Sarah Chayes on Bill Moyers

By Alanna Shaikh | 23 February, 200811 November, 2011 | 0 Comments |

“I don’t think hope is relevant.” Sarah Chayes was a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor in Afghanistan. She stayed in Afghanistan and is now running a soap co-op which markets its products in the US. This interview with her about Afghanistan sums up most aid workers’ approach to the countries they are in. Bitterness about the government and a focus on getting their own work done.

The Road to the Horizon

By Alanna Shaikh | 22 February, 200811 November, 2011 | 0 Comments |

The Road to the Horizon. This is an interesting website – it’s meant to be a “dynamic e-book” with multiple contributors. I haven’t had time to explore much yet, but I can recommend the excellent piece on “So you want to be an aid worker.”

Kidnapped German aid worker freed in Somalia

By Alanna Shaikh | 13 February, 200811 November, 2011 | 0 Comments |

Kidnapped German aid worker freed in Somalia – I wonder if kidnapping him was an error?

Please let us see the same result for Cyd Mizell.

German aid worker kidnapped in Somalia

By Alanna Shaikh | 13 February, 200811 November, 2011 | 0 Comments |

Somalia is bad ugly territory for aid workers. Today, a German aid worker was taken. No name has been released, but he was an experienced guy who’d been in Afghanistan. He was working for Welthungerhilfe, also known as German Agro Action. Welthungerhilfe is active in Somaliland, which is actually one of the safer parts of the country to work in. There is always terrible risk to working in Somalia, but the need is so great that you can’t really ignore the ethical imperative.

Statement from Cyd Mizell’s father

By Alanna Shaikh | 4 February, 200811 November, 2011 | 0 Comments |

Cyd Mizell’s father has released a statement. She’s still being held, and as far as I know, no one has claimed responsibility for her kidnapping.

Cydney Mizell

By Alanna Shaikh | 31 January, 200810 November, 2011 | 1 Comments |

Wow. This is really amazing. I don’t think I had ever heard of that before — an Afghan protest — a women’s protest — in support of a kidnapped American. Cyd Mizell worked with the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation, and she clearly meant an awful lot to the community she worked with.

The Asian Rural Life Development Foundation web page is here: http://www.arldf.net/index.html — and I really like the fact that they feature Mizell and her driver, Muhammad Hadi, with equal prominence on the front page. ARLDF is based in the Philippines, and it looks like their Afghan programs are pretty new. They do the kind of person-to-person community work that costs a fortune unless you have amazing volunteers, which they apparently do. Their work in
agriculture seems very good. They are incorporated as a 501c3 through the National Heritage Foundation.*

It sounds like Cyd Mizell is a compassionate, idealistic woman with good common sense. She knew the risk she was taking in going to Afghanistan and she did it anyway. She will be in my thoughts. One person’s personal account of Syd is here: http://globalpolitician.com/24050-afghanistan.

*National Heritage Foundation turns out to be a pretty interesting concept. Basically, they serve as an umbrella 501c3 to help small charities become tax-exempt. Their list of services is here:
http://www.charityadmininc.com/CAI_Info/List_of_Services.pdf. I can see how a small group would rather just pay a monthly fee for someone else to do their admin compliance and then get on with their good works.

The Serena

By Alanna Shaikh | 27 January, 200810 November, 2011 | 0 Comments |

This is a firsthand account from someone at the Serena hotel during the bombing. Make sure to read the comments; there are interesting points in there. Let me say here and now though that the expats who implement international aid are fully aware of the ugly contradictions between our lives and the lives of the people we serve.