Hi all,

as with a lot of threads here, this one has become more and more interesting as it deviated further away from the original request... but at least it also shows that, not only for overlanders and travellers, it remains always a good topic to discuss over a - or, the new alternative indeed to the local pub, the bulletin board...

I find it most amazing that the strongest opinions seem to come from people who have, let's be honest, zero experience, other than just seeing it from a distance, on television, or reading an article of a fiasco (a very good one for that matter - perfect example of the huge mistakes that have been made and still are being made) that dates from years ago.

Let me first of all say that I am part of the 'evil' humanitarian business. I am the country director of one of those multi-national NGO's (I do quite like the use of the term 'multi-national' here - it immediately makes it sound the equivalent of Chiquita, BP, or alike), working in a country where most of you (and that included myself when I was overlanding in Africa - yes, I have traveled 7 months through Africa, so I have experienced that part as well) would hardly dare to travel through. We work mainly with refugees, and amongst other activities 'run' a refugee camp quite in the middle of the desert, providing amongst other services daily water for 27,000 refugees (300,000 liter water a day, every day - try to do that with grass-root work in a place where last year there was 4 days of rain, and where there is hardly or no wells - and despite hydrogeological surveys, not to be found either), primary and secondary health services, education, protection programs - and I won't bother you more with the other ones).

Arrogant to think that a lot of those people would be dead now if it weren't for the assistance we (or more in general the 'evil' humanitarian business) are providing them, either of plain and simple thurst or hunger, dyphteria, typhoid, cholera - or any other ones of your choice... Less true because it is arrogant? Don't think so... but maybe other people who have actually been in those refugee camps might have a better opinion about it...

Is it a business? Of course it is - how else would you run an organisation, humanitarian or not... Are our staff more or less motivated than volunteers just because they are paid? I doubt it... Do we have overhead that has no direct benefit for the beneficiaries? Again, of course - but have you thought about all the overhead that went into the apple that you bought this morning in the supermarket? Why would that overhead be less in providing a service to refugees, especially in a country where everything is hugely expensive, where 40% of my fleet has been carjacked in 2 months (yes, we are one of those white Landcruiser driving organisations - but to make it maybe less bad for you, not the shiny UN ones...), where I have curfew as of 6pm so I have at least to try and make life for staff working in those conditions for 12 or more months as bearable as possible, where power and water is non-existing so yes, I do need a generator to run things or water tanks to prevent my staff starting to get really smelly after a few days...

Am I (or my colleagues for that matter - I take myself the liberty to speak a bit on behalf of...) looking down on small grass-root organisations doing fantastic field-work? Not at all, on the contrary even - but let's also be realistic, and see the things they are not able to do, just because of scale... and as someone in the thread pointed out quite rightly, skilled people is also pretty essential - which again does not mean I consider them all as unskilled, on the contrary - but a bleeding heart sentiment is in this world just not sufficient anymore. I know very well that running an orphanage looks very useful and can be very rewarding - but people tend to forget (or just don't know) that very often orphanages are used by local people to put their kids there just because they think they will have a better future, or because the family structures have changed and the new father does not accept the kids, or a lot more other reasons you can think of.

I could give a lot more examples but that is not the point of this reply - I just wanted to point out that the situation is a bit more complicated than it might seem from a distance - or even when having seen it with your eyes when traveling or overlanding. Yes, the 'big' humanitarian world has made enormous mistakes, yes, the UN is a money-guzzling organisation which is often lead by political motives - but also yes, people in the field are most often driven, dedicated people...

Ok, got it of my chest You can all shoot now... oh, and in case you were wondering, I work and live in Chad - so please all of you feel free to come by and stay for a couple of days, have a few cold s, take the rest before continuing, and continue this discussion while enjoying the luxury humanitarian expat life I am leading...

cheers/jef