ABSTRACT
A letter from Tom, the IRC Food Monetization manager, to his brother:
Two weeks ago we were involved in a fire-fight when the Ethiopian army tried to kill rebel forces who had taken sanctuary in the Kenyan Police compound. We were forced to cower next to a pile of bricks while tracers lit up the sky above.
In Somalia there is no central authority, not to mention trustworthy people. The government is non-existent and the traditional authorities have been replaced by anarchists with automatic weapons. Every Somali we talk to says that he has it under control and that he or his group is the authority. As far as I can see, everyone just sits around with their guns chewing mira (stimulant from Kenya) and preying upon aid workers and their programs. I just heard today that a UNICEF worker was shot in the head in Kismayo as he left the office. It seems like these incidents are increasing as the U.S. army pushes to occupy many of the cities in southern Somalia. And talking about mira, did you know that the sons-in-law of Generals Barre and Aideed (leaders of the two military factions in the country) are both brothers-in-arms (excuse the pun!) in trading this lucrative market commodity. The politics and economics of war, eh?
I thought that I would be able to apply my international business skills to this project. It should be the best of both worlds; the satisfaction of helping others while also honing business skills that would be transferable. It is a fantastic opportunity, working with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and to be able to use market systems and market-oriented solutions instead of the traditional response of just giving away food. Actually, the refugees at the camp aren’t getting any food at the moment. Until recently, 316the UNHCR was distributing food for some 80,000 refugees, but according to nongovernmental organizations working there the refugee population is around 30,000. The food is being hoarded by clan elders and sold on the open market. The World Food Program official here is refusing to give out more food (except to those who are obviously malnourished) until the UNHCR registers the refugees and gets a more accurate estimate of numbers in the camp. That’s easier said than done. The last time they tried to register the refugees they had big problems: UNHCR enlisted the help of the International Relief Committee in the chore and told them to mark with a dye the little finger of each refugee’s left hand. Well, did no-one tell them that the left hand in Islamic culture is only used for wiping one’s bottom?! After five hours of almost riotous registering UNHCR called the event to a halt: the refugees were not being cooperative. So now the elders are up in arms—they want food and they want to do the registering their-way, which effectively means the elders will tell UNHCR how many members of their clan are in the camp. Well, that’s just not good enough—we know they double or triple the figures and so we’ll be back to square one. But there’s another problem—the elders are conspiring to do an exclusive interview with CNN to tell the world how UNHCR and World Food Programme are refusing to feed the starving thousands in Mandera refugee camp. They’ve done it before. They round up some of the most malnourished children they can find (most of whom are usually not related to them) and say, “Look at my starving child. Please help me. I just want to feed my child.” That they themselves are almost fat on the wealth they have acquired from the sale of aid food is not the point. That they have been theoretically “over-fed” for the last year is also not the point. In short, beware of news stories which only give one side of the refugee problem!
It takes forever to do anything here: either you do it yourself or it doesn’t get done. I have been trying to start this program for two months and have made very little progress. It is not how I thought it would be. The non-governmental organizations are backed by huge budgets and pressured into quickly showing some accomplishment to donors. This pressure has been further exacerbated by the closing of the border because of “car”-jackings. Now aid agencies are competing with each other—marking off specific areas and vying for qualified labor and high-profile projects. Money doesn’t seem to be an issue.
I am still optimistic and hope everything goes well. That Ayn Rand book you sent out was great, has she written anything else? Also send some more film (there are great photo opportunities here), some mosquito spray, and possibly a bullet proof vest.
