Distain for Important People

Darfur is a mess. I understand that to anyone who reads this blog with any type of regularity this is becoming a redundant statement. But let me provide the quick run down: more NGO trucks are stolen each week, our staff was robbed at gunpoint in the field, the government has bombed the Jebel Marra region in which we work and displaced over 130,000 people, we can’t reach our project areas in the south due to insecurity, and it appears that nearly every rebel group in Darfur is about to splinter into a million gun toting pieces. All of these things, added to the normal difficulties of working here, are making our jobs increasingly more frustrating.

So what would the answer to this be…how about a high level visit by our politically incorrect CEO, a former US senator, an ambassador, and just for a kicks lets through in a few high ranking government officials as icing on the cake. As the casual observer might guess, a visit like this is a bit of a security nightmare. But I suppose it would all be worth it if they where coming to visit our projects, discuss on the ground issues, and offer us their support and gratitude for our work here…if that’s what they where coming to do. But important people, like the above list, don’t do things like that. They prefer to fly all the way to Darfur to visit for 5 hours on the ground, stay at the most expensive hotel in the capitol, have a meeting with one man, and take pictures of suffering African IDPs in an area we don’t even work. And important people want snacks at our office so they can make a bathroom break, and need refreshments in our trucks that should be in the field, and they want you to walk up and shake their hand in a sense of awe and wonder as though you actually give a shit that they have chosen to speak to you. Lets not even get into the fact that we have had to postpone nearly all of our projects (i.e. dying IDPs in the mountains) in order to arrange all of this, or the enormous cost of flying the important entourage from the US to Darfur, or even the several years of life span that have been taken away from the head of mission due to the amount of stress and pressure placed on his shoulders from his superiors. All I’m asking for is bit of respect, maybe a thank you, and good work…maybe they could take the time to learn our names (although there are 7 of us, so I understand that’s a stretch)*

Maybe it’s all worth it in the end. Maybe we will get a whole lot more money to help people who desperately need it. Maybe their classically posed photos holding yet another dying African child will awaken the conscience of the world. And maybe these important people are really nice if you just get to know them. But in the short term I am glad their gone, I wished they never would have come, and I hope they don’t return. If this is humanitarian work then I’m out.

*insert sarcasm here