تحب البطاطا مع ذلك؟ ( or ) Would you like fries with that?

This evening I had posted an order with McDonalds on the internet, expecting it to arrive at my door in 30 minutes. Cairo, for all its frustrations, is actually equipped with an incredibly sophisticated website called Otlob.com, which allows one to order food from just about anywhere within the city and have it arrive within an hour for a one or two dollar delivery charge. While it is surprising that such technology is commonly used here, it is also not surprising considering just how much this country LOVES fast food. In fact, if someone were to ask "what is Egyptian food like?" the response would not be a description of lamb with hummus, but perhaps an overview of the menu at Hardees or Pizza Hut. If you don't believe me, here is a picture I shot from inside a pizza hut... immediately next to thepyramids.

A quick look at Google, and Mcdonalds will pop up everywhere (see below).

Strangely, this map doesn't even have half of the McDonalds locations. Add to this Hardees, Pizza Hut, Chilis, Applebees, and KFC, the whole thing would be littered with red dots. By the way, good luck finding a decent restaurant specializing in Middle Eastern Cuisine. I will admit however that Mallory and I once wrote an Email to Taco Bell, requesting that they begin to install a franchise within Pizza Hut locations in Cairo, as the nearest Taco Bell is in Dubai. We also suggested locations.

Anyway,  I place an order with McDonalds, and expect nothing more until the phone rings 5 minutes later. Please be sure to use your best Egyptian accent while reading from this point on.

Otlob: Mr. Mitchell, this is Otlob, there is a problem wid you order.

Me: Yes?

Otlob: What item would you like the "extra chocolate sauce" added to?

Me: The M&M McFlurry (the options include the 1/4 pounder, fries, coke, salad, and strawberry sundae... and no, this was not all for me).

Otlob: Very good Sir. Thank you very much. Bye bye sir. This was all fine, and if anything, I appreciated the commitment of the agency to not make the tragic error of adding chocolate sauce to the wrong dessert. But then the phone rang again...

Otlob: Hello Mr. Mitchell Sir, there is a problem with the chocolate sauce request, McDonalds said they cannot add it to the item you requested because that item does not have chocolate sauce.

Me: Well of course they can. That is why I requested "extra" sauce and am paying "extra" money, because the request is made in addition to the item.

Otlob: Yes sir, I understand, and I tell this to McDonalds, but they say it cannot be done.

This same conversation goes on and on and on, for about 3 rotations. At this point I just start laughing, and I really can't determine if the guy on the phone is laughing either. Maybe he wasn't, but it was so funny and absurd to me, I couldn't imagine him being really serious. So I said...

Me: Okay. Actually, add the chocolate to the sandwich.

Otlob: (Confused) Um, the sandwhich, no chicken, wait, um...

Me: Yes, add the chocolate sauce to the sandwich.

Otlob: You want me to add it to the sandwich sir?

Me: (chuckle) No, I don't want it on the sandwich, I want it on the ice cream. Just tell them to put it on the ice cream, it will be fine.

Otlob: Oh, you are kidding? You make joke? Oh, on the ice cream, not on the sandwich. I can do that sir. Thank you for the joke sir. Have a nice day.

Thirty minutes later an exhausted McDonalds employee was at my door (top floor of the building, no elevator, and all Egyptians smoke half-a-pack per day). I paid the man, opened up the bags and discovered with a grin, a virgin McFlurry, and a strawberry sundae with chocolate sauce.

Could have been worse, but in the end, Egypt won again.  Current Score: Mitch 7, Egypt 3,562

The Dev Method

So I'm watching BBC right now and am having a blast.  I am watching a program concerning a community development initiative within Pakistan, working toward the fulfillment of the UN Millenium Development Goals.   The basis of these goals are to cut global poverty by 50% by the year 2015.  As poverty is not just financial, but also includes issues such as equitable access to education, health care, and clean water, the fulfillment of this goal requires a multifaceted approach to solving the problem.  It requires the efforts of governments to fulfill the obligations to which all 192 signatories had agreed.  The United States agreed to contribute 0.7% of its Gross Domestic Project per year toward international aid, and thus far has failed to do so since signing this agreement in 2001 - yep, that is how much American tax dollars go toward the solvable problems of global poverty, famine, and sickness.  To fulfill these goals it is important that nations participate, as it is the first time in the history of human kind that a problem of this scale can actually be solved, and so soon!  This is to the benefit of all of us as it will lead to development of stronger markets, greater trade and competition, improved security and stability, and a broader consumer base for industry. 

But it takes more than just money to solve this problem.  It takes people on the ground to put it to use.  It requires trained professionals working for Non Government Agencies (NGO) to build the necessary infrastructure to alleviate poverty, and get things going so that new systems may operate in a long term, sustainable manner.

On the BBC episode I was watching, an NGO was attempting to assist a particular community in Pakistan to improve education and health care in the region. At first it looked like a classic 'text book' project, where the aid worker/engineer/health professional/educator arrives, does some social research, and works with the community to solve the problems (problems determined within the research) from "the bottom up." This is important because people  need to solve their own problems to the extent that is possible, so that they are equipped to continue solving these problems in the future.

But then the show started to change.

What was amusing was hearing the locals talk about their experience within the development project.   They were willing to participate and work toward improving their situation, they are constantly working to take care of their families, school and clothe their kids and have a decent life, but they never had the resources to really improve conditions.  So the NGO shows up, announces that things will be better now, and proceeds to do a series of exercises with community members to work toward development.  The first was a "community mapping" project.

When I went to East Africa a couple years ago, I had attempted to do a community mapping project as well.  The idea was for community members to draw a map of their village, and provide information about the map.  They are to note information  what road is a good road, what well has dirty water, where is the school and market located... and so on.  The idea is to make all of this data - data that people take for granted - and distinguish it as a valuable body of knowledge in the eyes of the community.  Additionally the goal is to help determine the strength, scale, and distribution of available resources within the local vicinity.  Sometimes such mapping exercises are critical to the pursuit and success of a community development project, and furthermore these maps can serve the basis for extensive operations outside of the initial project scope.  However, without a thorough explanation and a directly percievable link between the role of the map and the goal of the project, such maps maybe simply become futile exercises that waste the precious time of folks who need to go to work, cook dinner, and help their kids with homework.

Within the BBC program, the reporter was asking participants what they thought about the mapping process.  Half of the community members had already left, clearly thinking the project was a waste of time, while others said things such as "we have no idea why we are doing this, I thought we were going to improve our schools and build a hospital, this doesn't make any sense."  Others were asked if they had participated in such projects in the past, "Of course, every so many years someone will show up and say they want to do something with us.  Then they leave and nothing has changed."

In the meantime, the NGO worker was pulling his hair out.  He said that people were not responsive to the project, and that there could be no success with such lax commitment.

Two years later the journalism crew returns.  The hospital was never constructed, although the school building had improved.  It was unclear if the improvements were in any way connected to the efforts of any outside NGO, as it may have simply been the work of some concerned parents who compiled some money for a few cans of paint.  The quality of education had not changed, although more children are enrolled in school thanks to the efforts of concerned local elders.

Unfortunately I believe this is a fair representation of many development projects throughout the world.  Such projects are founded on archaic notions of the outside expert whose specialized training and knowledge will help the poor locals to build capacity and mobilize internal resources. What about instead sharing knowledge, communicating, mobilizing outside resources to meet internal demands, and exercising existing capacity?  People generally know what they have and what they do not, and they generally know what barriers exist in the way of successfully obtaining what they need.  Why try to build a new highway, when you could try to isolate the problem that is creating slow traffic?  Is it the poor condition of the road, the necessity of an additional lane to accommodate population growth, the necessity of a stop light, or is there wreckage in the center lane from a problem 25 years ago that is standing in the way?  No matter how much you help people become better drivers, it doesn't mean that traffic will flow more easily.

Certainly there are times for outside expertise.  Certainly there are times to import concepts and tools, and there are times to "build capacity."  But those are times that require extensive investment on behalf of the outsider.  You need to integrate with the community and know how they communicate with each other so that you can properly communicate with them.  The NGO in Pakistan wasn't wrong in its efforts, it was just wrong in its approach.  Unfortunately, it creates a negative idea of development workers within such communities, and only makes the job harder for anyone else who should try to do such things in the future.

Still, having learned these lessons the hard way, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who has made such mistakes.

New Blog Debut!!!

I decided recently to start another blog, a "serious" blog that concerns the issues I am generally thinking about, writing about, researching and working on.  These issues concern the stabilization and reconstruction of conflicted territories, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo etc.

http://www.reconstructionplanning.com

For now the entries are somewhat general, but each entry is created using a basic structure:

• Each entry is concerned with a particular conflict 
• Each entry synthesizes information from a variety of online journalistic and academic sources
• Each entry attempts to look at a particular problem or asset for each conflict
• The overall goal is to address untapped strengths and resources with the reconstruction process

I intend to update the blog on a biweekly basis. At the moment it contains 2 posts, one concerning Somalia, and one concerning Afghanistan.  Feel free to write constructive comments on posts.

Dialogue is encouraged.  Enjoy!

The Big Initiative

I had my interview at a local ngo few hours ago.  It was... interesting.  The agency was founded about 3 years ago with the interest of facilitating UN development goals.  However the agency seems to be a little unorganized.  They have a nice office, a few a handful of staff, and have been working primarily on two projects for the last three years.

The primary project is banking and finance oriented, with the intent of further educating the general public of various nations about the value of Islamic banking, and working to establish these institutions.  While I only have marginal experience with Islamic banking, limited only to money exchange, I believe it has been mostly untouched by the global banking crisis of the last 2 years.  Although such banks exist in America, they are not very well known or understood by the public and yet there might be significant value to further diversify American banking systems by investing in these institutions.

The other major project consists of working to facilitate secular cross cultural dialogues, so that people may better overcome their popular East/West misconceptions.  This is process is very much the product of institutional networking, lectures, workshops etc.

Well I considered these projects all quite fine and good, although I will admit, only of marginal interest.  Nonetheless, a part time job that pays a little money is better than no job and no income, so I was interested in going along with things anyway.

I was then introduced to the founder of the organization, and our discussion brought about a different direction altogether.  Apparently his interest in hiring me is founded on my experience of working with African populations, most notably Sudanese and Somalis.  It turns out that the government of Somalia has contacted his organization on multiple occasions, asking for project assistance to work with vulnerable youth and economic development.  Supposedly there is UN funding available for this projects, I received the impression that he has been simply uncertain how to go about doing this.

Fortunately, these sort of problems are perfectly consistent with my own expertise.  So over the next few days I'm going to sketch out a rough outline of what this  organization could do.  If it is of interest to them, then I guess I can go about designing projects from the ground up.  As for getting them implemented, well that will have to fall onto the shoulders of someone else.   This NGO does not appear to have any of the resources that one would have working for the US gov, the UN, or major agencies like Care or NRC.  This is of course rather unfortunate, as designing programing and not overseeing its implementation greatly retards the feasibility of the project and relegates the process to little more than an academic exercise.   Of course, I could show up next week with a slew of ideas, none of which would be of interest to this agency.

So the final question is, did I get the job? Yeah, it looks that way.  But do I want it? Well... we'll see.  If anything, its something to do for a few weeks or months while I continue to apply for something more embracing.