All I Wanna Do

16 Nov

Day three of this week’s Tales From the Hood rock ‘n’ roll marathon.

Here’s the third tune in the playlist:

This ain’t no disco
It ain’t no country club either
This is LA!

Articles like this one used to annoy me for reasons that I couldn’t quite pin down and articulate well. Now I’m in touch with my reasons, and articles like this just make me chuckle:

Getting involved in aid and development: Businesses can do much to aid development but approaches should be carefully considered before jumping in.

It’s not than anything harmful is being proposed. It’s not that the suggestions are wrong or bad (they’re actually pretty sensible, mostly). And in this rare instance, it’s not even aid elitism (which, as you know by now, I very cheerfully embrace . This is a profession, not a hobby.. don’t get me started…).

But all I wanna say is, guys, have some fun. It’s good.. great.. awesome, even, that you want to “tune into local realities”, or provide a “retail/charity option that allows consumers to do something positive while going about their daily lives…”

But let’s be very clear: this is not aid. It is not development. You are not alleviating poverty in the third world or mitigating the effects of conflict or natural disaster. You are simply being a responsible citizen. In today’s hyper-aware, cause-marketed, extreme-emotional-need-for-politically-correct-expression world, we’re too often too quick to conflate “not raping the helpless” with “making the world a better place.”

All I wanna do is have some fun
I got a feeling I’m not the only one
All I wanna do is have some fun
I got a feeling I’m not the only one
All I wanna do is have some fun
Until the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard 

There are many, many good things that you can do. You can recycle. You can learn another language. You can invite your neighbor of another socio-cultural and/or ethno-linguistic demographic over for lunch. You can offer to babysit the child of the single mom next door so she can run errands. You can drink only free-trade coffee. You can give $5.00 to the homeless person you pass in the tube station every day on the way to work. You can own a hybrid car. You can slap a “COEXIST” bumper sticker on your hybrid car. You can ride a bicycle to work. You can eat less meat. You can wear less leather. You can burn your Justin Timberlake CDs and only ever listen to Indie bands.

All good things to do.

But some of you need to relax a little. Relief and development work are actual professions. Don’t try to do them in your spare time. And perhaps even more importantly, don’t feel as if you have to. It’s okay to just live your life in a simply responsible manner without trying to spin a contorted and over-the-top theory of how you’re “supporting aid work” or “making the world more equitable.” Do driving the speed limit, parking legally and not shoplifting make you “part of law enforcement”? Of course not. They simply make you a law-abiding citizen.

Or do you feel the need to spend your summer vacation volunteering at a gynecological clinic? Or at Legal Aid? No? Exactly.

It’s okay to spend your vacation abroad as responsible tourist. And I mean real tourist, not voluntourist. Have fun. Don’t try to play aid worker for two weeks or two months. Just go and have fun. The world is an interesting place, filled with interesting people. Enjoy it. Enjoy it without the burden of feeling like you have to do something that you’re not qualified to do (seriously – you’re not qualified).

All I wanna do is have some fun
I got a feeling I’m not the only one

If humanitarian aid or development work are what you really want to do with your life, fine – make the commitments and investments necessary to make this your career, your life. Otherwise, seriously, just go have fun. Responsibly.

I like a good beer buzz early in the morning…

Sheryl Crow is a total aid worker…

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Patience

15 Nov

This weeks it’s the Tales From the Hood rock ‘n’ roll marathon.

Here’s the second tune in the playlist:

This one’s easy: I think that we are all far too anxious to declare aid successes or failures far too soon.

Who knew that Axel Rose would have the answer?

Said woman take it slow
It’ll work itself out fine
All we need is just a little patience
Said sugar make it slow
And we’ll come together fine
All we need is just a little patience
Patience, patience, patience
Ooh, oh, yeah…

I really like Jacqualine Novogratz’s description of “patient capital.” (read her interview on Social Edge). As I analyze it, she’s basically talking about two age-old “good aid” ideas kind of rolled into one.

1)      Look at aid outcomes in the terms of those we’re intending to help (“the poor”).

2)      Take the time that’s needed.

We’re talking about peoples lives and, importantly, their ways of life, here. How quickly does change happen in your organization? At your institution? In your family? Yeah? It doesn’t happen quickly in “the field”, either.

This stuff takes time. Yes, I get that donor funding cycles and life-of-project realities mean that we have to try to talk about results before they’re all the way ripe or describe progress that can’t really be measured yet. But as humanitarian aid practitioners, it’s our job to see past funding cycles. The rhythms of change in the communities where we work are not based on annual congressional statements, the European Commission’s budgeting process, or when the tax year ends for that wealthy area businessman who’s been a “strong supporter” for a long time.

Sure, aid is not perfect. And sure there’s room for improvement. But it works better than you think. But you have to give it time.

Just have a little patience.

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One

14 Nov

This weeks it’s the Tales From the Hood rock ‘n’ roll marathon.

Here’s the first tune in the playlist:

U2’s “One” sounds to me like a conversation between aid workers and beneficiaries about the issues in the aid system…

Is it getting better?
Or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you now?
You got someone to blame

Sometimes aid is broken. Sometimes, no matter how badly aid donors or aid workers wish otherwise, change just doesn’t happen. We do our best and it’s not enough. Or maybe we’re just tired and can’t get it together.

Sometimes, no matter how abject things are “on the ground” or “in the field”, and no matter how well-planned the intervention is, it fails. Sometimes there is local resistance to aid. Sometimes it’s overt, “get the hell out!” Sometimes you can’t put your finger on it.

Everyone in the aid equation is culpable at one point or another.

Did I disappoint you?
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth?
You act like you never had love
And you want me to go without? 

Everyone – aid workers, beneficiaries – comes to the conversation with expectations that, in the end are not met. We expected each other to think differently, to act differently, to value and prioritize different things. And we were all disappointed, disillusioned at some point.


Well it’s…

Too late
Tonight
To drag the past out into the light

Sometimes it’s good to analyze what’s happened before in order to clarify the way forward.. Sometimes, though, the past is just that: the past. Sometimes you just need to start from where you are right now and move on.

We’re one, but we’re not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other

Indeed.

Have you come here for forgiveness?
Have you come to raise the dead?
Have you come here to play Jesus
To the lepers in your head?

Every aid worker on the planet comes to this line of work, in addition to whatever else, for personal reasons. Maybe we have a Jesus complex – we are going to save the poor from their poverty. Maybe we seek absolution from a dark past. Maybe it’s both of these and more.

Did I ask too much?
More than a lot
You gave me nothing
Now it’s all I got

What do the poor deserve from us?

We’re one
But we’re not the same
Will we
Hurt each other
Then we do it again

Indeed.

We’ll continue doing humanitarian work. We’ll get it wrong. And sometimes we’ll get it right. And one day – who knows? – we’ll find ourselves as beneficiaries of aid programs run by those we once purported to help.

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