AID IRONY - A FENCE OR AN SUV

Hello all,
Regarding (recent e-mail on slow progress) I think these sentiments express the frustration that many are feeling with the reconstruction and rehabilitation process in Aceh.

Let me relate a story from Lam Kruet in Lok Nga.

A couple of weeks ago I sat in a warung in Lam Kruet with about 15 farmers. We talked for several hours. They are now ready to go back to work, and the one thing that's stopping them is a fence. They have one large area (rice/vegetables) that has been cleaned up, and is ready to plant. They have just missed their once-a-year window to plant rice, but they're keen to plant vegetables.

They were waiting for an answer to a request to Oxfam for funding to rebuild their fence to keep out pigs, buffaloes and goats. The fence is 2000m long, and their request is for Rp300million to do the project. Without the fence, there's no point planting crops because they'll be eaten by wild animals. So they sit and wait.

Here is an example of something that needed to be done quickly, to get these guys back to work. If there's one thing that will help them move on, it's work. Psycologically it's important, and it's vital economically to get their livelihoods happening again.

I couldn't help noticing the irony that I'd arrived there earlier in the day (working for a large NGO) in a car worth Rp300million. If I noticed it, you'd reckon the locals did too.

I can't help thinking that the NGO's are simply not getting enough done where it's needed most.

Another quick example: I see tambak being rebuilt in it's old form. This is a big mistake. I'm working with an aquaculture expert from Medan, and we know that tambak, as it was before the tsunami, was not sustainable economically or environmentally.

For sure we should rebuild aquaculture, but what's the point of rebuilding something that was broken before? Aquaculture badly needs models of sustainability (we're working on a proposal), and resources should not be wasted, and future livelihoods should not be saboutaged by rebuilding systems that don't work.

Norm van't Hoff
BICG