Saturday, September 13, 2014
Bangui MRE
Friday, September 12, 2014
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Monday, February 10, 2014
Pickled Pepper p p p p
Kurds like everyone in the region love pickles, but today was the first time I ever saw PICKLED PEPPERS in a jar
Monday, September 02, 2013
Jargon
"I remember once partnering him and going about seven down doubled redoubled vulnerable".
Wonderful example of a correct use of jargon. Do you mind if I use it?
Using partner as a verb is 'new' (in my experience at least) typically an NGO / UN thing. When I worked in Somalia there was a marvellously useless document that came out from one of the many secretariats or coordination bodies that Somalia always seems to produce called 'FORGING PARTNERSHIPS'.
It was an attempt to justify a steep decline in donor funds, and so a retreat by the aid body concerned from frontline work, by suddenly seeming to think that using local partners was a good idea.
Long sections about vetting the partner (nothing about the partner vetting us!). I used to mock it by always misspelling it 'FORCING PARTNERSHIPS'.
We are seeing that now again: we are belatedly discovering RESILIENCE (ie that beneficiaries do 90% of everything themselves anyway) to cover up our inability to provide full coverage.
I have documents from the 90s which say that children are ALL traumatised by events and MUST HAVE counselling (draw pictures, do role play whatever the 'culture decides', but usually what a Swedish or Norwegian university professor thinks is good for the moment)*.
Now we have resilience everywhere, 80% of children are perfectly all right after any manner of disaster … (I exaggerate).
There are a dozen resilience jobs on reliefweb this week. I have even applied to do one (full disclosure) for West Africa.
* Some of you will recall that Fugnido camp in Ethiopia was the farm for growing SPLA soldiers (25 000 boys and 4 girls – the boys eventually became the 12 000 lost boys. ) SPLA would only allow Swedish SCF to work there and they were heavily into psychosocial as was the mode in the 90s. So the only word you ever heard in the meetings was (given a general lack of front teeth) Shy-ko-sho-sal.
Saturday, June 15, 2013
NSA, Huxley, Orwell ...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/12/orwell_1984_sales_rocket/ - very good especially the highlighted first comment, which leads you to :
http://theliterarysnob.tumblr.com/post/7484768452/nineteen-eighty-four-orwell-vs-brave-new-world
For those with affinities to France there is an interesting resonance now with the ‘cultural exception’ which France is defending in trade talks with the US.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Somali for special purposes SSP
From a 1993 word-list meant for American soldiers in Somali:
ENGLISH | SOMALI | PRONUNCIATION |
Yes/No | HAA/MAY | ("HA/MY") |
We Are American Military | WAXAAN NAHAY | ("WAHAN NAHY EEDAMADA CIDAMADA MARAYKANKA") |
We Are Here To Help You | INAAN INDIN CAAWINO AYAAN | ("IN AN EEDIN AWENO AYAN HALKAN OO CHOGNA") |
What Do You Need? | MAXAAD DOONAYSAA? | ("MAHAT DOANAYSA?") |
Give me | I SII | ("ISEE") |
Wait Here | WAA KU SUG | ("HALKEM KOOSOOK") |
Stop! | JOOGSO! | ("CHOK SO!") |
Hands Up | GACMACHA KOR U TAAGA | ("GAMAKA KOROOTAG") |
Lie Down | JIIFSO | ("CHEEF SO") |
Face Down | WAJIGAAGA DHULKA SAAR | ("WICHEE GAGA LULKASAR") |
Get Up | STAAG | ("KA") |
Be Quiet | AAMUS | ("AMMOOS") |
Put Your Weapon Down! | HUBKAAGA OHIG! | ("HOOPKAGA DIG!") |
Leader | HOGAAMIYE | ("HOGAMEEYA") |
Family | REER | ("RAYN") |
Refugee | QAXOOTI | ("KAHOATEE") |
Do You Speak English? | MA KU HADLI KARTAA INGIRIISI? | ("MAKO HADLEE KARTA INGREEZEE?") |
What Is Your Name? | MAGACAA? | ("MAGA-A?") |
Who Is In Charge? | YAA KA TALIYA HALKAN? | ("HALKAN YAHOOKOOMA?") |
Come | KAALAY | ("KALAY") |
Danger! | KHATAR! | ("KHATAR!") |
Do Not Drink The Water! | BIYAHA HA CABIN! | ("BIYAHA HA-ABIN!") |
Mine Field | GEGI MIINAYSAN | ("GEGI MEENAYSAN") |
Keep Out! | KA DHEEROW! | ("KA DERO!") |
Warning! | DIGIIN! | ("DIGNEEN!") |
How Is The Road? | WADDADU WAA SIDEE? | ("WADDADOO WA SIDAY?") |
Get In | SO GAL | ("SOAGEL") |
Don't Be Frightened | HA CABSANIN | ("HA APSANIN") |
Are You Carrying A Weapon? | HUB MA SIDATAA? | ("HOOB MA SIDATA?") |
Don't Fire | HA RIDIN | ("HARIDIN") |
Don't Shoot Us | HA NA TOOGAN | |
You Are a Prisoner | MAXBUUS BAAD TAHAY | ("MAHBOOS AYAT TAHAY") |
Stay Where You Are | HALKAAGA JOOG | ("HALKAGA CHOAG") |
Line Up | SAFTA | ("SAFF TA") |
Show Me | ITUS | ("ITOOS") |
Are There Any Dead? | CID DHIMATAY MIYAA JARTA? | ("IDD DIMATAY MIYA CHIRTA?") |
Boil Your Water | BIYIHIINA ISKA KARIYA | ("BIYIHEENA EESKA KAREEYA") |
Wash Your Hands | QACMAHIINA DHAQA | ("KAMIHEENA DAKA") |
Thank You | MAHADSANID | ("MAHATSENIT") |
Don't Be Afraid | ||
HA CABSAN | ("HA ABSAN") | |
Friday, August 10, 2012
FW: ethical question
In the recent kidnapping incident in Dadaab, where I am based just now, a driver was killed and another driver and staff member were shot, one seriously.
The four expatriate hostages, our colleagues from here, Nairobi and Oslo, were eventually rescued by a combination of the Kenya army and Somali warlords after a walk of three nights into Somalia. One was injured; another developed a badly infected foot.
In a recent incident involving a CARE team visiting a camp, five policemen in the escort car were blown up. Two lost their legs. Again they were there to protect agency staff.
Kenyan colleagues say (almost openly) that we put them in danger if we are on missions with them.
The police become victims for us also.
In this context, since I am not allowed to visit the camps just now for security reasons, and have to stay permanently within the secure compound, I am not expecting to be here beyond the end, in September, of the current short contract.
It remains to be seen if I will be deployed elsewhere.
Barry Sesnan
Uganda +256 757 219 288
Kenya +254 734 338 434
Skype: barryechobravo
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Dadaab news from Barry
It is one of the nearer misses in an eventful career on the front line. I have just (after an awful dry spell unemployed) been appointed as interim manager (3 months) of the Norwegian Refugee Council's Education programme here. The programme as I found it when I arrived ten days ago consists of a youth vocational training centre in each of the four major camps and one in town (there are half a million refugees here mostly from Somalia). We, the non-refugee staff live in a huge secured "humanitarian compound" in the small town of Dadaab. The camps are within 15km in two directions. We go there in police-escorted convoys usually. Right now we can't leave the compound even to buy telephone air time.
We have about 600 refugee and Kenyan youth (in the town's Centre) doing a one year course. Half a day on a skill (electrical, computers, masonry, plumbing, hair/beauty etc) and half a day on academics depending on their level - anything from basic literacy and numeracy to secondary equivalent. At the end we form them into small teams for six months and give them some tools to start up a small business. It has mixed results (Somalis are much more naturally traders and dealers than brick-layers).
So yesterday just by coincidence and because there had been low level security concerns already near one of 'my' centres with an amateur IED (improvised explosive device) thrown at a police car a couple of evening before, it was decided that the visiting team (from Oslo - top boss, regional boss, Nairobi boss, would skip the camp youth centre and come to the town youth centre. So I didn't go with them. Their three cars were attacked in a planned ambush in a narrow piece of road leading out of our camp premises. They shot at the drivers. One car got away by crashing through a fence. One driver was killed and the other wounded, hopefully not too badly, in the hip. Another staff engineer was injured in the stomach. They have been flown to Nairobi. One Kenyan staff member was wounded too. Those in the car that got away (my direct boss, an Italian, and the head of the organisation, from Oslo, presumed target??, the regional manager of Somali origin himself sped to a police station and got back to our quarters before long. It seems the others were driven off, one car was apparently immobilised by satellite, so they were all pushed into the other one, which came to a halt about 30 km away. Footprints go off into the bush, 6 kidnappers, two women (Pakistani, Norwegian) and two men (Canadian, Philippino).
Killing in these circumstances is VERY rare but prolonged holding as hostages for ransom can last months. No one has yet claimed to have the hostages and generally it is thought to be the work of bandits rather than a political group like Shabaab. The chances the Kenya police and army will find them in the first day or two is high (we are told they are being tracked, now it is daylight again). It's thorn bush country - our colleagues are unlikely to be strong enough to continue a long forced march. However there are puzzling elements to this attack, and of course later, there will be a lot of questions about why the visit was so widely announced beforehand and why so many high ransom people were in three cars moving very closely together. Agencies usually don't pay ransom but in Somalia the local people are often embarrassed by what has happened and contribute something to get them released. Then a compensatory mechanism if often worked out.
Also, out of at least 30 agencies doing different things in the camps every day - why the Norwegians of all people? Generally no one has a grudge against Norwegians!
Friday, June 29, 2012
FW: NRC Dadaab
Hi all
I am here in Dadaab, Kenya doing an interim manager position for NRC; I came just eight days ago.
This morning there was a high level NRC delegation from Nairobi and Oslo. They were in three cars visiting projects in the camps, and they were ambushed at the gate of the NRC new compound in Ifo 2 camp.
One dead, two injured and four kidnapped. The kidnapped are all expatriate colleagues (Norwegian, US-Pakistani, Canadian, Philippino; we all had breakfast together this morning). They are assumed to have been taken into Somalia (just 100km from here). The Kenya army is in pursuit with helicopters.
I am safe as I had not joined the delegation going to the camps, since they were to visit my project in Dadaab town on their return.
More later
Barry Sesnan
Uganda +256 757 219 288
Kenya +254 734 338 434
Skype: barryechobravo
http://barrysbook.blogspot.com/
Monday, June 11, 2012
Mandate for protection
"UNISFA, the Ethiopian peacekeepers [in Abyei], have a mandate for civilian protection but they do not have a mandate for cattle protection".
Reminds me of the Banyoro in Kasenyi who wanted UN to convey all their cattle for them back to Uganda. When I suggested that they could sell one to hire a barge of a lorry, I was regarded as crazy.
FW: From Nigeria
You travel by road, a petrol tanker catches fire. By air, plane crashes.
"You sit in your house, the plane comes to meet you. You go to church, Boko Haram attacks you. You go by sea, militants attack you. You finally run to your village, you are kidnapped. Is there any safe place in Nigeria?"
Friday, June 08, 2012
Says it all really - teachers earn just $100 a month in Uganda
Live updates, state of the nation address
Posted Thursday, June 7 2012 at 17:00
[Replies to heckler that that he is confused if he confuses jets with salary increases. Says that the jets are the umbrellas of Uganda. They are for protection. ]
President Museveni identifies the core issues of the economy that need development as defence and security, law and order, electricity, roads , health, tourism and scientific innovation. Only when these are addressed will the government consider salary increases.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Can this be true? Oh how the world has changed.
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.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Reading and guarding
Sunday, July 10, 2011
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."
Thursday, July 07, 2011
Use of video in assessment of teachers
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
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
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.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
London now that April's here
Sunday, April 03, 2011
Friday, April 01, 2011
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
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
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
Friday, February 04, 2011
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."