More specifically, I love shopping and friends and Fung Shing and shopping and new clothes. And friends who shop with me. Now all I need to make life absolutely perfect is a pair of knee-high boots.
Consumerism - give me more. I wonder if shops will be still be closed Sunday morning...
Sunday 21 December 2008
Saturday 20 December 2008
I wanna go back to the Caribbean...
I've now been back in London for just over 12 hours and it's already pissing me off. Most of this is because it's BLOODY FREEZING. I'd almost forgotten what being cold feels like and really didn't need the reminder. I'd also gone home finding out that the central heating had broken dowm some time ago and my lovely former flatmate hadn't bothered to get it fixed.
Not a great start. I HATE being cold.
This feels like a complete reversal from the last time I was back which was for a mere 36 hours where everything about London was amazing - even the things that used to irritate me. Now, they're back to irritating me.
I need sleep, I think. Due to budgets and year end and packing, I haven't really had a proper night's sleep since last weekend and feeling crabby as a result.
Shopping tomorrow. Last weekend before Xmas? Hmmnnn...
Not a great start. I HATE being cold.
This feels like a complete reversal from the last time I was back which was for a mere 36 hours where everything about London was amazing - even the things that used to irritate me. Now, they're back to irritating me.
I need sleep, I think. Due to budgets and year end and packing, I haven't really had a proper night's sleep since last weekend and feeling crabby as a result.
Shopping tomorrow. Last weekend before Xmas? Hmmnnn...
Monday 24 November 2008
Nekkid All Blacks...
Just to make up for the gratuitous 80s photo below, here's what the world needs more of. Next to World Peace and Obama.
[Sigh]. Now why can't they do that on our beaches over here...
[Sigh]. Now why can't they do that on our beaches over here...
80s parties. Even more bleh...
Also, for those of you who are misguided enough to actually like 80s music and, even worse, 80s themed parties, here’s some photos of our last one. Yep, in Haiti, we party like it’s 1986.
The guy in front is my crazy Dutch collegue doing his Springsteen. Apparently.
Budget cuts part 2, power cuts part 3209, Xmas shopping and the Dominican Republic. Bleh.
Saturday evening:
I’m currently writing this by the light of a very noisy gas lamp as my inverters have once again crashed and I’m waiting for the generator to come back on to give me a previous 2hr more of electricity.
To explain for those of you who live in places where you have 24hr mains electricity 7 days a week, in Haiti, like many developing countries, most businesses and households who can afford it live on a combination of inverters (ie specially designed batteries) and generators. As running a generator is pretty costly, what they tend to do is charge up the inverters so that even when the generator is off, we can still function to a degree. We can’t run kettles, irons, rice cookers and, most crucially of all, computer servers on inverters, but anything else is pretty much OK.
Unfortunately, the connections between generators and inverters are pretty fragile – if you sneeze, something somewhere seems to go wrong. And it always seems to happen when I come into work over a weekend to get stuff done for a particularly looming deadline and, of course, this is the time when nothing bloody works. Having watched too much "Heroes" recently, I'm starting to think that I have an anti-tech superpower. Hmmmnnn...
Another rant (which makes me glad I've been nominally keeping this blog semi-anonymous): had to find another EUR600k for our 2009 budget once we got the latest forex rates from Head Office. They gave us a USD/EUR rate of 1.47 in September for the original budget only to give us a rate of 1.25 last Friday for the final budget. And this is actually halfway through our field budgeting process so, thanks loads guys for leaving it practically to the last minute, we really appreciate doing the last-minute slash n’ burn... And that’s sadly not all – they actually only realised yesterday ie A FULL WEEK AFTERWARDS how much the rate change would fuck us up budget-wise. I mean, this is not something that was unexpected – we’d been worried about in-country ever since the Euro started its freefall and we’re only managing the finances for one bloody country, not 40!! The CEO then sent us an email last thing Friday (their time) to get us some info on currency spend by first thing Monday so that they could finally put together a plan. Stupid me, I just thought that they obviously must have had a plan for some time but were being bureaucratically crappy in not sharing. Really should stop giving people the benefit of the doubt here and just assume that they're all idiots.
So that was a bundle of laughs but we’re more or less there – it’s going to be fucking painful and will involve the “r” word for some members of staff but we just about got our budget to balance. After some playing around with the figures, of course – isn’t that what a Finance Coordinator is meant to do afterall?
Anyway, enough about work - had a great day today in Jacmel, a small but charming town a couple hours’ drive from Port au Prince. It’s lovely – not only is it peaceful and calm and not as frenetic, stressful or dangerous as the capital, it’s also the handicrafts capital of Haiti. Which, judging by the amount of Haitian art/handicraft on display in the Dominican Republic for one, is saying a lot (although perhaps more about the quality of local Dominican art...). Hence my shopping trip. Aside from the mountain of presents (to the point that I was trying to calculate my baggage allowance while shopping), I spent the equivalent of USD25 on a huge papier-mâché frog – it was sooooooooo cute I just couldn’t resist. Will hopefully take a pic of it to upload so you can see exactly what I mean. Might try kissing it later to see if I get my Prince Charming but only if I get the option of turning him right back if PC does not measure up to the cuteness of my personal Gromit...
I also spent a long weekend last week in the Dominican Republic which was very much needed but a bit underwhelming. Most of that was my fault not speaking Spanish or having any real interest in Dominican culture outside its shopping and beaches. Also, I found it unexpectedly lonely. I suppose I should have realised that the Caribbean is not exactly a backpacker place so difficult to do what I normally do and meet up with fellow travellers. Still, it was relaxing to say the least and I probably will go back to do it properly. Did do a whole load of shopping and went up to Las Terranos for two days for some time at the beach. This beach:
I’m currently writing this by the light of a very noisy gas lamp as my inverters have once again crashed and I’m waiting for the generator to come back on to give me a previous 2hr more of electricity.
To explain for those of you who live in places where you have 24hr mains electricity 7 days a week, in Haiti, like many developing countries, most businesses and households who can afford it live on a combination of inverters (ie specially designed batteries) and generators. As running a generator is pretty costly, what they tend to do is charge up the inverters so that even when the generator is off, we can still function to a degree. We can’t run kettles, irons, rice cookers and, most crucially of all, computer servers on inverters, but anything else is pretty much OK.
Unfortunately, the connections between generators and inverters are pretty fragile – if you sneeze, something somewhere seems to go wrong. And it always seems to happen when I come into work over a weekend to get stuff done for a particularly looming deadline and, of course, this is the time when nothing bloody works. Having watched too much "Heroes" recently, I'm starting to think that I have an anti-tech superpower. Hmmmnnn...
Another rant (which makes me glad I've been nominally keeping this blog semi-anonymous): had to find another EUR600k for our 2009 budget once we got the latest forex rates from Head Office. They gave us a USD/EUR rate of 1.47 in September for the original budget only to give us a rate of 1.25 last Friday for the final budget. And this is actually halfway through our field budgeting process so, thanks loads guys for leaving it practically to the last minute, we really appreciate doing the last-minute slash n’ burn... And that’s sadly not all – they actually only realised yesterday ie A FULL WEEK AFTERWARDS how much the rate change would fuck us up budget-wise. I mean, this is not something that was unexpected – we’d been worried about in-country ever since the Euro started its freefall and we’re only managing the finances for one bloody country, not 40!! The CEO then sent us an email last thing Friday (their time) to get us some info on currency spend by first thing Monday so that they could finally put together a plan. Stupid me, I just thought that they obviously must have had a plan for some time but were being bureaucratically crappy in not sharing. Really should stop giving people the benefit of the doubt here and just assume that they're all idiots.
So that was a bundle of laughs but we’re more or less there – it’s going to be fucking painful and will involve the “r” word for some members of staff but we just about got our budget to balance. After some playing around with the figures, of course – isn’t that what a Finance Coordinator is meant to do afterall?
Anyway, enough about work - had a great day today in Jacmel, a small but charming town a couple hours’ drive from Port au Prince. It’s lovely – not only is it peaceful and calm and not as frenetic, stressful or dangerous as the capital, it’s also the handicrafts capital of Haiti. Which, judging by the amount of Haitian art/handicraft on display in the Dominican Republic for one, is saying a lot (although perhaps more about the quality of local Dominican art...). Hence my shopping trip. Aside from the mountain of presents (to the point that I was trying to calculate my baggage allowance while shopping), I spent the equivalent of USD25 on a huge papier-mâché frog – it was sooooooooo cute I just couldn’t resist. Will hopefully take a pic of it to upload so you can see exactly what I mean. Might try kissing it later to see if I get my Prince Charming but only if I get the option of turning him right back if PC does not measure up to the cuteness of my personal Gromit...
I also spent a long weekend last week in the Dominican Republic which was very much needed but a bit underwhelming. Most of that was my fault not speaking Spanish or having any real interest in Dominican culture outside its shopping and beaches. Also, I found it unexpectedly lonely. I suppose I should have realised that the Caribbean is not exactly a backpacker place so difficult to do what I normally do and meet up with fellow travellers. Still, it was relaxing to say the least and I probably will go back to do it properly. Did do a whole load of shopping and went up to Las Terranos for two days for some time at the beach. This beach:
I also took the opportunity to see a gratuitously violent American action flick where Paris was portrayed as THE place for the abduction of young white nubile American teenagers into sex slavery and the pleasuring of sleazy middle-aged Arab businessmen. Yep, Paris should henceforth be known as the City of Crack Whoredom - might actually give a boost to their tourist industry and keep them out of recession. It was the type of film with that peculiarly Hollywood construct of a machine gun that can’t seem to hit a guy running towards you 5 feet away – if those machine guns existed during WW1, maybe the whole thing could have been over by Xmas... Needless to say, I loved it. And the popcorn. Although there was this Dominican guy sitting behind us in the cinema who took the piss out of me when I refused to watch the screen during a particularly gruesome (and, if I may say so, pretty fucking prolonged) scene of torture. I love screen violence – I’m a chop-socky girl after all - just more the really brilliantly choreographed violence of Tarantino or Shaw Brothers where the violence is cool/funny or almost like a dance. I’m a real wuss when it comes to realistic violence or torture porn which doesn’t do much for my “hard as nails” image.
OK, you guys can stop laughing now – I like to at least THINK I have a hard image. Come on - shut the fuck up. Take that back, I am not a sweet motherfucking bunny!! I'm hard grizzled cynical aid worker, I am.
Right, I’m leaving. Got no respect here.
-----------------------------------------
Sunday afternoon:
Got power back this morning – yippee!! Apparently, it was something so simple as the breakers not, erm, breaking. Or something. It took the electrician exactly 2 mins to fix and make me feel like a stupid female. Wherever you go in the world, that never bloody changes...
Saturday 1 November 2008
What to say...
Friday evening and waiting for our night driver to pick me up for dinner with the boss and the internal auditor...
Actually, it's not as bad as it sounds - I really like my boss and have bonded (as much as is possible) with Zoe. But still, not my ideal way to spend Friday night. It has been crazy over here, though - the pain of uploading revised 2008 budgets which you know are completely useless due to the apparent freefall of the Euro since when they were done. And then preparing for 2009 detailed budgets/activity plans... Oh yes, small matter of quarterly reporting to Dublin. And the internal audit.
So, same old same old.
What has been pretty depressing, though, is reading about what's been happening across the world. In a rare moment of reason, the BBC World Service actually spent most of their newshour today on the DRC and the events happening over there instead of boring us with things we already know about the US election.
DRC was my second mission after Darfur - which sounds well hard but my missions at that time were quick in/out deals to sort out the latest financial crisis (of which there were many...). Still, as wretched as Goma the city was, it's hard to describe the effect that the East DRC has on you - it's too bland to say that it's beautiful: it's so much more primal than that. To be surrounded by jungle and overlooking Lake Kivu - however long I live, I will never forget that frisson... When I was there back in 2005, in contrast to most of the surrounding area Goma actually felt very safe due to the large contingent of MONUC soldiers over there. Still, you always had a sense that it couldn't last, that there were too factors pulling the area down the abyss, too many "skirmishes" and "incidents". And it looks like it's finally happened. To be honest, it's miracle it's taken that long for something to finally break.
OK, driver has arrived. Let's hope when I get back, I'll be in a better mood.
Actually, it's not as bad as it sounds - I really like my boss and have bonded (as much as is possible) with Zoe. But still, not my ideal way to spend Friday night. It has been crazy over here, though - the pain of uploading revised 2008 budgets which you know are completely useless due to the apparent freefall of the Euro since when they were done. And then preparing for 2009 detailed budgets/activity plans... Oh yes, small matter of quarterly reporting to Dublin. And the internal audit.
So, same old same old.
What has been pretty depressing, though, is reading about what's been happening across the world. In a rare moment of reason, the BBC World Service actually spent most of their newshour today on the DRC and the events happening over there instead of boring us with things we already know about the US election.
DRC was my second mission after Darfur - which sounds well hard but my missions at that time were quick in/out deals to sort out the latest financial crisis (of which there were many...). Still, as wretched as Goma the city was, it's hard to describe the effect that the East DRC has on you - it's too bland to say that it's beautiful: it's so much more primal than that. To be surrounded by jungle and overlooking Lake Kivu - however long I live, I will never forget that frisson... When I was there back in 2005, in contrast to most of the surrounding area Goma actually felt very safe due to the large contingent of MONUC soldiers over there. Still, you always had a sense that it couldn't last, that there were too factors pulling the area down the abyss, too many "skirmishes" and "incidents". And it looks like it's finally happened. To be honest, it's miracle it's taken that long for something to finally break.
OK, driver has arrived. Let's hope when I get back, I'll be in a better mood.
Friday 17 October 2008
Budget cuts...
It's an official holiday here in Haiti and am in the office reading through an email sent by HO on our 2009 budget.
I'm in shock.
I knew that things were bad in Ireland, not to mention the rest of the world, and that funding is going to be hugely affected as a result but I didn't think it would be this bad. Our unrestricted budget is now cut by almost half - this would be cutting our already stretched 2009 budget by almost 20%.
I feel like crying... There's so much need in this country and the projects we were proposing to do would be less than a drop in that ocean. But now, not being able to do that - it's fucking heartbreaking. From a selfish point of view, it would probably also mean significant staff costs, and these are people who I've grown close to and who have often worked for us for a number of years.
Oh fuck it. I'm getting drunk tonight.
I'm in shock.
I knew that things were bad in Ireland, not to mention the rest of the world, and that funding is going to be hugely affected as a result but I didn't think it would be this bad. Our unrestricted budget is now cut by almost half - this would be cutting our already stretched 2009 budget by almost 20%.
I feel like crying... There's so much need in this country and the projects we were proposing to do would be less than a drop in that ocean. But now, not being able to do that - it's fucking heartbreaking. From a selfish point of view, it would probably also mean significant staff costs, and these are people who I've grown close to and who have often worked for us for a number of years.
Oh fuck it. I'm getting drunk tonight.
Monday 13 October 2008
PPS New Look
Decided out of boredom and procratinating (strange how they go together) to change the look of my blog. You can never have enough pink...
PS Tina
Tina the Invisible Cat is no longer invisible - in fact, ever since I came back from Mozambique, she is now Tina the Co-Dependent Cat who Tries to Eat All My Food and Follows Me Everywhere.
She is now purring in my lap while I type. Hurrah for 10 days of neglect.
[PPS. In case you got the wrong idea, I didn't leave her totally alone - got my maid to come in every day to feed her and change the litter...]
She is now purring in my lap while I type. Hurrah for 10 days of neglect.
[PPS. In case you got the wrong idea, I didn't leave her totally alone - got my maid to come in every day to feed her and change the litter...]
Back to reality. Well, my reality...
Here's a little piccie of a very brief reunion with some friends during my 36hr transit through London last weekend. You don't know this but I left about 2 mins after this picture was taken. Needed to do some last minute shopping, you see. But that doesn't mean that I don't love you guys - it was really really important shopping...
Anyway, it was a crazy trip to Maputo, Mozambique. The journey there was brutal: TWO overnight flights and a 6 hrs stopover in London where I literally had to call a friend from the airport desperately hoping for her to take me in for a few hours as I'd stupidly lost my flat keys. By the time I arrived in Mozambique on Sunday, I was a complete wreck with the combined sleep deprivation and messed up time zones. It was not pretty. But I did manage to buy myself the third season of Supernatural so the geek in me was happy if a tad more spaced out than usual. Which, for those of you who know me well, is pretty frightening.
The finance conference/workshop itself was fantastic - learnt a great deal of stuff and was given a number of really useful tools with which to navigate my NGO's ridiculousely complex financial systems. It was also great to meet people who think the same way I do - the well known "NGO Accountants of the World Unite Syndrome" [you don't know it, but we'll rise up and conquer the world, just you wait...]. So what we did was mostly bitch about Programmes...
The bunch of us happily bonded over detailed fantasies of long and intense induced agony for project managers who cannot manage their projects, shared experiences of fraud, incomprehension over our organisation's accounting systems, and really excellent seafood. One of the guys there used to do my job in Haiti so we gossiped quite a bit over the peccadiloes (mostly sexual) of people we knew [had to say that I was shocked at a person who I though was so sweet with teddy bear eyes was cheating on his wife...]. And I had a number of common acquaintences with another person there so we did the obligatory "My God, the aid world is SO small" - something that's repeated without fail at practically any expat party you go to in the capitals of Third World countries.
Oh, have to mention the bollywood movie. Fantastic storyline: "blind girl falls for guy and they have a one night stand but guy gets killed in bomb attack before they could get married but then actually turns out to be a number one terrorist who faked the whole thing but then accidentally turns up injured at the girl's doorstep 8 years later (girl can obviously now see) and finds out he has a sprog but of course now she doesn't recognise him because of aforementioned blindness (not to mention the dead thing) but now, of course, the Indian army and his fellow terrorists are after him because he has a trigger for a nuclear weapon...". God, that was a fantastic film. And what is sad is that I'm actually very very serious.
Didn't really get to see much of Mozambique, unfortunately but was bloody impressed by the pavements and electricity and tarmaced roads. And the fact that we could walk around at night and not fall into a sewer or get kidnapped - I mean, they had STREET LIGHTS and what seemed to be 24hr electricity ie no generators. It took a bit of getting used to...
Anyway, the journey back to Haiti was a lot more fun - and was done in nice easy stages. Also the in-flight entertainment was a lot better [have to mention THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM here with Jackie Chan and Jet Li - crap film but come on: Jackie Chan and Jet Li and just about every kung fu cliche you can imagine - absolute heaven...]. And I got to have that 36hrs stopover in London (reference photo above).
The stopover was definitely mucho crazy: got in at 7am on a Friday morning and spent a couple a couple of hours navigating Heathrow and left luggage. Crashed at my long-suffering friend's swanky pad in Marble Arch, went over to my flat in Notting Hill with one bag and came out with two (which kind of defeated the plan I actually had which sort of involved getting rid of stuff), met some friends for lunch (and had a pretty dull conversation about plumbing and electric wiring - sorry guys, it was dull), persuaded another friend to skive off work early for Starbucks, met people for after work drinks where I literally became Prometheus for a good couple of hours (those were good times), and then had great drinks, pizza, no Nargiley (blasted thing wouldn't work), great conversation and even greater sleep. The next day was basically crazy with last minute shopping and the meet up with other friends at a place where someone apparently felt the need to cut their thing off. Yes, THAT thing. Well, the place was called Zizzi so I suppose the decision wasn't completely random.
The thing which really struck me is how life goes on. You can go away for a number of months which are so intense and so filled with incident and drama, and then come back and things are pretty much normal. And it's actually a hugely comforting thought - that somewhere out there, people are just living their lives and are more or less OK, and that's day to day life. This is a pretty transitory life and gets crazy and pretty surreal at times, so it's good to remind yourself of what normal life actually is about.
OK then, that was completely nonsensical and probably really patronising - didn't really mean it that way... Moving on.
This week, however, was basically a bit of a write off - had a huge amount of work to do but got very little of it done. Just felt completely out of it - you know when you do stuff but can't focus or get stuff done. Idea was to work today to catch up but what did I do instead? Finally tried out my pool and watched Spaced. And wrote this blog entry. Way to go, Caroline. Not really looking forward to tomorrow - have a huge amount of guilt for all the things that I'd promised people but haven't yet done. And got an internal auditor coming in next week. Bugger.
Better get to work.
Friday 12 September 2008
Fallout...
This is a picture from Gonaive that a friend sent to me in the aftermath of Hanna. You can see how awful it was in that city with people sloshing through what can loosely be described as streets...
First of all, a big thank you for all of you who've been emailing with good wishes and concerns - it really cheered me up and I promise to reply to each and everyone of them. I'm fine and so is Tina the Invisible Kitten (well, one assumes).
In terms of the situation here, none of our staff or their families have been directly affected by the flooding from the last few hurricanes however, one of our field offices in the Central Plateau is completely cut off. We tried to reach them today with a truck of emergency kits but the rivers are still too high to manage it and they had to turn back. From reports, there are a huge number of people over there who had lost everything - especially on the appropriately named Montagne Terrible. As it's not one of the "in" areas, not to mention being practially impossible to reach at the best of times (donkey being THE transport of choice), there are absolutely no government, UN or agency help. Also, just saw some photos of the situation down in St Martin and Martissant - slum areas in Port au Prince where we work. It's pretty awful. When our team went down there to distribute kits to one of the temporary shelters there, they were almost mobbed by an unexpected crowd of desperate people and had to evacuate. So much for trusting the UN to effectively manage the relief operation...
I remember seeing the pictures of this on the news and it's strange how the television actually distances you from what is going on - some random disaster in some godforsaken part of the world. But then it's really different when you live here and you know the people who've lost family, who've lost their savings, their homes, all their possessions, their livestock, their crops. And because of the problems with accessing a number of areas, what food and clean water there is - not to mention medical assistence or shelter - cannot get to them. But I think the worse problem is the lack of hope, and that's something that's I've found to be really striking in Haiti. People have lost faith and hope that things will get better here - political turmoil, criminality and kidnapping, unaffordable food and gas, and now losing everything due to freaks of nature. You talk to people and they say that everyone is "in transit" here - people have lost the sense that this island is a place to stay or a place that nurtures.
We had the BBC in for the afternoon yesterday to look around and piss off Brian with their incessant need to sniff out the misery - back to the whole infamous "Has anybody here been raped and speak English?" school of journalism. It's not that I don't like journalists - I just think they have crappy jobs, especially the roving ones: the ones who go from disaster to disaster without really caring the people or knowing enough the context - just wanting their bit of "disaster pornography". I know it's their jobs and I know it's important that people in rich countries are aware of what's going on here but bloody hell, there must be some way of doing it better.
Had dinner with a friend last night and he told me how last week, his colleague had been trapped on top of the roof of her hotel in Gonaive during Hanna with 7 of their local staff. Max had been frantic getting in touch with MINUSTAH (the UN peacekeeping force here) to get them rescued. So they came in their helicoptors to pick her up but refused to take the local staff. When she found this out, she insisted that they return her immediately and then spent the night on the rooftop with them. The happy ending is that they all got rescued the next day but... It's one of those cases which you hear about but don't actually really believe can happen - that the UN continues, despite all the criticism, to operate this double-standard. I mean, good for her - if I was with my team and that happened, I would have been absolutely furious.
Anyway, if any of you are interested, here's what we're doing in response to the crisis:
And on a much lighter note: I have actually seen Tina - she actually crept out of the cupboard and started eating right next to me. If I make any move towards her, she instantly runs away but I'm trying to learn the virtue of patience. Might buy her another toy to see if money can actually buy love....
And just to cap things off, just to prove that I'm not all doom and gloom, here's a cute joke that a friend sent me:
Job Opening at the FBI
The FBI had an opening for an assassin. After all the background checks, interviews and testing were done, there were 3 finalists; two men and a woman. For the final test, the FBI agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun. "We must know that you will follow your instructions no matter what the circumstances are. Inside the room you will find your wife sitting in a chair .. . . Kill her!!" The man said, "You can't be serious. I could never shoot my wife." The agent said, "Then you're not the right man for this job. Take your wife and go home."The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about 5 minutes. The man came out with tears in his eyes, "I tried, but I can't kill my wife." The agent said, "You don't have what it takes. Take your wife and go home."Finally, it was the woman's turn. She was given the same instructions, to kill her husband. She took the gun and went into the room. Shots were heard, one after another. They heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls. After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood the woman, wiping the sweat from her brow. "This gun is loaded with blanks", she said. "I had to beat him to death with the chair."
MORAL: Women are crazy. Don't mess with them
Monday 8 September 2008
Hurricanes
It's strange - it's 8.30pm and so quiet. It had been raining heavily last night and this morning but now I hear nothing. Normally at this time, I would hear a cacophony of music from all the bars around my home and cars, motorbikes and generators and people laughing and shouting in the streets. But nothing - just dogs barking and the hum of insects.
The reason, of course, is Ike which has just passed near Haiti today. From all accounts, it could have been much much worse but coming on the back of Gustav and Hanna...
The last couple of weeks have been crazy - not so much from work but mostly emotionally from a mix of worry over hurricanes and a particularly nasty investigation that I'm involved in. The latter will hopefully finally be resolved over the next couple of days. The former will takes years if that.
So; Fay, Gustav, Hanna and now Ike... Four hurricane/tropical storms in the space of 3 weeks. Figures vary but the immediate death toll is most definitely in the hundreds, and Haiti is a country where the death toll from the aftermath will most likely exceed the immediate. The city of Gonaive in the north had been described by a UN envoy as "hell on earth" after Hanna, which seems an accurate summation from all accounts and now, the bridge that was the last land route into the city has collapsed due to the Ike, and the city of 300,000 is now even more cut off from aid.
A hurricane struck Gonaive 4 years ago resulting in over 4000 deaths and food rioting. The situation is likely to be much worse this year: there are already severe food shortages - witness the food rioting in April - and the hurricanes have made the situation worse with a reported 60% rise in food staples which were already more than most people could afford. Add to that the continuing humanitarian crisis in the south of Haiti from Gustav and the government can't cope. I'm not sure that the UN or us NGOs can do much better to be perfectly honest. Aside from the sheer humanitarian catastrophe always features in the aftermath of natural disaters in poor states with no infrastructure or safety nets, the resultant political fallout from this is going to be ugly. Really ugly.
As for us, we're been trying to put together an emergency response to Gustav and Hanna but it's obviously too soon to do anything until we can assess the damage that Ike has wreaked. Even then, I'm not sure how much we can do - we're already overstretched with large new emergency responses to food security and there's obviously no point taking money from donors for projects we don't have the capacity or manpower to put in place. But then, if there's no other alternative, then we'd deal. I feel like it's the calm before the storm - a couple of days of assessment and then the madness.
This is an Al Jazeera broadcast that was taken a few days ago, just after Hanna. It gives an impression of just how difficult and precarious the situation is in Gonaive especially, but over all the whole country:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/09/20089623246151559.html
Anyway, making myself a cup of tea now and trying not to think of what's coming.
The reason, of course, is Ike which has just passed near Haiti today. From all accounts, it could have been much much worse but coming on the back of Gustav and Hanna...
The last couple of weeks have been crazy - not so much from work but mostly emotionally from a mix of worry over hurricanes and a particularly nasty investigation that I'm involved in. The latter will hopefully finally be resolved over the next couple of days. The former will takes years if that.
So; Fay, Gustav, Hanna and now Ike... Four hurricane/tropical storms in the space of 3 weeks. Figures vary but the immediate death toll is most definitely in the hundreds, and Haiti is a country where the death toll from the aftermath will most likely exceed the immediate. The city of Gonaive in the north had been described by a UN envoy as "hell on earth" after Hanna, which seems an accurate summation from all accounts and now, the bridge that was the last land route into the city has collapsed due to the Ike, and the city of 300,000 is now even more cut off from aid.
A hurricane struck Gonaive 4 years ago resulting in over 4000 deaths and food rioting. The situation is likely to be much worse this year: there are already severe food shortages - witness the food rioting in April - and the hurricanes have made the situation worse with a reported 60% rise in food staples which were already more than most people could afford. Add to that the continuing humanitarian crisis in the south of Haiti from Gustav and the government can't cope. I'm not sure that the UN or us NGOs can do much better to be perfectly honest. Aside from the sheer humanitarian catastrophe always features in the aftermath of natural disaters in poor states with no infrastructure or safety nets, the resultant political fallout from this is going to be ugly. Really ugly.
As for us, we're been trying to put together an emergency response to Gustav and Hanna but it's obviously too soon to do anything until we can assess the damage that Ike has wreaked. Even then, I'm not sure how much we can do - we're already overstretched with large new emergency responses to food security and there's obviously no point taking money from donors for projects we don't have the capacity or manpower to put in place. But then, if there's no other alternative, then we'd deal. I feel like it's the calm before the storm - a couple of days of assessment and then the madness.
This is an Al Jazeera broadcast that was taken a few days ago, just after Hanna. It gives an impression of just how difficult and precarious the situation is in Gonaive especially, but over all the whole country:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/09/20089623246151559.html
Anyway, making myself a cup of tea now and trying not to think of what's coming.
Tuesday 12 August 2008
MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!
I'M TWENTY-NINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have to rush - just slept an unprecedented 11 hours last night (went to bed at 7.30pm, I was that knackered) and need to get to work and eat breakfast and drink tea in 15 mins.
A HUGE THANK YOU to all of you for your lovely birthday wishes - I didn't realise I had so many friends. Well, ones who are still talking to me, anyway... It was lovely to receive, especially since I was forced to work over my birthday - grrr.
As for the celebrations, got some people together and went to this gorgeous restaurant up in Kenscoff, in the mountains above PetionVille. It was beautiful but bloody freezing up there - people were warning me to bring a jumper or something but I scoffed at all that. Cold, windy, cloudy - felt really at home. I'm not kidding, it was a great feeling! It is possible to have too much sun and good weather. Anyway, here it is:
And here's me with Brenda - our Kenyen Nutritionist. She tells me that the thirties are where it's at - you apparently get the best sex of your life is in your then. Hmmmnnn.
And for pure comedy value - a vid of us driving back along a very bumpy road...
Have to rush - just slept an unprecedented 11 hours last night (went to bed at 7.30pm, I was that knackered) and need to get to work and eat breakfast and drink tea in 15 mins.
A HUGE THANK YOU to all of you for your lovely birthday wishes - I didn't realise I had so many friends. Well, ones who are still talking to me, anyway... It was lovely to receive, especially since I was forced to work over my birthday - grrr.
As for the celebrations, got some people together and went to this gorgeous restaurant up in Kenscoff, in the mountains above PetionVille. It was beautiful but bloody freezing up there - people were warning me to bring a jumper or something but I scoffed at all that. Cold, windy, cloudy - felt really at home. I'm not kidding, it was a great feeling! It is possible to have too much sun and good weather. Anyway, here it is:
And here's me with Brenda - our Kenyen Nutritionist. She tells me that the thirties are where it's at - you apparently get the best sex of your life is in your then. Hmmmnnn.
And for pure comedy value - a vid of us driving back along a very bumpy road...
Gotta drink my tea - will write more this evening.
Wednesday 6 August 2008
Stuff...
I decided to stop moaning about work - it's dull and repetitive. Instead, I'm going to start [cough cough] moaning about the fact that I'll be TWENTY-NINE on Sunday [OK, probably not any more interesting but makes a change].
How the hell did that happen...
Anyway, after a ridiculously long day at work yesterday [cross fingers that the donor allocation module will work today], got home and started aimlessly surfing the net, as you do. And hit on one of the Facebook lists "You know you've been too long in XXX when you...". This one was about the Middle East and thought I'd lift some titbits:
You are not surprised to see a goat in the passenger seat
You expect the confirmation on your airline ticket to read "insha'allah"
Your idea of housework is leaving a list for the maid
You consider it normal for the same section of the road to be dug up three times by contractors in the space of a few weeks
The one about the maid is just SO true...
How the hell did that happen...
Anyway, after a ridiculously long day at work yesterday [cross fingers that the donor allocation module will work today], got home and started aimlessly surfing the net, as you do. And hit on one of the Facebook lists "You know you've been too long in XXX when you...". This one was about the Middle East and thought I'd lift some titbits:
You are not surprised to see a goat in the passenger seat
You expect the confirmation on your airline ticket to read "insha'allah"
Your idea of housework is leaving a list for the maid
You consider it normal for the same section of the road to be dug up three times by contractors in the space of a few weeks
The one about the maid is just SO true...
Monday 28 July 2008
Another week....
Grumpy this morning.
Woke up on the wrong side of the bed despite going home early (ish) last night from a Konpa festival. Festival was fantastic and was really impressed about how well it was staged - reminded me of those August weekend festivals in Hyde Park where you can sit around with a bunch of mates and listen to great music on a sunny day. [sigh] Getting a bit homesick...
It's 6.56am on a morning morning and am just about to face a nightmarish couple of weeks at work with budget revisions having to be done before our Country Director goes off on leave for a whole month at the end of the week, and quarterly reporting needing to be done before next Wednesday. Not to mention donor reporting also due at the end of this week. Ugh.
Just need to get through the next 2 weeks and then I have 5 lovely days in New York in which to totally indulge myself. Really couldn't afford to with the huge amount of money I spent last month on Cuba but what the hell. At the moment, having one of those jobs with a complete lack of responsibility where you clock in at 9am and clock out at 5pm sounds like heaven - what the hell did I have against them?
Anyway, [deep breath] better fact the music...
Woke up on the wrong side of the bed despite going home early (ish) last night from a Konpa festival. Festival was fantastic and was really impressed about how well it was staged - reminded me of those August weekend festivals in Hyde Park where you can sit around with a bunch of mates and listen to great music on a sunny day. [sigh] Getting a bit homesick...
It's 6.56am on a morning morning and am just about to face a nightmarish couple of weeks at work with budget revisions having to be done before our Country Director goes off on leave for a whole month at the end of the week, and quarterly reporting needing to be done before next Wednesday. Not to mention donor reporting also due at the end of this week. Ugh.
Just need to get through the next 2 weeks and then I have 5 lovely days in New York in which to totally indulge myself. Really couldn't afford to with the huge amount of money I spent last month on Cuba but what the hell. At the moment, having one of those jobs with a complete lack of responsibility where you clock in at 9am and clock out at 5pm sounds like heaven - what the hell did I have against them?
Anyway, [deep breath] better fact the music...
Saturday 19 July 2008
Large Castles and Magic Sex on the Beach
Yep, capital letters r us. It makes me feel important, which is always a good thing.
Anyway, after all this whining and moaning, I thought I'd better try to sell Haiti. Yes, it has it's riots, poverty, dirt, kidnappings, lack of infrastructure.
But....
Yep, that's Labardie beach near Cap Haitian in the north of the country. And if Emma had played her cards right, where you're looking at is where she could have had a "Magical Sexual Experience" with the hunchbacked 83 year old married proprietor of the guesthouse we were staying in...
Just across the bay is a private beach surrounded on all sides by barbed wire. This is where luxury cruise ships dock to "experience Haiti" and come back raving about how much they lurrrve the place. Sarcasm and geriatric sex aside, this is a paradise place. Just a pity it's so far away.
This is Cap Haitian itself - a really nice laid back town. Very different from the overwhelming business of PaP.
Also, for the full tourist experience, there is The Citadelle. Built on a huge fucking mountain (well, more of a hill if you have to be perfectly accurate) in the middle of Bum Fuck Nowhere, it's Haiti's number one tourist attraction. It was built a couple of hundred years ago soon after Haiti's independence by Henri Christophe, Haiti's one and only King.
King Christophe was a bit of a character - you'd have to be to crown youself King. He orginally started building this fortress on the orders of Dessaline in the belief that the French would invade to recapture their colony, and continued after Dessaline's death and the subsequent division of Haiti into Northern Kingdom and Southern Republic. In the end the castle was never used, and Christophe ended up committing suicide (with a silver bullet) to avoid the ignominy of being defeated by Petion during the North/South civil that erupted soon after Independence.
Living in Petionville and not having much use for Kings, I suppose I don't really appreciate Christophe's finer points. However, he did create a bloody spectacular castle. Have a lookie:
Despite all of that, here is my favourite sight of the north. Oink oink.
Pics from Cuba and Engagement Blues
Well, here I am having a lazy evening of it - should get off my arse and actually have a think about what I want to do with the 5 days of leave I have in August for my [gulp] 29th birthday. New York? Dominican Republic? Miami again? Bum Fuck Nowhere? Whatever it is, it' going to be a somewhat depressing experience: one more year closer to the grave. One more year without a mortgage. Or any idea of what I want to do with my life.
Or boyfriend. Grrrrr....
Just found out this morning that two ex-colleagues whom I worked with in Lebanon have just got engaged. To say that this blindsided me would be somewhat of an understatement - I was practically choking on my corn flakes. Would have been a rather embarrassing trip to the hospital, have to say. I had absolutely no clue when I was there that there was anything between them. Of course, now I look back, they did spend a lot of time together and obviously liked each a great deal but [whiny voice] I thought they were just good friends... In my defense, she's an extremely vivacious Lebanese in her forties who could have her pick of guys, and he's a 25 year old blue-eyed American. I always thought she saw him more as a younger brother but shows you how much I know. OK, I admit it: unless I stumble across them in flagrante on the National Director's desk, I'm pretty much oblivious to these things. Now I've got this image in my mind - noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!
Anyway, to celebrate singletonness, here are some pics from Cuba. This is from a boat trip that we took near Santa Clara to get to a restaurant (the things we do for food) and later a waterfall:
Or boyfriend. Grrrrr....
Just found out this morning that two ex-colleagues whom I worked with in Lebanon have just got engaged. To say that this blindsided me would be somewhat of an understatement - I was practically choking on my corn flakes. Would have been a rather embarrassing trip to the hospital, have to say. I had absolutely no clue when I was there that there was anything between them. Of course, now I look back, they did spend a lot of time together and obviously liked each a great deal but [whiny voice] I thought they were just good friends... In my defense, she's an extremely vivacious Lebanese in her forties who could have her pick of guys, and he's a 25 year old blue-eyed American. I always thought she saw him more as a younger brother but shows you how much I know. OK, I admit it: unless I stumble across them in flagrante on the National Director's desk, I'm pretty much oblivious to these things. Now I've got this image in my mind - noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!
Anyway, to celebrate singletonness, here are some pics from Cuba. This is from a boat trip that we took near Santa Clara to get to a restaurant (the things we do for food) and later a waterfall:
And these are some kids who were determined to pose for me next to the Che Guavara monument. Soon afterwards when they discovered the (pretty crappy) video facility that I have on my camera, they all started showing off their somersauts and wrestling moves. Pretty impressive, actually.
And here's "typical" street scene in Trinidad, a city on the south coast of Cuba where we spent most of our holiday. Trinidad is picture perfect as cities go and pleasingly laid back. We stumbled onto a carnival on our first night which was crazy. Made us realise that 8 year old girls can move their hips better than we could. Yeah, but can they manage a EUR6m budget spread across 22 projects? Methinks not...
This has gotten me into a pic upload/holiday mood. Think will upload those Haiti pics.
Friday 11 July 2008
Post Holiday Blues and the Walking Wounded
It is now just after 5pm and I’m stuck in the office for another hour until our night driver can come to collect me. You know one of those days where you’ve actually managed to do a number of things but still feel like you’ve had no real focus? Yep, it’s been one of those. What’s good (or bad depending on your viewpoint) is that I feel remarkably guilt-free about it: I’m still in the last throes of holiday mode AND I just got injured this morning in the line of duty…
Before you start imagining wounds inflicted while protecting food shipments from marauding gangs or while jumping out of helicopters into a swarm of gun fire to sweep amazingly cute toddlers out of the path of danger - remember first that I am an accountant not an idiot, and secondly I am amazingly mal-coordinated and just a tad absent-minded.
I actually was just on the wrong side of a dispute with the road leading from my home to the office. It predictably resulted in my grazing my knees and hands, and any pretension to dignity that I ever had with my neighbouring Haitians. So, went home, patched myself up (used a bandage for the FIRST TIME EVER), threw my blood-stained [if you look really really hard] skirt in the laundry basket, worried a little about the apparent bits of dirt that seemed embedded in the wound, shrugged, and checked my tetanus vaccination expiry date. When I got driven to work an hour later, had a rather impressive bandage round my knee and was limping, again rather impressively.
I have an impressionable staff.
So, enough rambling about my heroic defeat at the hands of a heinous road. Post holiday blues is the next subject on the table as it’s only 5.20pm and still have 40 mins to go.
I came back last week from almost 2 weeks traveling around Cuba starting at La Habana and flying out of Santiago via Santa Clara and Trinidad. Did things like walking around almost deserted streets in tattered colonials towns in the early hours of the morning, horseback riding, soft-core hiking, soft-core dancing, soft-core drinking, getting frustrated at the lack of tea in the whole country, enduring long bus journeys, eating quite average to bad food, thinking about the good and bad of communism, visiting lack-luster museums, stumbling across carnivals, getting conned by the double monetary system, enjoying old soviet-style propaganda, and wondering why the hell I took salsa dancing lessons instead Spanish. All in all, it was a pretty successful holiday. I mean, I got myself a large blue Che Guavara flag…
It’s most probably the language thing and the complete lack of knowledge about its history and culture, but I never really feel in love with Cuba and I was really expecting to. My friend whom I conned into traveling with me to Cuba (and later on to Haiti), will doubtless say that I was expecting too much, but I did go away with a bit of a sense of disappointment despite having had a pretty good time. It did make me think about how I don’t even have a passing knowledge of Latin American/Spanish Caribbean, or Spain for that matter. They could be on a different planet for all I know.
Anyway, I was traveling around with Emma – an Irish girl I first met in Syria two years ago. The only thing we really have in common is a love of travel (though for very different reasons) and the fact that we are both only girls of single mothers. Looking back on it, I’m surprised that we were still speaking to each other by the end of it – especially as it’s been rather some time since I’d traveled with someone and completely forgot how to do it. We did do the sensible thing and take separate rooms after we started getting on each others’ nerves and that was fantastic. OK, not the separation as such I hasten to add, but the knowledge that after doing your own thing for the day, there was someone to have dinner with and tell about all the ridiculous things you experienced and did.
In a fit of distraction, Emma agreed to fly back with me to Haiti and spend a few days here with me. I honestly don’t think she really knew what she was getting herself into, poor thing. We flew up to Cap Haitian last weekend and visited the Citadelle – THE great monument of Haiti which, I have to say, rather underwhelmed us. It was a pretty impressive vista but was crawling with busloads of MINUSTAH (UN peacekeepers) troops in their blue caps taking pictures of everything and Hola-ing us. So not the deserted castle I was expecting. Also, our guide was frankly awful and seemed to want to speak to everyone apart from us. He told us absolutely sod all and it was a shame because it could have been a great place if we had someone to bring it to life.
To make up for that, we stayed at a gorgeous guesthouse at Labardie which was literally ON the beach (see photo which I will upload when I can be arsed). It had old-fashioned stone walls, hammocks, beautiful paradise beach – just the sort of place to take a significant other and shag each other silly. Also a virtue that it has no cell phone coverage and you can only there by boat. I had to leave after just one night and was pretty upset about it. However, seems like all I missed was being hit on by the 83 year old proprietor of the place who promised Emma “a magical sexual experience” in the sea. His wife had gone to bed, you see… I always miss the fun.
Anyway, Emma left for the Dominican Republic day before yesterday so feeling like the holiday is truly over. It was lovely going home to someone for lunch and eating out on the balcony – definitely reminded me where priorities should be and that a social life is actually a Good Thing and not something that just takes time away from Work. Also, found out that a good colleague and friend of mine is leaving so made me think about my own future here – and about what I want to do afterwards. Sometimes you can get so busy and stressed out that you don’t actually remember that you’re here by choice.
Ugh, the pus on my knee is starting to drip down my leg. Is that normal or am I getting an infection. Ah, what the hell. Will make myself a cup of tea and read a trashy book.
Before you start imagining wounds inflicted while protecting food shipments from marauding gangs or while jumping out of helicopters into a swarm of gun fire to sweep amazingly cute toddlers out of the path of danger - remember first that I am an accountant not an idiot, and secondly I am amazingly mal-coordinated and just a tad absent-minded.
I actually was just on the wrong side of a dispute with the road leading from my home to the office. It predictably resulted in my grazing my knees and hands, and any pretension to dignity that I ever had with my neighbouring Haitians. So, went home, patched myself up (used a bandage for the FIRST TIME EVER), threw my blood-stained [if you look really really hard] skirt in the laundry basket, worried a little about the apparent bits of dirt that seemed embedded in the wound, shrugged, and checked my tetanus vaccination expiry date. When I got driven to work an hour later, had a rather impressive bandage round my knee and was limping, again rather impressively.
I have an impressionable staff.
So, enough rambling about my heroic defeat at the hands of a heinous road. Post holiday blues is the next subject on the table as it’s only 5.20pm and still have 40 mins to go.
I came back last week from almost 2 weeks traveling around Cuba starting at La Habana and flying out of Santiago via Santa Clara and Trinidad. Did things like walking around almost deserted streets in tattered colonials towns in the early hours of the morning, horseback riding, soft-core hiking, soft-core dancing, soft-core drinking, getting frustrated at the lack of tea in the whole country, enduring long bus journeys, eating quite average to bad food, thinking about the good and bad of communism, visiting lack-luster museums, stumbling across carnivals, getting conned by the double monetary system, enjoying old soviet-style propaganda, and wondering why the hell I took salsa dancing lessons instead Spanish. All in all, it was a pretty successful holiday. I mean, I got myself a large blue Che Guavara flag…
It’s most probably the language thing and the complete lack of knowledge about its history and culture, but I never really feel in love with Cuba and I was really expecting to. My friend whom I conned into traveling with me to Cuba (and later on to Haiti), will doubtless say that I was expecting too much, but I did go away with a bit of a sense of disappointment despite having had a pretty good time. It did make me think about how I don’t even have a passing knowledge of Latin American/Spanish Caribbean, or Spain for that matter. They could be on a different planet for all I know.
Anyway, I was traveling around with Emma – an Irish girl I first met in Syria two years ago. The only thing we really have in common is a love of travel (though for very different reasons) and the fact that we are both only girls of single mothers. Looking back on it, I’m surprised that we were still speaking to each other by the end of it – especially as it’s been rather some time since I’d traveled with someone and completely forgot how to do it. We did do the sensible thing and take separate rooms after we started getting on each others’ nerves and that was fantastic. OK, not the separation as such I hasten to add, but the knowledge that after doing your own thing for the day, there was someone to have dinner with and tell about all the ridiculous things you experienced and did.
In a fit of distraction, Emma agreed to fly back with me to Haiti and spend a few days here with me. I honestly don’t think she really knew what she was getting herself into, poor thing. We flew up to Cap Haitian last weekend and visited the Citadelle – THE great monument of Haiti which, I have to say, rather underwhelmed us. It was a pretty impressive vista but was crawling with busloads of MINUSTAH (UN peacekeepers) troops in their blue caps taking pictures of everything and Hola-ing us. So not the deserted castle I was expecting. Also, our guide was frankly awful and seemed to want to speak to everyone apart from us. He told us absolutely sod all and it was a shame because it could have been a great place if we had someone to bring it to life.
To make up for that, we stayed at a gorgeous guesthouse at Labardie which was literally ON the beach (see photo which I will upload when I can be arsed). It had old-fashioned stone walls, hammocks, beautiful paradise beach – just the sort of place to take a significant other and shag each other silly. Also a virtue that it has no cell phone coverage and you can only there by boat. I had to leave after just one night and was pretty upset about it. However, seems like all I missed was being hit on by the 83 year old proprietor of the place who promised Emma “a magical sexual experience” in the sea. His wife had gone to bed, you see… I always miss the fun.
Anyway, Emma left for the Dominican Republic day before yesterday so feeling like the holiday is truly over. It was lovely going home to someone for lunch and eating out on the balcony – definitely reminded me where priorities should be and that a social life is actually a Good Thing and not something that just takes time away from Work. Also, found out that a good colleague and friend of mine is leaving so made me think about my own future here – and about what I want to do afterwards. Sometimes you can get so busy and stressed out that you don’t actually remember that you’re here by choice.
Ugh, the pus on my knee is starting to drip down my leg. Is that normal or am I getting an infection. Ah, what the hell. Will make myself a cup of tea and read a trashy book.
Wednesday 18 June 2008
Our Little Accountant...
Before I forget, here's the reason why my Head Accountant was away for the last five weeks:
Almost enough to forgive him for leaving us in the lurch. He has, though, promised that this baby belongs to the Finance section...
Budget Revisions, here I come!!
After the pity-fest yesterday, feeling a lot better. Work's still "how the fuck are we going to get this done by the end of the week" madness but at least it feels like it's finally moving in the right direction.
Got the second finance presentation out the way FINALLY so now can actually concentrate on "proper" work instead of arguing with people on what they should really be doing. At least this time, it was for the Country Management Team and the Admin staff so reception was a lot better and hugely more understanding. Unsurprisingly, I suppose. Still got a mite annoyed by our ACD systems flatly contradicting something that I'd only put in at the firm insistence of his loggy which basically made me look stupid and unprepared. Unfortunatley, I got defensive rather than just taking the high ground in response but there's presenting in French for you - my presentation skills have regressed to my teenage years. Or at least that's the argument I'm sticking to.
Otherwise, it went well. And what's even more fantastic is that I managed to upload about a third of our revised budgets into our system AND the templates that I then updated with this info worked just as I told! OK, this may sound rather sad to be so excited at a template or a system doing just what it's supposed to do but given my extremely frustrating to the point of surreal comedy experience to date with anything relating to software, did a little happy dance in my chair [don't worry, everyone else in the office had already left so haven't damaged what's left of my credibility]. Of course, it'll probably all go to pot tomorrow morning...
What was quite humbling today was to discover the dedication of my team. Due to stress and what I saw at pretty elementary and stupid errors on some of the work I gave them to do, I do forget how willing they are to be abused by me. I was pretty sharp with JF today and felt really bad when he stayed on until 7.30pm to finish the piece of work I gave him to do. And the others also stayed until 5pm or later today (offices normally closes at 3.30pm). God, I really don't deserve them.
Anyway, just wanted to reassure people that I'm not about to throw myself off a cliff just yet. Have a bit more work plus dinner to prepare and Cuba to start packing for so will end here.
Or here.
Got the second finance presentation out the way FINALLY so now can actually concentrate on "proper" work instead of arguing with people on what they should really be doing. At least this time, it was for the Country Management Team and the Admin staff so reception was a lot better and hugely more understanding. Unsurprisingly, I suppose. Still got a mite annoyed by our ACD systems flatly contradicting something that I'd only put in at the firm insistence of his loggy which basically made me look stupid and unprepared. Unfortunatley, I got defensive rather than just taking the high ground in response but there's presenting in French for you - my presentation skills have regressed to my teenage years. Or at least that's the argument I'm sticking to.
Otherwise, it went well. And what's even more fantastic is that I managed to upload about a third of our revised budgets into our system AND the templates that I then updated with this info worked just as I told! OK, this may sound rather sad to be so excited at a template or a system doing just what it's supposed to do but given my extremely frustrating to the point of surreal comedy experience to date with anything relating to software, did a little happy dance in my chair [don't worry, everyone else in the office had already left so haven't damaged what's left of my credibility]. Of course, it'll probably all go to pot tomorrow morning...
What was quite humbling today was to discover the dedication of my team. Due to stress and what I saw at pretty elementary and stupid errors on some of the work I gave them to do, I do forget how willing they are to be abused by me. I was pretty sharp with JF today and felt really bad when he stayed on until 7.30pm to finish the piece of work I gave him to do. And the others also stayed until 5pm or later today (offices normally closes at 3.30pm). God, I really don't deserve them.
Anyway, just wanted to reassure people that I'm not about to throw myself off a cliff just yet. Have a bit more work plus dinner to prepare and Cuba to start packing for so will end here.
Or here.
Monday 16 June 2008
Hanging by my fingertips...
There are so many things that I should be doing at the moment (moment being 6.30am Monday morning) rather than updating my beleagured blog: finishing a presentation on finance procedures for tomorrow, checking informal budget revisions that were done over the weekend, working on the mapping between Concern coding and donor codes for EU projects...
But fuck it. I was bloody working all of Saturday and most of Sunday so figure I deserve 30 mins personal time before work.
The reason why I hadn't been blogging recently is that this past month has been absolutely brutual. Went to Miami for 4 days the week after the poisoning at La Gonave. As soon as I got back, spent most of my time with our Regional Accountant who was over here for three weeks to help overhaul our procedures and generally review our financial management. As soon as she left, got plunged into getting my team to prepare for a finance workshop which took place on Friday on those pre-final procedures as well as budget revision activities ahead of the Offical Budget Revision.
Quite frankly, I'm basically holding on until the end of the week when I hit Cuba for almost 2 weeks. Part of me is glad but I've been too busy to really anticipate or prepare for it properly - just getting scared about the amount of stuff that needs to be done this week, and it's not good.
I know that I'm stressed and have probably lost perspective on this but part of the reason for my bad mood is not only the sheer amount of work that I and my team are under, but the huge criticism that we got during our finance workshop from project people who leave at 3.30pm every day, have large teams to do God Knows What, only manage a tiny budget of only $100k or so, and who have absolutely no clue or really care how much we have to do in finance.
Maybe I'm unfair but for them to criticize us for being inefficient and not catering to their needs... I was so fucking angry and still had to smile and say that yes, we have not been as efficient as we'd hoped and thank them for their patience, when all I wanted to do was yell at them. I don't know, maybe there was a better way of dealing with the situation, maybe if I had a bit more gravitas or presence or experience, I could have defended my team better. And maybe if my French was better...
Oh well, it's a learning experience. I'm just fed up of being in the same situation as I was at my first NGO where I was working all hours of the day but feeling a complete lack of simple appreciation - something that just makes me feel really petty as knowing that I'm doing the best I can should really be enough. I know that's not true here, but that's the way I'm feeling at the moment. And managing a team just makes it worse as I know they're unhappy but I have to put on a brave face for them. I was feeling just so fed up last night, started thinking for the first time when I could leave and go on to a programme which did not have 19 different projects and 17 different donors to manage.
Anyway, I'm just feeling down and needed a whinge. Things could be worse and I just need to regain some perspective somehow.
It's now 7.10am and need to get off my arse and face the music so to speak. Will blog later on today on less gloom and doom matters...
But fuck it. I was bloody working all of Saturday and most of Sunday so figure I deserve 30 mins personal time before work.
The reason why I hadn't been blogging recently is that this past month has been absolutely brutual. Went to Miami for 4 days the week after the poisoning at La Gonave. As soon as I got back, spent most of my time with our Regional Accountant who was over here for three weeks to help overhaul our procedures and generally review our financial management. As soon as she left, got plunged into getting my team to prepare for a finance workshop which took place on Friday on those pre-final procedures as well as budget revision activities ahead of the Offical Budget Revision.
Quite frankly, I'm basically holding on until the end of the week when I hit Cuba for almost 2 weeks. Part of me is glad but I've been too busy to really anticipate or prepare for it properly - just getting scared about the amount of stuff that needs to be done this week, and it's not good.
I know that I'm stressed and have probably lost perspective on this but part of the reason for my bad mood is not only the sheer amount of work that I and my team are under, but the huge criticism that we got during our finance workshop from project people who leave at 3.30pm every day, have large teams to do God Knows What, only manage a tiny budget of only $100k or so, and who have absolutely no clue or really care how much we have to do in finance.
Maybe I'm unfair but for them to criticize us for being inefficient and not catering to their needs... I was so fucking angry and still had to smile and say that yes, we have not been as efficient as we'd hoped and thank them for their patience, when all I wanted to do was yell at them. I don't know, maybe there was a better way of dealing with the situation, maybe if I had a bit more gravitas or presence or experience, I could have defended my team better. And maybe if my French was better...
Oh well, it's a learning experience. I'm just fed up of being in the same situation as I was at my first NGO where I was working all hours of the day but feeling a complete lack of simple appreciation - something that just makes me feel really petty as knowing that I'm doing the best I can should really be enough. I know that's not true here, but that's the way I'm feeling at the moment. And managing a team just makes it worse as I know they're unhappy but I have to put on a brave face for them. I was feeling just so fed up last night, started thinking for the first time when I could leave and go on to a programme which did not have 19 different projects and 17 different donors to manage.
Anyway, I'm just feeling down and needed a whinge. Things could be worse and I just need to regain some perspective somehow.
It's now 7.10am and need to get off my arse and face the music so to speak. Will blog later on today on less gloom and doom matters...
Monday 12 May 2008
Poisonous fish, cute Cuban doctors, and my first medevac...
Things have been busy in Caroline land.
This week was my first trip out to a field site - an island just off the coast of Haiti called La Gonave where we have a mix of emergency, water and education projects. Landed there Wednesday morning after a pretty hair-raising flyboat ride across the water where I spent the whole 45 mins preying to whatever is out there that my suitcase (with my personal laptop, camera, ebook reader and portable DVD player - I travel tech heavy) wouldn't topple over into the water wtih our boat hoping at full speed from breaking wave to breaking wave. And that was apparently a calm crossing...
La Gonave itself is miles away from the craziness that is Port au Prince, or even Petionville. It's calm and serene and has this slow pace of life that's pretty attractive at first but would probably start getting rather old after a while. Still it was great to be able to walk around even in the evenings - not that there was much time for that. From talking to the staff there, La Gonave was a bit of a haven during the Duvalier years - so isolated that the turmoil of those times didn't touch the inhabitants of the island.
I was pretty impressed by the office and the administration of it - the two administrators there do a fantastic amount with pretty limited resources, and work extremely hard. It was also great to see the Project Managers and how they operate, and there's nothing to actually being on a field site to realising how our whole operation really works in practice. I had a good two days with the admin staff Wednesday and Thursday talking about our procedures and thinking up ways of correcting and improving them. So pretty succesful trip from that point of view.
The residence, however, is another matter: dirty, dark depressing lighting, filled with insects and flies, few personal touches, and with only two shared bathrooms for about 10 rooms - something that become a bit of a nightmare later on. What really pissed me off about the residence is that a lot of the problems were completely solveable - it doesn't take much to spray the space, give it a good clean, replace the light bulbs, and put some more personal touches. The more you work in the field, the more you realise that baring emergencies, there's no need/excuse to live in filth. Even the straw huts that I've seen field staff work in in Darfur were cleaner than the kitchen in that residence. Think the main problem with La Gonave is that most of our field staff living there are men who really didn't give a shit about where they were living. I mean, I'm not the most domestic of people (and for those who know me, that's a laughable understatement) but I would have kicked up a huge fuss before now...
To get back to the plot: Thursday evening, our communal dinner was big chunky poisonous fish. These fish are apparently notorious for causing food poisoning due to the toxins that they ingest in the waters around La Gonave and store up in their bodies as revenge against those who later eat them - not a bad ploy, have to say. Anyway, after eating I went back to my room and worked on our USAID project until about 2am in the morning. When I finished, I found myself feeling lightheaded, nauseous and altogehter pretty ill. I thought this might have something to do with the heat and the work but that was soon dispelled by a trip to the bathroom. To put it as delicated as possible, that trip, along with the lack of water available for flushing was the first clue that not only was it food poisoning, but I was far from the only person affected. After procuring a tub in the kitchen to vomit in should I need it (didn't in the end but was a near thing), I made my way back to my room and literally fell into bed into a pile of vertigo and self-pity.
I must have had some sleep as when I woke up, I found that the whole house had been affected and that I was actually one of the lucky ones. Three of our staff had to be hospitalised and the rest were not exactly feeling 100%. Spent most of the morning in the local hospital which was one of the better hospitals I'd seen in a developing country. I imagine being obviously private had something to do with it but the nurses there were competent and our staff were treated as soon as they arrived, and were actually given private rooms more or less immediately. All staff were hooked up to IV fluids more or less immediately and two of them seemed to feel better within a few hours. However, Roger, a lovely ex-teacher in charge of our eduation project, was so still throughout the whole morning that I was really getting worried about him. The doctor didn't help matters by saying that people with his low blood pressure had fallen into comas and died from this sort of food poisoning before, and that it was really unpredictable. However, good news is that Roger did wake up in time for our medevac and was well enough to laugh at my outrageous atttempts to flirt with him. More on my womanly wiles later...
And this is a pic of the plane that our Country Director sent down to us to pick us up and bundle us back to the capital. Have to say that it made us feel pretty important to be airlifted out in such style (our own plane, bless...).
So there you go: my first vist to the field and my first medevac. Going off to Cuba next month so need to keep an eye out for those Cuban doctors...
This week was my first trip out to a field site - an island just off the coast of Haiti called La Gonave where we have a mix of emergency, water and education projects. Landed there Wednesday morning after a pretty hair-raising flyboat ride across the water where I spent the whole 45 mins preying to whatever is out there that my suitcase (with my personal laptop, camera, ebook reader and portable DVD player - I travel tech heavy) wouldn't topple over into the water wtih our boat hoping at full speed from breaking wave to breaking wave. And that was apparently a calm crossing...
La Gonave itself is miles away from the craziness that is Port au Prince, or even Petionville. It's calm and serene and has this slow pace of life that's pretty attractive at first but would probably start getting rather old after a while. Still it was great to be able to walk around even in the evenings - not that there was much time for that. From talking to the staff there, La Gonave was a bit of a haven during the Duvalier years - so isolated that the turmoil of those times didn't touch the inhabitants of the island.
I was pretty impressed by the office and the administration of it - the two administrators there do a fantastic amount with pretty limited resources, and work extremely hard. It was also great to see the Project Managers and how they operate, and there's nothing to actually being on a field site to realising how our whole operation really works in practice. I had a good two days with the admin staff Wednesday and Thursday talking about our procedures and thinking up ways of correcting and improving them. So pretty succesful trip from that point of view.
The residence, however, is another matter: dirty, dark depressing lighting, filled with insects and flies, few personal touches, and with only two shared bathrooms for about 10 rooms - something that become a bit of a nightmare later on. What really pissed me off about the residence is that a lot of the problems were completely solveable - it doesn't take much to spray the space, give it a good clean, replace the light bulbs, and put some more personal touches. The more you work in the field, the more you realise that baring emergencies, there's no need/excuse to live in filth. Even the straw huts that I've seen field staff work in in Darfur were cleaner than the kitchen in that residence. Think the main problem with La Gonave is that most of our field staff living there are men who really didn't give a shit about where they were living. I mean, I'm not the most domestic of people (and for those who know me, that's a laughable understatement) but I would have kicked up a huge fuss before now...
To get back to the plot: Thursday evening, our communal dinner was big chunky poisonous fish. These fish are apparently notorious for causing food poisoning due to the toxins that they ingest in the waters around La Gonave and store up in their bodies as revenge against those who later eat them - not a bad ploy, have to say. Anyway, after eating I went back to my room and worked on our USAID project until about 2am in the morning. When I finished, I found myself feeling lightheaded, nauseous and altogehter pretty ill. I thought this might have something to do with the heat and the work but that was soon dispelled by a trip to the bathroom. To put it as delicated as possible, that trip, along with the lack of water available for flushing was the first clue that not only was it food poisoning, but I was far from the only person affected. After procuring a tub in the kitchen to vomit in should I need it (didn't in the end but was a near thing), I made my way back to my room and literally fell into bed into a pile of vertigo and self-pity.
I must have had some sleep as when I woke up, I found that the whole house had been affected and that I was actually one of the lucky ones. Three of our staff had to be hospitalised and the rest were not exactly feeling 100%. Spent most of the morning in the local hospital which was one of the better hospitals I'd seen in a developing country. I imagine being obviously private had something to do with it but the nurses there were competent and our staff were treated as soon as they arrived, and were actually given private rooms more or less immediately. All staff were hooked up to IV fluids more or less immediately and two of them seemed to feel better within a few hours. However, Roger, a lovely ex-teacher in charge of our eduation project, was so still throughout the whole morning that I was really getting worried about him. The doctor didn't help matters by saying that people with his low blood pressure had fallen into comas and died from this sort of food poisoning before, and that it was really unpredictable. However, good news is that Roger did wake up in time for our medevac and was well enough to laugh at my outrageous atttempts to flirt with him. More on my womanly wiles later...
And this is a pic of the plane that our Country Director sent down to us to pick us up and bundle us back to the capital. Have to say that it made us feel pretty important to be airlifted out in such style (our own plane, bless...).
I must have been running pretty much on adrenaline that morning as I didn't think I felt that bad apart from slight muscle weakness, a migraine from dehydration and some mild vertigo. I was therefore pretty resistant to being evacuated out as I still thought I was well enough to make my afternoon meeting with a partner - I think it was telling that Carine pointedly told me that the medevac included me as well. Retrospectively, she made the right decision as I rather doubt I would have been able to travel two hours into the field and back again, have a professional meeting with a partner, spend another night in La Gonave, and then travel by boat and car back to PaP without becoming a complete wreck. When I got back to Port au Prince, I basically collapsed and spent a very uncomfortable next 12 hours feeling as though all of my muscles in my body were aching all at once. And that was in the comfort of my own bed.
Anyway, it's now Sunday afternoon and feeling almost 100%. Still a bit weak but managed to keep down (or up) dinner last night and lunch today so think tomorrow will be fine.
In the interest of full disclosure, the doctor at the hospital was a very cute 38 year old Cuban who was 8 mths into a year's contract there. Very very flirty with me, despite admitting to having a girlfriend out there with him. I obviously had to reciprocate - I mean, it was for the good of the team afterall. I got him to pay more personal attention to the staff that were in hospital as well as getting him back to the residence to check up on our staff who had milder symptoms. The things I'm prepared to do for Concern. I should get a raise.So there you go: my first vist to the field and my first medevac. Going off to Cuba next month so need to keep an eye out for those Cuban doctors...
Sunday 11 May 2008
An eventful few days...
The past few days have been eventful to say the least: my first trip to the field, mass food poisoning, my first medevac... And then, there is Lebanon.
Let's start with Lebanon first. Here's a brief except from an article from AP which hopefully gives a summary of the situation to date - it was written yesterday so doesn't include the recent clashes in the district of Aley, a mountain suburb of Beirut:
Hezbollah fighters in Beirut melt away By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press WriterSat May 10, 5:27 PM ET
Hezbollah gunmen melted off the streets of Beirut Saturday, heeding an army call to pull the fighters out after the Shiite militants demonstrated their military might in a power struggle with the U.S.-backed government.
Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, in his first public statement since sectarian clashes erupted on Wednesday, said Lebanon can no longer tolerate Hezbollah having weapons. He called on the army to restore law and order and remove gunmen from the streets.
Despite his tough talk, Saniora made a key concession to the Hezbollah-led opposition that would effectively shelve the two government decisions that sparked the fighting.
Muslim West Beirut was mostly calm a day after Hezbollah and its allies seized control of neighborhoods from Sunnis loyal to the government. Most Hezbollah gunmen had pulled out, leaving small bands of their Shiite Amal allies to patrol the streets.
While tensions in the capital appeared to be defusing, violence spread and intensified in other parts of the country.
At least 12 people were killed and 20 wounded when pro- and anti-government groups fought in a remote region of northern Lebanon, Lebanese security and hospital officials said. It was the heaviest toll for a single clash since fighting began.
At least 37 people have been killed in four days of clashes — the worst sectarian violence since Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war.
The violence grew out of a political standoff between the opposition, which pulled out of the Cabinet 17 months ago demanding veto power over government decisions. The deadlock has prevented parliament from electing a president, leaving the country without a head of state since November.
The political standoff turned into clashes after the government confronted Hezbollah earlier this week. It said it would sack the chief of airport security for alleged ties to Hezbollah and declared the group’s private telephone network illegal and a threat to state security.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday the decisions amounted to a declaration of war and he demanded they be revoked. His Shiite forces then overran large swaths of West Beirut.
....
My first reaction when I read about the clashes, aside from worry about friends I had left in Lebanon, was sheer increduity: after nearly 18 mths of both sides ratcheting up the tensions and playing brinksmanship with each other but nothing coming of it except hot air, I couldn't quite believe it when I read that all the political tension had finally erupted.
My second and third reactions were still increduity. Maybe this is naive of me, but I just can't imagine Lebanon descending back into civil war - all sides have too much to lose, and the memory of the last war is still too fresh in people's minds. Plus, it's immensely stupid. That doesn't mean that civil conflict is ruled out: heavens know that Lebanon has no taboo against political violence, and macho posturing has been proved time and time again to be a potent force for actions of stupendous stupidity on the part of political leaders throughout history. But, despite all the doom and gloom, I can't quite bring myself to see it happening.
That said, my feel is that things have most definitely taken a turn for worse - especially for the ordinary Lebanese. Something which Western media outlets often have difficulty comprehending is that there is a large gap between civil violence and outright civil war. Whereas I don't think the latter would happen, there's no guarantee that the political skirmishes and violence won't continue - once you get out the rifles, they're difficult to stuff back into the box - especially in a state operating in a political vacuum. And the people who suffer are the civilians and the future chances of political reconciliation.
In terms of my own opinion of the events, the March 14 coalition have just shown once again how ineffective and incompetent they are. I have an extremely low opinion of most of the politicians in Lebanon - morally, they are all at the level of pond scum, but Jumblatt and Geagea are the worst. Not only are they amoral and xenophobic to the point of fascism (and I don't say that lightly), they also do stupid things - like provoke Hizbollah into a retaliation that just proved to the world how much political and military clout Hizbollah have. I don't intend to get into a discussion about whether Hizbollah's retaliation was in any way proportionate to the offense - possibly not - but they definitely came out of this the victors.
I don't pretend to be neutral in my sympathies - I definitely have more sympathy for the opposition than for the government. From what I can tell, Hizbollah is one of the few organisations in Lebanon who give a shit about the poor and disadvantaged, and is disciplined and not completely riddled with corruption. Also, they and Amal represent historically disadvantaged Shias who make up around 40% of the population while receiving only 21% of the parliamentary seats - and are, at present, completely shut out of the government.
I'm not a Hizbollah apologist: they are rabidly anti-Israeli and the extent to which they care about Christians or even Sunnis is debatable which is an obvious issue when talking about future power settlements. They also refuse to even discuss disbanding their militias and incorporating their structures into that of the State. You could argue on the last point that that is because the State is too weak and unfairly dominated by the March 14 coalition - but even if it were not so, I highly doubt that Nasrallah would give up the power he has as an effective leader of a State within a State. He can argue until he's blue in the face about the need to protect Lebanon from Israel which is the Lebanese army is incapable of doing - although there is a great deal of truth to that, one of the reasons for it is because of Hizbollah. It's a complete cycle of cause and effect.
However, there are reasons why Hizbollah have the clout they do, and those reasons are not going away anytime soon. Trying to ignore them and shunt them out of the political process by calling them a terrorist organisation, as the West is trying to do, is simply ridiculous and short-sighted. Of all the political factions in Lebanon, they have the least Lebanese blood on their hands and the most, if misguided, claim to be the defenders of Lebanon. Unlike most of the other factions currently in both the government and opposition, they were not involved in the civil war and until recent events, their military activity has been largely concentrated against Israel - an occupier and aggressor to most Lebanese.
And this ridiculous accusation about Hizbollah being puppets of Iran/Syria by America when it's actulaly a lot more complicated than that - that just pisses me off. It's the same accusation levied against Ho Chi Minh being an agent for Russia and China during the Vietnam War - and it just shows that America never learns from its mistakes. Yes, there is influence and pressure, but there are commonality of interests as well as regional distrust and nationalism. And whatever you say about Nasrallah, he not a puppet unless he wants to be. Like the March 14 coalition's relationship with the West, Hizbollah is using Syria/Iran just as much they they are using Hizbollah.
Can't believe I've ranted on so much - that's the thing about the Middle East: everyone has an opinion depending on where they're coming from. It's impossible to stay neutral.
Here's a blog entry from Josh Landis, the Director for the centre of Middle East Studies about the recent situation:
http://joshualandis.com/blog/?p=707
I especially like his response to a comment left on his entry accusing him of being anti-American and a Hizbollah apologist:
I do not mean to praise Hizbullah. My weakness is that I think like an American and get angry at my government for its short-sightedness and misunderstanding of the Lebanon realities.
I am watching the demonization of Hizbullah, Syria and Iran begin for this event.
I fear that nothing will be learned from this episode.
The point, as Norton says above in Robin Wright’s Post article, is that — “If there’s going to be a solution, it will involve some compromise with the opposition, which will include Hezbollah.”
Hizbullah is not trying to impose a Tehran on the Med. It showed restraint. It withdrew from West Beirut quickly and won the cooperation of the army. This is not a coup.
Clearly, no state can survive for long with two independent armies as Lebanon has. Lebanon will survive this episode because the Lebanese Army decided not to behave as a sovereign force. It bowed to Hizbullah. This is very disturbing to all other Lebanese.
But the army is powerless because it is Lebanon in a microcosm; without unity among the sects, the army cannot function any more than Lebanon can. The army showed unity in fighting al-Qaida at Nahr al-Bared, but that is because no sect claimed the fighters of Naher al-Bared.
You point out that the problem is even worse because Hizbullah must take into account the interests of Syria and Iran or have its arms supplies dry up. I cannot contest this - although I have not seen the other Lebanese sects test Hizbullah’s nationalism by doing what Norman suggests above: offering it real equality and political power commensurate with its numbers.
They claim it is a traitor and demonize it as the slave of Iran and Syria. Unfortunately, the government has given Hizbullah no incentive to severe its links with Iran.
But let us concede that its military and even “ideological” dependence on Iran and Syria is a constraint on its ability compromise in good faith with the other sects of Lebanon, this only makes it all the more important for the US to stop its black and white - good versus evil foreign policy. By isolating Iran and Syria and by boycotting them, Washington compounds the mistake it is making on a smaller scale in Lebanon. It is ensuring that any larger compromise in the region remains out of reach.
Such a compromise will be very difficult to achieve and will take years before even the first steps are realized, but the first step must be an attempt to down play the dichotomies and to begin to reach across the ideological divides.
Only then will we be able to begin to see our way forward.
Hizbullah has proven that it can sweep aside the Lebanese state when it wants, but it has also demonstrated that it needs that state. It has a fairly reasonable sense of its limits and of the limits of the other sects of Lebanon. It is not insensitive to their political tolerances. This is a positive sign.
It should be exploited.
Instead we are hearing Washington begin to hector again and explain how Hizbullah is a terrorist entity that marches to Iran’s orders - the epitome of evil.
Other than the moral blockheadedness of the Bush administration, it is also wasting out money - not only in Iraq, but now in Lebanon. As Robin Wright records:
“The Bush administration has spent $1.3 billion over the past two years to prop up Siniora’s government, with about $400 million dedicated to boosting Lebanon’s security forces. But Washington’s assistance has been put in check by Hezbollah — the Shiite militia trained, armed and financed by Iran and Syria — which has the Siniora government under virtual siege.”
...
Enough of this - I'll leave it to people more knowledgeable than I am to understand the situation better. Now onto medevacs and cute Cuban doctors...
Let's start with Lebanon first. Here's a brief except from an article from AP which hopefully gives a summary of the situation to date - it was written yesterday so doesn't include the recent clashes in the district of Aley, a mountain suburb of Beirut:
Hezbollah fighters in Beirut melt away By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press WriterSat May 10, 5:27 PM ET
Hezbollah gunmen melted off the streets of Beirut Saturday, heeding an army call to pull the fighters out after the Shiite militants demonstrated their military might in a power struggle with the U.S.-backed government.
Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, in his first public statement since sectarian clashes erupted on Wednesday, said Lebanon can no longer tolerate Hezbollah having weapons. He called on the army to restore law and order and remove gunmen from the streets.
Despite his tough talk, Saniora made a key concession to the Hezbollah-led opposition that would effectively shelve the two government decisions that sparked the fighting.
Muslim West Beirut was mostly calm a day after Hezbollah and its allies seized control of neighborhoods from Sunnis loyal to the government. Most Hezbollah gunmen had pulled out, leaving small bands of their Shiite Amal allies to patrol the streets.
While tensions in the capital appeared to be defusing, violence spread and intensified in other parts of the country.
At least 12 people were killed and 20 wounded when pro- and anti-government groups fought in a remote region of northern Lebanon, Lebanese security and hospital officials said. It was the heaviest toll for a single clash since fighting began.
At least 37 people have been killed in four days of clashes — the worst sectarian violence since Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war.
The violence grew out of a political standoff between the opposition, which pulled out of the Cabinet 17 months ago demanding veto power over government decisions. The deadlock has prevented parliament from electing a president, leaving the country without a head of state since November.
The political standoff turned into clashes after the government confronted Hezbollah earlier this week. It said it would sack the chief of airport security for alleged ties to Hezbollah and declared the group’s private telephone network illegal and a threat to state security.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday the decisions amounted to a declaration of war and he demanded they be revoked. His Shiite forces then overran large swaths of West Beirut.
....
My first reaction when I read about the clashes, aside from worry about friends I had left in Lebanon, was sheer increduity: after nearly 18 mths of both sides ratcheting up the tensions and playing brinksmanship with each other but nothing coming of it except hot air, I couldn't quite believe it when I read that all the political tension had finally erupted.
My second and third reactions were still increduity. Maybe this is naive of me, but I just can't imagine Lebanon descending back into civil war - all sides have too much to lose, and the memory of the last war is still too fresh in people's minds. Plus, it's immensely stupid. That doesn't mean that civil conflict is ruled out: heavens know that Lebanon has no taboo against political violence, and macho posturing has been proved time and time again to be a potent force for actions of stupendous stupidity on the part of political leaders throughout history. But, despite all the doom and gloom, I can't quite bring myself to see it happening.
That said, my feel is that things have most definitely taken a turn for worse - especially for the ordinary Lebanese. Something which Western media outlets often have difficulty comprehending is that there is a large gap between civil violence and outright civil war. Whereas I don't think the latter would happen, there's no guarantee that the political skirmishes and violence won't continue - once you get out the rifles, they're difficult to stuff back into the box - especially in a state operating in a political vacuum. And the people who suffer are the civilians and the future chances of political reconciliation.
In terms of my own opinion of the events, the March 14 coalition have just shown once again how ineffective and incompetent they are. I have an extremely low opinion of most of the politicians in Lebanon - morally, they are all at the level of pond scum, but Jumblatt and Geagea are the worst. Not only are they amoral and xenophobic to the point of fascism (and I don't say that lightly), they also do stupid things - like provoke Hizbollah into a retaliation that just proved to the world how much political and military clout Hizbollah have. I don't intend to get into a discussion about whether Hizbollah's retaliation was in any way proportionate to the offense - possibly not - but they definitely came out of this the victors.
I don't pretend to be neutral in my sympathies - I definitely have more sympathy for the opposition than for the government. From what I can tell, Hizbollah is one of the few organisations in Lebanon who give a shit about the poor and disadvantaged, and is disciplined and not completely riddled with corruption. Also, they and Amal represent historically disadvantaged Shias who make up around 40% of the population while receiving only 21% of the parliamentary seats - and are, at present, completely shut out of the government.
I'm not a Hizbollah apologist: they are rabidly anti-Israeli and the extent to which they care about Christians or even Sunnis is debatable which is an obvious issue when talking about future power settlements. They also refuse to even discuss disbanding their militias and incorporating their structures into that of the State. You could argue on the last point that that is because the State is too weak and unfairly dominated by the March 14 coalition - but even if it were not so, I highly doubt that Nasrallah would give up the power he has as an effective leader of a State within a State. He can argue until he's blue in the face about the need to protect Lebanon from Israel which is the Lebanese army is incapable of doing - although there is a great deal of truth to that, one of the reasons for it is because of Hizbollah. It's a complete cycle of cause and effect.
However, there are reasons why Hizbollah have the clout they do, and those reasons are not going away anytime soon. Trying to ignore them and shunt them out of the political process by calling them a terrorist organisation, as the West is trying to do, is simply ridiculous and short-sighted. Of all the political factions in Lebanon, they have the least Lebanese blood on their hands and the most, if misguided, claim to be the defenders of Lebanon. Unlike most of the other factions currently in both the government and opposition, they were not involved in the civil war and until recent events, their military activity has been largely concentrated against Israel - an occupier and aggressor to most Lebanese.
And this ridiculous accusation about Hizbollah being puppets of Iran/Syria by America when it's actulaly a lot more complicated than that - that just pisses me off. It's the same accusation levied against Ho Chi Minh being an agent for Russia and China during the Vietnam War - and it just shows that America never learns from its mistakes. Yes, there is influence and pressure, but there are commonality of interests as well as regional distrust and nationalism. And whatever you say about Nasrallah, he not a puppet unless he wants to be. Like the March 14 coalition's relationship with the West, Hizbollah is using Syria/Iran just as much they they are using Hizbollah.
Can't believe I've ranted on so much - that's the thing about the Middle East: everyone has an opinion depending on where they're coming from. It's impossible to stay neutral.
Here's a blog entry from Josh Landis, the Director for the centre of Middle East Studies about the recent situation:
http://joshualandis.com/blog/?p=707
I especially like his response to a comment left on his entry accusing him of being anti-American and a Hizbollah apologist:
I do not mean to praise Hizbullah. My weakness is that I think like an American and get angry at my government for its short-sightedness and misunderstanding of the Lebanon realities.
I am watching the demonization of Hizbullah, Syria and Iran begin for this event.
I fear that nothing will be learned from this episode.
The point, as Norton says above in Robin Wright’s Post article, is that — “If there’s going to be a solution, it will involve some compromise with the opposition, which will include Hezbollah.”
Hizbullah is not trying to impose a Tehran on the Med. It showed restraint. It withdrew from West Beirut quickly and won the cooperation of the army. This is not a coup.
Clearly, no state can survive for long with two independent armies as Lebanon has. Lebanon will survive this episode because the Lebanese Army decided not to behave as a sovereign force. It bowed to Hizbullah. This is very disturbing to all other Lebanese.
But the army is powerless because it is Lebanon in a microcosm; without unity among the sects, the army cannot function any more than Lebanon can. The army showed unity in fighting al-Qaida at Nahr al-Bared, but that is because no sect claimed the fighters of Naher al-Bared.
You point out that the problem is even worse because Hizbullah must take into account the interests of Syria and Iran or have its arms supplies dry up. I cannot contest this - although I have not seen the other Lebanese sects test Hizbullah’s nationalism by doing what Norman suggests above: offering it real equality and political power commensurate with its numbers.
They claim it is a traitor and demonize it as the slave of Iran and Syria. Unfortunately, the government has given Hizbullah no incentive to severe its links with Iran.
But let us concede that its military and even “ideological” dependence on Iran and Syria is a constraint on its ability compromise in good faith with the other sects of Lebanon, this only makes it all the more important for the US to stop its black and white - good versus evil foreign policy. By isolating Iran and Syria and by boycotting them, Washington compounds the mistake it is making on a smaller scale in Lebanon. It is ensuring that any larger compromise in the region remains out of reach.
Such a compromise will be very difficult to achieve and will take years before even the first steps are realized, but the first step must be an attempt to down play the dichotomies and to begin to reach across the ideological divides.
Only then will we be able to begin to see our way forward.
Hizbullah has proven that it can sweep aside the Lebanese state when it wants, but it has also demonstrated that it needs that state. It has a fairly reasonable sense of its limits and of the limits of the other sects of Lebanon. It is not insensitive to their political tolerances. This is a positive sign.
It should be exploited.
Instead we are hearing Washington begin to hector again and explain how Hizbullah is a terrorist entity that marches to Iran’s orders - the epitome of evil.
Other than the moral blockheadedness of the Bush administration, it is also wasting out money - not only in Iraq, but now in Lebanon. As Robin Wright records:
“The Bush administration has spent $1.3 billion over the past two years to prop up Siniora’s government, with about $400 million dedicated to boosting Lebanon’s security forces. But Washington’s assistance has been put in check by Hezbollah — the Shiite militia trained, armed and financed by Iran and Syria — which has the Siniora government under virtual siege.”
...
Enough of this - I'll leave it to people more knowledgeable than I am to understand the situation better. Now onto medevacs and cute Cuban doctors...
Sunday 4 May 2008
Pressies from Amazon and the wonders of consumerism
Gone through the whole range of emotions this week from tired, frustrated and stressed to giggling happiness. Work has been really tough and doesn't promise to get any better soon. My head accountant has gone off for paternity leave for the next 6 weeks and there's so much to do in this month: quarterly reporting (which I'm currently in the middle of), project audits (two - one USAID), informal budget revisions due in at the end of the month (which I stupidly pushed the necessity of doing - way to make more work for myself), new finance procedures to draft, and a visit from our regional accountant for three weekds towards the end of the month. This is in addition to the normal workload we have with one less crucial staff and another taking two weeks leave in the middle. Not to mention power outages and our still insecure security situation...
Not entirely sure how it's going to all get done. Especially as I'm off to the field next week and to Miami the week after that for some R&R. Have to say that if I'd blogged yesterday evening, this would have been an entirely pathetic blog: whine after whine after whine. Truth to tell, I was feeling at the edge to the extent that my mind completely stopped functioning around 3pm yesterday - I could feel shut down with the overload. Stress is a curious thing: you know that the feelings that you're feeling and the lack of perspective that you have are artificial and temporary, but it doesn't really help. Much.
Anyway, it's Saturday night and am just getting ready to head out for some expensive French food with Brenda and Mary, and I'm feeling ... pretty good actually. Was so knackered yesterday that I fell asleep at nine for a good 12 hours, which really helped a great deal. Another thing which helped was a pretty invigorating dance lesson where I point blank refused to learn the tango (not nearly down and dirty enough for me ;-)) and continued to have fun times with the Salsa. Also found out that another student who was taking lessons at the same time was a cousin of the driver who eventually picked me up! It's a small island.
What really clinched my mood was buying a step machine [except it goes sideways as well as up and down - the cantonese-speaking white American actors in the ad that went with it seem to assure me that it would do wonders to my arse] and receiving a ridiculous number of books and DVDs that I had ordered from Amazon. Felt a little guilty about the last because the reason it arrived was because someone from the NY office (where I shipped it) had to carry it all on the train to DC so that it coule be picked up by Brenda. Now, I don't mind abusing Brenda, but to abuse someone I have never actually set eyes on... Oh well, she didn't have to carry it. And I didn't really guilt-tripped her into doing it. Well, only a smidge.
After all my ranting about consumerism, it bloody works. Rubbing my hands in glee at the hours of entertainment ahead of me. Now, if only I had the time...
Oh, also met this cute Palestinian guy at the department store where I bought my step machine. He's a bit young for me and seems to only speak Arabic and Kreyol but hey, think I'm working hard enough to deserve a toy boy who can't waste too much time with talking ;-)...
Before I forget, bought a lovely painting last weekend. OK, it was $600 but it's soooooooooooo pretty. Once I get the proper lighting, I'll take a picture of it and put it up on this blog. It's almost as pretty as my Afghan rug.
Not entirely sure how it's going to all get done. Especially as I'm off to the field next week and to Miami the week after that for some R&R. Have to say that if I'd blogged yesterday evening, this would have been an entirely pathetic blog: whine after whine after whine. Truth to tell, I was feeling at the edge to the extent that my mind completely stopped functioning around 3pm yesterday - I could feel shut down with the overload. Stress is a curious thing: you know that the feelings that you're feeling and the lack of perspective that you have are artificial and temporary, but it doesn't really help. Much.
Anyway, it's Saturday night and am just getting ready to head out for some expensive French food with Brenda and Mary, and I'm feeling ... pretty good actually. Was so knackered yesterday that I fell asleep at nine for a good 12 hours, which really helped a great deal. Another thing which helped was a pretty invigorating dance lesson where I point blank refused to learn the tango (not nearly down and dirty enough for me ;-)) and continued to have fun times with the Salsa. Also found out that another student who was taking lessons at the same time was a cousin of the driver who eventually picked me up! It's a small island.
What really clinched my mood was buying a step machine [except it goes sideways as well as up and down - the cantonese-speaking white American actors in the ad that went with it seem to assure me that it would do wonders to my arse] and receiving a ridiculous number of books and DVDs that I had ordered from Amazon. Felt a little guilty about the last because the reason it arrived was because someone from the NY office (where I shipped it) had to carry it all on the train to DC so that it coule be picked up by Brenda. Now, I don't mind abusing Brenda, but to abuse someone I have never actually set eyes on... Oh well, she didn't have to carry it. And I didn't really guilt-tripped her into doing it. Well, only a smidge.
After all my ranting about consumerism, it bloody works. Rubbing my hands in glee at the hours of entertainment ahead of me. Now, if only I had the time...
Oh, also met this cute Palestinian guy at the department store where I bought my step machine. He's a bit young for me and seems to only speak Arabic and Kreyol but hey, think I'm working hard enough to deserve a toy boy who can't waste too much time with talking ;-)...
Before I forget, bought a lovely painting last weekend. OK, it was $600 but it's soooooooooooo pretty. Once I get the proper lighting, I'll take a picture of it and put it up on this blog. It's almost as pretty as my Afghan rug.
Monday 21 April 2008
Back to normal. Whatever the hell that means...
It is now nearly 5pm on a Sunday afternoon and I'm currently listening to the slow, melodic, rhythmic, and basic "sex on the danceflow" music that is Haitian konpa; and watching an approaching sunset over this gorgeous country. Things have been calm here for over a week - apparently rice prices have decreased by 10% and the country is holding its breath as to whether that and the new in-coming governement will be enough to sort out the crisis. I'm still sceptical about whether any government can actually fulfill its promises, and whether its promises are actually enough - still, encouraging signs.
As per the course when any emergency happens in a development context, donors are throwing money at us. At present, it looks like we could be getting up to an additional €1m in additional funding. On the one hand, it is fantastic news. On the other, my staff are already over-stretched especially with the extra tasks I've given them to do - and huge projects such as these will be would stretch them even further... Oh well, something to worry about once we actually get the funding.
Work is promising to be a complete nightmare until I get to Cuba end of June - especially since my Head Accountant, on whom I rely on heavily, will be in the States for the next 6 weeks due to his wife's pregnancy. Stupid me, I encouraged him to take an extra week so that he would not have to leave so soon after his wife's planned c-section. Don't know what I was thinking - must have been the heat. Bugger consideration and all that crap, need to be more of a bitch in the future. Yep - watch out world for Bitch Boss. Hmmnn - that has a definite ring to it...
However, I'm thinking seriously of just saying to the hell with it and taking a long weekend in New York early May. Absolutely do not have the time for it given everything that needs to be done but seriously thinking that I need it. It's strange how, when you're stressed, a part of you can know it but that still doesn't stop yourself from losing perspective. That happened to me on Friday morning when I lost a document that I'd stayed up ridiculously late the previous night working on. It wasn't a huge deal by itself but added to everything else, I was almost crying in frustration. It was a very good thing that I discovered this very early in the morning and no one else was in the office at the time. Also, that I walked back home to check if it was on my personal laptop (it wasn't) which got me to calm down. I knew objectively that what I feeling was stress-induced and that it was out of all proportion to the event, but I was still fucking pissed off. In the end, it turned out that it wasn't actually strictly necessary. So a lesson for the future.
Oh screw it. Retail therapy, here I come - especially with the Euro being as strong as it is. The work will sort itself out somehow.
Less work related, my dancing lessons are going well. Had my third lesson this morning at our usual place in this dance hall called "Aux Carabasse" in town. Really feel like I can at least grasp the basics of Salsa and cha cha cha, and am really starting to like my tutor, despite initial reservations (he's kind of a bit short...). Thinking though that he's really spoiling me for others as he's such a good leader, which is unlikely to be the case with most other partners. But hey, I just love it when he just throws me into those intricate steps and then I successfully make it back to "base position". Still need to work on wiggling those hips, though. Not to mention dancing the konpa: this looks deceptively easy (just a basic two-step) but then dancers often stop moving altogether and just grind their pelvises together rhymically for a large portion of the set. Yep, it looks like basic screwing on the dance floor. But trust me, a lot more difficult to do than it looks - no matter how I tried, I couldn't get the movement and rhythm right. Maybe that says something about my skills in another area. Ahem.
In other news, a couple of my good friends got married yesterday. To each other. All the best to you Katherine and Steve, and so so sorry I can't be there to blubber nosily in the front row (as I would inevitably do). In honour of this romantic occasion, here's a favourite pic from the wonderful "cute overload" website:
As per the course when any emergency happens in a development context, donors are throwing money at us. At present, it looks like we could be getting up to an additional €1m in additional funding. On the one hand, it is fantastic news. On the other, my staff are already over-stretched especially with the extra tasks I've given them to do - and huge projects such as these will be would stretch them even further... Oh well, something to worry about once we actually get the funding.
Work is promising to be a complete nightmare until I get to Cuba end of June - especially since my Head Accountant, on whom I rely on heavily, will be in the States for the next 6 weeks due to his wife's pregnancy. Stupid me, I encouraged him to take an extra week so that he would not have to leave so soon after his wife's planned c-section. Don't know what I was thinking - must have been the heat. Bugger consideration and all that crap, need to be more of a bitch in the future. Yep - watch out world for Bitch Boss. Hmmnn - that has a definite ring to it...
However, I'm thinking seriously of just saying to the hell with it and taking a long weekend in New York early May. Absolutely do not have the time for it given everything that needs to be done but seriously thinking that I need it. It's strange how, when you're stressed, a part of you can know it but that still doesn't stop yourself from losing perspective. That happened to me on Friday morning when I lost a document that I'd stayed up ridiculously late the previous night working on. It wasn't a huge deal by itself but added to everything else, I was almost crying in frustration. It was a very good thing that I discovered this very early in the morning and no one else was in the office at the time. Also, that I walked back home to check if it was on my personal laptop (it wasn't) which got me to calm down. I knew objectively that what I feeling was stress-induced and that it was out of all proportion to the event, but I was still fucking pissed off. In the end, it turned out that it wasn't actually strictly necessary. So a lesson for the future.
Oh screw it. Retail therapy, here I come - especially with the Euro being as strong as it is. The work will sort itself out somehow.
Less work related, my dancing lessons are going well. Had my third lesson this morning at our usual place in this dance hall called "Aux Carabasse" in town. Really feel like I can at least grasp the basics of Salsa and cha cha cha, and am really starting to like my tutor, despite initial reservations (he's kind of a bit short...). Thinking though that he's really spoiling me for others as he's such a good leader, which is unlikely to be the case with most other partners. But hey, I just love it when he just throws me into those intricate steps and then I successfully make it back to "base position". Still need to work on wiggling those hips, though. Not to mention dancing the konpa: this looks deceptively easy (just a basic two-step) but then dancers often stop moving altogether and just grind their pelvises together rhymically for a large portion of the set. Yep, it looks like basic screwing on the dance floor. But trust me, a lot more difficult to do than it looks - no matter how I tried, I couldn't get the movement and rhythm right. Maybe that says something about my skills in another area. Ahem.
In other news, a couple of my good friends got married yesterday. To each other. All the best to you Katherine and Steve, and so so sorry I can't be there to blubber nosily in the front row (as I would inevitably do). In honour of this romantic occasion, here's a favourite pic from the wonderful "cute overload" website:
Sunday 13 April 2008
A return to "hunger politics"?
Well, the PM looks like he's on his way out and Preval (the Haitian President) has at last announced some measure to reduce the cost of rice by 15%, so at least things are moving in the right direction. However, there's some question as to if that's enough - just heard that a UN peacekeeper has been shot dead in Port au Prince, circumstances unclear. My colleagues tell me that the test will come over the next couple of days as we see reaction, or hopefully non-reaction, to the news. Anyway, here's a vid from BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7340000/newsid_7344800/7344826.stm?bw=nb&mp=rm&asb=1&news=1&bbcws=1
Have had an especialy lazy day of it apart from this morning where we redefined the meaning of "shop until you drop". In terms of food, at any rate. Apart from needing to get more reserves of water and more cooking gas (which we'll do on Monday insha'allah), I feel confident that we can withstand a bloody siege from the amount of food we bought. It's difficult to know how much is too much in a situation like this - by stocking up so much, are we being prudent or ridiculous. Who knows... Apparently, most of the expat community seemed to feel the same way as the supermarket was completely packed to the seems even at 9am. The large laugh was from seeing huge UN guys doing their grocery shopping in bullet proof vests. Those cashiers can be murder when haggling over change.
Just also wanted to share a really interesting article I read in Time magazine about the possible return to government interventions along the socialist model and so-called "hunger politics":
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1730107,00.html
Are we indeed on the brink of such a shift in global politics - a return to hunger sparking "revolutionary violence"? I just want to quote a paragraph from this article:
The sociology of the food riot is pretty straightforward: The usually impoverished majority of citizens may acquiesce to the rule of detested corrupt and repressive regimes when they are preoccupied with the daily struggle to feed their children and themselves, but when circumstances render it impossible to feed their hungry children, normally passive citizens can very quickly become militants with nothing to lose. That's especially true when the source of their hunger is not the absence of food supplies but their inability to afford to buy the available food supplies. And that's precisely what we're seeing in the current wave of global food-price inflation. As Josette Sheeran of the U.N. World Food Program put it last month, "We are seeing food on the shelves but people being unable to afford it."
I think it's the last statement that cuts so close - seeing food there but not being able to touch it and then seeing foreigners, such as the UN and us expats living it up. Thinking about the situation in Haiti where a cup of rice costs more than the average daily wage for the minority who are working and where most of the food is imported - the situation is just not sustainable. Something has to give - especially if global food prices are not projected to decrease for the next couple of years. Unless we have another "green revolution" on our hands very soon, this could have the potential of eclipsing or subverting the current "War on Terror".
Here's another article about the crisis from a Christian Aid rep:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7341467.stm
Anyway, off to try out my "Yogalates" DVD ahead of a Kenyan evening...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7340000/newsid_7344800/7344826.stm?bw=nb&mp=rm&asb=1&news=1&bbcws=1
Have had an especialy lazy day of it apart from this morning where we redefined the meaning of "shop until you drop". In terms of food, at any rate. Apart from needing to get more reserves of water and more cooking gas (which we'll do on Monday insha'allah), I feel confident that we can withstand a bloody siege from the amount of food we bought. It's difficult to know how much is too much in a situation like this - by stocking up so much, are we being prudent or ridiculous. Who knows... Apparently, most of the expat community seemed to feel the same way as the supermarket was completely packed to the seems even at 9am. The large laugh was from seeing huge UN guys doing their grocery shopping in bullet proof vests. Those cashiers can be murder when haggling over change.
Just also wanted to share a really interesting article I read in Time magazine about the possible return to government interventions along the socialist model and so-called "hunger politics":
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1730107,00.html
Are we indeed on the brink of such a shift in global politics - a return to hunger sparking "revolutionary violence"? I just want to quote a paragraph from this article:
The sociology of the food riot is pretty straightforward: The usually impoverished majority of citizens may acquiesce to the rule of detested corrupt and repressive regimes when they are preoccupied with the daily struggle to feed their children and themselves, but when circumstances render it impossible to feed their hungry children, normally passive citizens can very quickly become militants with nothing to lose. That's especially true when the source of their hunger is not the absence of food supplies but their inability to afford to buy the available food supplies. And that's precisely what we're seeing in the current wave of global food-price inflation. As Josette Sheeran of the U.N. World Food Program put it last month, "We are seeing food on the shelves but people being unable to afford it."
I think it's the last statement that cuts so close - seeing food there but not being able to touch it and then seeing foreigners, such as the UN and us expats living it up. Thinking about the situation in Haiti where a cup of rice costs more than the average daily wage for the minority who are working and where most of the food is imported - the situation is just not sustainable. Something has to give - especially if global food prices are not projected to decrease for the next couple of years. Unless we have another "green revolution" on our hands very soon, this could have the potential of eclipsing or subverting the current "War on Terror".
Here's another article about the crisis from a Christian Aid rep:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7341467.stm
Anyway, off to try out my "Yogalates" DVD ahead of a Kenyan evening...
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