An Open Letter to all NGOs in Banda Aceh

YOU'VE BEEN HERE TOO LONG. YOU WERE VERY HELPFUL RIGHT AFTER THE TSUNAMI. EVERYBODY KNOWS IT, YOU SAVED A LOT OF PEOPLE AND HELPED OTHERS GET ON THEIR FEET FASTER. THAT WAS 3 YEARS AGO. NOW IT IS OBVIOUS THAT YOUR JUST HERE TO TAKE 70% OF THE CONSTANT FLOW OF MONEY INTO THE AREA. IT WILL BE PROFITABLE TO BE HERE FOR A VERY LONG TIME, BUT IT IS NO LONGER HUMANITARIAN WORK. YOU'RE JUST USING SUPERIOR TECHNOLOGY TO MAKE MAD BANK. THE ACEHNESE ARE RESOURCEFUL PEOPLE. THEY CAN GET ON WITHOUT YOU NOW.

GO BACK TO YOUR RESPECTIVE COUNTRIES, OR QUIT PRETENDING THAT YOU'RE HERE TO "HELP IN POST-TSUNAMI COORDINATED DEVELOPMENT" OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT.

Signed,

John

In other news I went to the most phenomenal beach today just west of Banda Aceh: Lampu'uk. The water was azure and crashed against beach and cliff in ways I've never dreamed. This is the reason people are beach scientists. Every coastal process was there: dunes on the back shore that stung your shins with windblown sand, beach cusps, riptides and particle sorting by density. This is an area where the Tsunami claimed 90% of human lives, basically everyone who wasn't away for some reason. Now its flush with European bistros serving the NGO community. I had a fantastic brick-oven pizza Napoli.

I've asked a few folks about their tsunami experiences, and they have been quite nonchalant in talking about the loss of their loved ones. When I express my condolences they just say that sometimes life is tragic. Wow man.

On the juice front, I've now had cucumber and lychee. I also did what I said I would never do. I bought some of those apples from the states. They were for an apple crisp for an NGO party (btw, I love at least 1/3rd of the NGO people I've met), which came out quite well despite the lack of brown sugar. My secret was adding some passion fruit to the filling. Yes! As for the avocado shake, I think that it would work out perfectly with avocado, chocolate milk and some ice cream.

Since a rice based meal costs between $.80 and 1.50, Jesse Sarah and I find excuses to eat out most of the time. A typical take out parcel will be rice, a fish or two, a jackfruit sauce, maybe some eggplant or quail eggs, all perched in a banana leaf cone. As we say here: Enak Sekali!

I'm in the middle of the Omnivores Dilemma right now. It's a transformative book. Having grown up in such a liberal atmosphere, I rebelled by being cynical of many of the causes my parents fought for. We think this way because we're affluent academics, I said. I thought I would get more of the same from a professor of Journalism at Berkeley, but not so. This book strikes me as simply an objective look at the food industry. He points out over and over again how industrial farming has created so many problems that did not exist until 30 years ago. I hope Austin has as vibrant a coop scene as the cities.

Don't look now, but I may be getting some photos online soon. If I can get a thumb drive (and not demolish or loose it), hopefully the internet here will tolerate some uploads.