Saturday 25 July 2009

On NGOs

Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2006 10:20:13 -0800 (PST)
From: barkat rizvi
Subject: Re: NGOs 'Mela' in Karachi

yes it was only a mela and nothing else

Saqlain Imam wrote: Non-governmental
Organisation’s ‘fair’ in Karachi may have been an eventful
extravaganza but it would deliver hardly anything to poor people of the
third world. The NGO phenomenon in fact has devoured the voluntary
youth
that used to work for some political ideology and thus could pose
threat to
the status quo or bring about a change subsequently.

Now the foreign funded NGOs have corrupted the youth by doing the
altruistic
work some payment. The youth from poor and lower income groups of the
third
world societies working in foreign funded NGOs gets subsistence level
payment while their ‘wellc-nnected’ bosses get hefty remuneration for
their
‘service’ to humanity!


According to some critics of the NGOs, the trouble is that, as opposed
to
most governments in the world, NGOs are authoritarian. They are not
elected
institutions. They cannot be voted down. The people have no power over
them.
Most NGOs are ominously and tellingly secretive about their activities
and
finances.

Always self-appointed, they answer to no constituency. Though unelected
and
at many an occasion ignorant of local realities, they confront the
democratically chosen and those who voted them into office. A few of
them
are enmeshed in crime and corruption.

Contrary to their teachings, the financing of NGO's is invariably
obscure
and their sponsors unknown. The bulk of the income of most
non-governmental
organizations, even the largest ones, comes from - usually foreign -
powers.
Many NGO's serve as official contractors for foreign governments.

Human Rights Watch lately offered this tortured argument in favor of
expanding the role of human rights NGO's: "The best way to prevent
famine
today is to secure the right to free expression - so that misguided
government policies can be brought to public attention and corrected
before
food shortages become acute."

It blatantly ignored the fact that respect for human and political
rights
does not fend off natural disasters and disease. The two countries with
the
highest incidence of AIDS are Africa's only two true democracies -
Botswana
and South Africa. It is a normal practice of NGOs that they pick up
less
important issue to misplace emphasis and subsequently misguide the
people.


In an interview, given to Revista Terra, Brazil, Dr. Sam Vaknin said
when
asked: “Q. NGOs are growing quickly in Brazil due to the discredit
politicians and governmental institutions face after decades of
corruption,
elitism etc. The young people feel they can do something concrete
working as
activists in a NGOs. Isn't that a good thing? What kind of dangers
someone
should be aware before enlisting himself as a supporter of a NGO?

A. One must clearly distinguish between NGOs in the sated, wealthy,
industrialized West - and (the far more numerous) NGOs in the
developing and
less developed countries.

Western NGOs are the heirs to the Victorian tradition of "White Man's
Burden". They are missionary and charity-orientated. They are designed
to
spread both aid (food, medicines, contraceptives, etc.) and Western
values.
They closely collaborate with Western governments and institutions
against
local governments and institutions. They are powerful, rich, and care
less
about the welfare of the indigenous population than about "universal"
principles of ethical conduct.

Their counterparts in less developed and in developing countries serve
as
substitutes to failed or dysfunctional state institutions and services.
They
are rarely concerned with the furthering of any agenda and more
preoccupied
with the well-being of their constituents, the people.”

A critics of NGOs citing the role of the BGOs in Iraq says “The NGO, in
sum,
becomes an arm of the international bureaucracy that ends up,
consciously or
unconsciously, doing the work of U.S. imperialism.”

It is high time we assessed the political contribution of NGOs in
promoting
free market economy under the rubric of promoting democracy and human
rights. Moreover, the destruction these NGOs have caused to the
politics of
ideology should also be calculated. It won’t be wrong to state that the
NGOs
have sapped the revolutionary will of the youth.



Saqlain Imam

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