The beneficiary side of development aid harbors a growing disenchanted middle class, a cynical political class and a disillusioned rural and urban-ghetto populace. Illiterate beneficiary communities in particular, have become disillusioned with little or no impact on the quality of their lives, despite lofty declarations of donors and aid agencies over the years. These communities equate aid practitioners’ samaritanic declarations to mere intentions for which they have learnt to understand and accept their inability to hold the practitioners accountable. They have learnt to develop thick skin to “participatory approach” entreaties, and when they give their reluctant consent, they also have their own hidden agenda. The beneficiaries at all levels have found reasons not to commit more than self-serving placatory involvement and indeed to also claim fatigue.
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Beneficiary Fatigue
The beneficiary side of development aid harbors a growing disenchanted middle class, a cynical political class and a disillusioned rural and urban-ghetto populace. Illiterate beneficiary communities in particular, have become disillusioned with little or no impact on the quality of their lives, despite lofty declarations of donors and aid agencies over the years. These communities equate aid practitioners’ samaritanic declarations to mere intentions for which they have learnt to understand and accept their inability to hold the practitioners accountable. They have learnt to develop thick skin to “participatory approach” entreaties, and when they give their reluctant consent, they also have their own hidden agenda. The beneficiaries at all levels have found reasons not to commit more than self-serving placatory involvement and indeed to also claim fatigue.
Sunday, May 01, 2011
N'importe quoi 1 - Gadaffi and Black Africans
Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi says the EU should pay Libya at least 5bn euros (£4bn; $6.3bn) a year to stop illegal African immigration and avoid a "black Europe".
Speaking on a visit to Italy, Col Gaddafi said Europe "could turn into Africa" as "there are millions of Africans who want to come in".
“We don't know... what will be the reaction of the white and Christian Europeans faced with this influx of starving and ignorant Africans”
"Tomorrow Europe might no longer be European, and may even be black, as there are millions who want to come in," said Col Gaddafi, quoted by the AFP news agency.
Now hounded by his "friends", this man that calls black Africans ignorant and starving is looking desperately for help from those he despises - his subjects during his reign as the "King of Kings". Let him face his demons all alone.
From my Scrap books
Over the years, I have created electronic scrapbooks from articles, pictures and features that appeal to me from different internet sources. Some of these articles are simply hilarious (those are my favorites), some too serious (difficult to grasp at the first read) and the others can easily pass for children’s stories (I adore those ones too). On the advice of a friend, who recently read one of my uncompleted articles and saw some notes from one of my scrap books, I decided to gradually post these items on my site.
No doubts, the original source will be credited and acknowledged. I will add my comments in blue font to each article posted. I debated with myself whether or not to classify the documents, and if yes, how do I classify them. I have chosen to classify the documents in these categories: Serious, Funny, N’importe quoi.
“N’importe quoi” (pronounced nimporti kua), a French phrase that means "anything", but this meaning has been abandoned and “N’importe quoi” has become a phrase that is now commonly used in French to express disgust. When used in this sense, it translates roughly in English to "nonsense", "rubbish" or "ridiculous". However, none of these English words really expresses or catches the depth of this phrase and the beauty of its expression.
“N’importe quoi”! I have so much fallen in love with this phrase, that a near future project of mine is to create a website called…..you guessed right! - “n’importe_quoi.com”, where I will gladly create free e-mail addresses for politicians who shirk their duties, who are corrupt, who commit outrageous mistakes and those who speak first and think later. For example: mailto:name%20of%20politician@n
You can try this with the name of your president or a politician in your area. Slot in the internet identification letters of your country. It is fun!
E-mails sent to these addresses by readers, victims of the politicians and observers will then be collected in a small book and sent as a gift to the erring politician. Maybe they will sit up when they read their history live!
If you have true events and stories that you want me to consider for the “N’importe quoi” category, send it to this e-mail address: nimportikua@hotmail.com.