Thought for the Day

[bcholmes]

The waitress serves each of us a beer and then, leaning over the table in candlelight, The Direktor begins to speak.

"Let me tell you about the wind generators," he says with a mischievous smile.

As it turns out, the wind generators, the photograph of which had so infuriated the militant big boned nutritionist, had been installed some ten years earlier, a gift from the German embassy, or what The Direktor calls, "The Ministry." Purchased in Germany, shipped to Haiti, installed by experts, all at the total cost of several million dollars, the Germans apparently forgot about them, never having been informed that they only functioned for a few days before the Haitians simply shut them off. By the end of six months they had been vandalized.

But then, in 1998, only six weeks before this day, the same day that I presented the final report for the survey, the German Minister wanted to see the wind generators. Her term as ambassador was over, she was being recalled to Germany and so before she left she wanted to see an example of lasting good that her country had done in Haiti during her tenure. She called The Direktor to arrange a special visit. The Direktor called the Baie-de-Sol manager of Haiti's State Electric Company (EDH). The manager promptly sent out a crew to make the road up the hill to the wind generators passable.

The ambassador arrived and The Direktor led a convoy of five Mercedes SUVs up the road to the scenic heights overlooking the city where sat the five majestic wind generators. The motorcade rounded the final curve for the summit and there they were, the wind generators, guts ripped out, mangled wires protruding from bashed circuit boxes. Even the relay shack had been broken to pieces and the cement blocks carted off.

"The Minister was shocked," says The Direktor with a smirk, "it was a real eye opener for her."

"To top the story off," he continues, "the Minister left and the new Minister arrived four weeks later. The new Minister came to Baie-de-Sol and called a meeting with all the German organizations working in the area. During the meeting he announced that he had a vision." The Direktor looks at me quizzically, a wry smile comes over his face. "The new minister heard that Baie-de-Sol was a very windy place and would like to investigate the possibility of installing wind generators."

The Direktor winks. "And that my idealistic American friend is how foreign aid works."

The Direktor takes a long sip of his beer.

"You must understand," he says almost apologetically, "Foreign aid development programs are never long-term. We operate on three-year budgets. You have a sum of money and you have a program and you spend that money. If you do not spend the money, you failed. No on thinks beyond that. That is how it is done. It might not be right, but that is how foreign aid works."

— Travesty in Haiti, Timothy Schwartz