Who to give the money to in Aceh?

I've just spent about ten days up in Aceh in one of the Lhoknga camps in an attempt to come up with some projects that will get a few people up and running into a new livelihood. They have all lost everything -- family, house, community and livelihood.

We have about Rp 100 million that was raised by hashers who supported a run in Medan at the end of January 2005 and this money must be spent on something. Since then the mainly Chinese committee, who must decide how to spend this money, has dithered and dallied about what to do.

They didn't like my projects that were clearly directed toward helping individuals because their culture and their belief in corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN) dominated their thinking. How shallow and misguided can people be, who because of past experience cannot understand that there are so many people who have now lost everything in their lives and only ask and want a new beginning no matter how small that is.

People here are perhaps understandably brainwashed into thinking that anything that means giving something to someone for nothing is a really bad idea, and this also does very little for the image (face) -- which of course is important -- or is it?. The basically Chinese committee wants to believe that if this money is given to a recognized aid organization that the cash will automatically go toward helping the needy -- it will also (in their thinking) off-load the responsibility of having to make a decision as to what to do.

How naive is this culture! What people need in Aceh is a helping hand, and although a small organization like an Indonesian hash cannot help everyone, it can in fact help a few individuals who have lost everything in their lives. How sad it is when people here in Indonesia cannot respond in a humanitarian way when outsiders (foreigners) do it as a matter of course.

Look at how much money has been spent by foreigners in Aceh so far, and then also look at who was first in Nias, and then consider what the Chinese have done?

Culture -- this has nothing at all to do with humanitarian needs, and the sooner people bury the past and start thinking sensibly -- the better. I was totally embarrassed to be at that meeting.

DAVID WALLIS Medan, North Sumatra