stories/wfp-hosts-key-meeting-haitis-future
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Bataille raises a very important issue and one that I should hope has already garnered the attention of the WFP.
The original purpose of my writing concerned shelter so please allow me to bring us back to that point. Veterans of Pakistan's 'winter race' will recall the extra effort and coordination required to supply shelter in NWFP and Kashmir. In many regards we face a similar challenge.
Two critical priorities expressed in today's shelter cluster should capture our immediate attention--both in regards to the coming rains.
1) The drainage canals and escarpments remain full of debris. Though isolated flooding in PaP is not new, certainly the thousands of families living under insufficient shelter within these basins is new. Ensuring the adequate drainage of PaP during the rains will become critical to the health and safety of displaced households. Heavy lift operations should be prioritized accordingly.
Cash-for-work (rubble removal) initiatives thus far are commendable, but need to be quickly scaled up. Kudos to UNDP for their leadership in this regard. On that note, the funding gap in early recovery is an absolute travesty. Cleaning and clearing PaP before the deluge of rain must become a main priority, and donors MUST be made aware of the early recovery programs in place to accomplish this.
2) Emergency & transitional shelters: we are all sympathetic to the needs for plastic tarpaulin distributions to IDPs. But, I fear this is simply delaying the inevitable once rains arrive. Care should be given by agencies distributing tarps to include efforts to model and instruct their correct usage--particularly in regards to drainage.
Joel Kaiser
Program Advisor
Emergency Response Unit
joelkaiser.haiti@gmail.com
Mobile: 3617 7105
On 12-Feb-10, at 11:54 AM, J. G. Bataille, Jr. wrote:
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In a previous email Mr. Kaiser made mention of a food distribution strategy that concerns me, our foundation, and many "thinkers" among the Haitian people. If I am not mistaken, the strategy of the WFP is not to give each family a sack of rice to live off of for a month. It is to "blanket" the market with donated rice in order to lower its market price on the streets. Please consider the following concern:
After the rain season will come Haiti's largest rice crop from the Artibonite Valley. In the last few decades, Haitian rice has already struggled against foreign rice in the local markets. Locals would normally choose Haitian rice for its quality and flavor, but it has no competition against the prices of foreign brands. A word of caution: if careful measures are not taken in this aid effort HAITI'S FOOD INDUSTRY WILL NOT SURVIVE for another year. This disaster would be greater than the first, raising a need for another wave of food aid.
We have seen this happen before (See: http://www1.american.edu/TED/haitirice.htm ). Haiti used to be able to feed itself, but now has a net import of ALL of its staple foods. Farmers, tired of running deficits, are quitting to come to Port-au-prince to beg for jobs. Men & women of the WFP/PAM, the UN, and others, Please take care that your policies DO NOT BUILD DEPENDENCE on foreign aid.
CONSIDER THIS PROPOSED SOLUTION:
I propose that the WFP, in partnership with other NGOs, buy out the ENTIRE CROP of Haitian rice from the coming season to be given in the next round of aid. To balance the cost of such a move, sell any surplus in foreign markets and label & market it as another Haitian Aid effort. This will not only save Haiti's agriculture industry, but it will provide a considerable boost to the Haitian economy so that the Haitian people can PULL THEMSELVES out of this disaster. Anything less will be a mistake. Anything less will cause another disaster.
We would be glad to discuss this policy with anyone who has the desire. Please forward this message to the proper authorities. Thank you for serving our great nation.
With sincerity and respect,
A SERVANT of the HAITIAN People.
J. Gerald Bataille, Jr.
Fondation Gérald Bataille Ministries
www.geraldbatailleministries.org
509-3786-2504 - HT Cell
513-404-4976 - US Cell
jgbataille@gmail.com
http://jgbataille.wordpress.com
On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Pete Manfield wrote:
I think Joel has a point.
how will we collectively ensure that if we use WFP distribution points for shelter/WASh/NFI distributions there will not be duplication against materials already distributed to some 60,000 HH? need to be careful not to cause conflict over high value items in very high demand.
Also, concerned that such a system is unlkely to meet the most vulnerable or those who do not have food tokens. is there efforts to supply help age, handicap intl and other CBOs who can also be worked into mass distribution strategy?
Also may want to consider using WFP distribution for round 2 distributions of the second plastic sheet to each HH, once universal coverage at one shet is reached..
best
pete
Pete Manfield
OCHA Haiti
manfield@un.org
Haiti cell + 509 349 083 95
RSA cell +27 82 908 1434
-----shelterhaiti2010@googlegroups.com wrote: -----
To: Shelter Cluster Haiti 2010
From: Joel Kaiser
Sent by: shelterhaiti2010@googlegroups.com
Date: 02/12/2010 02:45
Subject: possible switch to "WFP-style" blanket NFI/Shelter distributions
Colleagues,
In addition to other activities, our agency is currently
distributing shelter/nfi kits in the south-eastern area of 1ere Saint
Martin known as Siloe (P-code 112-05 spread across 1572, 1548, 1515,
etc). We are distributing tarp/hygiene/2jerrycans to approx. 500
families per day. Next week our capacity will increase to 1000
families per day. We use vouchers in a two-track system: distributions
directly to spontaneous settlements, and distributions through local
CBOs.
I arrived late to Wednesday's shelter cluster meeting but read in the
minutes that the cluster is considering switching to the same system
currently used by WFP: centralized blanket food distributions. After
talking to some colleagues in the cluster, I want to add a word of
caution regarding this idea.
It is important to remind ourselves that the intention behind WFP's
strategy involving blanket distributions is not simply to put rice
into the hands of every family in PaP. The real benefit of the blanket
distribution strategy is to dramatically lower the price of rice in
the market. This is the knock-on effect and benefit of the blanket
rice distribution: all residents in the area benefit from the
depressed price of rice.
HOWEVER-- the issue with plastic tarps for purchase in the market is
not price--it is availability. The important knock-on effect of a
depressed commodity prices would not occur because plastic is simply
not available.
If the rationale of switching to a centralized blanket distribution is
(perceived as) speed, then I would strongly question whether this
benefit is actually possible. We are one week into the WFP
distributions and the lower 3/4s of 1ere Saint martin have not even
been reached...
Of course, if I am misinformed, please disregard this email.
Regards,
Joel Kaiser
Program Advisor
Emergency Response Unit
joelkaiser.haiti@gmail.com
3617 7105
You know how email correspondence works--start with the bottom email and read up to the last one directly below.
PS - I wasn't trying to be cheeky with Mr. Bataille, but felt his comments, although relevant, were a tad late and off-topic. Besides... http://www.wfp.org/stories/wfp-hosts-key-meeting-haitis-future
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Bataille raises a very important issue and one that I should hope has already garnered the attention of the WFP.
The original purpose of my writing concerned shelter so please allow me to bring us back to that point. Veterans of Pakistan's 'winter race' will recall the extra effort and coordination required to supply shelter in NWFP and Kashmir. In many regards we face a similar challenge.
Two critical priorities expressed in today's shelter cluster should capture our immediate attention--both in regards to the coming rains.
1) The drainage canals and escarpments remain full of debris. Though isolated flooding in PaP is not new, certainly the thousands of families living under insufficient shelter within these basins is new. Ensuring the adequate drainage of PaP during the rains will become critical to the health and safety of displaced households. Heavy lift operations should be prioritized accordingly.
Cash-for-work (rubble removal) initiatives thus far are commendable, but need to be quickly scaled up. Kudos to UNDP for their leadership in this regard. On that note, the funding gap in early recovery is an absolute travesty. Cleaning and clearing PaP before the deluge of rain must become a main priority, and donors MUST be made aware of the early recovery programs in place to accomplish this.
2) Emergency & transitional shelters: we are all sympathetic to the needs for plastic tarpaulin distributions to IDPs. But, I fear this is simply delaying the inevitable once rains arrive. Care should be given by agencies distributing tarps to include efforts to model and instruct their correct usage--particularly in regards to drainage.
Joel Kaiser
Program Advisor
Emergency Response Unit
joelkaiser.haiti@gmail.com
Mobile: 3617 7105
On 12-Feb-10, at 11:54 AM, J. G. Bataille, Jr. wrote:
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In a previous email Mr. Kaiser made mention of a food distribution strategy that concerns me, our foundation, and many "thinkers" among the Haitian people. If I am not mistaken, the strategy of the WFP is not to give each family a sack of rice to live off of for a month. It is to "blanket" the market with donated rice in order to lower its market price on the streets. Please consider the following concern:
After the rain season will come Haiti's largest rice crop from the Artibonite Valley. In the last few decades, Haitian rice has already struggled against foreign rice in the local markets. Locals would normally choose Haitian rice for its quality and flavor, but it has no competition against the prices of foreign brands. A word of caution: if careful measures are not taken in this aid effort HAITI'S FOOD INDUSTRY WILL NOT SURVIVE for another year. This disaster would be greater than the first, raising a need for another wave of food aid.
We have seen this happen before (See: http://www1.american.edu/TED/haitirice.htm ). Haiti used to be able to feed itself, but now has a net import of ALL of its staple foods. Farmers, tired of running deficits, are quitting to come to Port-au-prince to beg for jobs. Men & women of the WFP/PAM, the UN, and others, Please take care that your policies DO NOT BUILD DEPENDENCE on foreign aid.
CONSIDER THIS PROPOSED SOLUTION:
I propose that the WFP, in partnership with other NGOs, buy out the ENTIRE CROP of Haitian rice from the coming season to be given in the next round of aid. To balance the cost of such a move, sell any surplus in foreign markets and label & market it as another Haitian Aid effort. This will not only save Haiti's agriculture industry, but it will provide a considerable boost to the Haitian economy so that the Haitian people can PULL THEMSELVES out of this disaster. Anything less will be a mistake. Anything less will cause another disaster.
We would be glad to discuss this policy with anyone who has the desire. Please forward this message to the proper authorities. Thank you for serving our great nation.
With sincerity and respect,
A SERVANT of the HAITIAN People.
J. Gerald Bataille, Jr.
Fondation Gérald Bataille Ministries
www.geraldbatailleministries.org
509-3786-2504 - HT Cell
513-404-4976 - US Cell
jgbataille@gmail.com
http://jgbataille.wordpress.com
On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Pete Manfield
I think Joel has a point.
how will we collectively ensure that if we use WFP distribution points for shelter/WASh/NFI distributions there will not be duplication against materials already distributed to some 60,000 HH? need to be careful not to cause conflict over high value items in very high demand.
Also, concerned that such a system is unlkely to meet the most vulnerable or those who do not have food tokens. is there efforts to supply help age, handicap intl and other CBOs who can also be worked into mass distribution strategy?
Also may want to consider using WFP distribution for round 2 distributions of the second plastic sheet to each HH, once universal coverage at one shet is reached..
best
pete
Pete Manfield
OCHA Haiti
manfield@un.org
Haiti cell + 509 349 083 95
RSA cell +27 82 908 1434
-----shelterhaiti2010@googlegroups.com wrote: -----
To: Shelter Cluster Haiti 2010
From: Joel Kaiser
Sent by: shelterhaiti2010@googlegroups.com
Date: 02/12/2010 02:45
Subject: possible switch to "WFP-style" blanket NFI/Shelter distributions
Colleagues,
In addition to other activities, our agency is currently
distributing shelter/nfi kits in the south-eastern area of 1ere Saint
Martin known as Siloe (P-code 112-05 spread across 1572, 1548, 1515,
etc). We are distributing tarp/hygiene/2jerrycans to approx. 500
families per day. Next week our capacity will increase to 1000
families per day. We use vouchers in a two-track system: distributions
directly to spontaneous settlements, and distributions through local
CBOs.
I arrived late to Wednesday's shelter cluster meeting but read in the
minutes that the cluster is considering switching to the same system
currently used by WFP: centralized blanket food distributions. After
talking to some colleagues in the cluster, I want to add a word of
caution regarding this idea.
It is important to remind ourselves that the intention behind WFP's
strategy involving blanket distributions is not simply to put rice
into the hands of every family in PaP. The real benefit of the blanket
distribution strategy is to dramatically lower the price of rice in
the market. This is the knock-on effect and benefit of the blanket
rice distribution: all residents in the area benefit from the
depressed price of rice.
HOWEVER-- the issue with plastic tarps for purchase in the market is
not price--it is availability. The important knock-on effect of a
depressed commodity prices would not occur because plastic is simply
not available.
If the rationale of switching to a centralized blanket distribution is
(perceived as) speed, then I would strongly question whether this
benefit is actually possible. We are one week into the WFP
distributions and the lower 3/4s of 1ere Saint martin have not even
been reached...
Of course, if I am misinformed, please disregard this email.
Regards,
Joel Kaiser
Program Advisor
Emergency Response Unit
joelkaiser.haiti@gmail.com
3617 7105
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Your opinion, please!
This morning during our operations meeting a debate began over the course of action our agency should take regarding some recent news. Apparently the Government of Haiti has called for a three-day holiday in order to pray, fast and mourn--this weekend being the 1st month anniversary of the earthquake.
This would entail three days off for all of our staff, which would bring our projects--all of them--to a grinding halt. As such, our medical teams would be twiddling their thumbs and our distribution commodities left sitting in the warehouse. I argued against this position, saying that essential services should keep working--those being 'all of our relief programs'. This would entail about 1/3 of our staff having to work. I added that the bulk of these relief staff were recently contracted employees--not full-time, and therefore legally could not protest. However, given the circumstances, I offered that they could voluntarily opt-out of working this weekend in order to go to church, the cemetery, sleep-in or what have you.
Some other expatriate staff disagreed rather strongly as they felt we should be sensitive to cultural values of the host country and therefore uphold the wishes of the Haitian government and close everything down for three days. I thought that was a rather broad interpretation of their wishes. I retorted that the hospitals will all be open, as will the police (the UN will be too, but they hardly work most of the time! ;).
When we asked a number of our national staff their opinions were split. A handful said that we should close down entirely and in this way respect their culture. Another handful said it wasn't a big deal and that the people would rather receive something (a distribution or health clinic) even if it meant our agency working on a holiday.
What do you think? If you have time, please leave me a comment.
This would entail three days off for all of our staff, which would bring our projects--all of them--to a grinding halt. As such, our medical teams would be twiddling their thumbs and our distribution commodities left sitting in the warehouse. I argued against this position, saying that essential services should keep working--those being 'all of our relief programs'. This would entail about 1/3 of our staff having to work. I added that the bulk of these relief staff were recently contracted employees--not full-time, and therefore legally could not protest. However, given the circumstances, I offered that they could voluntarily opt-out of working this weekend in order to go to church, the cemetery, sleep-in or what have you.
Some other expatriate staff disagreed rather strongly as they felt we should be sensitive to cultural values of the host country and therefore uphold the wishes of the Haitian government and close everything down for three days. I thought that was a rather broad interpretation of their wishes. I retorted that the hospitals will all be open, as will the police (the UN will be too, but they hardly work most of the time! ;).
When we asked a number of our national staff their opinions were split. A handful said that we should close down entirely and in this way respect their culture. Another handful said it wasn't a big deal and that the people would rather receive something (a distribution or health clinic) even if it meant our agency working on a holiday.
What do you think? If you have time, please leave me a comment.
Monday, February 8, 2010
I'm Sorry
Last Thursday I did something I said I would never ever do.
Once upon a time in northern Afghanistan a group of elderly men knocked on our compound door. They had arrived on donkeys from a village a long ways off and wanted assistance in their village. Because they were Hazara, and perhaps because they lived in the middle of nowhere (even by Afghani standards), they had received no outside assistance. So I checked with our team leader and we put together an assessment team. The village was dirt poor, with several easily identifiable health problems (and a few not-so identifiable) a mobile medical team could solve. They were remarkably hospitable. In the morning we woke up to a dusting of snow; I considered it a sign of sorts.
I spent another day in and around the village organizing the logistics for a mobile medical team and was ready to bring them in when my boss called and told me to drop everything and return to the office. The project was off—the village would receive nothing from us. Back in Mazar a few NGOs had divided up the map and the village would now fall into another agencies territory. We were to share our assessment data, but given the village's remote location I knew it would take them months to get there—if at all. I was irate, but that was that. Stop what you're doing and leave. I called the village Shura together and explained the situation through my translator—whom I'd intentionally not briefed beforehand. Like me, he had grown attached to the village, and as he mumbled through my speech, eyes cast downwards, I resolved to never leave anyone working beneath me hung out to dry. When I got back to the base my country director offered no explanation. He just sat me down and apologized. I seethed for a while. Of course now, looking back, I get it.
For much of last week WFP was under intense pressure. They had dozens and dozens of NGOs, some small with little capacity, coming to them asking for food to distribute. I made friends with one of the officers and he took me with him on his rounds to distribute to orphanages. He had only been with WFP for a few months—before that he was an financial advisor from Marseilles I believe. He lost two colleagues in the earthquake, as well as his driver, whom he had personally asked to go into his house and fetch a document. Then the earthquake struck and he watched the house come down. His story wasn't unique—a lot of staff were traumatized. So, on the one hand I was sympathetic to WFP. On the other hand, well, people wanted food and WFP seemed paralyzed. A few frustrating days after meeting him I got a call: “your release note is ready—we can helicopter it in if it'd be quicker.” Then I knew something had switched. Helicopters were unnecessary, but they would look good on camera—which is why WFP offered them. Thanks but no thanks.
So we began and things were going well. Then it all changed again. Someone new came in to take over WFP and their solution was to divide up all of PaP into 16 or 17 zones (don't have my notes in front of me). One of the major NGOs would take over a zone or two or four. I was told to halt all distributions—so as to prevent overlap. I didn't have any choice and knew it. But for my distribution team it was another matter—in particular the one person I wrote about earlier and who I had relied on so much. Now I had to tell her to stop, pack up her stuff, and leave. “No, we won't be distributing anymore food.” She protested more than I did back in Afghanistan. So I took her with me to the food cluster meeting and she got to see the politics first hand. That might have been a mistake. She shook her head at the situation: Haiti has enough problems. I winced, knowing she's the one —not me— who had to go back into her community and tell her neighbours the news.
Now, I suppose if I were totally honest I would admit to you this: I suspected it would play out exactly as it did. But I judged that risk to be worth taking in order to position the agency for a future role in programming food. Why? Because future food programming is a better foot forward to future funding. Funding drives projects, projects bring aid. I rationalized it by saying that if it paid off then her community would receive more assistance. But I'm probably the only one who believes that. I mean, my bosses certainly didn't ask me to do it. So perhaps I'm just overly ambitious, perhaps I think I know better... Whatever the case, in the end I got out in front of WFP and was run over.
PS -
Afterwards we sit down and I ask her what she thinks.
Sur quoi?
About what happened, about the meeting and stopping and everything.
She has a tendency of avoiding my eyes— a deferential gesture I dislike. Now I can't tell if its just habit or intentional.
In Creol we say, 'kreyon pep la pa gen gonm.' It means, 'the people's pencil has no eraser.'
The other distribution staff look serious. They've come to respect her. Everyone is quiet. I fumble with my words.
I know. I understand. I mean, don't worry.
She still won't meet my eyes. I realize its past dinnertime and they want to go home. I want to say I'm sorry, but I know its too late.
Once upon a time in northern Afghanistan a group of elderly men knocked on our compound door. They had arrived on donkeys from a village a long ways off and wanted assistance in their village. Because they were Hazara, and perhaps because they lived in the middle of nowhere (even by Afghani standards), they had received no outside assistance. So I checked with our team leader and we put together an assessment team. The village was dirt poor, with several easily identifiable health problems (and a few not-so identifiable) a mobile medical team could solve. They were remarkably hospitable. In the morning we woke up to a dusting of snow; I considered it a sign of sorts.
I spent another day in and around the village organizing the logistics for a mobile medical team and was ready to bring them in when my boss called and told me to drop everything and return to the office. The project was off—the village would receive nothing from us. Back in Mazar a few NGOs had divided up the map and the village would now fall into another agencies territory. We were to share our assessment data, but given the village's remote location I knew it would take them months to get there—if at all. I was irate, but that was that. Stop what you're doing and leave. I called the village Shura together and explained the situation through my translator—whom I'd intentionally not briefed beforehand. Like me, he had grown attached to the village, and as he mumbled through my speech, eyes cast downwards, I resolved to never leave anyone working beneath me hung out to dry. When I got back to the base my country director offered no explanation. He just sat me down and apologized. I seethed for a while. Of course now, looking back, I get it.
For much of last week WFP was under intense pressure. They had dozens and dozens of NGOs, some small with little capacity, coming to them asking for food to distribute. I made friends with one of the officers and he took me with him on his rounds to distribute to orphanages. He had only been with WFP for a few months—before that he was an financial advisor from Marseilles I believe. He lost two colleagues in the earthquake, as well as his driver, whom he had personally asked to go into his house and fetch a document. Then the earthquake struck and he watched the house come down. His story wasn't unique—a lot of staff were traumatized. So, on the one hand I was sympathetic to WFP. On the other hand, well, people wanted food and WFP seemed paralyzed. A few frustrating days after meeting him I got a call: “your release note is ready—we can helicopter it in if it'd be quicker.” Then I knew something had switched. Helicopters were unnecessary, but they would look good on camera—which is why WFP offered them. Thanks but no thanks.
So we began and things were going well. Then it all changed again. Someone new came in to take over WFP and their solution was to divide up all of PaP into 16 or 17 zones (don't have my notes in front of me). One of the major NGOs would take over a zone or two or four. I was told to halt all distributions—so as to prevent overlap. I didn't have any choice and knew it. But for my distribution team it was another matter—in particular the one person I wrote about earlier and who I had relied on so much. Now I had to tell her to stop, pack up her stuff, and leave. “No, we won't be distributing anymore food.” She protested more than I did back in Afghanistan. So I took her with me to the food cluster meeting and she got to see the politics first hand. That might have been a mistake. She shook her head at the situation: Haiti has enough problems. I winced, knowing she's the one —not me— who had to go back into her community and tell her neighbours the news.
Now, I suppose if I were totally honest I would admit to you this: I suspected it would play out exactly as it did. But I judged that risk to be worth taking in order to position the agency for a future role in programming food. Why? Because future food programming is a better foot forward to future funding. Funding drives projects, projects bring aid. I rationalized it by saying that if it paid off then her community would receive more assistance. But I'm probably the only one who believes that. I mean, my bosses certainly didn't ask me to do it. So perhaps I'm just overly ambitious, perhaps I think I know better... Whatever the case, in the end I got out in front of WFP and was run over.
PS -
Afterwards we sit down and I ask her what she thinks.
Sur quoi?
About what happened, about the meeting and stopping and everything.
She has a tendency of avoiding my eyes— a deferential gesture I dislike. Now I can't tell if its just habit or intentional.
In Creol we say, 'kreyon pep la pa gen gonm.' It means, 'the people's pencil has no eraser.'
The other distribution staff look serious. They've come to respect her. Everyone is quiet. I fumble with my words.
I know. I understand. I mean, don't worry.
She still won't meet my eyes. I realize its past dinnertime and they want to go home. I want to say I'm sorry, but I know its too late.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
AWOL
I've been sick for a few days and haven't been writing. I'll post something soon.
PS - Its raining.
PS - Its raining.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Stay tuned...
Are you ready for the next cycle of Haiti-earthquake stories on CNN?
The next headline will read this: millions without shelter as rains begin.
Yes, the rain is coming. This mad dash for food you currently see is going to pale in comparison to the mad dash for shelter. WFP will smile as the attention turns from "how many people were fed today?" to "how many people received shelter?" The agency who will take the heat is IOM. Be prepared to see IOM spokespersons talking about camps and tents and tarps and... oh jeez.
Its coming but no one is talking about it. I wonder why journalists don't look at the forecast and do the math? Anyways, I've got a source for shelter and we'll begin rolling out distributions the day after tomorrow. I just need to find a way to clone myself.
Today I could have shot someone. At our distribution we almost lost control. It was tense. No security came. No one. I was promised UN military, I was promised Haitian police. No one showed up. Then they said patrols will come by. None came. We had about 6 or 7 spoilers trying to stir things up. They'd sneak in the line-up, pester people, distract our staff and then steal a voucher. I swear I might have shot them if I was armed. They got away with a half dozen sacks of rice. At the end we were short a half dozen and I had to tell the families to come back tomorrow. Security better show up tomorrow cause bet your ass those guys will be back, and I might be armed.
PS - The director of an organization that works to end forced child labour in Haiti came by to ask for food commodities today. His assistant is the most beautiful Haitian women I've seen yet. She carried herself well and spoke beautifully too. He'd been calling me for a week with his request and I wanted to help him but was just busy. I could tell he was slightly irked that I'd put him off for so long. Why he didn't have her call me I don't know--he could have sped things up rapidly. I suppose that makes me sound shallow, but its the truth. Sitting there in the office listening to him go on and on making his case all I could think was 'shut-up and let her do the talking and I'll get you whatever you want'. She just politely smiled whenever I looked at her, then another appointment showed up and before I knew it she was gone.
And yes, I still provided them with all they requested... for the kids, of course... for the kids.
The next headline will read this: millions without shelter as rains begin.
Yes, the rain is coming. This mad dash for food you currently see is going to pale in comparison to the mad dash for shelter. WFP will smile as the attention turns from "how many people were fed today?" to "how many people received shelter?" The agency who will take the heat is IOM. Be prepared to see IOM spokespersons talking about camps and tents and tarps and... oh jeez.
Its coming but no one is talking about it. I wonder why journalists don't look at the forecast and do the math? Anyways, I've got a source for shelter and we'll begin rolling out distributions the day after tomorrow. I just need to find a way to clone myself.
Today I could have shot someone. At our distribution we almost lost control. It was tense. No security came. No one. I was promised UN military, I was promised Haitian police. No one showed up. Then they said patrols will come by. None came. We had about 6 or 7 spoilers trying to stir things up. They'd sneak in the line-up, pester people, distract our staff and then steal a voucher. I swear I might have shot them if I was armed. They got away with a half dozen sacks of rice. At the end we were short a half dozen and I had to tell the families to come back tomorrow. Security better show up tomorrow cause bet your ass those guys will be back, and I might be armed.
PS - The director of an organization that works to end forced child labour in Haiti came by to ask for food commodities today. His assistant is the most beautiful Haitian women I've seen yet. She carried herself well and spoke beautifully too. He'd been calling me for a week with his request and I wanted to help him but was just busy. I could tell he was slightly irked that I'd put him off for so long. Why he didn't have her call me I don't know--he could have sped things up rapidly. I suppose that makes me sound shallow, but its the truth. Sitting there in the office listening to him go on and on making his case all I could think was 'shut-up and let her do the talking and I'll get you whatever you want'. She just politely smiled whenever I looked at her, then another appointment showed up and before I knew it she was gone.
And yes, I still provided them with all they requested... for the kids, of course... for the kids.
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