| Their arrival portends rising local prices and a culture | | | | and enlightened rich-country governments propose |
| shock. Many of them live in plush apartments, or five | | | | tough rules on third-world factory wages, backed up |
| star hotels, drive SUV's, sport $3000 laptops and | | | | by trade barriers to keep out imports from countries |
| PDA's. They earn a two figure multiple of the local | | | | that do not comply. Shoppers in the West pay more - |
| average wage. They are busybodies, preachers, | | | | but willingly, because they know it is in a good cause. |
| critics, do-gooders, and professional altruists.Always | | | | The NGOs declare another victory. The companies, |
| self-appointed, they answer to no constituency. | | | | having shafted their third-world competition and |
| Though unelected and ignorant of local realities, they | | | | protected their domestic markets, count their bigger |
| confront the democratically chosen and those who | | | | profits (higher wage costs notwithstanding). And the |
| voted them into office. A few of them are enmeshed | | | | third-world workers displaced from locally owned |
| in crime and corruption. They are the | | | | factories explain to their children why the West's new |
| non-governmental organizations, or NGO's.Some | | | | deal for the victims of capitalism requires them to |
| NGO's - like Oxfam, Human Rights Watch, Medecins | | | | starve."NGO's in places like Sudan, Somalia, Myanmar, |
| Sans Frontieres, or Amnesty - genuinely contribute to | | | | Bangladesh, Pakistan, Albania, and Zimbabwe have |
| enhancing welfare, to the mitigation of hunger, the | | | | become the preferred venue for Western aid - both |
| furtherance of human and civil rights, or the curbing of | | | | humanitarian and financial - development financing, and |
| disease. Others - usually in the guise of think tanks and | | | | emergency relief. According to the Red Cross, more |
| lobby groups - are sometimes ideologically biased, or | | | | money goes through NGO's than through the World |
| religiously-committed and, often, at the service of | | | | Bank. Their iron grip on food, medicine, and funds |
| special interests.NGO's - such as the International Crisis | | | | rendered them an alternative government - sometimes |
| Group - have openly interfered on behalf of the | | | | as venal and graft-stricken as the one they |
| opposition in the recent elections in Macedonia. Other | | | | replace.Local businessmen, politicians, academics, and |
| NGO's have done so in Belarus and Ukraine, | | | | even journalists form NGO's to plug into the avalanche |
| Zimbabwe and Israel, Nigeria and Thailand, Slovakia | | | | of Western largesse. In the process, they award |
| and Hungary - and even in Western, rich, countries | | | | themselves and their relatives with salaries, perks, and |
| including the USA, Canada, Germany, and Belgium.The | | | | preferred access to Western goods and credits. |
| encroachment on state sovereignty of international law | | | | NGO's have evolved into vast networks of patronage |
| - enshrined in numerous treaties and conventions - | | | | in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.NGO's chase |
| allows NGO's to get involved in hitherto strictly | | | | disasters with a relish. More than 200 of them opened |
| domestic affairs like corruption, civil rights, the | | | | shop in the aftermath of the Kosovo refugee crisis in |
| composition of the media, the penal and civil codes, | | | | 1999-2000. Another 50 supplanted them during the civil |
| environmental policies, or the allocation of economic | | | | unrest in Macedonia a year later. Floods, elections, |
| resources and of natural endowments, such as land | | | | earthquakes, wars - constitute the cornucopia that |
| and water. No field of government activity is now | | | | feed the NGO's.NGO's are proponents of Western |
| exempt from the glare of NGO's. They serve as | | | | values - women's lib, human rights, civil rights, the |
| self-appointed witnesses, judges, jury and executioner | | | | protection of minorities, freedom, equality. Not |
| rolled into one.Regardless of their persuasion or modus | | | | everyone finds this liberal menu palatable. The arrival |
| operandi, all NGO's are top heavy with entrenched, | | | | of NGO's often provokes social polarization and |
| well-remunerated, extravagantly-perked bureaucracies. | | | | cultural clashes. Traditionalists in Bangladesh, nationalists |
| Opacity is typical of NGO's. Amnesty's rules prevent | | | | in Macedonia, religious zealots in Israel, security forces |
| its officials from publicly discussing the inner workings | | | | everywhere, and almost all politicians find NGO's |
| of the organization - proposals, debates, opinions - until | | | | irritating and bothersome.The British government |
| they have become officially voted into its Mandate. | | | | ploughs well over $30 million a year into "Proshika", a |
| Thus, dissenting views rarely get an open | | | | Bangladeshi NGO. It started as a women's education |
| hearing.Contrary to their teachings, the financing of | | | | outfit and ended up as a restive and aggressive |
| NGO's is invariably obscure and their sponsors | | | | women empowerment political lobby group with |
| unknown. The bulk of the income of most | | | | budgets to rival many ministries in this impoverished, |
| non-governmental organizations, even the largest ones, | | | | Moslem and patriarchal country.Other NGO's - fuelled |
| comes from - usually foreign - powers. Many NGO's | | | | by $300 million of annual foreign infusion - evolved |
| serve as official contractors for governments.NGO's | | | | from humble origins to become mighty coalitions of |
| serve as long arms of their sponsoring states - | | | | full-time activists. NGO's like the Bangladesh Rural |
| gathering intelligence, burnishing their image, and | | | | Advancement Committee (BRAC) and the |
| promoting their interests. There is a revolving door | | | | Association for Social Advancement mushroomed |
| between the staff of NGO's and government | | | | even as their agendas have been fully implemented |
| bureaucracies the world over. The British Foreign | | | | and their goals exceeded. It now owns and operates |
| Office finances a host of NGO's - including the fiercely | | | | 30,000 schools.This mission creep is not unique to |
| "independent" Global Witness - in troubled spots, such | | | | developing countries. As Parkinson discerned, |
| as Angola. Many host governments accuse NGO's of | | | | organizations tend to self-perpetuate regardless of |
| - unwittingly or knowingly - serving as hotbeds of | | | | their proclaimed charter. Remember NATO? Human |
| espionage.Very few NGO's derive some of their | | | | rights organizations, like Amnesty, are now attempting |
| income from public contributions and donations. The | | | | to incorporate in their ever-expanding remit "economic |
| more substantial NGO's spend one tenth of their | | | | and social rights" - such as the rights to food, housing, |
| budget on PR and solicitation of charity. In a desperate | | | | fair wages, potable water, sanitation, and health |
| bid to attract international attention, so many of them | | | | provision. How insolvent countries are supposed to |
| lied about their projects in the Rwanda crisis in 1994, | | | | provide such munificence is conveniently |
| recounts "The Economist", that the Red Cross felt | | | | overlooked."The Economist" reviewed a few of the |
| compelled to draw up a ten point mandatory NGO | | | | more egregious cases of NGO imperialism.Human |
| code of ethics. A code of conduct was adopted in | | | | Rights Watch lately offered this tortured argument in |
| 1995. But the phenomenon recurred in Kosovo.All | | | | favor of expanding the role of human rights NGO's: |
| NGO's claim to be not for profit - yet, many of them | | | | "The best way to prevent famine today is to secure |
| possess sizable equity portfolios and abuse their | | | | the right to free expression - so that misguided |
| position to increase the market share of firms they | | | | government policies can be brought to public attention |
| own. Conflicts of interest and unethical behavior | | | | and corrected before food shortages become acute." |
| abound.Cafedirect is a British firm committed to "fair | | | | It blatantly ignored the fact that respect for human and |
| trade" coffee. Oxfam, an NGO, embarked on a | | | | political rights does not fend off natural disasters and |
| campaign targeted at Cafedirect's competitors, | | | | disease. The two countries with the highest incidence |
| accusing them of exploiting growers by paying them a | | | | of AIDS are Africa's only two true democracies - |
| tiny fraction of the retail price of the coffee they sell. | | | | Botswana and South Africa.The Centre for Economic |
| Yet, Oxfam owns 25% of Cafedirect.Large NGO's | | | | and Social Rights, an American outfit, "challenges |
| resemble multinational corporations in structure and | | | | economic injustice as a violation of international human |
| operation. They are hierarchical, maintain large media, | | | | rights law". Oxfam pledges to support the "rights to a |
| government lobbying, and PR departments, head-hunt, | | | | sustainable livelihood, and the rights and capacities to |
| invest proceeds in professionally-managed portfolios, | | | | participate in societies and make positive changes to |
| compete in government tenders, and own a variety of | | | | people's lives". In a poor attempt at emulation, the |
| unrelated businesses. The Aga Khan Fund for | | | | WHO published an inanely titled document - "A Human |
| Economic Development owns the license for second | | | | Rights Approach to Tuberculosis".NGO's are becoming |
| mobile phone operator in Afghanistan - among other | | | | not only all-pervasive but more aggressive. In their |
| businesses. In this respect, NGO's are more like cults | | | | capacity as "shareholder activists", they disrupt |
| than like civic organizations.Many NGO's promote | | | | shareholders meetings and act to actively tarnish |
| economic causes - anti-globalization, the banning of | | | | corporate and individual reputations. Friends of the |
| child labor, the relaxing of intellectual property rights, or | | | | Earth worked hard last year to instigate a consumer |
| fair payment for agricultural products. Many of these | | | | boycott against Exxon Mobil - for not investing in |
| causes are both worthy and sound. Alas, most NGO's | | | | renewable energy resources and for ignoring global |
| lack economic expertise and inflict damage on the | | | | warming. No one - including other shareholders - |
| alleged recipients of their beneficence. NGO's are at | | | | understood their demands. But it went down well with |
| times manipulated by - or collude with - industrial | | | | the media, with a few celebrities, and with |
| groups and political parties.It is telling that the denizens | | | | contributors.As "think tanks", NGO's issue partisan and |
| of many developing countries suspect the West and | | | | biased reports. The International Crisis Group published |
| its NGO's of promoting an agenda of trade | | | | a rabid attack on the then incumbent government of |
| protectionism. Stringent - and expensive - labor and | | | | Macedonia, days before an election, relegating the |
| environmental provisions in international treaties may | | | | rampant corruption of its predecessors - whom it |
| well be a ploy to fend off imports based on cheap | | | | seemed to be tacitly supporting - to a few footnotes. |
| labor and the competition they wreak on | | | | On at least two occasions - in its reports regarding |
| well-ensconced domestic industries and their political | | | | Bosnia and Zimbabwe - ICG has recommended |
| stooges.Take child labor - as distinct from the | | | | confrontation, the imposition of sanctions, and, if all else |
| universally condemnable phenomena of child | | | | fails, the use of force. Though the most vocal and |
| prostitution, child soldiering, or child slavery.Child labor, in | | | | visible, it is far from being the only NGO that |
| many destitute locales, is all that separates the family | | | | advocates "just" wars.The ICG is a repository of |
| from all-pervasive, life threatening, poverty. As national | | | | former heads of state and has-been politicians and is |
| income grows, child labor declines. Following the outcry | | | | renowned (and notorious) for its prescriptive - some |
| provoked, in 1995, by NGO's against soccer balls | | | | say meddlesome - philosophy and tactics. "The |
| stitched by children in Pakistan, both Nike and Reebok | | | | Economist" remarked sardonically: "To say (that ICG) is |
| relocated their workshops and sacked countless | | | | 'solving world crises' is to risk underestimating its |
| women and 7000 children. The average family income | | | | ambitions, if overestimating its achievements."NGO's |
| - anyhow meager - fell by 20 percent.This affair | | | | have orchestrated the violent showdown during the |
| elicited the following wry commentary from | | | | trade talks in Seattle in 1999 and its repeat |
| economists Drusilla Brown, Alan Deardorif, and Robert | | | | performances throughout the world. The World Bank |
| Stern:"While Baden Sports can quite credibly claim that | | | | was so intimidated by the riotous invasion of its |
| their soccer balls are not sewn by children, the | | | | premises in the NGO-choreographed "Fifty Years is |
| relocation of their production facility undoubtedly did | | | | Enough" campaign of 1994, that it now employs |
| nothing for their former child workers and their | | | | dozens of NGO activists and let NGO's determine |
| families."This is far from being a unique case. | | | | many of its policies.NGO activists have joined the |
| Threatened with legal reprisals and "reputation risks" | | | | armed - though mostly peaceful - rebels of the |
| (being named-and-shamed by overzealous NGO's) - | | | | Chiapas region in Mexico. Norwegian NGO's sent |
| multinationals engage in preemptive sacking. More than | | | | members to forcibly board whaling ships. In the USA, |
| 50,000 children in Bangladesh were let go in 1993 by | | | | anti-abortion activists have murdered doctors. In Britain, |
| German garment factories in anticipation of the | | | | animal rights zealots have both assassinated |
| American never-legislated Child Labor Deterrence | | | | experimental scientists and wrecked property.Birth |
| Act.Former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, | | | | control NGO's carry out mass sterilizations in poor |
| observed:"Stopping child labor without doing anything | | | | countries, financed by rich country governments in a |
| else could leave children worse off. If they are working | | | | bid to stem immigration. NGO's buy slaves in Sudan |
| out of necessity, as most are, stopping them could | | | | thus encouraging the practice of slave hunting |
| force them into prostitution or other employment with | | | | throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Other NGO's actively |
| greater personal dangers. The most important thing is | | | | collaborate with "rebel" armies - a euphemism for |
| that they be in school and receive the education to | | | | terrorists.NGO's lack a synoptic view and their work |
| help them leave poverty."NGO-fostered hype | | | | often undermines efforts by international organizations |
| notwithstanding, 70% of all children work within their | | | | such as the UNHCR and by governments. Poorly-paid |
| family unit, in agriculture. Less than 1 percent are | | | | local officials have to contend with crumbling budgets |
| employed in mining and another 2 percent in | | | | as the funds are diverted to rich expatriates doing the |
| construction. Again contrary to NGO-proffered | | | | same job for a multiple of the cost and with |
| panaceas, education is not a solution. Millions graduate | | | | inexhaustible hubris.This is not conducive to happy |
| every year in developing countries - 100,000 in | | | | co-existence between foreign do-gooders and |
| Morocco alone. But unemployment reaches more than | | | | indigenous governments. Sometimes NGO's seem to |
| one third of the workforce in places such as | | | | be an ingenious ploy to solve Western unemployment |
| Macedonia.Children at work may be harshly treated by | | | | at the expense of down-trodden natives. This is a |
| their supervisors but at least they are kept off the far | | | | misperception driven by envy and avarice.But it is still |
| more menacing streets. Some kids even end up with a | | | | powerful enough to foster resentment and worse. |
| skill and are rendered employable."The Economist" | | | | NGO's are on the verge of provoking a ruinous |
| sums up the shortsightedness, inaptitude, ignorance, | | | | backlash against them in their countries of destination. |
| and self-centeredness of NGO's neatly:"Suppose that | | | | That would be a pity. Some of them are doing |
| in the remorseless search for profit, multinationals pay | | | | indispensable work. If only they were a wee more |
| sweatshop wages to their workers in developing | | | | sensitive and somewhat less ostentatious. But then |
| countries. Regulation forcing them to pay higher wages | | | | they wouldn't be NGO's, would they? |
| is demanded... The NGOs, the reformed multinationals | | | | |