Yarrrgghhdd: Dealing with Stress in the Field
I wrote this blog post a few days ago, and have just read a great article by IRIN here on stress in emergency relief, seems to be the topic of the hour…
“People may develop a feeling that there is no room inside … that they have no shock absorbers to deal with anything anymore – even the little things,” he said. “They may not be able to think clearly, and everything and nothing may seem important.”
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The land of the long drop
One could crudely divide the world into two distinct spheres – the land of the long drop and the land of the flush and forget. Admittedly I’ve spent most of my life in the world of the ‘flush and forget’ and yet I somewhat fondly remember the first time I encountered the ‘land of the long drop’ in a Thai Isaan village.
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Ballistic vests, swollen feet and job satisfaction in contemporary aid work
A few months ago a UNAMID friend of mine let me try on a blue helmet and ballistic vest they usually keep draped over their office chair in case of emergencies. I’ve seen plenty of them around, all the UNAMID troops are issued with them and I supposs civilian staff have to don them when the world starts falling apart. I’d never really given it much thought, but found the straps pushing down on my shoulders, the ceramic plate grating against my ribs and the kevlar helmet crushing my skull to death made me realize how bulky and and immobilizing these ‘lifesaving’ devices really are. It gave me a new appreciation of the fellas who patrol around in them all day long in the Darfur heat.
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the footsteps of the poor
He humbles those who dwell on high, he lays the lofty city low; he levels it to the ground and casts it down to the dust. Feet trample it down— the feet of the oppressed, the footsteps of the poor.
The key to peace
… is chai.
Though it looks as if they are doing less talking in Doha and more fighting in Darfur.
Don Cheadle says NO
“Riders of the storm, Mo-Fo’s!”
Some idiot computer game maker is making a film about Darfur. No it won’t be a great tool for advocacy for Darfur- you’ll watch this if you find genocide entertaining. Starring Billy zane and that B grade actress from the last gasp Terminator 3 movie, see the Darfur the Movie website for the film trailer replete with spelling mistakes and janjaweed gangsters.
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Conflict booze
First there were conflict diamonds made famous in the movie ‘Blood Diamond’, and then there were conflict minerals and (apparently) conflict chocolate, and now there is conflict booze. Don’t throw away your precious bottle of vintage red or amber scotch just yet, but in Darfur we’re witnessing this conflict driving trade unravel in a most unusual of ways.
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The Internationalization of Me (Part 1)
Yes. I’ve been away for a long time. Moving right along…
More and more I’ve been noticing how I’ve changed and grown as a person in many ways. As we get older we shed certain habits, ideas and aspirations and take on new ones. This is a pretty normal and expected process and for some people it’s a good thing as they learn to function successfully in society, while for others it is a slow stifling of the creative or irrepressible gifts they once had.
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alternative education
I’m sure there are other valuable things they are learning rather than being in school – like how to make bricks.
Flying in Darfur
Read an interesting account of a UNHAS pilot who flew in Darfur around 2005-2006 (from what I can tell) from a new online Aid story collective called HELO: Crisis story Magazine (weird name, and the website design is straight out of 1998, but some good content at least, especially if you’re interested in humanaid as a career). Below is an excerpt:
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The War is over… so why am I not coming home?
Hi Mum and Dad,
Great news! according to the head of the peacekeepers in Darfur – the war is over! I feel like going out to celebrate, to pack up my bags and look nonchalantly over my photos, to say how I feel to Kilo Juliet Alpha 1.2 because she’s so beautiful and basically kick back and think about all the good times ahead, because that’s what you’re supposed to do when the war is over isn’t it?
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I dream of Janjaweed
The long line of followers snaked through the scrub. Despite the exhaustion they hauled, carried or dragged as best they could their few possessions. We stopped momentarily for breath and were carried forward by those behind us, always onwards and never looking back.
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Ahmed’s War
As I lay on my bed last night i heard a typical *pop* outside followed by the high pitched whizzing noise of a 7.62 round flying somewhere in the darkness over our compound. Yet it never really worries me to hear gunfire at night. Our walls are 9 feet high (and literally getting higher by the day), my windows are sandbagged and the roof is also re-enforced. So there is very little chance of anything happening, especially while I am snoozing on my bed.
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Security in post Ice-Cream-Chocolate Darfur
An accurate assessment of the security situation in Darfur by independent journo Rob Crilly:
Shadowy armed groups with shifting aims make life in Darfur hazardous
DARFUR IS a hostile land. A dry, desiccated country awash with guns and tribal enmities, it has always carried risks for the thousands of aid workers bringing food, water and medicine to the region’s aid camps.
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Lessons learned
As for man, his days are like grass,
he flourishes like a flower in the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone,
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10 signs it’s time to take a break
For any other workers in highly volatile and ridiculously stuffed up situations, here are 5 warning signs that it’s time to probably take a break:
Flying UNHAS
UNHAS offers the rare experience of boarding a flight and having no idea where it’s actually headed. The airport itself could’ve been mistaken for an abandonded British imperial outpost and once inside the crumbling walls I was taken to the check in and customs desk housed in a grubby demountable cube. Inside the human xray machines took extra care to squeeze and rattle any fragile looking items and confiscated both my carry on and check in luggage until boarding.
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Cloud herding and the cone of silence
When we talk about a security issue here, it’s whispered in hushed tones and muted voices. The door to the office is shut and we converse in our cone of silence. It’s actually pretty lame- we have no glass in the windows, people constantly barge in and if you’re hanging by the door you could probably even hear the air move as we gesture and point excitedly at large maps on the wall (I wanted a laser pointer so I could point excitedly from my desk, instead all I was offered was a 10 ft bamboo pole).
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A brief glossary of aid terminology
Accountability: The topic of a mandatory phone call or email sent twice a year to Geneva/London/New York.
Baseline: The ‘s**t that went down’ before the aid agency arrives at a location.
Beneficiary: A numeric representation of the population who will benefit from the activities of an aid agency. The more beneficiaries cited in the proposal the more funds the agency will receive for a project. For extra funding camels, goats and trees can also be considered as beneficiaries. The people in tv commercials for World Vision.
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ODI report: peacekeeping a safer occupation than aid work
A recent Overseas Development Institute report stated that more aid workers than peace keepers were killed in 2008. Some other key points of the report: