Comments on: Abandoned War Displaced People From Border Villages https://groundviews.org/2007/01/21/abandoned-war-displaced-people-from-border-villages/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=abandoned-war-displaced-people-from-border-villages Journalism for Citizens Mon, 29 Jan 2007 17:10:05 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.1 By: Megan S Mills https://groundviews.org/2007/01/21/abandoned-war-displaced-people-from-border-villages/#comment-393 Mon, 29 Jan 2007 17:10:05 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/2007/01/21/abandoned-war-displaced-people-from-border-villages/#comment-393 Thanks for expressing what is happening on the ground, the practices of NGOs, and yes, their political dimensions of which Westerners can remain oblivious. One does converse with persons committed to development or relief issues and projects who are unable to fathom why Colombo has had enough of some NGOs, the general culture of NGOism. Please post more on which groups are neglected, where it is assumed that help is needed, which communities are omitted, including the important dimension of LTTE politics to which your posting referred. I hope that some on the East Coast do receive what is actually helpful. From what I’ve been able to piece together, the foreign response to the Tsunami survivors may have taken the cake in projects not geared to what local people required, in stated needs, contrasting with what tends to be projected upon people seen as victims rather than astute survivors well able to advise relief organisations. Bring on the basics of life!

]]> By: JustMal https://groundviews.org/2007/01/21/abandoned-war-displaced-people-from-border-villages/#comment-392 Thu, 25 Jan 2007 05:33:12 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/2007/01/21/abandoned-war-displaced-people-from-border-villages/#comment-392 I agree that many of these NGOs practice ethnic discrimination when it comes to choosing people to help. Part of the reason is that the government does not welcome their intervention because they are actually taking over the state’s duties and responsibilities. Foreign aid would be channelled through these organisations and the government will not have much say in setting the agenda. On the other hand, the LTTE needs their help to complement their administration. The tigers cannot spend enough funds or resources to carry out development work and and other duties expected from a governing body, other than occassional photo ops and PR stunts. It’s vital for them that these NGOs have access to its areas and help the civilians in their day to day life. The government regards this as helping the LTTE’s illegitimate rule in areas claimed by it.

Another reason may be the disproportionate ethnic mix in the staff of many of these NGOs. It’s not uncommon to see NGOs exclusively employing ethnic-Tamils or having a majority of Tamil employees. They do influence the organisations’ work to some extent and this might lead to this obvious disparity.

Unlike the Tamil nationalists, the Sinhalese have too much pride to publicise their difficulties and call for assistance. There is a lot of propaganda that causes too much attention to be concentrated on ethnic-Tamils but not other ethnic groups who go through the same problems in the same region. Many of the donors who fund these organisations do not closely monitor their activities and tend to get satisfied with evidence of work done without worrying about smaller issues that are deemed unimportant.

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