Anger with Enthusiasm?

I had some many rages inside me, I felt almost catatonic. Depression is anger without the enthusiasm. Fucking A.

I had just finished reading “Geldof in Africa”, a nice little read consisting of
various anecdotes about Sir Bob’s travels. But it all went wrong in the end, he finished with a horrendously upbeat piece about the Live8 concerts of last year and of the 50 billion pledge to help the worlds poorest. Bob was ecstatic, something really had been achieved, a triumph over cynicism, “they” would make sure the 50billion didn’t get squandered by corruption. But who was going to make sure the cash didn’t get mostly squandered on consultants, admin, project delays and downright lack of care on the part of those involved in spending it?

How do you spend your 50billion?

Do you go straight to grassroots, after all the poor are the ones who really know what they need? But this is not sustainable, because in doing so you effectively create a paraellel administrative structure which serves to disempower the local government. After all, who needs to bother with a national health strategy when some philanthropists have decided to build and run a bunch of clinics for you?

Maybe you decide to split the difference and go for a grassroots based project in partnership with the government. Again much of your budget will be taken up with admin costs, specially with those nice fat ex-pat salaries to pay (you do have one of your own running the project, don’t you?), not to mention their travel costs and other benefits. The project funding will be guaranteed for a relatively short amount of time, say two years. Of course it can be extended, but only if results are shown from the initial operation, by which time the ex-pat team lead will have changed and very little of the lessons learned, working relationships and knowledge from the first phase will carry over to the new manager. Or maybe the funds get cancelled due to a policy change back home, activities are stopped and long term impact is dubious – the only guaranteed benefit is to the CV of ex-pat manager. Your local staff will have lived through enough of such scenarios not to bother pushing themselves too hard during the project start up phase. Maybe if you hang around with the same manager for 5 or so years, the local guys will start to trust that you’re in for the long haul. But how often does that happen?

Do you go straight to the national government and provide direct budgetary support? What if there is no functioning government? What if the government has endemic corruption? And what if you realise that even in the case of the functioning, non corrupt government, much of the donation will go on administration costs, endless workshops, transportation, training costs – the “machinery of the state” – and make take years to have a real impact on poverty?

No good deed goes unpunished. Fuck it! Maybe I need to get off this continent.
But I suspect Africa isn’t the problem, the problem is the West, the structure, those do-gooders who should know better and those desperately under-aware general publics in Western Nations who think throwing money at Africa is the solution. It’s the whole rotten system and no matter where I move I can’t escape that.

God, I’m pathetic…all this impotent rage and all I really wish is that I could go back to a time when I didn’t know about any of this, when I didn’t have to care.

I take it back….I don’t want to know how far down the rabbit hole goes…I’ll have the blue pill, thankyouverymuch. Now!