Here's another article just published on Impakter under my real name, Claude Forthomme - memories of the days when I worked at the United Nations, traveling to developing countries, to inspect and evaluate aid projects, trying to sort out problems:
Guinea-Bissau, October 1990, I don’t remember which day. But I remember how it was that morning when I woke up. Hot, very hot, the way it is in the tropics, damp and cloying, with a low sky of dark clouds, like a lid. I got out of my room, with just a bathrobe on, and ran to the nearest mango tree – the hotel I was staying at was very simple, just a handful of bungalows of two rooms each, set in a large, unkempt garden, no flowers, a lot of mud. But so many mangoes, greenish yellow, with a juicy, golden flesh, the perfect breakfast. I went into the bathroom to carve out my mango with a multi-bladed Swiss knife I always carried with me (back then you could taken them aboard planes). The sweet juice dripped all over the sink. I reflected how in Bissau, there are mango trees everywhere, heavy with fruit; all one has to do is look up and grab one, they’re free – a little like living in paradise.
But Guinea-Bissau back then (and even today) is no paradise. It is
one of the poorest countries on earth, more than two thirds of the
population lives below the poverty line on less than two dollars a day.
If Guinea-Bissau threatens these days to become a narco-state, this is
no surprise. Guess what, even when I was there, most people, some 80
percent, earned whatever living they could scrape from agriculture,
mostly rice (to feed their families) and cashew and ground nuts (for
export).
I knew all about this, before coming, I had done my “due diligence”
to prepare myself for my evaluation mission. Little did I know that in a few hours I would live through the most
extraordinary and unforgettable experience in my life as FAO Evaluation
Officer. The project was ending, the question I had to answer was,
should it continue, a standard question at the end of a project cycle. I had read about the
country’s problems after it became independent from Portugal, how the
Portuguese Colonial War had led to a rapid exodus of the Portuguese
civilian and military authorities, and like any war, had wrought
considerable damage to the country’s economic and social infrastructure.
With continuing political instability, the standard of living had
collapsed and while Guinea Bissau had been a net exporter of rice in
colonial times, now it was a net importer. And for years there had been
no vegetables or fruit (except for mangoes) in the capital – a small
town of some 150,000 people (more than double that number today). That
had changed with the project I was meant to evaluate. A horticulture
project, started a couple of years before, it was meant to provide the
town with vegetables. It was a very small project, less than one hundred
thousand dollars of expenses in two years. Peanuts. Compared to the big
problems the country faced, what was the point of it? How could it
help? Was another extension really needed? But I was beginning to revise
my opinion.
For the rest, link to Impakter. Expect a very surprising end to that story!
Diary of a UN Official #3: When Women Make the Difference
Guinea-Bissau, October 1990, I don’t remember which day. But I remember how it was that morning when I woke up. Hot, very hot, the way it is in the tropics, damp and cloying, with a low sky of dark clouds, like a lid. I got out of my room, with just a bathrobe on, and ran to the nearest mango tree – the hotel I was staying at was very simple, just a handful of bungalows of two rooms each, set in a large, unkempt garden, no flowers, a lot of mud. But so many mangoes, greenish yellow, with a juicy, golden flesh, the perfect breakfast. I went into the bathroom to carve out my mango with a multi-bladed Swiss knife I always carried with me (back then you could taken them aboard planes). The sweet juice dripped all over the sink. I reflected how in Bissau, there are mango trees everywhere, heavy with fruit; all one has to do is look up and grab one, they’re free – a little like living in paradise.
But Guinea-Bissau back then (and even today) is no paradise. It is
one of the poorest countries on earth, more than two thirds of the
population lives below the poverty line on less than two dollars a day.
If Guinea-Bissau threatens these days to become a narco-state, this is
no surprise. Guess what, even when I was there, most people, some 80
percent, earned whatever living they could scrape from agriculture,
mostly rice (to feed their families) and cashew and ground nuts (for
export).
I knew all about this, before coming, I had done my “due diligence”
to prepare myself for my evaluation mission. Little did I know that in a few hours I would live through the most
extraordinary and unforgettable experience in my life as FAO Evaluation
Officer. The project was ending, the question I had to answer was,
should it continue, a standard question at the end of a project cycle. I had read about the
country’s problems after it became independent from Portugal, how the
Portuguese Colonial War had led to a rapid exodus of the Portuguese
civilian and military authorities, and like any war, had wrought
considerable damage to the country’s economic and social infrastructure.
With continuing political instability, the standard of living had
collapsed and while Guinea Bissau had been a net exporter of rice in
colonial times, now it was a net importer. And for years there had been
no vegetables or fruit (except for mangoes) in the capital – a small
town of some 150,000 people (more than double that number today). That
had changed with the project I was meant to evaluate. A horticulture
project, started a couple of years before, it was meant to provide the
town with vegetables. It was a very small project, less than one hundred
thousand dollars of expenses in two years. Peanuts. Compared to the big
problems the country faced, what was the point of it? How could it
help? Was another extension really needed? But I was beginning to revise
my opinion.For the rest, link to Impakter. Expect a very surprising end to that story!
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