OK, the holidays should have started now that I'm out of Islamabad. However, true to form, I haven't quite finished the audit report... Have, however, been planning my sightseeing for the next few days as well as been watching copious amounts of this American sitcom "Cougar Town". So, progress of a sort ;-)...
Anyway, I'm currently watching the Netherlands-Uruguay semi final and have more or less decided to betray my Orange friends and support plucky littel Uruguay. Not a great choice as it's already 1-nil to Netherlands with them currently holding 65% possession. Why do I do this to myself?
Wednesday 7 July 2010
Monday 5 July 2010
Restarting the monster
Well, it's been over a year since I last blogged and it's been an "interesting" one, in the Chinese sense of the word. I'll probably write more about Haiti at some point: I'm sure it'll be good for me - a carthatic experience and all that - but quite frankly, I can't get it straight in my head, even months on. I no longer have nightmares or panic attacks or feel as emotionally fragile as I once did, but I still feel a long way from being able to comprehend what has happened. I'm not sure if I ever will. And I can't even begin to think about Ann or Jan, and the thousands of other victims that I'm connected to via friends or colleagues. And I can't allow myself to think about the future of Haiti, what has changed and what it's become.
To be honest, the only real reason I'm restarting at this very moment is simple pure procrastination: I've just spent the last two weeks during a systems review of the operation here in Pakistan and I've now got to write the stupid report on it. Surprisingly enough, I really enjoyed the actual fieldwork element of it - talking to staff, looking at their systems in place, visiting their partners (we do all our implementation here through partners). It made me realise that I actually do know what I'm talking about and am pretty good at my job - something which is pretty easy to forget after two months' off. However, I've now got a whole list of points (in excel, of course) that I need to then convert to a professional sounding report. THIS is by far the dullest part of the job - I absolutely hate writing reports. Plus I have no real deadline apart from wanting to get this over and done with (and be paid ;-)) as soon as possible.
Anyway, I have now kick-started this blog and changed the template, so am running out of excuses to not get on with it. Let's see how long it lasts this time!
To be honest, the only real reason I'm restarting at this very moment is simple pure procrastination: I've just spent the last two weeks during a systems review of the operation here in Pakistan and I've now got to write the stupid report on it. Surprisingly enough, I really enjoyed the actual fieldwork element of it - talking to staff, looking at their systems in place, visiting their partners (we do all our implementation here through partners). It made me realise that I actually do know what I'm talking about and am pretty good at my job - something which is pretty easy to forget after two months' off. However, I've now got a whole list of points (in excel, of course) that I need to then convert to a professional sounding report. THIS is by far the dullest part of the job - I absolutely hate writing reports. Plus I have no real deadline apart from wanting to get this over and done with (and be paid ;-)) as soon as possible.
Anyway, I have now kick-started this blog and changed the template, so am running out of excuses to not get on with it. Let's see how long it lasts this time!
Tuesday 17 March 2009
A few random things...
I'm actually posting this from work while waiting for the bloody download of an account which refuses to reconcile. Yes, very exciting....
This is going to be a series of random points because I can't be bothered to structure it properly and because I haven't posted in a while. But first of all, happy St Paddy's!! Since I work for an Oirish NGO, I consider myself an honorary member of the race. Especially if they win the Grand Slam on Saturday.
1. Work eased up for a couple of weeks (or rather, I eased up on work for a couple of weeks, same difference) and is now pretty manic with very late reports and audits and prep for the next budget revision going on. This budget revision is going to be pretty diffcult to balance given that exchange rates have worsened and we have much less money - mostly due to DFID not coughing up on a proposal. Not looking forward to this at all,,,
2. Spent the weekend up in Furcy (in the mountains) "doing the Hash". The Hash is basically a walking and drinking club - due to about half of regular contingent being Americans in their early twenties, there seems to be an inordinate amount of beer worship going on and scenes straight out of my memories of undergrad which sometimes gets a bit old, especially as I can't stand beer and get bitter when faced with fresh-faced youngsters with their whole lives ahead of them and that particular arrogance that you generally see with the young and stupid.
However, it was indeed a fantastic walk and bumped into a few old friends. Also, met and shook hands with the President - Rene Preval!! He was a lot shorter than I had imagined, and dressed far more casually. One of us actually dared to ask him to pose in a photo and got a kiss on the cheek for her pains. Bitch.
3. Having an old uni friend coming over for just over a week towards the end of the month so having fun planning stuff to do. Have made a resolution to stop whining about Haiti and be Ms Positive from here on out.
4. Breaking that resolution immediately by giving a list of our "friends" (as Brian would say) for the year - apparently, this year is going to be even worse than the triple Gustav/Ike/Hanna whammy that we had last year. BTW, I have had so many comments about the third one that it's no longer funny:
Ana
Bill
Caroline
Danny
Erika
Fred
Grace
Henri
Ida
Joaquin
Kate
Larry
Mindy
Nicholas
Odette
Peter
Rose
Sam
Teresa
VictorWanda
My money's on Joaquin being a twat.
5. For those of you who are interested in this sort of thing, a new report on security in Haiti has been released by International Crisis Group. Nothing at all surprising or dramatic - a bit of a "meh" report. There hasn't seemed to be an further trouble since the Lavalas party nomination debacle but this could just be the calm before the storm so cross fingers for April 19th.
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5952&l=1
6. Elections were over months ago but still feel like I should share this little titbit - it's a definite laugh:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-_JhRJ0tWA
7. Some friends/colleagues have added up projector plus sheet plus gazebo by the pool plus Dominos pizza and come up with Sunday movie nights at Les Acajous. Currently, we've been watching early James Bond and can I just take this opportunity to say that Sean Connery is HOT. I mean really really scorching HOT. Phew!!
Friday 20 February 2009
Why I should have posted on Monday...
I had an abolutely fantastic weekend at the Jacmel carnival plus a lovely lazy day off on Monday where I was far too lazy and generally happy with the world to post on being lazy and generally happy with the world. Not to meantion pics and stuff...
Now, I'm pissed off and true to form, this is when I choose to post.
It's nothing major or earth-shattering or even new for that matter, but for some reason, it's just pissing me off more than usual. It's the attitude in my organisation: aside from that one pest whose Performance review is coming up [evil cackle], I think my Finance team and the Systems team work extremely hard and have a fantastic work ethic. They stay late to finish things and work weekends on demand. They are great and more than I deserve. Both my Country Director and our Head Office in Dublin demand a huge amount of both Finance and Systems in general, which is fine in and of itself. I mean I demand a lot of my staff and also of myself: I'm the original perfectionist as most Finance/Systems people tend to be - our reputation for being anal does come from somewhere unfortunately....
The issue however, is not the amount of work per se but that it seems that people in Programmes are allowed to skive off, fuck up and be incompetent, and then blame everything else (especially us) for why things are not getting done. It's infuriating in and of itself but even more so when it bloody works. Everything that Finance and Systems does is scrutinised with a fine comb - we get asked questions when Administration overspends on a line by a mere EUR15k! However, when Project managers spend twice their agreed budget for the last quarter of the year, they're not even given a slap on the wrist while we have to scramble around trying to justify their overspends to our Head Office. One particularl project manager I'm thinking not only overspent hugely on her budget but created a cluster fuck of immense proportions with her management of a partner. As far as I'm aware, she didn't get so much as a slap on the wrist but it was us in Finance who are running around like headless chickens trying to clean up after her mess and being blamed for it.
Grrrrrrrr.....
Aside from that Project Manager [may she burn in hell for the stress she is causing my team], I had one of my (pretty rare) differences of opinion with my Country Director today. Generally, I love and worship her - I think she's fantastic: she's been in Haiti for over a decade and has basically settled here with husband and two gorgeous children. She knows projects inside out and actually recognises the importance of finance/accounting which is all good. However, she's got a variant of that attitude: it's all about capacity building and hand-holding with Programmes but whereas we in Finance/Systems are meant to be above all that and with limitless capacity to do more and more work because those in Programmes can't get their shit together. When a budget revision comes up, we in finance have to make sure that we're around to "give support" to Project Managers - which basically means us doing their budgets for them because they can't put fucking numbers into a fucking spreadsheet. I mean, it's not bloody rocket science and it's not that just because we work in finance that we understand how to put together a budget - it's because we're intelligent and have common sense. Which is what you assume Project Managers to have, not to meantion the ability to BLOODY MANAGE PROJECTS!!!!!!
Whew! Obviously needed to get that off my chest. Didn't realise I had all that in me...
Anyway, on a more calm and reflective note, she brought up a point about cultural differences in that Haitians apparently work more in the oral medium and have a sort of cultural blindness to the written word. Which is why whenever you want something to be disseminated across the organisation, you can't just send an email/memo round but you have to make sure that they are told it verbally.
Now I think that's a load of bollocks personally. Yes, some people work better orally than in written and vice versa, and maybe Haitian culture does put a precedence on the oral. But a professional organisation can't operate like that - whenever you need people to do something as simple as filling in timesheets every month for example, you just don't have the time every month to chat to and probably argue with the 60 odd people that need to do it, and it makes no sense to convene a meeting just for that purpose. Same issue with procedures dealing with partner managment, which we've been going on about for months. I mean how difficult is it to read and understand a bloody email - it's not me trying to force Western values on another society but of trying to get stuff that needs to be done, done with the least amount of wastage.
Giving people excuses such as differing cultural values for not doing things is still perpetuating that same idea of the "otherness" of other races. People are people wherever you go in the world with the same abilities and intelligence and drive and work ethic (or lack of). Excusing an educated guy for not reading his emails because it's not "Haitian culture" ignores the fact that other Haitians do somehow manage to do it, and that he's just, in the end, a simple lazy bugger.
Anyway, that's my big whinge for at least, ohhh, the next week or so. Carnival (the big one) is coming up so have three lovely bank holidays next week. Unfortunately, will be working on at least one of them but still looking forward to it. Might even find the time to post about some good stuff like Jacmel ;). Keep your hopes up, people...
Now, I'm pissed off and true to form, this is when I choose to post.
It's nothing major or earth-shattering or even new for that matter, but for some reason, it's just pissing me off more than usual. It's the attitude in my organisation: aside from that one pest whose Performance review is coming up [evil cackle], I think my Finance team and the Systems team work extremely hard and have a fantastic work ethic. They stay late to finish things and work weekends on demand. They are great and more than I deserve. Both my Country Director and our Head Office in Dublin demand a huge amount of both Finance and Systems in general, which is fine in and of itself. I mean I demand a lot of my staff and also of myself: I'm the original perfectionist as most Finance/Systems people tend to be - our reputation for being anal does come from somewhere unfortunately....
The issue however, is not the amount of work per se but that it seems that people in Programmes are allowed to skive off, fuck up and be incompetent, and then blame everything else (especially us) for why things are not getting done. It's infuriating in and of itself but even more so when it bloody works. Everything that Finance and Systems does is scrutinised with a fine comb - we get asked questions when Administration overspends on a line by a mere EUR15k! However, when Project managers spend twice their agreed budget for the last quarter of the year, they're not even given a slap on the wrist while we have to scramble around trying to justify their overspends to our Head Office. One particularl project manager I'm thinking not only overspent hugely on her budget but created a cluster fuck of immense proportions with her management of a partner. As far as I'm aware, she didn't get so much as a slap on the wrist but it was us in Finance who are running around like headless chickens trying to clean up after her mess and being blamed for it.
Grrrrrrrr.....
Aside from that Project Manager [may she burn in hell for the stress she is causing my team], I had one of my (pretty rare) differences of opinion with my Country Director today. Generally, I love and worship her - I think she's fantastic: she's been in Haiti for over a decade and has basically settled here with husband and two gorgeous children. She knows projects inside out and actually recognises the importance of finance/accounting which is all good. However, she's got a variant of that attitude: it's all about capacity building and hand-holding with Programmes but whereas we in Finance/Systems are meant to be above all that and with limitless capacity to do more and more work because those in Programmes can't get their shit together. When a budget revision comes up, we in finance have to make sure that we're around to "give support" to Project Managers - which basically means us doing their budgets for them because they can't put fucking numbers into a fucking spreadsheet. I mean, it's not bloody rocket science and it's not that just because we work in finance that we understand how to put together a budget - it's because we're intelligent and have common sense. Which is what you assume Project Managers to have, not to meantion the ability to BLOODY MANAGE PROJECTS!!!!!!
Whew! Obviously needed to get that off my chest. Didn't realise I had all that in me...
Anyway, on a more calm and reflective note, she brought up a point about cultural differences in that Haitians apparently work more in the oral medium and have a sort of cultural blindness to the written word. Which is why whenever you want something to be disseminated across the organisation, you can't just send an email/memo round but you have to make sure that they are told it verbally.
Now I think that's a load of bollocks personally. Yes, some people work better orally than in written and vice versa, and maybe Haitian culture does put a precedence on the oral. But a professional organisation can't operate like that - whenever you need people to do something as simple as filling in timesheets every month for example, you just don't have the time every month to chat to and probably argue with the 60 odd people that need to do it, and it makes no sense to convene a meeting just for that purpose. Same issue with procedures dealing with partner managment, which we've been going on about for months. I mean how difficult is it to read and understand a bloody email - it's not me trying to force Western values on another society but of trying to get stuff that needs to be done, done with the least amount of wastage.
Giving people excuses such as differing cultural values for not doing things is still perpetuating that same idea of the "otherness" of other races. People are people wherever you go in the world with the same abilities and intelligence and drive and work ethic (or lack of). Excusing an educated guy for not reading his emails because it's not "Haitian culture" ignores the fact that other Haitians do somehow manage to do it, and that he's just, in the end, a simple lazy bugger.
Anyway, that's my big whinge for at least, ohhh, the next week or so. Carnival (the big one) is coming up so have three lovely bank holidays next week. Unfortunately, will be working on at least one of them but still looking forward to it. Might even find the time to post about some good stuff like Jacmel ;). Keep your hopes up, people...
Wednesday 11 February 2009
2009 has finally started...
Just a quickie.
Finally sent off the final 2008 accounts today so insha'allah, that would be the end of that and 2009 (not to mention my life) can finally start. Started well this evening by planning my holidays for the rest of the year which was pretty fun. Also planned my three days of Carnival which will be very low key. Except for the Jacmel Carnival this weekend. Get ready for some pics...
I've probably lost the 2 people who were actually reading my blog by my prolonged absence but promise to be a lot better.
It's ten to midnight so better get some sleep. Will post more this week.
Finally sent off the final 2008 accounts today so insha'allah, that would be the end of that and 2009 (not to mention my life) can finally start. Started well this evening by planning my holidays for the rest of the year which was pretty fun. Also planned my three days of Carnival which will be very low key. Except for the Jacmel Carnival this weekend. Get ready for some pics...
I've probably lost the 2 people who were actually reading my blog by my prolonged absence but promise to be a lot better.
It's ten to midnight so better get some sleep. Will post more this week.
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