Who to give the
\nmoney to in Aceh?<\/p>\n
I've just spent about ten days up in Aceh in one of the
\nLhoknga camps in an attempt to come up with some projects that
\nwill get a few people up and running into a new livelihood. They
\nhave all lost everything -- family, house, community and
\nlivelihood.<\/p>\n
We have about Rp 100 million that was raised by hashers who
\nsupported a run in Medan at the end of January 2005 and this
\nmoney must be spent on something. Since then the mainly Chinese
\ncommittee, who must decide how to spend this money, has dithered
\nand dallied about what to do.<\/p>\n
They didn't like my projects that were clearly directed toward
\nhelping individuals because their culture and their belief in
\ncorruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN) dominated their
\nthinking. How shallow and misguided can people be, who because of
\npast experience cannot understand that there are so many people
\nwho have now lost everything in their lives and only ask and want
\na new beginning no matter how small that is.<\/p>\n
People here are perhaps understandably brainwashed into
\nthinking that anything that means giving something to someone for
\nnothing is a really bad idea, and this also does very little for
\nthe image (face) -- which of course is important -- or is it?.
\nThe basically Chinese committee wants to believe that if this
\nmoney is given to a recognized aid organization that the cash
\nwill automatically go toward helping the needy -- it will also
\n(in their thinking) off-load the responsibility of having to make
\na decision as to what to do.<\/p>\n
How naive is this culture! What people need in Aceh is a
\nhelping hand, and although a small organization like an
\nIndonesian hash cannot help everyone, it can in fact help a few
\nindividuals who have lost everything in their lives. How sad it
\nis when people here in Indonesia cannot respond in a humanitarian
\nway when outsiders (foreigners) do it as a matter of course.<\/p>\n
Look at how much money has been spent by foreigners in Aceh so
\nfar, and then also look at who was first in Nias, and then
\nconsider what the Chinese have done?<\/p>\n
Culture -- this has nothing at all to do with humanitarian
\nneeds, and the sooner people bury the past and start thinking
\nsensibly -- the better. I was totally embarrassed to be at that
\nmeeting.<\/p>\n
DAVID WALLIS
\nMedan, North Sumatra<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/who-to-give-the-1447899208",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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