Built-in obsolescence

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Built-in obsolescence, the personal kind, doing yourself out of a job

A recurring theme in my blogs is the unwillingness of many in the aid and development business to see that real success is "to do yourself out of a job". 

Right over Might (Part 2)

My first “right over might” blog was prophetic, courtesy yet again of Tottenham Hotspur kindly giving way again, this time not to an Alnwick trader but a football club.

It was all the way back in the 1960s when our family left Northumberland for Leicester, and since then both of my brothers have been avid Leicester City fans, right through even the dark days when the club was bankrupt. 

The George in Alnwick and surrounding area was rocked by the raucous screams from thw two of them as Hazard equalised for Chelsea and when the final whistle blew, gifting Leicester the Premier League championship.

Everyone is absolutely amazed by the success in the face of the rich and powerful clubs who normally dominate. Nobody saw it coming a year ago nor can they believe it now.

That is a lesson and encouragement for underdogs everywhere.  The club’s Thai ownership and connection hopefully will impact across South East Asia.  Spread Leicester’s hashtag #fearless!

The Trouble with "Aid", Nate's Exit.

A community self-help group managing their money.  In a typical development project of US$120,184, $24,000 or just 20% was allocated in the form of direct money to beneficiaries. In the end they received less; one of the 8 groups received nothing at all.

In my blog last week, I referred to the decision of a fellow longtime "Aid" worker to give up in frustration. Was he sensing something now allowed in Aid circles (Failure?) Nate invited me to give a guest-post to go with his writings.  Here it is, as posted on his site.   If you would like a sound-track as you read, try "You really got a hold on me".

No good winking at a Sheila in the dark!

Most readers will have no idea what this means, least of all its relevance to “Life after Aid”.

Foreign Aid – Is it just an illusion?

This blog is one in a series around the theme of "Smarter Aid". 

The original blog has now passed 50,000 viewings.

Just down the A1 road from me, in Morpeth Northumberland, lives magician David.  But for fate and circumstance, he might have trodden the same path as Nate and myself, in to the equally mysterious world of aid and development.

I can’t help thinking that there are many parallels between his craft and ours.

Where there’s muck, there’s brass!

Where there’s muck, there’s brass!

This is a Yorkshire English saying that says you will find money in dirt.  Wherever you have men with spades or with JCBs, you’ll see them forever digging holes.

Bizarrely, at times, the pastime has been the answer to the world’s economic woes.

And then, once we have all that dirt dug up and piled up what do we do with it, and the hole left?

Do we create a modern art-work?

Or do we create a self-perpetuating cycle of self-harm as in today’s Cambodia?

Us and Them! Them or Us?

Image: Pubfront July 2015 http://www.northumberlandarms.co.uk/ @klimek78

Right to bear arms or to bare arms?

Us and Them!  Them or Us?

The sense of belonging is a natural human instinct; one that is cultivated throughout life, but it can have its drawbacks, and even dangers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00f6hbp

Those dangers rest in every country, in every walk of life, and we need to trace their roots.  To do so, I must try here to emulate the great Alistair Cooke, with a soliloquy that if it cannot match his style, it can ramble in much the same way to get to one vital point he always wanted to leave with his vast audience.

My point here is that danger begins when "us and them" becomes "them or us!"

Lucy v Sasha. Who is right? Ask Doris!

http://www.dreamstime.com/photos-images/cartoon-girls-fighting.html

This is my third and final blog about St Helena, at least for a while.  I must turn my attention to more pressing issues and ones that I can maybe influence.  A report today in the Guardian shows how futile trying to change DfID can be, but at least one Ethiopian farmer succeeded.  So there is hope for a brave Saint!

I suspect that the farmer’s success will be just one more rare exception to the rule.  With donors like DfID one quote comes to mind attributed, some believe wrongly, to Albert Einstein:

“Insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect different results?”