I was driving home from Fort Wayne, Indiana the other day, I realized.... When the chaos of countries like the Philippines stops working my brain, I can figure out what I am thinking and feeling.
The Malnutrition problem in Niger hurt me, I can act or think it did not, however I know there are people dying in Niger, India, and many countries for silly reasons.
Some of the problems you can solve and others you cannot, however in Niger, I think this is an absolutely ridiculous situation. There are millions of dollars being raised to help this country and I feel or believe that 95 percent of the money is being wasted and creating beggars of the country. http://www.hobotraveler.com/2005/09/africa-enslaved-by-love.html
What can I do, Niger hurt me, made me frustrated, I think I know, I hope I know, maybe I know the solution. Arrogance to the max, however I do believe I know how to fix the problem.
I am presently looking for a laboratory with maybe Purdue University here in Indiana that could help me analyze the foods of Niger, then we can go to step two.
I have purchased the domain yesterday, January 1, 2006, not functioning yet, NGOwatchdog.com to start going after this 95 percent of money wasted.
I am still working on this project and am trying to figure out how to raise 250,000 dollars to go try and fix this problem of Malnutrition in the country of Niger. I can probably get it from the NGO's if I play my cards right.
I do NOT mean to save the people from dying in the next 5-10 years, I am trying to figure out how to stop the people dying 5-10 years from now. They need to grow some vegetables and fruits in this country, and it will take about 5-10 years if they started today before the crops are abundant enough to dent the problem and 25 years before a big impact.
This problem has existed for 100 years and probably always.
Presently the NGO's in the country seem to be raking in the money, and not putting into works a long term solution.
I can never forget in a small bar in Niamey a man said to me, "Remember Andy, NGO's are a business."
for a lot of NGOs, there just aren't long-term solutions in their sights. for a combination of reasons, some their fault, some not. Unfortunately, I know when big names or companies invest money to charities, they want to see results of their money quickly so they can say "hey look, we're nice." it's a necessary evil. but it means if i give Red Cross $2million this year, I want to capitalise on the publicity next year or the year after. They know this, and so if they buy a load of aid parcels or jeeps or soemthign, i can say "we bought them 100 jeeps and saved X lives" and people will buy my product. also, many NGOs have mandates on them which mean they can only do some things in the country or whatever. Red Cross, one of the oldest NGOs, who are protected by the Geneva Conventions, are so bound up by rules etc, as are UN officials and NATO etc. Part of the solution, i think, will be in GOs... government organisations. because they can legislate to help projects succeed. And International Government, lke the UN should also help more, but too many people have conflicting interests. I watched the film Hotel Rwanda last night, and it's very interesting. The mass genocides in Rwanda were ignored by richer countries because they had all lost so many men in Somalia recently, and it was bad for public morale. You can kinda relate on a policy point of view, but on a human level... it's disgusting. There are so many interests to guard. the UN first guards the interests of North America and West Europe. and NGOs are subject to those rules and mandates.I'm thinking you are right, long term is key. But you're pro0bably going to have to start massaging political egos in Niger at some point to do anything long term helpful.if you come up with a solution, let me know. I might be able to do something from UK. When i becoe a student, there are no shortage of people looking for a cause to support.