Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Jagdish bhagwati
Dear Bono,
Having worked in development for nearly 50 years, and on foreign aid for almost as long, I confess to a slight sense of déjà vu regarding your collaboration with Bob Geldof to increase aid flows to reduce poverty, especially in Africa. After all, one may ask, which big policy figure in the developmental field in the postwar years has not worked towards the elimination of poverty and demanded that aid flows be increased to that end? Yet, I do not agree with those who write cynically that the poor have done more for the rock stars than the rock stars have done for the poor. Your dedication certainly lends an extra edge to the efforts made by many over the years in this great cause.
But I am afraid that your energies have been misdirected when they are used to advance an aid agenda that is based on two obsolete and counter- productive premises: first, that aid for Africa must be spent in Africa rather than outside it and, second, that we must work to increase aid flows to a target of 0.7 per cent of gross national product.
The key problem in much of Africa is what has long been called the “absorptive capacity” problem: will aid be used productively or will it be wasted? This issue was understood by the pioneering development economists Paul Rosenstein-Rodan and Gunnar Myrdal. The former famously estimated aid requirements in the 1960s by reference to this notion. He calculated how much investment was required to help accelerate the growth rate of an aid recipient, based on an assessment of that country’s ability to manage such growth. Foreign aid would then be given to finance the investment, provided that the recipient made a matching effort to increase domestic savings as well.
But many economists became sceptical. They argued, with substantial empirical evidence, that when aid was provided, the recipients were likely to reduce, rather than increase, their own savings efforts. This was an early recognition of the “aid curse” that afflicts some aid recipients. Uncritical proponents of aid deny this effect even as they talk of the “oil curse”; as if largesse from the windfall of oil earnings is somehow more corrupting than largesse that comes from aid donors.
The large amounts of aid given to Africa and the small results that have generally accrued from them require us to look at the absorptive capacity question with a critical eye. We should disregard the hysterical charge that everyone who questions the effectiveness of a sudden and substantial increase in aid flows is a heartless reactionary. The increase in the number of democratic governments in Africa, and some bold initiatives by the African Union in places such as Darfur, have increased the absorptive capacity of a growing number of African nations. But that justifies a graduated increase on spending in Africa rather than a substantial and sudden one.
In addition, absorptive capacity is far less of a problem if increased aid for Africa is spent outside the country. Spending can be increased in the rich countries to develop vaccines and cures for diseases that severely afflict Africa, such as Aids and malaria. Research on cures for diseases such as yellow fever and sleeping sickness should be well financed. Since much of Africa suffers from huge skills shortages for virtually every developmental problem, education and training of African students in western universities could be vastly increased. They will mostly stay abroad. But then the west should develop and pay handsomely for programmes where they can contribute in other ways, such as short-term visits to train others, for instance. Until these shortages ease years from now (as they did in the 1990s in India; the “brain drain” was a big issue there in the 1950s) as more nationals are trained and find return attractive, surely we could send out more of our own. I have advocated programmes such as a Grey Peace Corps that would find our aged and retired doctors, engineers and other professionals jobs in Botswana, Zambia and other African nations.
But, if you have erred in allying yourself with the development experts who wrongly focus exclusively on aid spending in Africa itself, a greater folly is to have tied your initiative to the aid target of 0.7 per cent of GNP. This target goes back to 1969 and has not been met except by a tiny fraction of donors, essentially the Scandinavian countries. The problem is that the target relates to government spending. Fiscal spending is subject to what economists call “hard budget constraints”. There are always many demands on the government. The US, for instance, has just had a colossal increase in spending on the Iraq war and on Hurricane Katrina relief and reconstruction. Even Paul Martin, the progressive former prime minister of Canada, was most reluctant to sign on to this target last year at the United Nations.
Richard Manning, the head of the Development Assistance Committee at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, recently expressed concern that the main European Union donors would fail to fulfil even proposed aid increases, way short of 0.7 per cent of GNP, pledged for 2010. With all the good intentions in the world, developmental aid will take the back seat against politically more pressing needs.
How, then, are we to translate the enthusiastic altruism that you have generated, dear Bono, into larger, sustained flows of aid? Surely the answer is to go after personal, rather than governmental, flows. Personal spending on aid typically runs into softer budget constraints. With all the charitable spending I do, I could always forego a dinner at Maxim’s and eat at McDonald’s instead, pledging another $100 to the Geldof-Bono aid fund. So, if you take seriously the estimated audience for Live8 concerts at 2bn, halve it for those who were there for a lark or are impoverished themselves, and halve it again for those who attended the concerts twice, you would have half a billion who could sign up for an average pledge of $50 a head as a supplement to their normal giving, yielding a net sum of $25bn outright. The money would be worth almost twice that amount in actual aid, since they would be grants whereas most aid consists of loans that must be repaid.
This would mean abandoning some of your current allies. But you can do nothing less if your efforts are to yield results. In a recent interview, you said that you expected your music would endure forever but poverty would have ended in a hundred years. I wish you good luck on your music. But not even a hundred years would suffice to end poverty if you fail to correct your course.
The writer is university professor of economics and law at Columbia University and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was special adviser to the UN on globalisation and is a member of secretary-general Kofi Annan’s advisory group on Africa
Having worked in development for nearly 50 years, and on foreign aid for almost as long, I confess to a slight sense of déjà vu regarding your collaboration with Bob Geldof to increase aid flows to reduce poverty, especially in Africa. After all, one may ask, which big policy figure in the developmental field in the postwar years has not worked towards the elimination of poverty and demanded that aid flows be increased to that end? Yet, I do not agree with those who write cynically that the poor have done more for the rock stars than the rock stars have done for the poor. Your dedication certainly lends an extra edge to the efforts made by many over the years in this great cause.
But I am afraid that your energies have been misdirected when they are used to advance an aid agenda that is based on two obsolete and counter- productive premises: first, that aid for Africa must be spent in Africa rather than outside it and, second, that we must work to increase aid flows to a target of 0.7 per cent of gross national product.
The key problem in much of Africa is what has long been called the “absorptive capacity” problem: will aid be used productively or will it be wasted? This issue was understood by the pioneering development economists Paul Rosenstein-Rodan and Gunnar Myrdal. The former famously estimated aid requirements in the 1960s by reference to this notion. He calculated how much investment was required to help accelerate the growth rate of an aid recipient, based on an assessment of that country’s ability to manage such growth. Foreign aid would then be given to finance the investment, provided that the recipient made a matching effort to increase domestic savings as well.
But many economists became sceptical. They argued, with substantial empirical evidence, that when aid was provided, the recipients were likely to reduce, rather than increase, their own savings efforts. This was an early recognition of the “aid curse” that afflicts some aid recipients. Uncritical proponents of aid deny this effect even as they talk of the “oil curse”; as if largesse from the windfall of oil earnings is somehow more corrupting than largesse that comes from aid donors.
The large amounts of aid given to Africa and the small results that have generally accrued from them require us to look at the absorptive capacity question with a critical eye. We should disregard the hysterical charge that everyone who questions the effectiveness of a sudden and substantial increase in aid flows is a heartless reactionary. The increase in the number of democratic governments in Africa, and some bold initiatives by the African Union in places such as Darfur, have increased the absorptive capacity of a growing number of African nations. But that justifies a graduated increase on spending in Africa rather than a substantial and sudden one.
In addition, absorptive capacity is far less of a problem if increased aid for Africa is spent outside the country. Spending can be increased in the rich countries to develop vaccines and cures for diseases that severely afflict Africa, such as Aids and malaria. Research on cures for diseases such as yellow fever and sleeping sickness should be well financed. Since much of Africa suffers from huge skills shortages for virtually every developmental problem, education and training of African students in western universities could be vastly increased. They will mostly stay abroad. But then the west should develop and pay handsomely for programmes where they can contribute in other ways, such as short-term visits to train others, for instance. Until these shortages ease years from now (as they did in the 1990s in India; the “brain drain” was a big issue there in the 1950s) as more nationals are trained and find return attractive, surely we could send out more of our own. I have advocated programmes such as a Grey Peace Corps that would find our aged and retired doctors, engineers and other professionals jobs in Botswana, Zambia and other African nations.
But, if you have erred in allying yourself with the development experts who wrongly focus exclusively on aid spending in Africa itself, a greater folly is to have tied your initiative to the aid target of 0.7 per cent of GNP. This target goes back to 1969 and has not been met except by a tiny fraction of donors, essentially the Scandinavian countries. The problem is that the target relates to government spending. Fiscal spending is subject to what economists call “hard budget constraints”. There are always many demands on the government. The US, for instance, has just had a colossal increase in spending on the Iraq war and on Hurricane Katrina relief and reconstruction. Even Paul Martin, the progressive former prime minister of Canada, was most reluctant to sign on to this target last year at the United Nations.
Richard Manning, the head of the Development Assistance Committee at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, recently expressed concern that the main European Union donors would fail to fulfil even proposed aid increases, way short of 0.7 per cent of GNP, pledged for 2010. With all the good intentions in the world, developmental aid will take the back seat against politically more pressing needs.
How, then, are we to translate the enthusiastic altruism that you have generated, dear Bono, into larger, sustained flows of aid? Surely the answer is to go after personal, rather than governmental, flows. Personal spending on aid typically runs into softer budget constraints. With all the charitable spending I do, I could always forego a dinner at Maxim’s and eat at McDonald’s instead, pledging another $100 to the Geldof-Bono aid fund. So, if you take seriously the estimated audience for Live8 concerts at 2bn, halve it for those who were there for a lark or are impoverished themselves, and halve it again for those who attended the concerts twice, you would have half a billion who could sign up for an average pledge of $50 a head as a supplement to their normal giving, yielding a net sum of $25bn outright. The money would be worth almost twice that amount in actual aid, since they would be grants whereas most aid consists of loans that must be repaid.
This would mean abandoning some of your current allies. But you can do nothing less if your efforts are to yield results. In a recent interview, you said that you expected your music would endure forever but poverty would have ended in a hundred years. I wish you good luck on your music. But not even a hundred years would suffice to end poverty if you fail to correct your course.
The writer is university professor of economics and law at Columbia University and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was special adviser to the UN on globalisation and is a member of secretary-general Kofi Annan’s advisory group on Africa
Monday, February 27, 2006
because
Because this is what we do.
Anyway. I have decided to post more and more photos as I have only a few months left and lord knows there's enough to go around.
The sky is turning pink.
Two months ago, I was waiting in the porch of my office (we work in an ancient Sri Lankan house built in the 30s) and it was dusk and I saw something, an animal, large, violent cross the telephone wire from a nearby tree where it had been draped over a branch, to the roof. Shocked, I asked our watcher-man what the hell it was= after all, we live in Colombo, not in the goddamned Vanni jungle and he replied it was a pole cat. (This is the universe I live in people. Where polecats inhabit my office roof).
A month ago, one of my staff bought a rabbit that was destined to become glue. ( In Sri Lanka, temples and individuals have to buy an animal's freedom from slaughter, e.g. cows, rabbits and the like and it is a popular ritual of expiation). Anyway this tiny little black and white rabbit soon became a member of our family, and was found under desks, water coolers, (escaping narrowly being run over one day when a car reversed) and generally had us eating out of his hands.
Two days ago his body was found, decapitated.
To those of you that have forgotten RGS bio classes, decapitated is when something's head is no longer adjoined to its body. I got the story from our watchman. At night, little Brer Rabbit is put away in his box to escape the pole cats. Our watcherman forgot one night and came outside when he heard a noise, and he saw TWO polecats skirmishing over our rabbit! and when he came off, one bit Brer's head off and leapt over the wall and vamoosed.
HUH?
HUH? I say? Our rabbit is decapitated? Something bit its HEAD off?
Yeah peeps. I live in Sri Lanka. Even the rabbit has to fight for its life.
trip-end
So it has been the end of an absolutely exhausting week. I’m currently on life-support as I wave goodbye to a contingent of high net-worth, high-maintenance donors. The week was spent organizing project visits, while trying to ensure that no minivan breakdowns occurred, hotels functioned flawlessly, spa appointments were at hand as were beer runs (oh we passed a Carlsberg store, can we stop and get some beer as we drive past tsunami graveyards?) and the like. But every school we visited was inspiring, every child warm, friendly and evidently in some sort of a nurturing environment as well. Our CEO and some CEOs of accenture, ing etc. also wept during a couple of visits, openly. One organization was also keen on implementing a model to map value created by nonprofits and public sectors and I get to pilot it here in Sri Lanka which sounds like a fantastic research opportunity somewhat related to my graduate school ambitions and intellectual interests. It was an interesting trip as well to meet some of these individuals, some World Economic Forum people, etc. etc.
In the middle of it, I also turned 25. And there was a toast made by my fearless leader to the achievements of last year and it was touching, moving, inspiring and I think I teared and in many ways, that was the best birthday present ever.
In the middle of it, I also turned 25. And there was a toast made by my fearless leader to the achievements of last year and it was touching, moving, inspiring and I think I teared and in many ways, that was the best birthday present ever.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
tamil film
I was watching Thevar Magan yesterday and I was surprised by what an excellent film it was. I always thought that no Indian film could attain the intensity or poignancy of Maniratnam’s films, and even though this film was not shot well, it was still extraordinarily fine. I was weeping towards the end of it, when she comes back, to find him married to a village girl, to save the dignity and bloodshed of the village. And he has sacrificed more than her, and she does not know it, she cannot understand what draws him, a previously urbane, scholarly man, to give up everything to save his village, and it was not the man she loved, who has now gone. And then the scene after that, where he has committed to his wife, finally and he takes her hand, and she stops singing because she’s terrified and he lets her hand go and then she says no, and she shyly puts her hand forward, to be held. And of course the final scene where he inadvertently kills his nemesis, his brother, in a version of Cain and Abel and is now banished, to repent, to leave to die. Awesome stuff. Why don’t they make films like that anymore? Or why doesn’t the actor make films like that anymore. The current state of Tamil film is a sorry one.
Monday, February 20, 2006
aviss
have you seen,Iin the Mood for Love?
what it must be like, to be loved that much, at least once, and to have known it too .I don't know anyone who has been loved like that and that is sad for i know many who profess to know love, and none that i can point to (no doubt in my muddle-headed ignorance) who I can say,there goes a man, who has truly loved and been loved no matter how short it lasted.
anyhoo.
a major donor visit for which the weekend was spent preparing presentations and powerpoints and dealing with obscure formatting issues and how to print in high-resolution glossy prints without emptying the bank. but then all arrived, despite immense flight delays and the breakdown of the major luxe transport vehicle and were fed and watered and then transported the next morning to a school in the depths of rural Avissawella. All 300 children stood in neat lines towards the entrance of the school as we drove up in our gleaming chariots and there was a band and a dance parade into the library.
Then a class filed in and a speech was made in English by a 12 year old thanking the donor for the books and the library and a song was sung full of exercise and then the donors were paired off with groups of children to chill for a bit and then suddenly it was as though a switch had been turned off (or on) and all 65 children turned into hyperactive happy children and mobbed the donors, screaming and yelling , just happy to be near foreigners who had given them. Pictures were taken, books were read out to each other, everyone was happy and coconuts broken.
On the way to the school, we were leading the way with the entourage following and our Buddhist colleague decided to get out of the car and drop some coins into a temple as a ritual and a blessing for the trip ahead. Only when we got out, everyone jumped out of the van as well and then we had to sheepishly explain that it was a Buddhist blessing. (or something). the world never ceases to amaze.
what it must be like, to be loved that much, at least once, and to have known it too .I don't know anyone who has been loved like that and that is sad for i know many who profess to know love, and none that i can point to (no doubt in my muddle-headed ignorance) who I can say,there goes a man, who has truly loved and been loved no matter how short it lasted.
anyhoo.
a major donor visit for which the weekend was spent preparing presentations and powerpoints and dealing with obscure formatting issues and how to print in high-resolution glossy prints without emptying the bank. but then all arrived, despite immense flight delays and the breakdown of the major luxe transport vehicle and were fed and watered and then transported the next morning to a school in the depths of rural Avissawella. All 300 children stood in neat lines towards the entrance of the school as we drove up in our gleaming chariots and there was a band and a dance parade into the library.
Then a class filed in and a speech was made in English by a 12 year old thanking the donor for the books and the library and a song was sung full of exercise and then the donors were paired off with groups of children to chill for a bit and then suddenly it was as though a switch had been turned off (or on) and all 65 children turned into hyperactive happy children and mobbed the donors, screaming and yelling , just happy to be near foreigners who had given them. Pictures were taken, books were read out to each other, everyone was happy and coconuts broken.
On the way to the school, we were leading the way with the entourage following and our Buddhist colleague decided to get out of the car and drop some coins into a temple as a ritual and a blessing for the trip ahead. Only when we got out, everyone jumped out of the van as well and then we had to sheepishly explain that it was a Buddhist blessing. (or something). the world never ceases to amaze.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
hatton
Back in the muck again. Spent days on the Eastern border, in Trincomalee which was surprisingly violence-free, although tense, with checkpoints every five minutes and we were carrying cargo too. Then we went into the tsunami-hit town of Kinniya, a predominantly Muslim village and visited a local NGO there, who had scouted some schools for us, and spent the day going up and down. Met heads of mosques, muslim boy’s schools and the lot, all whom were surprisingly polite to me (I don’t know why I find that surprising). I guess it matters to have some authority after all, although I find titles abrasive. I spent Valentine’s day in this awful hotel with a male colleague who was new to the job and completely silent as a result, and a bizarre hotel manager with broken, taped spectacles,who had been there when the hotel was washed away by the tsunami and related to us the story of how he had lost everything and how he had to go to Colombo to get certificates of birth etc. in a sarong only with no slippers. Then we left the strange haunted place (there were a few foreigners there, some strange Germans who cornered me to talk to me about the state of the roads (bad) and how I should ensure there is some investment in road infrastructure there) and sped onto Nuwara Eliya, the hill country populated by over a million Indian Tamils, brought here since the late 1800s as slave labour by the British. Political Parties still carry the Indian flag as their symbol, despite having been in Sri Lanka now for over a 100 years. The Plantation tamils are ethnically, linguistically and culturally different from Sri Lankan Tamils, and have no political representation by Sri Lankan/Northeastern Tamils, who disavow any link with them.
They are also neglected by the Sinhalese population and as a result, have little political voice, little representation and little aid. Conditions are terrible, with alcoholism, incest, rape prevalent. Forced family planning a la Indira Gandhi has been instituted and as a result schools are shutting down due to dwindling enrolment. (As someone said in a movie: Just because they’re poor, they can’t have children?). Preschools are nonexistent, taking place in rusting corrugated iron sheds with close to no materials. But the country around the area is beautiful. Women are the major tea pluckers. The men run shops, or work as construction labour, on coolie wages. Managers are always men, and they pay salaries by cash to women. As a result, sexual harassment and poor human rights education prevail. The value of education, can never be discounted. We all take it for granted, but it can change, really change someone’s life, not only in terms of economic capacity, but in terms of knowledge, of self-esteem, of confidence, of the right to lead a free life and the ability to do so.
The sites are next to mountain temples and at every curve and bend of the road, there is a little stone altar, with a statue of Ganesh or Hanuman. Despite the lack of housing, sanitation or health or education facilities, the Minister of Plantation Industries has deemed it fit to allocate taxpayer money to a huge expansion of stone temples, cutting away rock and hillside to build. Who said god and politics would never meet? Such is south asian politics, and just ahead of local elections here, are how votes are bought. We saw trucks of supporters going to rallies (last day of nominations here), paid a 100 rupees, lunch and alcohol to wave a few flags and yell a few slogans. And it will never change.
They are also neglected by the Sinhalese population and as a result, have little political voice, little representation and little aid. Conditions are terrible, with alcoholism, incest, rape prevalent. Forced family planning a la Indira Gandhi has been instituted and as a result schools are shutting down due to dwindling enrolment. (As someone said in a movie: Just because they’re poor, they can’t have children?). Preschools are nonexistent, taking place in rusting corrugated iron sheds with close to no materials. But the country around the area is beautiful. Women are the major tea pluckers. The men run shops, or work as construction labour, on coolie wages. Managers are always men, and they pay salaries by cash to women. As a result, sexual harassment and poor human rights education prevail. The value of education, can never be discounted. We all take it for granted, but it can change, really change someone’s life, not only in terms of economic capacity, but in terms of knowledge, of self-esteem, of confidence, of the right to lead a free life and the ability to do so.
The sites are next to mountain temples and at every curve and bend of the road, there is a little stone altar, with a statue of Ganesh or Hanuman. Despite the lack of housing, sanitation or health or education facilities, the Minister of Plantation Industries has deemed it fit to allocate taxpayer money to a huge expansion of stone temples, cutting away rock and hillside to build. Who said god and politics would never meet? Such is south asian politics, and just ahead of local elections here, are how votes are bought. We saw trucks of supporters going to rallies (last day of nominations here), paid a 100 rupees, lunch and alcohol to wave a few flags and yell a few slogans. And it will never change.
Friday, February 10, 2006
hillary
I was thinking rather of Hillary Clinton, and what her life must have been like. As a woman, she represents a very human form of the platonic ideal, and therefore all the more laudable. I was thinking rather of what I respected her for? For sacrificing her career in the early stages to go to Hicksville and gamble on the political fortunes of her husband, for being a smarter policy wonk than her husband? for having grown in the last 12 years to be one of the smoothest operators and a giant on the American political landscape? For sticking by her husband, despite the public humiliations and the personal despair caused by his philandering, for holding it together? for being an early Goldwater conservative, under the Republican party and moving left later? For representing the best of American, and of women? For standing up for a cause? For being the future. But ultimately, for being a role model for women everywhere, to show that brains, idealism and a fierce sense of justice and loyalty reaps awards far beyond riches or beauty. And her private conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt who said "no matter how plain a woman may be if truth & loyalty are stamped upon her face all will be attracted to her...."
Thursday, February 09, 2006
sangeeth
The mehendi night tonight at the bride's house, which was a scene straight out of a Kollywood women. The house was full of brightly coloured, sari clad women. The bride sat, blouse-less but sari-ed on a throne-like sofa as two women attended to her hands and feet. The other women and friends had other assistants twirling, winding, creating mythic indian patterns in green henna on hands and feet and shoulders and arms. Then we all sat around, suspended, unable to move for 2 hours while it dried and people flowed in and out of the house. Almost everyone I met, I was sort of related to: "I saw you last when you were this high!/five years old"? Had to download my life history for everyone's gratification which wasn't as bad as I thought. Food flowed as well (no alcohol). Then the sangeeth happened, and the women got together with instruments and hours of carnatic music, holy, beautiful and above-all, well-sung wafted through the house. And it was nice, and tense and family-full. My parents made a surprise entrance, father dressed improbably in a twentysomething italian shirt, and mother in a bright sari and I thought to myself, my parents looked younger than me. (midlife crisis, enter party animals). Anyway the chatter flowed and the jaffna slang flowed and it was nice to hear everyone connecting the dots (aarrr you're Aruni mami's teacher's daughter's son-in-law from Kopai and you lived opposite Amma's house in the 60s. I remember. How is She?)
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
squid ink
So I am back at my parent's home again for a brief flying visit for the wedding of a friend, which needless to say, I am dreading solely because it is exactly the kind of Sri Lankan affair I have intuitively learnt to loathe from a young age, full of blathering relatives whom one hasn't seen since birth inquiring passive-aggressively about one's love life and career ambitions. Nobody has anything nice at all to say about each other and the post-mortem is spent dissecting what everyone wore and how terrible they all looked.
The flight was disastrous. I was next to a horrible man who kept drinking excessively and shouting and was eventually refused alcohol and then he spilt his whiskey all over me at 4am and I was not pleased.
But. Chin up. I am hibernating. I just want to hide somewhere. i feel like I've been beaten by a baseball bat by an extremely angry Danish-Muslim and left for dead in Damascus.
but I came back, slept and went straight to da paolo and bought squid-ink tagliatelle, feta and salami salad, grilled aubergines and potato salad, tomatoes, basil, yoghurt, mangoes, raw almonds, honey and Israeli persimmons and now I've had a bit of everything and what I really want is a Starbucks coffee but it is Too far away and I have no wheels.
I keep thinking that if I can get through this next minute without alcohol, maybe I can get through the minute after that and this is what my life has been reduced to, getting over every minute after the next. I am not sad, nor depressed. I just want to Not Talk for a very long time.
The flight was disastrous. I was next to a horrible man who kept drinking excessively and shouting and was eventually refused alcohol and then he spilt his whiskey all over me at 4am and I was not pleased.
But. Chin up. I am hibernating. I just want to hide somewhere. i feel like I've been beaten by a baseball bat by an extremely angry Danish-Muslim and left for dead in Damascus.
but I came back, slept and went straight to da paolo and bought squid-ink tagliatelle, feta and salami salad, grilled aubergines and potato salad, tomatoes, basil, yoghurt, mangoes, raw almonds, honey and Israeli persimmons and now I've had a bit of everything and what I really want is a Starbucks coffee but it is Too far away and I have no wheels.
I keep thinking that if I can get through this next minute without alcohol, maybe I can get through the minute after that and this is what my life has been reduced to, getting over every minute after the next. I am not sad, nor depressed. I just want to Not Talk for a very long time.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
anuradhapura
I went to Anuradhapura over the last three days on a field visit. We are looking to build schools there. Anuradhapura is overwhelmingly Sinhalese and Buddhist, with pockets of Hindu and Muslim communities (refugee pockets from the northern war). I understood very little of the trip, (imagine 3 days spent with people who don't speak your language) but it was peaceful and relaxing. Went to a lot of schools and preschools and sites and met communities that seem extraordinarily organized. Went to a women's development society that reminded me, rather inexplicably of the Convent in Toni Morrison's Paradise. Another thing in Anuradhapura, all the women were pregnant. I did not really see non-pregnant women. Apparently there is a common kidney problem amongst people there. Met some people from banks, who were intent on improving their village. Also went to the Twin Ponds, the 2000 year old site where kings and their concubines bathed. Anuradhapura has had a 102 kings in its history. It is well placed.
Finally went to the third highest ranking monk in the mrivisettiya temple with whom we're doing work. He tied a blessing-string around my wrist. And chanted. I love field work. I think I should have more stories and I'll try but I'm normally wasted by the time I come back.
Finally went to the third highest ranking monk in the mrivisettiya temple with whom we're doing work. He tied a blessing-string around my wrist. And chanted. I love field work. I think I should have more stories and I'll try but I'm normally wasted by the time I come back.
12 step
The Twelve Steps of Obsessives Anonymous
1. We admitted we were powerless over obsession — that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to obsessive compulsives and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
1. We admitted we were powerless over obsession — that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to obsessive compulsives and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
columbia
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds,--and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of
wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless falls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor eer eagle flew--
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God
John Gillespie Magee
quoted by Reagan on the demise of the Challenger
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds,--and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of
wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless falls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor eer eagle flew--
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God
John Gillespie Magee
quoted by Reagan on the demise of the Challenger
say
I should think that if it were me, I would want a particularly English romance, not too unlike the butler in Remains of the Day and the housekeeper, perhaps even to go so far as Christabel and Randolph, but approximating most Wimsey and Vane. That is, to be perfectly identified for the qualities that one prizes the most, restraint, fortitude, intelligence, justice and idealism with a singular disregard for the perception of the public, to be able to live alone, in quiet isolation, always working. Perfectly unromantically, pragmatically true. And no doubt there shall be many painful mistakes along the way, and quite truly it may never be realizable, but better is it not to fail in imagination than to succeed in imitation?
sunday times 29 jan
Where the awareness of the government of the operations of Non Governmental Organizations is limited despite the existence of a large number of such foreign funded NGOs in Sri Lanka
And whereas allegations have been leveled by numerous citizens to the effect that some such organizations are engaged in activities which are inimical to the sovereignty and integrity of Sri Lanka
And whereas it has been reported that these NGOs have been active in a manner detrimental to the national and social wellbeing of the country
And whereas it is reported that the activities of some of those NGOs have adversely affected national security as well
A Select Committee of Parliament under the Chairmanship of Mr. Nandana Gunathilake M.P. has been appointed to investigate the following matters relating to the operations and impact of those NGOs which are operative in Sri Lanka.
And whereas allegations have been leveled by numerous citizens to the effect that some such organizations are engaged in activities which are inimical to the sovereignty and integrity of Sri Lanka
And whereas it has been reported that these NGOs have been active in a manner detrimental to the national and social wellbeing of the country
And whereas it is reported that the activities of some of those NGOs have adversely affected national security as well
A Select Committee of Parliament under the Chairmanship of Mr. Nandana Gunathilake M.P. has been appointed to investigate the following matters relating to the operations and impact of those NGOs which are operative in Sri Lanka.
Monday, January 30, 2006
elephant
An interesting conversation with a true volunteer from San Diego, a kid of 21 who’s spent about six months in Sri Lanka, in the muck of constructing primary school upgrades, installing taps, gutters, building a community center, fundraising, doing all the unglamorous work in a remote village in Hambantota. A sweet kid, who’s really committed to the cause of education, children and development. We were exchanging stories yesterday of what it was like to work with old Sri Lankan friend. One of the villages he was working in had an elephant problem (where elephants routinely marauded and raided kitchens, school buildings etc. causing havoc for the sake of it). So he rounded up some barbed wire and erected a lamppost around his tiny community center as a makeshift barrier. The next morning he asked a villager whether they still had an elephant problem. Stoically the villager responded ‘ We don’t have an elephant problem anymore”. Friend rejoices. “but the neighbours now have an elephant problem’. Haha.
Also talking about a particular guesthouse in Jaffna, whose proprietor is slightly insane. I had gone there to visit a cousin once and gone up to his room to chat. The next day the proprietor had gone off on my cousin, in tamil, saying that this was not that kind of establishment and that such goings on were a disgrace to Jaffna! This friend had also met the same proprietor (who’s like 70) and had been told off by him: You are a stupid Yankee and an idiot. (slowly, enunciating each word). Friend horrified had refused to eat his food. Proprietor comes up and knocks on the door for 20 minutes saying: I am a diabetic and a heart patient. Please come and eat.
I tell you.
Also talking about a particular guesthouse in Jaffna, whose proprietor is slightly insane. I had gone there to visit a cousin once and gone up to his room to chat. The next day the proprietor had gone off on my cousin, in tamil, saying that this was not that kind of establishment and that such goings on were a disgrace to Jaffna! This friend had also met the same proprietor (who’s like 70) and had been told off by him: You are a stupid Yankee and an idiot. (slowly, enunciating each word). Friend horrified had refused to eat his food. Proprietor comes up and knocks on the door for 20 minutes saying: I am a diabetic and a heart patient. Please come and eat.
I tell you.
U2
"Stuck In A Moment"
I'm not afraid
Of anything in this world
There's nothing you can throw at me
That I haven't already heard
I'm just trying to find
A decent melody
A song that I can sing
In my own company
I never thought you were a fool
But darling look at you
You gotta stand up straight
Carry your own weight
These tears are going nowhere baby
You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment
And now you can't get out of it
Don't say that later will be better
Now you're stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it
I will not forsake
The colors that you bring
The nights you filled with fireworks
They left you with nothing
I am still enchanted
By the light you brought to me
I listen through your ears
Through your eyes I can see
And you are such a fool
To worry like you do
I know it's tough
And you can never get enough
Of what you don't really need now
My, oh my
You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it
Oh love, look at you now
You've got yourself stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it
I was unconscious, half asleep
The water is warm 'til you discover how deep
I wasn't jumping, for me it was a fall
It's a long way down to nothing at all
You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it
Don't say that later will be better
Now you're stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it
And if the night runs over
And if the day won't last
And if our way should falter
Along the stony pass
And if the night runs over
And if the day won't last
And if your way should falter
Along this stony pass
It's just a moment
This time will pass
I'm not afraid
Of anything in this world
There's nothing you can throw at me
That I haven't already heard
I'm just trying to find
A decent melody
A song that I can sing
In my own company
I never thought you were a fool
But darling look at you
You gotta stand up straight
Carry your own weight
These tears are going nowhere baby
You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment
And now you can't get out of it
Don't say that later will be better
Now you're stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it
I will not forsake
The colors that you bring
The nights you filled with fireworks
They left you with nothing
I am still enchanted
By the light you brought to me
I listen through your ears
Through your eyes I can see
And you are such a fool
To worry like you do
I know it's tough
And you can never get enough
Of what you don't really need now
My, oh my
You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it
Oh love, look at you now
You've got yourself stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it
I was unconscious, half asleep
The water is warm 'til you discover how deep
I wasn't jumping, for me it was a fall
It's a long way down to nothing at all
You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it
Don't say that later will be better
Now you're stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it
And if the night runs over
And if the day won't last
And if our way should falter
Along the stony pass
And if the night runs over
And if the day won't last
And if your way should falter
Along this stony pass
It's just a moment
This time will pass
Friday, January 27, 2006
public transport
I’ve had some strange adventures in the backs of London cabs. Most of you know them already, but I have to admit, I have a particularly benign relationship with semi-public transport (that has manifested itself here in Sri Lanka too where Tamil auto drivers will counsel me on how to deal with the police and take me home and watch until I’ve latched the door, to asking me out for a drink (and offering to pay, natch) to talking about politics across the country). Anyway, this post is to record two adventures in London cabs (this excess of blogging is really to deflect any pangs of missing). And also an incident at Selfridges. As you can tell, I am feeling particularly low.
Where I am the Next Nina Simone
One drunken night, I hailed a cab outside Canary Wharf after post-work drinks, which for some reason went on all night, chiefly because all of us had nothing better to do really. As I get into the cab, (saying the address, Russell Square) the cabbie turns to me and asks,
Cabbie: Were you in Pop Idol love?
Me: Wot? Me? No.
Cabbie: I thought you were (in cockney twang). I thought to myself, as yer got in, that I’ve seen your face before and when I heard your voice, I thought you’d been singing love.
Me: I sing like a donkey. Wasn’t me. And in the shower I sing
Cabbie: I bet you can sing though. I bet you can. You have a lovely voice
Me: How would you know? I’ve only spoken two sentences!
Cabbie: I know these things. I run a recording outfit. We held the World Peace Concert last week, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I’ve got lots of singers, singing for charity. Go on love, give us a song
Me: what? I cannot, repeat cannot sing
Cabbie: There’s no one else here but me, and we’ve got quite a ride left
Me: Alright, I’ll sing if you sing with me. I ain’t singing alone.
Cabbie: No problem. What you’re singing
Me; (in a fit of despondency), Nina Simone. Wild as the Wind. Do you know it?
Cabbie: Yeah. Lovely song innit. Alright. Whenever you’re ready
Me: (Wailing) Love me, love me, say you do. Let me fly away with you. ….
Cabbie: (joins in). You kiss me, I hear the sound of mandolins
Me: (finish. Silence in the cab).
Cabbie: you have a lovely voice. You should sing the gospel blues, strong black music with heart and character. None of this pop stuff for you. Why don’t you come down to the studio. It’s at the church
Me; (Staring out of the window. ) I reckon I’ll just stick to the day job hon. Even though I hate it. Thanks anyway.
Cabbie: Well here’s my card anyway. Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Liverpool Street, Sunday.
Where I meet ....
Another drunken night (yes I am noticing a trend here), I step out of a club after a night out with a couple of guys and Jules in some club that festered with Russians (this was the night that I met H and then I was rhapsodizing about what a cool classy cat he was until I found out he was a total bore). Hailing cabs desperately on Oxford St/Tottenham Court Road at 4am is quite obviously an exercise in futility (oh how I yearn for those nights when there was no surfeit of friends, things to do, or money and no surfeit of problems that were over-magnified and totally neurotic!). I hailed a cab, and as I crossed the street to get into it, four guys got into it from the other side. I paused in shock! How rude! The cabbie is talking to them wildly to say that I am a girl and I need to get home fast. But they’re like, we’ll drop her off. And the cabdriver finally hangs his head and says to me, get in love, (yes they all call me love. Its an English thing and one I sorely miss) I’ll make sure you get home.
So I get in.
Four American guys all dressed in leather except for one in a shirt look at me.
I sit down on the fold down seat.
Guy 1: So where are you from?
Me; (explain my history)
Guy 2: Who’re you working for now?
Me; Morgan Stanley. Boring American investment bank. Can’t stand the Americans. All they know how to do is fuck things up. Look at your president.
Discussion descends into an arcane political discussion about American politics and the Clintons.
Guy 3: You are one classy dame huh? 23 and you know this shit. Damn, I didn’t know they made them like you anymore
Me: Yeah well.
Me: So what do you guys do?
Guys: (look all around).
Guy 1: Heard of Offspring?
Me: Yeah I think so. Something to do with Rock right? I wouldn’t know
Guy 2: Who do you like?
Me: Chet Baker, Nina Simone. Old stuff.
Guy 3: The lady knows her shit
Guy 4: We just finished taping a session with Channel 4. Pop Quiz live or something.
Me: So you’re really like, a rock band?
Guy 3: Yeah, we’re staying at the Lanesborourgh. Want to come over?
Me: Nah. I need my sleep. Good luck though
Guy 2: Thanks! Great to have met you! Keep it real.
I descend. Was it the alcohol? Unfortunately Offspring doesn’t really matter to me.
Incident at Selfridges.
It’s a week to Christmas. Its 9pm and Selfridges are still open. I’m due to go home in a week and I’m standing on the escalator particularly depressed going from one hall to the next. Behind me an elderly gentleman all wrapped up in a very good quality British overcoat and muffler, with distinguished trimmed white hair coughs. I turn around. He comes up to me, on my step, pauses for a second and delivers the following:
You have the most beautiful hair I’ve ever seen. Its’ alive.
I pause and stare in shock. My hair that’s a year late in rebonding and is all over the place? My hair? My secret passion?
And then he says Merry Christmas and walks on.
Thank you I say.
(marry me is what I want to say).
Do you think that they make’em like that anymore?
Where I am the Next Nina Simone
One drunken night, I hailed a cab outside Canary Wharf after post-work drinks, which for some reason went on all night, chiefly because all of us had nothing better to do really. As I get into the cab, (saying the address, Russell Square) the cabbie turns to me and asks,
Cabbie: Were you in Pop Idol love?
Me: Wot? Me? No.
Cabbie: I thought you were (in cockney twang). I thought to myself, as yer got in, that I’ve seen your face before and when I heard your voice, I thought you’d been singing love.
Me: I sing like a donkey. Wasn’t me. And in the shower I sing
Cabbie: I bet you can sing though. I bet you can. You have a lovely voice
Me: How would you know? I’ve only spoken two sentences!
Cabbie: I know these things. I run a recording outfit. We held the World Peace Concert last week, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I’ve got lots of singers, singing for charity. Go on love, give us a song
Me: what? I cannot, repeat cannot sing
Cabbie: There’s no one else here but me, and we’ve got quite a ride left
Me: Alright, I’ll sing if you sing with me. I ain’t singing alone.
Cabbie: No problem. What you’re singing
Me; (in a fit of despondency), Nina Simone. Wild as the Wind. Do you know it?
Cabbie: Yeah. Lovely song innit. Alright. Whenever you’re ready
Me: (Wailing) Love me, love me, say you do. Let me fly away with you. ….
Cabbie: (joins in). You kiss me, I hear the sound of mandolins
Me: (finish. Silence in the cab).
Cabbie: you have a lovely voice. You should sing the gospel blues, strong black music with heart and character. None of this pop stuff for you. Why don’t you come down to the studio. It’s at the church
Me; (Staring out of the window. ) I reckon I’ll just stick to the day job hon. Even though I hate it. Thanks anyway.
Cabbie: Well here’s my card anyway. Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Liverpool Street, Sunday.
Where I meet ....
Another drunken night (yes I am noticing a trend here), I step out of a club after a night out with a couple of guys and Jules in some club that festered with Russians (this was the night that I met H and then I was rhapsodizing about what a cool classy cat he was until I found out he was a total bore). Hailing cabs desperately on Oxford St/Tottenham Court Road at 4am is quite obviously an exercise in futility (oh how I yearn for those nights when there was no surfeit of friends, things to do, or money and no surfeit of problems that were over-magnified and totally neurotic!). I hailed a cab, and as I crossed the street to get into it, four guys got into it from the other side. I paused in shock! How rude! The cabbie is talking to them wildly to say that I am a girl and I need to get home fast. But they’re like, we’ll drop her off. And the cabdriver finally hangs his head and says to me, get in love, (yes they all call me love. Its an English thing and one I sorely miss) I’ll make sure you get home.
So I get in.
Four American guys all dressed in leather except for one in a shirt look at me.
I sit down on the fold down seat.
Guy 1: So where are you from?
Me; (explain my history)
Guy 2: Who’re you working for now?
Me; Morgan Stanley. Boring American investment bank. Can’t stand the Americans. All they know how to do is fuck things up. Look at your president.
Discussion descends into an arcane political discussion about American politics and the Clintons.
Guy 3: You are one classy dame huh? 23 and you know this shit. Damn, I didn’t know they made them like you anymore
Me: Yeah well.
Me: So what do you guys do?
Guys: (look all around).
Guy 1: Heard of Offspring?
Me: Yeah I think so. Something to do with Rock right? I wouldn’t know
Guy 2: Who do you like?
Me: Chet Baker, Nina Simone. Old stuff.
Guy 3: The lady knows her shit
Guy 4: We just finished taping a session with Channel 4. Pop Quiz live or something.
Me: So you’re really like, a rock band?
Guy 3: Yeah, we’re staying at the Lanesborourgh. Want to come over?
Me: Nah. I need my sleep. Good luck though
Guy 2: Thanks! Great to have met you! Keep it real.
I descend. Was it the alcohol? Unfortunately Offspring doesn’t really matter to me.
Incident at Selfridges.
It’s a week to Christmas. Its 9pm and Selfridges are still open. I’m due to go home in a week and I’m standing on the escalator particularly depressed going from one hall to the next. Behind me an elderly gentleman all wrapped up in a very good quality British overcoat and muffler, with distinguished trimmed white hair coughs. I turn around. He comes up to me, on my step, pauses for a second and delivers the following:
You have the most beautiful hair I’ve ever seen. Its’ alive.
I pause and stare in shock. My hair that’s a year late in rebonding and is all over the place? My hair? My secret passion?
And then he says Merry Christmas and walks on.
Thank you I say.
(marry me is what I want to say).
Do you think that they make’em like that anymore?
ms2r2r
Okay so I know this might be a trifle self-serving , but since i have an immense readership of like 3 people (you guys know who you are, but for the record, Cins, Jules and Rosh!) I thought I might post up the following since y'all don't know that much about my work and thought I would spread the gospel a little. (The following is an extract: basically Morgan Stanley, my ex-firm tracked me down and wanted to do a feature story on my work on the Alumni website (sadly, or fortunately, you need to be alumni to actually see the story!). So here I am, talking about my NGO and development! So that this blog remains off-radar, I have used R2R for what my NGO actually is).
What inspired you to become involved with R2R?
R2R's particular brand of passion, energy and dynamism in solving the educational problems of developing countries attracted me initially, especially its management team which then consisted of John Wood and Erin Ganju. Their method of working through challenge grants where communities work to invest in their own schools and libraries (by providing labour, materials, land etc) ensured a sustainable development approach by empowering local communities and giving them ownership of these resources. The low overhead ratio of less than 10% (meaning that more than 90 cents of every dollar go directly to targeted beneficiaries) also pointed to the rare NGO that was more focused on achieving development goals, rather than development rhetoric.
The flexible, efficient and non-bureaucratic modus operandi was also particularly attractive, as it replicated the environment at Morgan Stanley, where the focus was on getting stuff done .
How long have you been working for the organization, and what are your responsibilities in your current role?
I have been working for about a year with R2R Sri Lanka. As Country Director, I head up the Sri Lanka office and am in charge of all in-country program strategy and execution, focusing on school construction, library establishment, girls' scholarships, and children's fiction publishing in the local language across the southern and northeastern areas. In 2005 we focused on tsunami reconstruction and rehabilitation, and attempted to work fairly across both ethnic communities. In 2006, we will be continuing our work across the tsunami belt and also expanding into the interior tea plantation areas which have been historically neglected as well as the border villages between the government controlled areas and the rebel-controlled areas, which typically, also has been neglected. The escalating political situation and increasing armed violence has all of us tense, but we remain hopeful that aid agencies will continue to be able to operate without significant hindrances.
Can you share a specific story or two that would illustrate the impact Room to Read's school-rebuilding project has made in Sri Lanka?
Working in development can be at times extremely dispiriting and frustrating. The bureaucratic hurdles, lack of political will to implement policy change from the top, corruption, civil war can all act to seem overwhelming at times. Yet, the opportunity to interact with war victims, tsunami victims or abused individuals can provide the glimpse into why aid is important, why it gets it right more times than it gets it wrong, and how we all have a responsibility, as members of the developed world, and as of humanity, to give and receive humanitarian assistance whenever possible.
We get this grassroots experience every day as part of R2R. In Sri Lanka, we have built 39 preschools in 2005, through the cooperation of local communities. The preschools have provided an important start to early education and restored normalcy to many children's lives that have been affected by the tsunami. A semi-structured learning approach has given them the chance to focus on the road ahead and not the losses behind.
The training that we provide to the teachers provides these young women with a sense of achievement, of knowledge which they pass onto the next generation. By educating children, we are focusing on the age-group with the most potential for change, and therefore with the most potential for hope. By integrating training and workshops across the island, we have begun to build bridges across hitherto mutually isolated communities. Our work has sown the seeds of a peacebuilding dialogue at the grassroots level, and as such, both the goals of development and human security are attempted to be achieved.
We strive to set this tone of nonalignment and impartiality and fairness in all our work across this extremely divided island. With an all-local, diverse staff, we are able to cross cultures and be accepted in villages and communities of all ethnic and religious denominations. In addition, the incredible goodwill shown to us by the villages and schools and their unceasing work in the face of so much lack, has ultimately made our work possible.
When did your tenure with the company begin/end? Which office(s) did you work in? What was your position, and within what business group did you work? Also, is there anything in particular that you learned while working at Morgan Stanley that has helped you succeed in your new position?
I started as an Analyst at the Credit Department in London in June 2002, shortly after graduating from the London School of Economics with a Bsc in Government and Economics. I was chiefly assigned to working within the Commodities section in the Credit Department and got to interact with a very wide range of clients, internal groups and colleagues. The professionalism of colleagues, their eagerness to teach new analysts the ropes, and the positive attitudes to teamwork and achievements really helped me to hit the ground running at Room to Read. Particularly, my excellent mentor was the best example of how to run a team and achieve results exceeding expectations while always remaining gracious under pressure!
What inspired you to become involved with R2R?
R2R's particular brand of passion, energy and dynamism in solving the educational problems of developing countries attracted me initially, especially its management team which then consisted of John Wood and Erin Ganju. Their method of working through challenge grants where communities work to invest in their own schools and libraries (by providing labour, materials, land etc) ensured a sustainable development approach by empowering local communities and giving them ownership of these resources. The low overhead ratio of less than 10% (meaning that more than 90 cents of every dollar go directly to targeted beneficiaries) also pointed to the rare NGO that was more focused on achieving development goals, rather than development rhetoric.
The flexible, efficient and non-bureaucratic modus operandi was also particularly attractive, as it replicated the environment at Morgan Stanley, where the focus was on getting stuff done .
How long have you been working for the organization, and what are your responsibilities in your current role?
I have been working for about a year with R2R Sri Lanka. As Country Director, I head up the Sri Lanka office and am in charge of all in-country program strategy and execution, focusing on school construction, library establishment, girls' scholarships, and children's fiction publishing in the local language across the southern and northeastern areas. In 2005 we focused on tsunami reconstruction and rehabilitation, and attempted to work fairly across both ethnic communities. In 2006, we will be continuing our work across the tsunami belt and also expanding into the interior tea plantation areas which have been historically neglected as well as the border villages between the government controlled areas and the rebel-controlled areas, which typically, also has been neglected. The escalating political situation and increasing armed violence has all of us tense, but we remain hopeful that aid agencies will continue to be able to operate without significant hindrances.
Can you share a specific story or two that would illustrate the impact Room to Read's school-rebuilding project has made in Sri Lanka?
Working in development can be at times extremely dispiriting and frustrating. The bureaucratic hurdles, lack of political will to implement policy change from the top, corruption, civil war can all act to seem overwhelming at times. Yet, the opportunity to interact with war victims, tsunami victims or abused individuals can provide the glimpse into why aid is important, why it gets it right more times than it gets it wrong, and how we all have a responsibility, as members of the developed world, and as of humanity, to give and receive humanitarian assistance whenever possible.
We get this grassroots experience every day as part of R2R. In Sri Lanka, we have built 39 preschools in 2005, through the cooperation of local communities. The preschools have provided an important start to early education and restored normalcy to many children's lives that have been affected by the tsunami. A semi-structured learning approach has given them the chance to focus on the road ahead and not the losses behind.
The training that we provide to the teachers provides these young women with a sense of achievement, of knowledge which they pass onto the next generation. By educating children, we are focusing on the age-group with the most potential for change, and therefore with the most potential for hope. By integrating training and workshops across the island, we have begun to build bridges across hitherto mutually isolated communities. Our work has sown the seeds of a peacebuilding dialogue at the grassroots level, and as such, both the goals of development and human security are attempted to be achieved.
We strive to set this tone of nonalignment and impartiality and fairness in all our work across this extremely divided island. With an all-local, diverse staff, we are able to cross cultures and be accepted in villages and communities of all ethnic and religious denominations. In addition, the incredible goodwill shown to us by the villages and schools and their unceasing work in the face of so much lack, has ultimately made our work possible.
When did your tenure with the company begin/end? Which office(s) did you work in? What was your position, and within what business group did you work? Also, is there anything in particular that you learned while working at Morgan Stanley that has helped you succeed in your new position?
I started as an Analyst at the Credit Department in London in June 2002, shortly after graduating from the London School of Economics with a Bsc in Government and Economics. I was chiefly assigned to working within the Commodities section in the Credit Department and got to interact with a very wide range of clients, internal groups and colleagues. The professionalism of colleagues, their eagerness to teach new analysts the ropes, and the positive attitudes to teamwork and achievements really helped me to hit the ground running at Room to Read. Particularly, my excellent mentor was the best example of how to run a team and achieve results exceeding expectations while always remaining gracious under pressure!
peace
Open house of an INGO last night. The thing about hanging around with peaceniks is that they are all so darn weird. Its as though that organic apple juice that they drink is laced with shrooms and hashish, and as a result they float around the world, talking in their own impenetrable code of peace, human security and reconciliation with only an indifferent gaze to the hard political realities of the world. Realpolitik is a game they do not want to play and whereas I applaud most heartily their sentiments of peace, yet, I do not think that they are optimally strategically engaged in achieving their goal. But then again, what would I know. Also if I meet any more Thomians, I am going to scream. Also, the trick is, not to give into the thought.
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