Go forward by going back

It reminds me of a joke that we had in Malawi about the proliferation of useless (and often fraudulent) NGOs – we talked about the NGO TWACIB, which stood for “Two wankers and a computer in Blantyre.”

This joke from Aid Thoughts might be close to home for me, but there is a lot of need for introspection among all NGOs to make sure that, even if you are a wanker, you do no harm.

HT Owen Barder via Bill Easterly.

Barder relays a tale of “too small to succeed”

A friend of mine is the country director of a small NGO based here in Ethiopia. She thinks that what they do is worthwhile, but that they are far too small to be a cost-effective way to help people. Ideally she would like the work she does to be taken over and absorbed into a larger organisation; but there is no way in the aid industry for this to happen.

From the obituary of a woman lost at an all-too-young age:

this is Thembi,” began the diaries. ”Every morning when I wake up I run off to my drawer, take out the mirror and look at myself. Then I start to do my prayer. I say it every day every time when I am feeling angry.”

”I say, ‘Hello HIV, you trespasser. You are in my body, you have to obey their rules. you have to respect me and if you don’t hurt me, I won’t hurt you. You mind your business and I will mind mine and I will give you a ticket when your time comes,” she said.

Ngubane was 19 when she was given a tape recorder to make an audio diary about living with HIV in a country where nearly one third of young women are infected with the virus.

From James Kwak:

Like most Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, when I started my company, one of the motivations was the small chance of someday making a lot of money. Back in 2001, none of us looked around the table and said, “You know, I would work really hard at this startup, but since I’m going to have to pay the estate tax if we’re successful, I’m just going to phone it in.

A couple of independent news items from Ecuador have me thinking of the country I lived in from 2003 to 2004.

First the really bad news…Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa recently announced that Ecuador will be unable to pay interest on its international debt. The decision has been made to default on $3.9 billion in international bonds. In the short run, this means that Ecuador is going to see a significant drop in interest from international lenders. In the medium to long run, Goldman Sachs predicts that this decision precludes a detachment from the exchange rate policy of dollarization that has been implemented since 2000. In stable times, detachment from the dollar might cause some disruptions, but could be managed. Forced detachment because lending has dried up will certainly make the switch more chaotic.

Second bit of news is that the former mayor of Guayaquil, President of Ecuador, and Senator of Guayas and long time firebrand, León Febres Cordero, has died of lung cancer. This is a man, who at the age of 73 got in a fist fight on an airplane with another member of the Senate. At a social gathering in Guayaquil, the younger brother of Febres Cordero once explained to me with a great deal of pride how León and his mafia cleaned the streets of Guayaquil with an iron fist and. This man, supported by many in Ecuador, was a true throwback to the Old West days, as suggested in this quote:

During the toasts at a state dinner given by President Reagan in 1986, Mr. Febres Cordero briefly summed up his philosophy, “I must confess that I’m still an addict to Westerns.”

This is kind of like blaming the baby for throwing herself and the bathwater out.

Harare blames retailers for price inflation

There are some interesting alternatives being tested in Africa for bike delivery and sales. One option here in Zomba, Malawi is offered by Africycle. This is an organization run by a great group of Canadians, using bike donations mostly from the Toronto area.

This article in The Economist presents an interesting twist on bike offerings. By constructing bike frames from bamboo and imported parts, one organization in Ghana plans to begin sales of a new style of bike.

Great initiative. My main concern is the durability, number of gears and the price level. The article puts the cost at $55, sounds like a good price, but low quality bikes are already available at similar prices. Can a bamboo bike fill the quality gap?

This is the worst result of government failure in Zimbabwe.

Lack of resources to treat the water supply has left citizens of Harare without water. Without a main source of water and while rains remain unreliable, the poor are bound to seek out unsanitary sources of water and perpetuate the spread of cholera, which has already killed an estimated 473 people and infected more than 11,000.

Just as with any terrorist attack, there is great reason for concern and sorrow following the events in Mumbai.

Suketu Mehta writes an impassioned and moving treatise on modern religious relations and the threats that militant religious groups pose to the “golden songbird” that is Mumbai.

Mehta is the author of Maximum City, which is required reading for anyone interested in urban poverty and institutions.

A recent story from the New York Times has me longing for my birthplace of Burlington, Vermont. However, as I read about the familiarities of the city, I realize how much I find unfamiliar in a town that I have not lived in for 11 years, but still consider home.

…where news is plural:

DR Congo refugee camps ‘burned’

Congo-Kinshasa: Government Troops ‘On the Rampage’

Panic grips DRC as rebels advance on town of Goma

I’m skeptical that the UN has enough of forces in and around Goma to hold the china set together should fighting break loose in the city. I doubt Nkunda’s threat to take fighting to Kinshasa is credible. But should killings continue in refugee camps or if fighting opens up in Goma, this will not be an easy conflict to stop.