Can this be true? Oh how the world has changed.

Did anyone else notice this in UN resolution 2009?
13. Decides that the measure imposed by paragraph 9 of resolution 1970 (2011) shall also not apply to the supply, sale or transfer to Libya of:
...
b) small arms, light weapons and related materiel, temporarily exported to Libya for the sole use of United Nations personnel, representatives of the media and humanitarian and development workers and associated personnel, notified to the Committee in advance and in the absence of a negative decision by the Committee within five working days of such a notification;
When did we start having armed media and armed humanitarians? Or it was happening all the time and I didn’t know?

I am astounded.

Reading and guarding

In Eastern Chad night security guards, often quite qualified formally, welcome the chance to have some electricity and to study at night for the courses, often at university level, they attend during the day. They pay for it all themselves despite the miserable salaries they get from the security companies*.

 

In Abidjan I was talking to a guard just now who, like all the others here, never seems to read anything. I asked him why he doesn't use his time to study and he said 'because madame is not here'. I was puzzled by this and asked him to explain. He said that he will study if Madame (the one he guards) gives him a book.  I suggested he buy his own, which never seemed to have occurred to him. 

 

How come that a very poor and officially highly illiterate country like Chad produces highly motivated people while a rich country like Cote d'Ivoire actually has a quite high illiteracy rate but I am sure the guard I was talking to could read).  It is to do with motivation, of course and, I think, mutual support. In some countries a boy who opens a book while he has free time or on a bus say is ridiculed by his friends. At least among the southerners of Chad  studying for yourself is supported and understood by your friends.

 

There is a cultural element, certainly, but it's not as simple as it seems.  In Chad they are usually southerners ie 'African' and often Christian, but not always.  In Cote d'Ivoire it is not really clear what is going on, as there are plenty of night schools (cours de soir) and plenty of people filling them.  

 

 

*Often run quite fiercely by French ex-soldiers on behalf of some shadowy 'big person'.  We pay about 400 dollars a month to the company; the guard gets 100 dollars if he is lucky.  Thus the UN shucks off its responsibility to be a good employer. 

Lydia Stone, author of the Small Arms Survey (SAS) report, Failures and Opportunities - Rethinking DDR in South Sudan, told IRIN, "It is not always the case that ex-combatants want to return to civilian life, or that they feel stigmatized by their role in the conflict; nor is it necessarily the case that DDR automatically brings greater security in a post-conflict setting.

 

 "For example, for the time being... greater security is achieved by keeping the soldiers in the army and paying them a salary than by pushing them out into a civilian life that offers little hope of finding a livelihood," she said.

 

 In many cases DDR is utilized in post-conflict states because, if left to their own devices, armed, unskilled, unpaid ex-combatants pose a clear threat to the success of the peace dividend in post-conflict states, 40 percent of which return to war, according to some estimates.

 

"The concept of 'reintegrating' ex-combatants back into a civilian life is largely redundant. This is because the dividing line between combatants and civilians is extremely blurred. Furthermore, the 'normal' society of Southern Sudan had been broken down during the war, so it wasn't as though there was a 'normal civilian life' to reintegrate into," Stone points out.

 

 There is also an absence of stigma attached to SPLA fighters, unlike members of abusive armed groups such as Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone, who were reviled for their war-time conduct. "The SPLA are seen as heroes, the liberators of Southern Sudan," she said.

 

 "There is not the same shame attached to having been a soldier during the war, nor the same imperative to leave the soldier's life. In fact, quite the reverse. So not only do SPLA soldiers have pride, they also have money. Clearly, this is not the target group envisaged in the 'traditional' DDR model."

 

 

 

Losinu criticized their efforts. "I had 500 cows before the war and then I lost everything. If the international community doesn't give me those cows and instead you construct schools and say that reconciliation is collective, I still always remember the 500 cows. We are different culturally. A Lendu and Hema cannot live in symbiosis."

 

 

 

Use of video in assessment of teachers

The schools don't have electricity but you set out in the morning from
your base with a lot of batteries and powerpacks.

General rule do what the local kids do. I am sure in Ethiopia weddings
are video'd even deep in the village, and youth entrepreneurs show combat,
porno movies etc - I haven't recently seen any village without its video
parlour even in the deepest rebel parts of Congo.

In fact in Bunia I spent a lot of time persuading the mayor that a large
picture of Rambo armed to the teeth on the main drag (over a video
parlour) was not that good at convincing donors that the town was now
peaceful;. Failed on that one - it's probably still there. If only I
could have had a picture of him (Rambo, not the mayor) going to evening
classes as well. We did convince a lot of militia youth to go part-time
and attend school when they were not patrolling at night shooting places
up in the name of village defence. (Having an AK47 is great for getting
the girls too, or at least for getting sex. )

Somalis set up internet wherever they are. A small generator is less
than 100 dollars, after all, and a satellite dish in the 50 dollars range.
The Somalis' middle name is Hacker.

Here in Cd'I I gave each field office a field training kit - small
generator, video, largeish screen, etc all in a robust wooden box that
would easily go on the back of our pickups. Biggest problem the
expatriate field director taking the training TV to his guest house and
forgetting to bring it and the the cables back to the office when
he went on leave. I must say it was easier when we were taking a 16mm
projector around rather than a video. Far more could watch it at a time as
well.

Somewhere ("African Affairs" of the RAS?) there is a fascinating
comparison of a PROJECT to bring Internet to Mwanza and the area around it
- half a million dollars, some big donor with a big idea (that Internet
might be useful), Their cybercafes worked less than half the time and the
project eventually collapsed.

The great part of the comparison report is that they pulled no punches
and pointed out that during the whole period youth were running internet
cafes with quite a density almost 24/7 and charging a quarter of what the
project charged. They innovated, they went for the cheapest solution and
had a great relationship with their customers and provided a whole range
of services including training, typing up for you, downloading, piracy etc

Security?

Security, what the word can mean

In 2008 I sent a report to a new colleague in UK about there being a problem with security where I happened to be at the time. Something about what I wrote was not clear and in the following exchange of messages I became aware of the assumptions that I had built into the word security. 

My assumption was that she thought of security, like I did, either as a problem, as in ‘we have security problems’ or as a group of people as in ‘we were stopped at the airport by Security’.

In fact, since she was new to the support post she was in, she had been puzzled by the way I had used the word.  For her the word security referred to something good, nice and warm, as in ‘the security of a mother’s love’ or the ‘in the security of his home’. This is security meaning ‘safeness’.

For many in the countries where I work, the lack of security, insecurity, is something real and palpable whether it is physical (danger of death, injury, imprisonment, robbery or rape), economic, as in the term ‘food security’ or in some way related to ones lack of certainty about the future. This could be simply being unsure that you will ever finish your education, or that it will be worth anything when you finally get through your years of schooling in the face of closures, poor teaching and unreliable exams. [1]

We also have Security with a capital letter.  Most people working in Africa or the Middle East need no explanation of ‘Security’. At best it means your house-guards but often it means those men with menacing dark glasses who cause everyone trouble, will never identify themselves, and can prevent you from going about your legitimate business or even ‘disappear you’..

In Congo Security can abruptly summon you to their office where you will be kept waiting, not allowed to be accompanied in the interview, not go in with your mobile phone. They may be doing it for National Security, but most often they (or your enemy) are doing it so you will pay them to stop harassing you. 

In Sudan they were people who would never show any identity card who were as often as not carrying out a personal agenda or enforcing a parallel regime which had little to do with the government officially in power. That was in the time of democracy. Later the regime and Security somehow merged. And the security services, as so often, became multiple, with overlapping functions and loyalties to different factions.

Often ‘security’ is invoked to prevent free speech and to ‘get round’ inconvenient laws.  And always, Security is the employer of young men, partly educated who could just as well have been members of gangs in the streets, or to be more optimistic, small business men.

My first houseboy in Uganda worked, he thought, for Uganda security in Nairobi and smuggled a gun for them. He was shot by the police and no one knows even where he is buried.  

.

 

---

[1] FOOTNOTE In English, secure, sure, certain, peaceful and safe have subtly different meanings but in many languages the same word can cover many of these aspects. So, in Swahili usalama is safety and security and can therefore mean peace.   

London now that April's here

17 April 2011:  Here in UK everyone seems to have started holidays – Easter next weekend, then the royal wedding.  I passed through London yesterday and it was so crowded i was quite stressed!  Trains, underground, more trains ...    The other day a friend and I went to see the Titanic Artefacts exhibition of objects found at the bottom of the sea. As you enter you are given a boarding card with a real passenger’s name on it. At the end you find out if you lived or died.  There is also an exhibition of 3D TV – still using glasses, though.

Also met three old friends, (not looking old, I must say!) from my Nigeria days. One in Brighton, two in Dublin.   Train and boat still the most civilised way to go to Dublin, and very cheap.

A lot of reminiscing about the time we were all in Mubi.  Some old photos to look at.

18 April: The streets and gardens so beautiful in a warm sunny spring;

21^st April: in contrast back in Uganda it is rain, rain, rain. Good for farmers!  I think it is the contrast in weather coupled with a freezing BA flight which has given me a cold or flu!

My Visited Countries

Get your own Visited Countries Map from Travel Blog

When you look for it the Libyan connection runs deep. Hotels, banks, Oil Libya petrol stations. Ugandans are even finding it in their fridges. Splash fruit juices may not have Gaddafi's face on the box, but his country's oil money runs the factory.  (Will Ross, BBC).

Drove on Wednesday to Bukoba Tanzania to see the first school I ever taught at ... in 1968. Looks shabby now, though it was one of the top schools in TZ at the time, having been a Christian Brothers school called St Thomas More before the government of Nyerere took it over. In those days we went from Uganda by steamer. It taught several now-prominent Tutsis who were refugees and used to teach aeronautical engineering.  where I was learning to be a teacher at Makerere, Strangely, no one remembered that or that there had been a small plane, crashed some time at the local airstrip to practise on.

 

From a friend in Cote d'Ivoire: Concerning our Duekoué friends and colleagues, they are all alive... they have abandoned their home and residence and find refuge to the catholic mission, since the last attacks of the forces of Pro ouattara forces. All ICLA teams and Yapi are in Abidjan and city around... Things are so confused here. I hope that things will recover with the least violence as possible... There are many weapons in circulation at this time and in case of civil war, things will be catastrophic

 

Entebbe, 1300h

 

I have just received an sms security advisory from the High Commission (first time ever) telling me that there is tension around Bat Valley / Bombo road.  

 

There has already been serious trouble at Rubaga and in the city centre. People turned up at 7 am at many polling stations to find the ballot boxes  already stuffed with Ssematimba (NRM) votes.

 

Even the state broadcaster UBC was scandalised especially when one of their own reporters was attacked in Rubaga reputedly by thugs circulating in matatus – she appeared in the studio with a great gash on her cheek.   

 

Just watched the Electoral Commission press conference – Kampala mayoral election postponed. 

 

Electoral commissioner very frank about shortcomings, citing ballot stuffing and connivance. Some election officers arrested. .  No one will believe that the same thing didn’t happen last Friday!   

 

The problem of an Opposition mayor and the president’s promise to emasculate the Mayor’s office by appointing an Executive manager of Kampala over his head  is partly behind it.  

 

 

 

 

Stuff expat aid workers like

With thanks to the Expat Aid Worker and John Ashworth who forwarded this to me.

BEGIN

February 16, 2011

http://stuffexpataidworkerslike.com/2011/02/16/24-facipulation/

by Shotgun Shack

Expat Aid Worker practitioners love feeling like they are supporting

locally-led development processes. They love being one with the people

and steering them towards self-sufficiency. They love building

capacity in local and national institutions and mainstreaming core

development principles like gender, human rights, sustainability,

participation, and local ownership during life-saving meetings in

communities, hotels, and retreat centers around the world.

They envision themselves as catalysts, animating people to travel down the long road to development; as facilitators, helping things along by their mere presence, asking the right questions at the right time and

then allowing things to naturally flow towards what local people want

to discuss.

After repeated attempts at facilitation, however, even the most noble Expat Aid Workers realize that if they want to succeed at their job, rather than facilitatation, they need to learn the gentle art of

facipulation: a delicate blend of facilitation (catalyzing, easing and

supporting conversations and actions around themes and issues

important to the community and/or program participants) and

manipulation (steering conversations towards their INGO’s established

themes and goals, and ensuring that actions and decisions made by

local people support their INGO’s interests and happen within the time

frame stipulated by their donors).

We’ve listed a few of our favorite workshop facipulation techniques here:

The workshop set-up. When selecting facipulants for the workshop,

choose those that you know from previous experience

a) agree with you,

b) understand what your agency wants to achieve and

c) have a stake in a future project that they don’t want to lose out on by being difficult.

It’s helpful if facipulants appear to represent a diverse

group, but that their diversity does not include diversity of opinion.

It’s also a good idea to decide on the core learning objectives or

meeting outputs ahead of time, and print them nicely in color on A-4

or a 3-fold brochure. The more official things look, the less likely

people will be to think they can change them.

Paying a per diem. This small token of appreciation (along with

providing a very healthy-sized breakfast, lunch, two full snacks, a

lot of soda, a cap, a t-shirt, a pen, a notebook, a nice workshop themed bag and other bits of swag) for facipulants helps them to help you steer the meeting where you want it to go. They must, of course,

want to be asked back to the next meeting.

Group work. Assign people to groups ahead of time, and plant someone

who knows exactly what you want to achieve in each group. Meet with

your plants ahead of time, make them feel special, and explain that

they are the ones you’ve chosen to help you help the groups move

forward. Engineer the group work exercises carefully so that you get

the answers that you are looking for, and never give sufficient time

to complete discussions.

Selective hearing. In plenary and group feedback time, use the

“there’s just so much participation going on I can’t capture it all!”

trick to ignore or skip over what you don’t want to deal with or what

doesn’t fit with where you need the workshop to go. After a few

ignores, most people will give up and start grumbling, but that makes

them look bad, not you. When this happens, give a pep talk about how

important everyone’s participation is, admonish the group for not

participating, ask if they are tired, and have the day’s volunteer

animator lead an embarrassing (singing/dancing) ice breaker to

motivate them.

Translation. Notify your translator ahead of time what your objectives

are for the workshop (this works for facipulating evaluations or

community visits with head office and donor delegations too), and he

or she will easily transform even the most challenging local language

response into just what you are looking for without you even realizing

it.

The “parking lot”. This helps ensure that your workshop stays on your

track, rather than veering off topic to discussions of things you or

your agency are not interested in or prepared for. When thorny issues

that require long-term, structural changes in the way your

organization works or how it interacts with the local community,

partner or government come up, simply say “Yes agreed. That’s a very

important point. But that’s not what we are here to discuss today.

Should we put that in the parking lot?” Then either a) get more

funding for another workshop to discuss it later (great tactic if you

are a consultant who wishes to extend a contract), b) task a small

group of people (excluding yourself) to deal with it on their own time

(they won’t), or c) put it in the “action plan” in your report (you

can be confident no one will ever follow-up on it). Once you move

issues to the “parking lot” you can get back to what you’re really there to do: move forward on your agency’s objectives.

Facipulation. A core competency in any successful Expat Aid Worker.

END

______________________

Priorities

When I was boss of UN in Goma, Mandera and Bunia we had priorities for getting on UN flights.

 

1. Me

2. UN full time staff

3. UN Consultants

4. NGO full time staff

5. NGO consultants

 

If it was an Echo flight from Mandera I got on because I had to give it clearance to fly as Area Security Coordinator!

 

One of the ironies of my life is that I have been so much involved in flying, but I hate every minute of it.

 

De : joseph asutai [mailto:asutai@yahoo.com]
Envoyé : 04 February 2011 13:56
À : Barry Sesnan
Objet : Citizenry

 

It is an excellent piece ...
 

JA

 

---

From: Barry Sesnan <bsesnan@yahoo.com>
To: joseph asutai <asutai@yahoo.com>; Henry ndugga <ndugga2001@gmail.com>; CICERON MUGISA L. <ciceropater@gmail.com>; serge uzele <sergeuzele100@yahoo.fr>; Upenji Jean-jacques <upenjijeanjacques@yahoo.fr>
Sent: Fri, February 4, 2011 1:44:22 PM
Subject:

Quotation from Emmanuel Jal, rapper

"You have a government that declared jihad against the people in Southern Sudan and has set up a system based on wrong foundations. A first-class citizen is a Muslim Arab and a second-class citizen is his wife, a third-class citizen is an African who has converted to Islam and a fourth-class citizen is his wife. A fifth-class citizen is a non-believer and a sixth class citizen is his wife.

"I voted for separation because I want to be a first-class citizen in my own country."

 

 

That was 2010

So, at the end of 2010 I thought I would throw together some nice quotations and a couple of thoughts. They are not in any very logical order, unlike Wikileaks, but I hope they’ll give you an idea of my year. A year in which I had varied experience, perhaps more varied than ever before, with UNICEF, UNHCR, International NGOs and for the first time the Red Cross. A year with too many planes …A year to discover how huge Indonesia is, for instance.

Picture: Nigeriens, (not Nigerians) who Google.

Let’s start with that flying experience: On Egyptair I was a bit surprised to hear the automated announcment “When you see the No Smoking sign come on please be ready to extinguish your cigarettes” – It illustrated just how new the planes are that they use on their middle of the night flights to smaller countries in Africa. Talking of which the UN flight to Abeché had to turn back when one of its two engines started sounding like a bent bicycle wheel and was clearly not giving any power. That plane had also seen the world, many times.

‘We are all rats’ from my line-boss in Geneva urging me to get the year-end reports written. Apparently it comes from Swedish – the dogs are chasing the cats, the cats are chasing the rats … and we are all rats.

‘Les enfants vont pisser sur les examens’ Trying to get exams out to the refugee camps my man told me we could not put the exams in the public lorries which all carry mountains of passengers including children on top of the freight.

I did a lot of training workshops this year; in a workshop I co-facilitated in Accra there was a session on ‘Women and disabled’

In Niger, the participants in my training workshop (pictured) all Googled me while I was giving my introductory talk. Apparently I was acceptable, because we did continue the workshop.

My Jargon Watch antenna were as lively as ever. I saw that the ‘Girl child’ may at last be dead. I spotted only one example this year, in Sudan.

And the referendum in Sudan: ‘Don’t register if you are not going to vote”. This is because separation will be approved with 50% + 1 of the registered voters, but there must be a 60% turnout. Not often do we hear people being advised tactically not to vote.

“We provided the sand” – Beninois cynical comment on local participation in a large Benin-Chinese construction project when asked what Benin had contributed.

« Les Dernieres heures » – name of a coffin and flower shop in Benin

“La porte de non-retour” a gate-like monument leading to the beach where the slaves were put on ships in Ouidah, Benin. They mainly went to Brazil and Haiti. Nearby there is a village founded by some who came back from Brazil. This is the home of voodoo and at least one Grand Maitre has started advertising on the internet.

“We would like people to come to see the truth about our country.” Said in a country which makes it almost impossible for you to get a visa, won’t allow internal travel without additional permits, makes you check in to the internet using your hotel room number, doesn’t allow visitors to get SIM cards and whose youth are fleeing extremely hard and long military service in very large numbers.

“Abeché is in the past; forget Abeché” told by my superiors when UNHCR left its intermediate base at Abeché where I had been based for over a year. Poignant for me as I had done 14 months of my best professional and practical work there in a great team. A shock to discover it all regarded as some sort of aberration; a double shock to find myself a sort of clerk in Ndjamena endlessly rewriting the same document for the remaining part of the contract and regarded with suspicion if I wanted to go to the field.

In one country while training government officers and teachers on what to do to save education in the face of a disaster: I will do nothing until my superior tells me what to do [– even if the school and the kids are being washed away before my eyes]’. [my additional words]

I discovered that Pushkin had an Eritrean ancestor (see picture in Asmara. Pushkin is the upper one with the book in hand. The lower one is friend Eyob of the Eritrean Red Cross).

In Entebbe, my near neighbours, the Pentecostal church, still noisily do the whole gamut of healing, talking in tongues, holy rolling etc three nights a week and all Sunday! You need ear-plugs.

And … I added two African countries to my list: Gambia and Eritrea. Indonesia too.

And, following a trend started when Obama and I were in Accra and Istanbul at the same time, I jetted in to Jakarta just after he left.

Nostalgia

In Togo from the period they were under the Germans, a few buildings and apparently some very old people who speak some German. In Indonesia there was Dutch influence (picture is of canal in Jakarta Old Town, not Amsterdam), and in Eritrea I was often spoken to in Italian and the architecture of Asmara (a most attractive city) shows Mediterranean influence. A young shopkeeper cum student greeted a very old lady in Italian, and cheerfully saluted his age-mate with ‘Ciao, Bella!’

The odd ‘senior moment’ as I turned 63

For the first time in my life I went to the airport with the wrong passport. Luckily I live so near the airport here in Entebbe that I could get the right one in time. I also managed to miss a flight to London because it was timetabled near midnight. I was a whole day late.

And some new words

What in Eastern Africa we call Boda-boda (motor bike taxis, from the fact they used to be used at the border between Kenya and Uganda) in Lomé and Cotonou are called ‘zemijan’. The Chadian word is ‘clando’ ridden by the ‘clandoman’. Clando is from ‘clandestin’, though they are found absolutely openly and everywhere. In Cotonou there seems to be no alternative form of transport and they swarm like bees. Boys taking drugs in Chad are called Colombiens, much to the fury of one of my colleagues from Colombia.

And 2011?

I end 2010, one of my busiest years, on an ironical note – I have absolutely no work at all lined up for 2011. But that’s how consultancy turns out to be …

Picture: My trusty travel bag and grab bag which takes the 15kg allowed on UN flights