Tuesday, July 25, 2006

female aid workers and pakistan

This article came through the AlertNet wire this morning as a flash. I guess that there is an organization in Pakistan that does not like western women aid workers in their area. Interestingly enough, the article does not mention what type of dress this organization deems as inappropriate, whether they are objecting to the women mixing with foreign or local men (and even if they are, how impossible would it be for a woman to NOT work with local men in a country like Pakistan, where women are often not present in the workforce-especially in emergency relief), or where the drinking alcohol occurs. It sounds like this situation is not really an issue and is being dealt with locally, judging by the way the expat NGO workers are quoted in the article.

What this article doesn’t mention is in Islamic nations female aid workers are even more important than in other environments because they are the only ones who can have contact with women to ensure that their needs are being met by the NGO’s responding to these issues. Without female aid workers in these environments (and they don’t HAVE to be expats), half of the affected population would not be included in needs assessments and other important activities.

It’s just interesting to me, since after the earthquake I considered applying for a job in Pakistan (that I was hopelessly unqualified for!) to aid in the response. You can link to the article here, or see the text below.



No women aid workers in Pakistan quake area -clerics
25 Jul 2006 13:43:45 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Waheed Khan

MANSEHRA, Pakistan, July 25 (Reuters) - Muslim clerics in Pakistan's conservative North West Frontier Province want local authorities to expel all women working for international relief agencies in earthquake affected areas by the end of this month.

The clerics accuse the women, including Pakistanis employed by foreign non-government organisations (NGOs), of dressing improperly, mixing with men and drinking alcohol, which is banned in Islamic Pakistan.

"We are not against the NGOs, but we are against them spreading obscenity in society and trying to weaken our faith by corrupting our women," Moazzam Ali Shah, head of Tehreek-e-Islaha Muashra, or Movement to Cleanse Society, told Reuters in Mansehra town.

The clerics have not said what action they might take if the women aid workers are not asked to leave.

More than 50 international NGOs are based in Mansehra carrying out relief and rehabilitation projects for the victims of a massive earthquake that killed over 73,000 people and rendered millions homeless in Pakistan's Kashmir and Frontier province last October.

Mansehra is the district where Balakot, one of the towns hardest hit by a massive earthquake last October, is located.

"We know an ultimatum has been given and we are waiting to see what happens," said Frank Lehmann, a senior official with World Vision, an NGO involved in providing schooling for children still living in tent encampments.

"We respect the local culture and try to behave accordingly," Lehmann said, adding that the relief agencies had raised their concerns with the local authorities.

Police have given assurances that aid workers will be protected, while talks are held with clerics to settle the issue.

"No one would be allowed to disrupt relief work and we are absolutely serious about security issues," Waqas Aziz, a district police officer, said.

"We see this as a local issue, which is being defused. But we have told the NGOs to take care about local sensitivities while working in this area," he said.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa, an Islamic charity with links with a banned militant organisation, Lashkar-e-Taiba, is active in the area, and its officials in Balakot told Reuters they supported the allegations against the foreign aid workers.

The United States added the charity to a list of terrorist organisations earlier this year, but there have been no moves against it by the Pakistani authorities.

Friday, July 21, 2006

plans

I was tidying up my desk this morning and I saw a random slip from a fortune cookie that I had saved from some Chinese lunch run. I was getting ready to toss it, when I read the fortune. It says: “Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.” I think I will hold on to that one for awhile….

My boss is getting married tomorrow, and I have just been invited. They are having a really small, intimate ceremony and reception, and since I am so new to the organization and all, he felt it wasn’t fair to his fiancĂ©e’ to invite everyone from work. They have had a few cancellations since then, and more of us from DR have been invited. I am so excited to see him get married! This man has walked around the office for months completely goofy and in love, and it will be great to see them take their vows.

Anyway, last minute wedding invite = emergency dress shopping. Kirsten has a wedding she needs to go to in a few weeks as well, so she and I are going to run to Arundel Mills tonight to see what we can find. I can’t believe that I have not a single dress in my closet! Just goes to show how much of a jeans/pants girl I truly am (my mother would be so sad to know that I have no dresses!).

Val is in a show on Saturday night, so Kirsten and I will go down to Annapolis tomorrow to see her perform. I am really excited about that, too. She is amazing live, and when we saw her last (in March) she was performing with a few other people. Val stood out completely. She was the most professional, polished, and talented person in the show, and I hope that this performance will be even better! Plus, any excuse to run to Annapolis is great….I love that place.

Other than that, there is not much going on. Despite all the planned activity for this weekend, I am continuing to be bored in Baltimore (mostly because of the lack of freedom I feel from not having a car). It is so frustrating to live on this side of the country, which has so much great American history and is full of cities I have never seen, and be limited to what I can do or where I can go. There is simply not enough to do in this town to keep me interested. It is SOO small!

Thursday, July 06, 2006

my long weekend

I can’t believe its Thursday already…this holiday weekend thing really throws off the schedule.

I was pretty happy to come into work on Wednesday, funnily enough. The long weekend was great, and it was just long enough to make me want to be productive again. Kirsten and I once again had some crazy times.

Friday was pretty normal. We saw The Devil Wears Prada (awesome movie, Meryl Streep rocks in it). On Saturday I called her at about mid-day to see what she was up to, and she had been talking with the police all day. Someone broke into her car, smashed her passenger side window and mangled her dashboard while stealing the CD player. Then they went into the trunk and took her laptop, ipod, and all of her cds. She was pretty blue, and after spending the morning dealing with the Baltimore police (they were crabby to her, but it is Baltimore, I am sure they had other places to be and things to do) she needed a respite. I was hanging out with her trying to cheer her up when she gets a call from some random guy who says he has her laptop and does she want it back.

Of course she wants it back, so she and I run out at 11 at night to go to a 24 hour diner called the Sip N’ Bite so she can meet him and get her computer back. The situation was pretty shady, but the guy we met was really nice and sorta cute. It wasn’t a horrible experience, just really random and odd. (The best part of this story, though, is that I was watching Syriana last night and all of a sudden, the Sip N’ Bite is on the screen! Christopher Plummer and George Clooney taped a scene in the diner and sat right in the booth where we sat…. as soon as I saw it I called Kirsten and we had a great laugh about it).

My Fourth of July was pretty good. On Monday we drove up to see some family friends of mine who are moving to PA, only an hour and a half away from me. They have two little girls, and I thought they would need a few extra hands to help unpack boxes. It was great to see them and their new house, and to catch up with them about what is happening with me here in Bmore. I only wish I had a car, so that I could go up there more often. It would be great to see trees on a regular basis and get away from all the concrete that surrounds me all the time.

I did see the Baltimore fireworks. It was a pretty fun experience, the Inner Harbor was decked out in red, white and blue, and they shot fireworks off of a barge in the inner harbor and the Domino Sugar factory. We had a primo viewing spot, too….on the balcony of Uno’s. Pizza and fireworks on the fourth of July…that’s a pretty typical American experience, right?

Sunday, July 02, 2006

tiresome

It has been an eventfull, and tiresome, weekend thus far full of stress and bad feelings, although it started off promising enough. Here is hoping that Monday and Tuesday will bring happiness and the long weekend will redeem itself.

Anyway, before the 4th is over I wanted to post this tidbit I found in the event pages of the City Paper here in Baltimore. I just thought it was an interesting editorial on Independence Day.

Tuesday 4
Fourth of July
All day, the United States of America
www.foxnews.com, free.
Fireworks in the Inner Harbor. Cookouts. Swimming pools. Apple pie. Smiling children. Grandma and grandpa. The beach. Baseball games. Oppressive humidity. Batsh*t gas prices. Seasonal allergies. Cost of living on the rise. Street crime. A president with a flat-lining approval rating. Proposed draconian policies for illegal immigrants. Gay rights embattled in every state. Erosion of the Fourth Amendment. 2,500 U.S. soldiers, plus or minus a couple hundred. Playing chicken with Iran's nuclear capabilities. Love it or leave it, motherf****rs.