Yes Minister
Do you think announcements by British Government Ministers make any difference at all to people in Rwanda? If I told the woman in the red cap who walks everyday along the road past my front gate here in Kigali what Douglas …
Next steps for Nepal?
I arrived in Nepal last week and the day I arrived the Prime Minister resigned! My week since has been trying to make sense of a multitude of contradictions and intensely complex politics. I’ve arrived to head up DFID’s development …
The colour purple
Hundreds of people trudged up the long hill to Nyanza, many of them wearing something purple, a neckscarf, a wrap, even a purple wristband. The colour purple is the colour of mourning in Rwanda and yesterday, 7th April, was the 15th Anniversary …
What could I say?
Jeanne fiddled with the edge of her gitenge, tracing the pattern in the brown cloth with her finger again and again, telling me her experiences in the Rwandan genocide, and of the years after 1994. I sat in her small …
Traffic and Politics in Bangladesh
I have been in Dhaka six months now – working for DFID Bangladesh as an economist - and one of the first things I noticed was the traffic. Previously I lived in Sierra Leone for two years, but compared to …
Dear Olly
Do you know where swallows go to in the Winter? At least two of them come and sit on the ledge outside my bedroom window here in Kigali. When I saw them this morning I was immediately reminded of the children's …
The power struggles around Paoua
I was thinking again about that local official in Paoua. He has another constraint – he can’t even get to see the area he administers. It's quite in contrast with my own role - I am traveling right across this …
Despatch from Paoua
As I flew in to the north west of the country today, the plane banked sharply and circled as it came in to land. On the ground, on the bumpy, dusty bit of cleared bush that acts as a runway, …
When the aid provided leaves people divided
A few rapidly snatched possessions, some sketchy shelters made from branches and grass and barefoot children being herded out of sight by fearful parents. You have seen it before on TV: another population fleeing from a vicious low-level war. But …
The challenges of humanitarian work in Chad
The first time I visited Chad in February last year, I picked the wrong weekend. It was the weekend that the rebels reached N’djamena. The day had started normally enough – breakfast of dry pastries in the terrace restaurant overlooking …
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