Thought Picnic: How experience humbles our generosity of spirit

Peeling away at the sores

Experience seems to bring us into close encounter with the core of our humanity. It is in experience that we begin to discover who we really are, if what we can do in comfort can be reflected similarly in the presence of discomfort.

We may deign to understand, dare to sympathise or attain the supreme expression of empathy, but when we are touched, how would our minds change, and how would our concern for others dissolve for the ascendancy of the trumpeting of our self-pity?

How would we attempt to magnify our circumstances almost to the level that suggests we have been ravaged by the greatest disaster ever to overwhelm humanity?

They are questions we must ask ourselves always.

Beyond belief

Yesterday, I heard a sermon where the preacher told a story of a tightrope walker who did his act over the Niagara Falls many times with greater daring-do each new time he attempted the feat.

Charles Blondin did many feats, blindfolded, on stilts, trundling a wheelbarrow and even carrying his manager on his back as well as frying an omelette midway. It got to a point that people believed he could do anything, however, the same people when asked to sit in the wheelbarrow for a tightrope walk balked at the idea.

Experience takes issues to another level just as having to place one’s trust in the death defying feats of Charles Blondin to be a participant called on a new level of trust, a trust in circumstances one would have no control over until the feat is completed, the risk of it going wrong coming to the fore, in their minds.

Disaster comes here

There are many natural disasters around the world, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis, droughts, floods, fires and much else. Most of them we would only see on television and are moved to contribute to charity drives to help the victims of those disasters.

It is probably our nature to give as an expression of our innate humanity, and that is a really good thing. However, the natural disasters have come to our land, storms raging, winds so boisterous bringing down heretofore stable things, rains coming down in incessant deluge causing floods and a few sink holes, this is serious and grave.

We are affected, some of us have to stay put, and others can apparently temporarily escape those conditions until things improve. Our attachment to our things might well determine how affected we are about possible loss as a result of a natural disaster.

The aid matters even more now

The UK has a large foreign aid budget, and it goes a long way to improving the lives of the people at the receiving end of our aid in fighting poverty, disease, disenfranchisement and inequality whilst sponsoring health, education, democratic and human rights programs.

We cannot in essence, in principle or in understanding our role in society and the world at large withdraw aid for the expediency of our little local difficulty.

That is why I am saddened that personal disaster has a tendency to expose the deeper selfish human nature where our temporary pain gains ascendancy and greater importance over recognising the broader context of the bigger, deeper and more serious sufferings of others.

It would pass

Indeed, we should help ourselves and find the means to tackle the big natural disaster issues that ravage our lands, but for that to be at the expense of the foreign aid that brings quality to lives, yet nowhere near the comforts we have enjoyed before disaster struck is unacceptable.

The power cuts here would soon be restored, many of those we give foreign aid to do not have that luxury, the flood waters would soon recede, many of those we give foreign aid as a consequence of natural disaster may not have resource or hope for the change that would make our bad experiences become history.

A selfish humanity

When I hear people on television go on about the government addressing our problems first before thinking of foreign aid, or by inference these first world victims of mishap comparing themselves to the poor and destitute of much less fortunate countries and circumstances, you begin to appreciate the shallowness of our humanity and its absurdity.

We are mostly good when things are good, but when things go bad we subconsciously reveal the worst of who we are. Much as man’s capacity for good is well regarded, our capacity for selfish malevolence when we are most affected is unspeakably unprintable and with that our humanity as a whole suffers the more.

Such is life.

The Career Activist: Raising Public Causes for Private Purses

Porn for our times

Snippets of information gathered from sources so varied and diverse and woven in a yarn of a nightmare too bizarre for words that one reels with shock.

As the century turned there came those whose sophistry opened the purse strings of funding for projects that were to attend to pressing needs of people dying of a disease that had defied cure but not the management of it.

Collection tins were shaken in the streets of rich countries tugging at the heartstrings of a public that could only spare little but augmented with international aid budgets you had a pool of resource ready to be plundered by the savvy.

As our screens are filled with famine porn, disease porn, malnutrition porn, disaster porn, war porn and whatever pornography that engages the mind and excites altruistic activists to demonstrate, protest and agitate for more action, the money mountains piled up to be doled out to frontmen, spokespersons, activists and espousers of causes we all seem to hold dear in lands afar.

Black holes of aid

Closer to the needy, there are activists who are doing a lot with very little, their resources stretched to the limit and still they are coping with the situation whilst they are insulated from the real funding they need by middlemen elite who have become professional panhandlers with access to international organisations and influential persons.

With the urgency to act at what has always been a crisis exploited by some who had assumed the role of activist, spokesperson and head of some organisation – be it a non-governmental organisation (NGO) or a community based organisation (CBO) with a cause that is at best a guzzler of dollars for the leaders and a dispenser of cents to the led, money has flooded into named projects and selected hands to do what has generated much paperwork activity but no fulfilling result.

The rain is not getting to the ground, that is why the crops have failed and yet more clouds gather for a monsoon – that is the metaphor for the snippets of stories that have accompanied aid activism for many projects to do with family planning, alleviating poverty, addressing diseases as malaria, tuberculosis and most especially HIV/AIDS.

Squandered on self

Suites at conferences where the footmen invited can barely get a place that they literally lie in slave ship formation on some benevolent floor, as the elite select choice persons for sensual pleasure, living the life of oil sheiks to hedonistic for polite phrasing, they have danced on the graves of the many who suffered needlessly as funds were diverted to acquisitive ostentatious living with unconscionable impunity – Woe betide the ones that remain in this activity even as some are long dead.

The money made available for these causes was unbelievably too much and as they shared the largesse amongst themselves, fights broke out and with those fights some light came into what they were up to but whatever is known is just the tip of the iceberg of schemes hatched in minds so reprobate and rotten beyond redemption.

Sadly, as the love of money is the root of all evil, the dissenters and whistle-blowers have run the risk of loss as great as the loss of support, the loss of influence and even the loss of life (assassinations portrayed as armed robbery murders), the corrupt enterprise built on aid activism that appeals to wealthy donors cannot be allowed to suffer the scrutiny necessary to ensure that funds allocated reach the projects advocated.

Lavish lifestyle

Accountability in the evil enterprise of the aid industrial complex peopled by career activists is of the utmost urgency, auditors have to follow the money from the hand-out for things to be done to the handoff of things completed.

It is contemptible that aid is somewhat now intricately linked with lavish lifestyles because of the lack of transparency and accountability; the altruistic activist is rare, many have joined a cause for the money and the lifestyle than for the purpose and the project.

As Imran Khan observed about aid in this June 2013 interview with the New Statesman, “the ruling elite use aid to finance their lavish lifestyle.”

10 years before, Senator Grassley reported, “Over the years, we've seen incidents in which federal funds for HIV/AIDS have been squandered through overcharges for medicines and laboratories, embezzlement of program funds to support lavish lifestyles, or even diversion of AIDS funds to finance political campaigns.”

The great shame

This is not a problem specific to Pakistan or the United States, it is pervasive and the snippets could well involve Nigerians; a story that is in need of telling as more aid and support flows into fences dressed as NGOs with activists jetting around the globe from conference to conference, peddling influence and living large with no care in the world for anyone but themselves.

The greatest tragedy of this abuse of aids funds which might well be found in many countries and it has had its run in Nigeria too is in these words by Senator Grassley, “It’s tragic if people die because the funds they need to survive are being diverted, misspent, or wasted.”

The fact is the funds did come but they were diverted and people died – for this alone, there must be accountability and justice, it is criminal that people have gotten away with this and risen up the ranks as if this is insignificant and of no consequence – it is a shame, a great shame.

The Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF)

The worthy cause of air transport

At the news of the AF 447 air crash I was having a conversation with my good friend who had sojourned in Papua New Guinea for 2 years where he had at times had to travel to the most remote areas not reachable with regular means of transport.

He told me of MAF, the Mission Aviation Fellowship [1] which offers much needed transport to remote unprofitable areas in uncharted regions all around the world, in Papua New Guinea he found the lifeline of the services invaluable both to himself and the communities he liaised with.

I found their website and just from the first page was immediately inspired to instinctively support their efforts with a small donation.

Not trendy but essential

This afternoon, I received an acknowledgement of my small gift and more information about the work they are doing and how it is affecting people’s lives.

Now, the work of MAF is not pop star celebrity stuff, it would probably not attract the proponents or Live or Dead Aid but their selfless charitable service which is of the highest professional order with their scarce resources is more than commendable and should be supported by well-meaning people of the world.

That it is a Christian charity is beside the point though it presents a basis for the work they do in saving lives, bringing help, facilitating communication and engendering healthy existence with rural and sometime far-off communities, and obviously, there is a missionary component to these efforts.

I publish here, the thank you letter I received from them and urge you to consider the Mission Aviation Fellowship as part of your charitable giving portfolio.

Thanks.

The appreciation

Thank you indeed for your kind gift of £___ via our website. We receive so many calls to help make a significant difference to isolated men, women and children in all kinds of need, and we are so glad you are part of our team.

While the thought of catching any kind of ’flu worries people in our own country, imagine what it must be like to live with almost no healthcare. That’s why, at Madundas in Tanzania, 224 children were presented to doctors and nurses on a flying visit with our Mbeya Safari.

Almost 200 of the children were given vaccinations against at least one of polio, diphtheria, tuberculosis and measles. Give thanks that doubtless that day means more young children will now go on to live healthier lives.

We have taken delivery of our first new Kodiak 100 aircraft in the USA. The Kodiak operates on jet fuel rather than Avgas which is more expensive and scarce. Please pray that God will provide the resources for us to be able to upgrade our fleet with more Kodiaks.

The first Kodiak is expected to enter service soon in mountainous Papua, Indonesia, where there is a tremendous need for aircraft. In the past few weeks, our current planes there have carried a patient with a broken back, an unconscious pregnant lady, a teenager with a broken arm and leg, a lady needing a Caesarean section, another pregnant lady with an enlarged spleen and liver, and a man whose hand had been cut in machinery.

Also, a load of Dani Bibles was delivered to Mulia. Pray that those who read these Bibles will have their eyes opened to spiritual truth.

Once again, thank you for your practical partnership.

Yours sincerely,

(Name Supplied, Supporter Relations)

Sources

[1] MAF-UK Flying for Life

[2] MAF to Dedicate First KODIAK 100 - Mission Aviation Fellowship

Home - Mission Aviation Fellowship – International web site

Dead Aid - Review

Aid is not working

A couple of months ago it burst on our screens and there was all this rave about a book – Dead Aid – reviews in newspapers, interviews on chat shows, blogs awash with opinions and Twitter in overdrive.

Dambisa Moyo comes with impressive credentials and experience to boot having worked for the World Bank and been a global economist; she completed her Masters at Harvard and culminated in a PhD in Economics at Oxford.

I suppose that is enough to turn heads when she talks about aid especially when it runs counter to the megaphone diplomacy and sympathy-laden enjoyment-based concert fund raising efforts spearheaded by the apostles of aid to Africa in Sir Bob Geldof and Bono.

Easy reading

I consciously decided after all the publicity and debate I had heard not to offer any comments about this matter until I had read the book and reviewed its contents and measured the opinions proffered against reality, expectation and fantasy.

Dead Aid became part of my holiday reading, it was not a tough book to read and it sits in the genre of economics for dummies, taking basic examples, analogy and allusions to explain difficult subjects, it was just as good a read as the Undercover Economist.

At 154 pages, it probably could be finished in hours; between cocktails, the beach and waking hours along with holiday commitments of loafing around, it was done in just about 5 days.

What has aid done for us?

The book is divided into two parts named The World of Aid and A World without Aid – the first part is quite engaging, indeed, it is a brief history of aid and what it has now turned into – her historical analysis of aid and its failings were succinct.

We can more or less agree that the amount of aid poured into Africa has not necessarily shown any appreciable progress or benefits. There is no doubt too that there is a culture of aid dependency that might be counter-productive to development allowing for lazy policy and government activity.

It was also interesting to note that a vicious circle has evolved between the drug addict (aid dependent countries) and drug pusher (countries that mean well and find it an obligation to offer aid). I was not sure the external catalyst to wean off the addiction or the business model of the pusher is clear cut.

The aid industry is a beast, if not a leviathan, it needs to be fed and watered, the employees and the agendas in the West, the bottomless receptacles of ineffective utility in Africa engaged in a mutually destructive alliance that seems to prevent Africa from coming of age and leads the continent into a downward spiral of poverty, disease and insufficiency.

Implausible solutions?

I was not too sure that I followed the leap from aid dependency to tapping the capital markets through the issuing of bonds by the way of obtaining a sovereign credit rating. Whilst she does say sovereign ratings are different from corporate ratings, she suggests that businesses are limited to the ceiling of their sovereign ratings and offers examples of certain businesses that seem to have ratings higher than that of their countries.

I was afraid that the exposure as a global economist might have beclouded some stark realities in Africa, access to the capital markets requires that some fundamentals as infrastructure are available if not robust and governance through leadership are critical for confidence to be garnered from issuing bonds.

To garner support she suggested road shows which brought to mind Nigeria’s moribund rebranding project – there were examples but I felt they would be difficult to extrapolate without the fundamentals.

The Chinese are here

We all recognise that the Chinese are coming and they are offering deals of engagement than the West have ever afforded Africa. But this is just a new Bwanarism in my view, we still have Chinese managers and many Chinese staff supervising where their money is going in projects, however, I am not sure there is enough high-level African involvement to move from installation to maintenance, when the Chinese leave.

The danger of all these projects falling into disrepair is possible as with other aid sponsored projects that did not engage the communities in the purpose before execution despite the benefits that would initially accrue.

Trade and finance

Trade is growing but we need more equal partners in this enterprise, we also need to be able to appreciate what we have, a country selling off land to be developed for agriculture purposes by foreign lands is absurd, when we should be able to manage and cultivate the land and sell the food instead.

There is more scope for the Grameen micro-finance model, the advent of mobile telephony banking instruments but quantitative reliance on remittances as an anti-aid push is a bit far-fetched though one probably needs the brain of an economist to see the effects in entirety.

The Dead Aid model

The Dead Aid model suggests a secession of aid in maybe 5 years forcing governments to pull up their socks – I almost scoffed, but it might work for countries where the governments really care; care being used as an expression for those who understand the purpose of government as opposed to ones that just want to be in office and in power and nothing else.

To implement Dead Aid policies in the fictional Republic of Dongo that we were told of in the book, Dongo requires technocrats, in a very politicised country, it is difficult to focus on enterprise when it is power that offers privilege and opportunity.

Dr. Moyo herself confessed that she was not sure that opportunities in Africa offered commensurate challenges to her qualifications, but that is just half the story, there are so many of us who have been exposed to Western influences that would almost find it impossible to fit back into our indigenous settings along with the culture and attitudes.

We are of a different generation from our parents too who returned home to build the motherland and have rarely left since then – but Dr. Moyo’s assertions need to be road tested not by the pot-pourri of examples all around the world but by being engaged by African leaders in a concerted view to getting off aid and pursuing real development.

It would preposterous to adopt Dead Aid wholescale without participation that risks the reputation of the proponents that see the truth in the detail.

The need to more modern books

Beyond this, the references and notes in the books were not consistent and whilst URLs to certain documents were so long, as a user of Twitter those URLs should have been accompanied with shortened versions.

It like to read opinions and views but most importantly I like to see where the facts are derived from, and it should not be an extraneous exercise with cataloguing numbers for books and an accompanying website that compliments the views expressed in the book with all the alluded references, the audience does not want to be spoon-fed everything nowadays.

Presumably people with doctorates are accorded a modicum of originality of thought but this topic is too volatile in its assault on the norms of aid to be the main tome but a body of knowledge and opinions has to be created with the proponents coming to the fore – they have their work cut out against the juggernaut of aid.

In the end, to use the readability scales of another magazine which rates books as Read, Skim or Toss, I would give this a Read; you just cannot honestly participate in the debate about aid not working without reading Dead Aid as part of your reference material.

Book Reviewed:

Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa

ISBN: 9781846140068

Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls

Thank you, very much, Oprah

I had not meant to comment on the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls (OWLAG) which opened in South Africa earlier this week, but having read a few comments that seem to have missed the point of this philanthropic event, I am compelled to add a view or two to this debate.

What gets to me is the liberal egalitarian view that any act of philanthropy that is offered to an elite – elite, in the sense of people selected by certain criteria for a purpose – rather than to the generalised and un-assessed masses, attracts unwarranted opprobrium.

Philanthropy should not be about the armchair convenience of Utopian altruism, rather, it should be the determined purpose to make a qualitative, radical and appreciable difference; the circumstance has to be affected for the better.

It should not be about the paltry give a man a fish to feed him for one day, but it is the involvement of teaching him how to fish and during that process, you will be feeding him, provide a boat, provide the fishing nets, sustain his dependants till he can stand on his own feet and having learnt how to use the resources he has, he can be fed all his life.

If you have not read that Chinese proverb to that depth, you have not understood the concept of philanthropy that does make a difference from a dole out that just meets an immediate need.

I am particularly of the view that when an individual or private organisation decides to invest philanthropically in any project, it is first their prerogative and they are at liberty to decide how that philanthropy is channelled.

The job of governments

However, it is the job of established organisations of government to raise whatever standards and services they offer to improve the lot of the masses and where possible meet the standards of the more exclusive or sophisticated outstanding philanthropic acts that have posed a challenge to the lack of vision, leadership and purpose of organs of government that oversee the economy, health, education, infrastructure and opportunity.

I would rather see an extraordinary act of philanthropy that makes a radical difference than a thinly spread activity that hardly affects all concerned, it is in that light that I commend Madonna’s adoption of David Banda into her privileged family and the “lavish” educational facility that is the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.

Thanks to Nkem on African Shirts, I viewed the interview Oprah Winfrey had with Gavin Esler a couple of times, since I could not find a transcript and noted some points which need to be highlighted.

One person impact

The first point to note is that Oprah Winfrey has spent $40million in building just the academy, compare that with the $200 million that the United States Government in the whole of Africa over 5 years in the Strengthening Basic Education in Africa Initiative.

The US initiative is a mass appeal project that is almost definitely spread thinly across Sub-Saharan African and is probably unduly consumed by administrative processes and bureaucracies than being actively employed in the intended activity.

Oprah highlighted some specific goals in creating this school, it was going to bear her name, it meant that she felt a responsibility to ensure that it was to the standard that she felt comfortable with, hence her involvement in all the minutiae that pertained to the academy.

Oprah recognised that coming from a poor background, the way to create lasting impact that changes people’s lives is to move them out of their everyday environment and change their perspectives.

Changing the perspective

We all very aware of the difference in outlook between children who attend state schools and those who have the privilege to attend public schools; the ones in the latter only see themselves as leaders of tomorrow being prepared to make a difference to their society, I am not a left-wing apologist.

In another interview, she lamented the fact that children in inner city schools in America defined their needs in terms of material things like the latest fads, gadgets and fashions whilst those in Africa had a yearning for education, there was a hunger for opportunity, the opportunity to change their lives and that of their communities.

Building the academy also presents an open challenge to those who have more resources than Oprah has, in that they would realise that one person can really do so much and it really can be done.

Knowing what you can do

Oprah was not going to settle for the mediocre and this does really cost money, the idea that the $40 million spent could have gone into building 40 $1 million schools fails to see that beyond building the schools, they have to be staffed by suitably qualified personnel who have to be paid and maintained through the lifecycle of every students’ tenure.

No one person can sustain that kind of venture and there is no guarantee that if this was done in cooperation with the government, the governments would maintain the standards and aims that accompanied the original purpose and agreements.

OWLAG would be completely run and sustained by Oprah through the Oprah Winfrey Foundation, it covers, tuition, boarding, books, activities, staffing and all incidental and operational costs of the academy that would eventually accommodate 450 students.

When these girls come into their own, I could see a vibrant alumni association giving back to their alma mater with selfless enthusiasm; this is a vision built to last generations, I am in awe.

African girls deserve the best

When Oprah said the library has a fire place and the kitchen has marble tops, she was highlighting a rather subtle point, which was, there were people who did not believe that African girls should have beautiful surroundings.

I cannot argue with that, she was bringing class into education and by doing so challenging the girls to expect nothing less of themselves as they avail themselves of the golden opportunity they have been offered.

These girls would also become ambassadors of light to their communities as other girls outside the academy now redouble their efforts to become one of the chosen few, teachers might even work harder to prove that schools without facilities can perform just as good – it is now a whole different ball game with education.

Oprah has thrown down the gauntlet for philanthropists to consider how to get involved when giving back to their communities and governments have to catch the vision of leadership to make education available to the poor – expose them to the opportunities and see how they realise their power and ability to change their society.

I only have praise for Oprah in this venture and I shall be making a donation to the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation.

Condolezza condoles with aid

Another American security quagmire

Having paid generous if not effusive and concerned lip service to the protection and support for the fragile and fledgling Lebanese democracy, which was still trying to garner the benefits of Syrian withdrawal and a new coalition government; America put its money far from where its mouth is yesterday.

There are only two other places where American dignitaries use Star Trek teleportation to make unannounced appearances to media excitement. Baghdad and Kabul, we can now add to that Beirut.

Having, in all those places allowed security to deteriorate to the state that a pre-notification might endanger the chief of the entourage and their retinue, surprise is the only strategy they have in pretending to becalm the storm they have nurtured.

Take more pain and have some pills

So, as Condolezza Rice make a surprise call on Beirut and the Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, all she could offer was deep concern, no ceasefire, more pain for now and the balm of American aid.

Many might think that was a deft diplomatic hand, hardly, it was a complete sell-out of an almost defenceless people against an onslaught carrying out a scheme that America hopes would weaken Hezbollah and humiliate both Syria and Iran.

The wrecking of Lebanon would bring respite to no one, especially Israel where losses are beginning to mount in what is becoming a war where the victory would at best be Pyrrhic.

More to the terrorist and their aims

The cost to each side can now only be recouped through some negotiated settlement and this would be a test of Dr Rice's ability to really cool the tensions in the Middle-East.

The inordinate quest to get rid of the "terrorism" without resolving the underlying Israeli-Palestinian problem is a fallacy and the sooner that is realised, the earlier we can stem the flow of blood and begin to work on bandaging the wounds.

As for Lebanon, they might have a friend in America, but they are in need of better friends - the lesson here is, indeed America is no friend in the time of need, when Israel features in the matter.

We can all agree that the Lebanese have not been impressed.

Desiring a Palestinian Passover

Hamas – the democratic will of the people

Recently, I have been involved in vigorous commentary, debate and dispute on the issue of Palestinian democracy.

More so, because the election of Hamas by the popular vote of the Palestinian people in response to urgings from the West to democratise has now given the West the opportunity to now bring the Palestinian people to their knees – in poverty, hunger and death.

I cannot stress enough, the fact that Hamas was elected on the complete platform of their “repugnant” views of the eradication of Israel, the continuation of their armed struggle against occupation (what the West calls terrorism), the creation of an Islamic state in the land of Palestine, their well known anti-corruption message and their commendable social services in Gaza.

Grace augmenting injustice

Israel, exists by the grace of all who have allowed it to thrive to the detriment of the occupied peoples as they bully the populace with tanks and gun ships against the primitive incursions and attacks composed of suicide bombers and home-made rockets.

The rhetoric about the elimination of Israel thrives on the fact that an injustice coming to 60 years still shows no prospect of resolution.

The Palestinians cannot go to war to claim what they believe to be their land and the 1967 line is continually breached with impunity most especially by foreign Jews who believe in a literal land of Israel to the exclusion of any other people - settlers - they are called.

An unjust world of hypocrites

Then I read that the UNRWA is under so much duress by the influence of Israel that they cannot freely distribute aid to the starving Palestinian refugees, the report is harrowing; even as essential other aid is withheld because of a democratic choice the Palestinians have made in voting for Hamas – ideology and all.

At the same time, I read that Nuclear North Korea is about to allow the UN access back in the country to distribute food aid to starving Koreans.

This is the same UN that is supporting the persecution of non-Nuclear Iran as we prepare for what might possibly another major skirmish in the Middle-East perpetrated by the United States.

I get fed up with the idea that the United States feels the International community is acquiescent to purveying their vituperation in the direction of Iran. Just as we had with the coalition of the coerced, more are being coerced into the uncomfortable situation of endorsing detrimental action against Iran.

A Palestinian Passover – I dream

Now that Israel has closed the crossing necessary to get food aid to people in Gaza in preparation for the Passover.

They in their festivities of celebrating the passing over of the angel of death breathe despair, destitution, deprivation, debt, desolation and death on a people who are already on their knees, almost scratching the ground for food.

It would be to the utter shame and disgrace of the West if the pictures that moved humanity on Ethiopia some 20 years ago, would now migrate as far north as the Middle-East.

Here is waiting for the day that the Palestinians would also celebrate their own Passover, when they rise to take their land and celebrate in the joy of deliverance from a world that is steeped in standards not worthy of the weight of human history but expressive of total human misery.

Not at any cost

Swallow your dog food

Kenya had declared a national disaster by reason of the fact that the rains had failed and hence a poor harvest and the consequences of hunger and deprivation have ensued.

Down in some faraway land (New Zealand) a food company run by a motherly lady who sprinkles nutrients on her porridge every morning offers to send 42 tons of those nutrients to feed the probably starving children of Kenya.

The offer is rejected with derisive comments as perception overrides reality in the quest to maintain dignity and pride – we are only human.

Aid on Trotters

Then in Palestine, Hamas prepares to take on the mantle of leadership which we must agree is well deserved because they have to-date been benefactors of their people a lot better than the erstwhile Fatah movement.

The West threatens to withhold aid because there is another facet of Hamas which exercises an uneasy ceasefire in attacking Israel that it wants to obliterate in favour of a Greater Palestine.

The curse of democracy means they have a mandate to run and if the West who so willingly enjoys trotters and the other parts withhold aid, other trotter-haters of the Middle-East might just step in and completely undermine any little influence the West might have in Israel-Palestine crisis.

Babe and Scooby

This shrill singing from the West does not seem to faze Hamas who might eventually moderate their views about Israel for the sake of peace and progress as the two-state solution betweens to saunter down the crooked roadmap

However, there is concern that the powder mix which when mixed with water forms a paste that could well rival the gourmet quality of Pedigree Chum might be construed as dog food even though the recipe has been modified for humans.

Pride or Prejudice

As Kenya swallows their prejudice and Hamas moderates their pride in an exchange of sentiments; it is hopeful that the West consider the Hamas social record of prudence, efficiency and service to the needy Palestinians and our dear lady of Mighty Mix dog biscuits rephrase her offer without the mention of dog

Kenya might then not bark at such a tainted but useful if not essential gift and Hamas might grunt as they recognise Israel and elevate the standard of living of their people.

Without prejudice

No offence is intended with regards to analogies appearing in this piece. The import is to illustrate agreement and strong disagreement as donors’ intentions and misunderstanding contrasts with recipients’ requirements and the maintenance of their dignity.

Reference

BBC NEWS | Africa | Kenya rejects aid of 'dog food'

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Hamas rejects 'unfair' aid demand