Sylvia's Journal

I am reading the stories about Haiti; the place is in some ways like Afghanistan and I couldn’t imagine an earthquake like that happening here. Yet it is possible. We too have houses precariously pitched against the mountain side, just like those of some of my colleagues in Petionville.

And so for a moment the world’s gaze moves away from Afghanistan and Iraq to look at the Haiti tragedy which in some ways is no different than Afghanistan’s: abject poverty, drugs, guns and lots of money streaming in. More money will stream in now, but none of that will make the poverty, drugs and guns go away.

In the meantime we keep on trying to transform the money that is streaming into Afghanistan into competent and motivated staff to help Afghans get better or not sick, a task that gets more complicated by the day as our scope of work just increased once again after our weekly meeting with our donor today– ripples of things cooked up in our national’s capital.

On a micro level it was a good day today: in the morning a meeting to review what is on our plate, then a good report from one of my team members who returned from the north to tell me that some things are working as they are supposed to and even better; then meeting with another team member and his team to make sure all the pieces of their work at the central ministerial level add up to make a difference, a daunting task when this has to be produced through 100s of people with different agendas and, at the moment, no chief.

The proposed new minister of health has, supposedly, presented her vision to the parliament today. On my way to work this morning we had to cross a phalanx of police jeeps with flashing blue lights and armed policemen standing guard at every 50 meter, all the way down to the parliament building further down the road.

The rumor mill reported that there were very few MPs listening to the candidates’ speeches and that most people already know what they are going to vote on Saturday. This is not about competence; say some, which would put the current candidate at a disadvantage because she is very competent. But others say that the MPs want technicians, not politicians. I suppose it all depends on one’s political and ethnic alignments and the pressures from people with money and power.

We are happy she is competent and a little concerned about her alleged lack of political acumen. She was first in class in medical school, one of hundreds, and rose fast in the UNICEF ranks. That should be good for something.