Bump to baby on the beaten expat track
What happens when well meaning aid and development ‘experts’ find a hungry man?
Bought this gem of illustrations from the author years ago in Cambodia. It’s a riot read for anyone in the field (and managers sitting in headquarters). Available online here.
.
The Development Set
by Ross Coggins
Excuse me, friends, I must catch my jet
I’m off to join the Development Set;
My bags are packed, and I’ve had all my shots
I have traveller’s checks and pills for the trots!
The Development Set is bright and noble
Our thoughts are deep and our vision global;
Although we move with the better classes
Our thoughts are always with the masses.
In Sheraton Hotels in scattered nations
We damn multi-national corporations;
injustice seems easy to protest
In such seething hotbeds of social rest.
We discuss malnutrition over steaks
And plan hunger talks during coffee breaks.
Whether Asian floods or African drought,
We face each issue with open mouth.
We bring in consultants whose circumlocution
Raises difficulties for every solution –
Thus guaranteeing continued good eating
By showing the need for another meeting.
The language of the Development Set
Stretches the English alphabet;
We use swell words like “epigenetic”
“Micro”, “macro”, and “logarithmetic”
It pleasures us to be esoteric –
It’s so intellectually atmospheric!
And although establishments may be unmoved,
Our vocabularies are much improved.
When the talk gets deep and you’re feeling numb,
You can keep your shame to a minimum:
To show that you, too, are intelligent
Smugly ask, “Is it really development?”
Or say, “That’s fine in practice, but don’t you see:
It doesn’t work out in theory!”
A few may find this incomprehensible,
But most will admire you as deep and sensible.
Development set homes are extremely chic,
Full of carvings, curios, and draped with batik.
Eye-level photographs subtly assure
That your host is at home with the great and the poor.
Enough of these verses – on with the mission!
Our task is as broad as the human condition!
Just pray god the biblical promise is true:
The poor ye shall always have with you.
.
In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Bill Gates called for a doubling of foreign aid commitment. Even though historically, economic crises tend to suppress aid packages, I couldn’t agree more that maintaining and increasing aid is in the US’ strategic interests.
No, I’m not affiliated with USAID. Not surprisingly, Germany increased aid– knock on wood– …
When this administration blundered into war it soon became apparent that our goal isn’t finding and killing the enemy. It’s about rehabilitating zones of chaos where dangerous ideologies grow and breed. The world’s path to progress and stability is increasingly threatened by alarming headlines of terrorist nature, troubling in the fact that their roots lie in failing or failed states, which are numerous and growing in number.
In the fight against terrorism, it is not about crusading for democracy and regime change in a handful of countries. We need soft diplomacy: nation-building and developing government capacity in the world’s poorest economies, difficult when the lines between security and development are no longer so clear-cut. Aid can be an effective way to export value systems (since Hollywood exports no longer work) and elicit goodwill (since we squandered that with our 2003 invasion of Iraq), and equity negotiation is one of the least common denominators to maintaining stability in American suburbia.
An aside: With aid diplomacy so crucial to foreign policy strategy, it’s a wonder that aid approaches have little changed since its inception at Bretton Woods….? But I digress, that’s another post.
Starting in 2006 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates both started calling for a transformational diplomacy, delivering speeches that finally resonate with logic: “…the lines separating war, peace, diplomacy and development have become more blurred and no longer fit the neat organizational charts of the 20th century.”
Rice and Gates jump-started this dialogue about using federal agencies to empower people to install good governance in troubled spots around the world. And Obama thankfully embraced their language. Both Hillary Clinton and James Jones are advocates of this strategy, suggesting that cooperation is possible between the Pentagon, the National Security Council and the State Department.
If this strategy is put into action, it’s a welcome continuity from this administration.
Photos courtesy of H. Prytherch
This is a common sight along the roads of Cambodia– a patient riding on the back of a moto on the way home, hooked up to an IV. There’s large demand for IVs and injections in the country, and people seek it out whether or not it is medically necessary. The problem of overuse of drugs/IVs is more prevalent in rural areas where educational levels are much lower.
We asked some people in the communities when they typically get IVs, and we were told it’s good for making the body strong again after many days out fishing or working in the fields. We’re told they can be bought at any pharmacy or clinic, and the colored IVs are better because the medicine in it makes it more potent. (Unknown to them, oftentimes it is due to food coloring by unscrupulous drug vendors capitalising on the poor knowledge of drug use.)
…I can almost see the image of this in the bas reliefs of Angkor Wat!
Many of you know I’ve recently developed sensitivities and have to be very careful about what goes on my skin and into my body. As a result I’ve had to either formulate or purchase from crafters any and all hair, cosmetics and beauty products. (Thank GOD for my recent trip back home!)
I firmly believe that the body absorbs (daily) around hundred-or-so harmful compounds from endless fillers in beauty, hair and cosmetic products. Does your product tout the anti-aging benefits of Vitamins C/E, antioxidants, Argilene, Hyaluronic Acid? How far down the list after scores of synthetic or chemical fragrances and preservatives are these? This is hotly contested by the conventional beauty industry, but I can’t ignore the vast improvement in skin complaints, allergies, and overall clarity since this lifestyle change of just a few months. Rather than the hundreds$$ in Z.Bigatti, Valmont, La Mer products the active ingredients we all seek are crafted for much much less in concentrated buffered serums by small, family- or women-owned businesses, who will be adversely impacted by this legislation.
I oppose the FDA Globalization Act of 2008 in its current form, as it presently impacts small businesses, and want regulation with fair consideration to small operations who cannot compete in an atmosphere of high regulation fees and surcharges. Diversity, local sourcing, and sustainable lifestyle choices on health, food and beauty products are what I’d like to see as a consumer.
For more information or what you can do, see Indie Beauty’s business blog and forum (the owner of Indie Beauty Network, Donna Maria, is a well known natural cosmetics author and was a D.C. attorney). Sign their petition on the blog and also write to congress (the House, especially to the representatives on the energy and commerce committee) and tell them what you think! Read Indie Beauty’s forum for in depth discussion of the issue, and viewpoints of cosmetic owners and suppliers.
See the House’s Energy and Commerce committee to read the draft of the proposed law
Small-business owner’s viewpoint: Li, crafter/formulator and student of homeopathy, herbalism and traditional medicines of Nordic cultures
Cambodia is a tad far from the hubs of Zen interest, but its philosophy is apt because we are not without the onslaught of rabid change in Phnom Penh, given vast sums of development aid and foreign investment. It’s interesting to see a newly minted middle class so taken with modernisation and the rush of consumerist culture. Well, interesting but sad at the same time, because embrace of materialistic entertainment culture–or rather, lust for it– comes at the expense of so many beautiful elements Khmer and Angkorian, that is steadily lost to antiquity.
An interesting development to highlight this was during the Chinese New Year celebrations this year (Chinese and Khmer traditions are embraced in Cambodia). Tradition has it that various gods ascend to the heavens to pay respects and report on human affairs to the Jade Emperor, the Supreme Taoist deity. People burn ritualistic paper money to assist with the gods’ travel. This year, paper Lexus, cell phones, TVs and other upmarket goods were added to the paper money that the custom was traditionally limited to… Khmers are also increasingly placing value on goods owned rather than the person, and treating each other accordingly to displayed wealth. I suppose there are parallels to other societies that similarly experienced sudden affluence… It is just rather discomfiting to see it in fast-forward in a third-world country…
Zen is about waking up to the present moment, perceiving a reality that is exactly as it is, rather than via a biased wall of emotions, opinions, judgments. It is a discipline of simplicity, in all manner of action, thought, being. Popular culture attributes it to Japanese development, but it is believed to have evolved from the Chinese interpretation of the Buddhist concept of enlightenment, and then from the stories of Buddha in India. (I’m not an expert in Eastern philosophies, so please correct as necessary!)
It’s a fitting philosophy for aid and development workers who work abroad and see these fast-paced changes. What with incongruous goals for “harmonisation” among partners, contradictory practices to policies, conflicting commitments and underlying motives for “aid” from every actor, it’s a quagmire difficult to navigate.
To bring it down to a bite-sized personal lifestyle application to start, there is an upshot to moving every few years –being forced to simplify regularly! It’s beyond practical to discard junk; minimalism contributes to mental well-being and productivity, especially in places far removed from the physical order and organisation of back home and cycling through processes with a fair share of destructive side effects.
So for the expatriate life, a Zen start to the working and living space: there’s a lot of junk out there to process– Ditch the clutter, physically and mentally!