First Impressions...

Hi

So I finally saw the NGO I am to be working with today. And I have very mixed impressions. We were talking about the nature of NGOs (which are actually legally NPOs - Non-Profit Organisations). Human Health Development Trust (HHDT) who I am working with are owed either 2.2 or 0.5 million Rand by the government (somehow 2 figures were thrown around not sure which is right). It seems the government contracts NPOs to do a job and pays them at the end. However they are not very good at actually coughing up the dough. You go through the process of writing letters to each level of the department till you get to the minister. If nothing happens then you sue them. And they shut you down by destroying your reputation. And that is the end. Questions anyone? I had plenty. How does the gov't get away with this? I can't tell if its a tokenistic effort ie. contracting the NPOs so that they look good internationally or if the bureacracy is just REALLY inefficent. Further to that it seems of the many many registered NPOs only 20% actually do anything for the community. The rest just take the money and run. A distrubring high percentage are actually GONGOs (Government Owned Non-Government Organisations) which means a minister basically owns the NGO (which is a front anyway) makes sure the tender goes to their NGO then does no work and keeps the dosh. And it seems there are no consequences if an NGO gets a tender and does nothing! You can just abscond with millions of Rand if you can produce a nice proposal in the beginning! I know that development is an industry, and now that I think about it Natalie, I remember when your mum was with CARE and used to say development was a total fraud and money making scheme. I think I have to say I agree with her - at least in some cases. I can see why so many donors try to put so much conditionality on their loans/projects. But Eric (HHTD guy) was saying that most projects are now totally dictated by the donor, so for example when the donors are promoting TB programs everyone does TB programs, as soon as the agenda changes so does every single NGO! NOt just their projects but their charter and mission statement - everything.

I just feel like all those words which seemed to mean so much in my essays and lectures at home - like accountablity, community participation, empowerment, transperancy, mean nothing here in the real world. Sigh. I'm trying to take a duck's approach to it all - let the disturbing content roll of my back like water, rather than the sponge approach I usually have.... but its hard. This is all so depressing! It seems most people in this field are just corrupt money makers and its a multi-billion dollar industry!

Eric was saying that we will never win the battle against HIV in this country because it employs too many people - 2 million apparantly. A cure would kill all those jobs. Plus the millions of dollars that goes into politians pockets to ensure which NGO actually gets the tender. But how many millions of people are going to suffer and die painfully to sustain this industry. The development industry is the same I guess. If we actually solve the problem of poverty a huge number of people would be out of business. Personally I think that's an ok price to pay but it seems the rest of the world disagrees.

I know you're probably all thinking 'Bronnie you're so naive, this is the real world what else did you expect?' And I think the same. But I guess I'm just more optimistic than I realised because I refuse to accept this is the best it will be.

We also talked about the current state of the police force. It seems more than half of the trained officers have HIV. Which means in the near future most of them will be unfit for work - most likely dead. So the solution is to bring in all these new cops who have had 6 months training - mostly in what the uniform looks like and who the minister is. They have no actual training in how to be a police officer. That's meant to be learned on the job. But the real police resent this policy so no training is actually happening - they are totally clueless. For example one guy in my class, Siabonga, was telling me there was a traffic accident the other day that he saw. It was bad and there were 2 young cops who attended. The guy died in the car in front of everyone coz they didn't know how to get an ambulance. Personally I find this shocking. But it reminds me of when were in Cambodia and Nicole told us she saw this really bad accident happen right in front of them on the way to Angkor Watt - the car she was in kept going but they flagged down some police. The police listened but didn't really care at all, Nicole didn't even think they were going to attend the crash site - meanwhile the people in the car were probably dying. How is this ok? I know things are different overseas but it seems here life really is quite cheap. If its too much work to improve or even save the lives of others too bad for them. Maybe i've just never looked hard enough before but I swear not everywhere is like this.