Islamic Contracts

My future landlords are very kindly allowing me to move in to their duplex tomorrow, even though I won't be able to pay them until next week. Cash transfers between Pakistan and the US take about a week -- add that to the week it took me to open a bank account with Standard Chartered (grrrr...) and my funds are a bit behind schedule.

Oddly, the standard contract I'll be signing for the duplex says I'm a Muslim. It's one of the quirks of living in an Islamic republic -- anything remotely legal touches upon one's religion. I suspect being a religious minority here is hell - I'm only able to rise above it by virtue of my (relative) wealth and position.

A Rainy Morning in Lahore

It rained for about an hour this morning, and the street outside my office is flooded with over a foot of water. I wish I had brought my camera, to show you a picture of the guys trying to push a van through it. If this is what happens after one short (but heavy) storm, I can't wait to see what happens when the monsoon season begins.

Meanwhile, we had interviews lined up for two graphic designers this morning - neither could get to our office and so they cancelled. More critically, no lunch delivery! And I don't think we can get the car out to collect it either. Fortunately, I'm armed with granola bars.

Politicizing Aid (even more)

I just got word that USAID's policies are shifting, and that they will be more closely "unified" with foreign policy. Specifically, the Administrator of USAID will now also be the Director of Foreign Assistance at the US State Department, and will have a coordination role in overseeing assistance budgets of other departments, including Department of Defense, among others.

Coordination of aid funds makes sense, and to a certain extent, aid has always been linked to politics. It's inevitable that any funding that comes from the government is going to have a political element, and foreign aid is no exception.

However, my immediate reaction when I read about this new intensity, was "OH GOD, NO!!!" Here's why:

First, politics is short term. Development is long term. The two are not compatible. An example is Afghan opium production -- eradicating it is a key US priority (and rightly so). But this has resulted in the panicked throwing of aid money at the poppy region. Specifically, in my field, microcredit, microcredit organizations are being cajoled and threatened to get their butts down there and start making loans. The problem is that these regions are lawless combat zones, and as much as I love microcredit, how is microcredit going to really make a dent in poppy production? Sure, a few high-minded farmers might take loans and switch from their $2k an acre poppies to $35/acre wheat, but realistically...? Furthermore, NGO workers are not soldiers - they're easy marks and a number have already been picked off during this season of terrorism. The knee-jerk USAID push to drive NGOs into these combat zones just seems wrong-headed to me (and a waste of taxpayer funding). And meanwhile, funding gets diverted from programs which are starting to work.

Real development is thoughtful - it takes time, energy, and patience. Am I describing US foreign policy here? I don't think so, but feel free to disagree. I don't claim to have all the answers here - just lots of questions.

A second cause for alarm is that lots of people already assume I'm a CIA stooge, and this makes things more dangerous for me and every other aid worker. Any narrowing of the policy/aid gap is just going to increase the risk that NGOs will become targets.

Bad planning

I've been on the hunt for a long-term place to stay in Lahore, since it looks like I'll be here through the end of the year (with a possible diversion to Cairo in the summer). Two thirds of the very nice, very new, very modern kitchens I've viewed had no space for a refrigerator. In several cases, the refrigerator was plunked in the living room. It's all very weird.

I did end up plunking for an opulent duplex, with no space in the wall to wall counters for a refrigerator. We've agreed that we'll put a refrigerator against the door that exits from the kitchen to the servants' quarters, blocking that door off. (The servants' quarters has another exterior door). Given the extreme poverty in Pakistan, household help is dirt cheap, which explains the lack of labor saving devices (like washing machines) in wealthy pakistani homes. It's just cheaper to pay someone to beat your clothes against a rock then buy a machine and do it yourself. There may be some weird connection to this and the refrigerator-free zone, but so far, I haven't figured it out. Wealthy Pakistanis don't use the kitchen, they have servants for that, so... Or maybe there servants shop for fresh food every day, cook it for the householders, then eat the leftovers so there's no need for a fridge?

Hm... Another mystery to solve.

Why Pakistan's Lawless Provinces are a Global Problem

And here's another good article (from the SF Chronicle, no less) on Pakistan's involvement in the fighting in Afghanistan. Pakistan's excuses have worn thin...

Check it out at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/31/MNGT1J4ULI1.DTL&hw=baluchistan&sn=001&sc=1000

Attock Fort, overlooking the Indus River

To the Indus River

Anyone with a passing knowledge of Kipling or tales of Great Gamesmanship has probably heard of the great Indus River - a river which has taken on mythic historical dimensions. The Indus river now forms a long barrier along the border of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), which encompasses North Waziristan (now in Taliban hands) and other regions the Pakistani government can't seem to control.

J and I took a road trip to the spot where the Kabul River flows into the Indus, the Kabul's dark waters forming a stark line against the pale blue of the Indus. An elaborate fort - Attock - overlooks this huge Y, staggering down the hillside toward the bank of the Indus.