'What have we done in 10 years?'

compoundliving:

The attitude of most of the international workers here seems to be one of resignation. They try to do what they can, on an individual level, but are unsure about what exactly they’ve done. What have we done in 10 years here? And though everyone laments the security restrictions that prevent travel to the places where we can actually do some good, no one wants to get killed, either. So we hunker down, make the reports sound good without an effective way to oversee work in the regions, and party like it’s 1999 every Thursday night.

Maybe it’s the overall futility of the situation that makes people turn a blind eye to the corruption and ineffectiveness of their own organizations. Most puzzling, donors don’t seem to care that they’re funding organizations that don’t produce results.

The system just continues, no matter how broken, because no one sees an alternative.

A sad indictment about aid work and its impact on Afghanistan …

compoundliving