Crossing-over?

Its a tough call. A quick peek at why sub-titles can never capture the intensity of classic Bollywood

Ravi: Brother ! Will you sign or not ?
Vijay: Yes, I will sign ! But I won't be the first one and the only one. GO ! get the sign of the man who made my father sign, go get the sign of the man who abused and fired my mother, GO ! get the sign of the man who wrote this on my arm. Then, my brother, I'll sign whatever paper you want me to

and

Vijay: I have a bungalow, car, money, what do you have?
Ravi: I have mother

Bah!

Uniting a city

From The Hindu a snap from Patna

This is not an unusual scene. The sub-urban trains in Mumbai are probably scarier to look at. Also, this piece on trains in Mumbai is a great read.

"When we board the train, we make an unspoken pact with our fellow citizens: we know we're in for a horrid time for a little while, but in the end, we'll all get to our destination. Those daily negotiations give us a sense of empathy and solidarity with our fellow citizens that's unique to Mumbai"

In serious trouble

One has to feel sorry for P Chidambaram (PC). The Home Minister is dealing simultaneously with -

1. Telengana agitation, with a raging students agitation in campuses where self-immolation is being used as a pressure tactic yet again
2. Maoists in eastern India, who have been attacking the state machinery with impugnity
3. Bomb blast in the German bakery in Pune, where the death toll just rose to 13

Of course, anti-insurgency operations in Kashmir continue as before, and every now and then, thousands of police personnel are busy securing cinemas, cricket grounds and the like, attempting to douse or control violent, vitriolic and competitive populist politics. As I said, one has to feel sorry for PC.

Expat spending

The Roving Bandit makes a case for greater focus on exploring the connection between tourism and poverty reduction. It would be interesting to also compute what expat aid workers/researchers (like me) and volunteers pump in to local economies (rent, food, drinks, transport etc - especially the mark-ups we pay on what we consume here). Salaries, minus remittances individuals send home (and student loan repayments) could be an interesting number!


As for me - in Accra, I spend about $1000 every month. Sure, I do have a greater footprint and probably also inflict a  massive collateral expat-damage, but that's a minor detail...

Photo Of The Day

via The Economist:

Institution building in small NGOs: Five typical challenges

As in the previous post, this is also a quick splash at a rather important issue, and I make no claims of having covered all (or even the most important) aspects. I have intentionally avoided giving examples. I am sure there are many an NGO that we can relate to the following traits. If you can relate the same NGO to three or more of the following, then that organisation, unfortunately, is potentially in big trouble. Here goes:

1. The Blue-print trap - innovative NGOs often start out rejecting the status-quo. Thereafter, as they grow and become old, they fall in blind love with their own initial path-breaking idea, and often, the world has moved on and they fail to notice
2. Matching ambition with capacity - particularly relevant to attempts at scaling up. If and when the pace of expansion in an organisation peaks (either because of technical capacity or funding constraints), the management as well as frontline staff, struggle to cope with their own inability to chug along as before
3. Matching quality of work with quantity - sometimes, the above-mentioned expansion is achieved, but at the cost of quality of output. Not a pretty sight, this and its hard to hide the cracks for long
4. Staffing woes - sometimes, organisations are crippled by their inability to attract high-quality manpower - often, the good ones work in difficult locations, pay very little and don't mentor well enough. 
5. Management by loyalty - some of the above-kind also have had a charismatic founder/leader who rules the roost. Not only is there no succession plan, there are also ugly confrontations sparked off by insecure loyalty-demanding power centres.

Support to rights-based programs: Four challenges

Human rights’ refers to rights that have legal/constitutional protection. In the development sector, rights-based work extends the argument to include basic services, dignity and justice (among others) as rights that citizens are entitled to. Rights may beheld as a cross-cutting theme that can guide grant-making strategies across portfolios like livelihoods, education, health etc. It can be tricky, though. Four challenges-

First, it is often genuinely difficult for donors to support programs over extended periods of time, given the constantly changing trends in the grant-making landscape. Priorities may be dictated by changes in global governance/priorities (the MDGs, climate change, HIV) or national policy changes (welfare schemes, infrastructure projects, large dams, right to information legislation). Work with rights-based groups (as opposed to working with service provision groups) tends to be time consuming and requires long-term engagement.

Second, donors will have to identify civil society partners that are capable of delivering on the said agenda. The choice of partners may be determined by the following considerations:

• NGOs as external catalysts can play an important role. However, donors will have to work closely with their partners to build capacities, addressing governance issues and laying down roadmap for eventual withdrawal.

• Developing local leadership in communities is an important priority. Donors have to determine how best to achieve that goal - should constitutional bodies like local governments be strengthened? Are there potential conflicts with local governments if NGO-led development programs/projects initiate and support parallel community-based organizations?

A third challenge is that of measurement. In particular,

• Identifying indicators: expected outcomes may not be tangible (awareness, uptake, legalization etc) and/or be highly subjective
• Time horizon for impact assessments: how soon can donors expect visible and sustainable impact? There are usually pressures on donors to report results and outcomes on a quarterly or six-monthly basis. This may affect the choice of projects funded
• Evaluating the effectiveness of having ‘human rights’ as a cross-cutting theme is also likely to be challenging

Fourth, there are the risks involved in engaging with ‘rights-based’ work. Donors are likely to be wary of antagonizing governments or some part of the government machinery. Also, there is the danger that larger political developments may undo small gains made over time.

How long does it take to

buy a desktop PC: 5 weeks and still waiting counting
buy a dot matrix printer: 3 weeks
buy paper for the printer: a further 4 days, after the printer was bought

We need 'bureaucracies'...but without the bureaucrat.

Bead around the bush...

On a recent field visit to Eastern Region, Ghana, I chanced upon a couple of families that made beads.

The woman was pounding glass bottles (I had no idea before I saw this that beads were crushed glass), while the man put the crushed glass into the cast and into the mud oven. Once baked, they were painted, sometimes polished a bit and transform into beautiful colourful beads. Of course the only un-surprising fact was that what they sold me for 3 cedis would cost nothing less than 15 in Accra. 

(Pic - borrowed from http://www.africanbeads.org/what-are-krobo-beads/)

Abandoned by all, waiting for the 'spirit' to be rescued

I have visited Mumbai a few times and I love the city. I love the energy, the pace and the variety the city offers. I love the night-life the city has - not inside the bars and clubs, but that on the streets and the footpaths.

Even so, when I consider ever living in Mumbai, some part of me worries for my safety. 11 July 2006 and 26 November 2008 scared me a little. Any of my friends could have been on the local trains that were blown up, or on the platforms when Kasab nonchalantly ambled around firing his AK 47.

Reading about Raj Thackarey and his chauvinistic and violent rhetoric has always been frustrating. Uncle Bal Thackarey, son in tow, obviously did not want to be left behind in the race for proving narrow regional loyalties and now has taken the lead in making ridiculous rants against non-Marathis. I am a Bengali that grew up in Kerala - I should worry,I guess. And what if the Bihari man's taxi I am riding gets attacked? Or the road-side stall while I am eating there?

I worried when Mumbai was flooded in 2005. Even more worried to see the little that is done to improve infrastructure in the city. Guess the floods don't differentiate on the basis of your mother-tongue.
The state government is yet to make up its mind. Should additional security be devoted to the train stations and busy intersections, or to SRK, Sachin and Rahul Gandhi? Is standing up to SS and MNS really political suicide, or is it just another example of political parties aiming for merely the low-hanging fruit? The populist politics of hate and chauvinism is probably an easier game to play than tackling issues of infrastructure and urban poverty. And as long as politics refers to a no holds barred contest, competitive populism will trump over meaningful engagement between the state and its citizens.

So who will save me if I am in trouble? Will the (in)famous 'spirit of Mumbai' appear miraculously and rescue me?

Eternally elusive survey questions

		Enterprise 1	Enterprise 2	Enterprise 3
32. Does this enterprise own any assets (land, buildings, transport equipment, machinery or equipment etc)? 1. Yes      2. No		1. 2.	1. 2.	1. 2.
And under each asset mentioned, we ask them the following questions -
	a. What is the value of (…) if you were to sell it today?	____________c _________p	____________c _________p	____________c _________p
	b. Expense toward purchase of (…) last 12 months	____________c _________p	____________c _________p	____________c _________p
	c. Expense on repair of (…) last 12 months?	____________c _________p	____________c _________p	____________c _________p
	d. Receipts from sale of (…) last 12 months	____________c _________p	____________c _________p	____________c _________p
	e. Receipts from renting (…) last 12 months	____________c _________p	____________c _________p	____________c _________p
	f. Household share of (…) 1. Percent	_________%	_________%	_________%

From the non-farm enterprises section of our massive survey. All izz well. Well, until the village soothsayer turns up in our sample, that is...

CanNOT trust them.

On a visit to a village near Balunga in the Upper East region of Ghana, we walked into a compound house. This was the chief's little clan - over 30 households living in there.It literally was a maze and we had a friendly guide, showing us around his locality, maneuvering through narrow alleys and roof-tops.

One of their customs is that their common God changes hands, moving from one custodian's porch to another. This transfer usually happens at the death of the current custodian. We were told a transfer is currently taking place, and the new custodian was making the arrangements, after which, the God would be physically transfered to his compound.


A little digression about the God - is a little mound, plastered nicely with mud; and they refused to tell us what was in it...meaning, we did not know what the God really was.

Back to the God's custodian. So we asked (probably naively) why the deceased custodian's wife couldn't continue to take care of the God; and in general, whether women can become custodians of their God. Our guide literally stopped in his tracks; and looked at us like we were stupid and explained: They often come from different communities. What if they decide to leave our village and go away? We cannot trust them with our God...

Wonder what their God would say to that!

Just a politician...

Rahul Gandhi is just a politician. The sycophants in his party are not going to admit to that. They see him as the Prime Minister in waiting. Leaders, young and old stand in tow to seek opinions from a 40-year old Rahul with just a handful of years in politics. Recently, Bill Gates was reportedly highly impressed by his 'frankness'.

Rahul Gandhi's speech on the floor of Lok Sabha in 2008, where he took great pains to emphasise that he was speaking as an Indian (and not a Congress-man), is just one of many similar attempts to position himself above petty politics. And there surely are many young men and women who are impressed by this quality in the young politician. 

But is Rahul anything more than 'just a politician'? Take, for instance, his recent statements in Bihar. Not only does he refuse to acknowledge any progress the state has made in the recent years, he also plays to the gallery by calling out against the Thackerays, standing amidst (possibly) cheering Biharis.

The socio-economic gains made by Bihar may have been over-enthusiastically reported and possibly not equitably shared, but there is certainly a sense that the situation there is not all hopeless. Nitish Kumar may not be the messiah, but things are definitely on the move.

As for the anti-migrant stance of the Thackerays, isn't Congress in power in Maharashtra? What has it done to protect the vulnerable migrants who toil away to make a living? Should the President not step in and dismiss the government for being incapable of maintaining law and order in that state? (Ha!Ha!)...Okay - but shouldn't all this be enough to shame Rahul Gandhi into admitting that his party had failed to protect Biharis in Maharashtra and therefore, avoid the issue as far as possible when touring Bihar?

Rahul's non-partisanship is based on his projecting a self-critical image. He repeated the act in Bihar too. Sure, in a state where your party is already diminished beyond recognition, it doesn't matter as much and in fact, people may mistake it for humility and willingness to change. But when in the same breath, he lauds his party in Andhra, is uncritical about the party in Maharashtra and is unwilling to admit to lapses in internal security, the facade cracks. All that remains, is just a politician...

He didn't actually say that!

"The game and its rules are changing. You should be allowed to tamper with the ball after the 30th or 40th over. Only a few get to do some bit of ball tampering. If the weather is dry and hot then you can get some help from the pitch while bowling. But you also have to help the ball yourself. You have to tamper with the ball to make it swing on subcontinental pitches"

This is part of what Afridi said in his defence after he was caught biting the ball! As if Pakistan didn't have enough troubles on and off the critcket pitch already...