Every now and then you're lucky enough to have one of those days that remind you of the important things in life, for example why you do a certain job and why some people really should not be allowed to come near this kind of work. The day on which we received the latest shipment of humanitarian goods at my Farah warehouse, was certainly one such day...
I should underline that I will only take-over the province on June 10, so during this day my predecessor was still in charge.
The tone for the day was set when the first trucks arrived from Kabul and my (international) colleague turned bright red and started shouting at people, because the different steel boxes in which the goods are distributed weren't labelled, they only had a mark in Dari. One of the truck-drivers had already started labelling the boxes, but the shouting didn't cease: "we agreed that all boxes would arrive fully labelled from Kabul, including a description of contents!" This lovely little peace of anger-mismanagement by my colleague confirmed my suspicion that he wasn't the sharpest pencil in the box: would you adverstise $250,000 worth of humanitarian goods by plastering it with stickers if you have to drive them on an open truck from Kabul to Farah? Why not just hand it over to the Taliban directly.
He seemed to enjoy the shouting (intensely insulting in a proud culture such as pashtun), so the volume wasn't lowered when our hired labourers were told that they had to first off-load all boxes and place them in the open courtyard in neat lines for counting, before being placed in the warehouse itself. This absurd doubling of workload (you can count things when they come through the warehouse, can't you) seemed such a brilliant plan to him that he wanted to emphasise it by yanking a box out of a labourer's hands and placing it exactly where he thought it looked best. This was not a terribly popular move and the rest of the day the crew creatively showed their disdain behind his back.
Around noon the labourers decided that it was getting too hot and that they wanted more pay. Of course this was done with excellent timing: all the goods were now in the courtyard and could be stolen by interested passers-by. The abovementioned colleague decided to come out in force this time and preached that these were humanitarian goods; they were doing a good deed and their god would certainly appreciate that. I couldn't believe my ears.
The humanitarian goods themselves looked rather well. Especially the education-kits, tailoring-kits and home-kits seemed appropriate and of good quality. It was however slightly disconcerting that there came no end to the quantity and variety of boxes, something must be wrong.
A key rule in humanitarian assistance is that goods should be relevant and useful for the individual recipients of the aid. Sounds logical, and was reflected in the way I used to work in the Middle East. But a different decision was made here: in order to simplify / create more efficiency in the logistical process, every beneficiary was to receive the same sets of goods. What's good for HQ isn't always good for the provinces and beneficiaries though: they are stuck with loads of (expensive) goods for which there is no space or use. If you add to that a supplier that refuses to listen to HQ so he can force products that don't sell very well into the sets, you (I) end up with an extra 47 lawnmowers and 86 snowshovels. Lawnmowers are intended for use on level green fields which is not exactly the norm here. A lawnmower in Farah is as useful as a bicycle at sea. The snowshovels will be useful again in another 6 months, too bad that they look like a self-made fathers day present by a 7-year old. The dents and scratches that cover the yoghurt-churners (one for everyone) and the semi-inflated wheels of the wheelbarrows (2 per family)add extra embarrassment. It all reminds me of a food-parcel I saw in Gaza that contained cans of dogfood: not terribly useful, but quite insulting.
As mentioned, the contents of the home-kit look really good and when your house has been bombarded it is most certainly relevant to receive home- and kitchenware that's not only good, but also looks the part. What makes me a bit more somber is the knowledge that some of the intended beneficiaries have lost a number of their children, but will nevertheless receive a standard 4 education-kits for young children...
Lots of room for further improvement, lots of opportunity for change.
