Last week I heard the story of an international NGO's new office in a nearby state. The office compound and the clinic it supports are in a very rural area, which had not seen much in the way of modern amenities, especially amenities such as the hulking, noisy oil-fired generator used at the compound.
As the NGO moved into the compound and the generator started up, the area was in the middle of a drought. Dubious neighbors decided that the generator had caused the drought. Such a conclusion was superstitious, opportunistic, or, given East Africa's recent decades of drought, brilliantly intuitive. In any case, the issue was solved by killing a goat for a feast.
I remember having a discussion about international politics over lunch with some of my colleagues in February. Their hearty appreciation of George Bush, Barack Obama, and the U.S. in general was tempered only by disappointment with the then-Special Envoy for Darfur, who was widely perceived as weak. As the topic shifted to the UN, there were no hard feelings, but less enthusiasm. (There may be hard feelings now.) The biggest laugh was had when someone brought up the money spent on climate change. That made me just a tad bit uncomfortable, but at least Sudan has largely escaped some of the more convoluted climate change in development schemes out there. All that remains is to find the meta-goat of culturally appropriate health and development initiatives :).
- John
Photo courtesy US EPA
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