Not much personal news today (but there may be something good tomorrow) so I've decided to launch the beginning of my perpetually-in-need-of-updating timeline. Here's the link: timeline
In broader news however, there was a suicide bomb attack on the Jalalibad road in Kabul this afternoon. About 12 people were killed by a motorcyclist who aimed himself at a bus. All Oxfam movements are suspended except travel to and from work.
Today will be day two of four of a senior management induction I am receiving at Oxfam's South Asia Regional Centre here in Delhi. We will receive a full day of 'Sexploitation' - a Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse training session.
We had a homework assignment - to recall and describe an incident of sexual exploitation or abuse we might know about. We had to eliminate all named references to individuals, organizations or even countries.
I am not sure if the incident I have decided to relate is actually a case of (workplace) sexual exploitation or not. I'll paste it in here, and in my next posting I'll describe today's discussion.
My example involves two employees who were roughly peers, working in a religiously fundamentalist country for an international NGO. I do not know all the details but will relate what I understand to be true.
One male individual employed in a technical role was deployed from a large city to a small city where he made the acquaintance of a female in an administrative role. They began a relationship which involved time alone together and which they failed to keep secret. As a result conservative members of her community physically assaulted her. She required four stitches to treat a head injury. It is understood that this situation could have even resulted in death. The male was immediately redeployed to another part of the country.
I think it is certain that the individuals should have known from the cultural situation that the woman would be put at risk. The individuals may simply have been highly irresponsible but I would like to know if the male used any power to initiate the relationship. Because the consequences were severe I would like to know whether he used any apparent seniority or social ‘sophistication’ to influence the woman into risking her life. Meanwhile it is hard for me not to judge the community’s standards rather than the woman’s as being immoral.
Preventions: perhaps management should have a ‘no-relationships’ policy but this would seem unenforceable and unfair. A much better approach would be education about the culture and morals of the community to which the male had been deployed.
About 40 (accounts vary) Oxfam staff staged a sit-in outside our Oxfam gates yesterday. Apparently we haven't paid them for ages and they're currently living in a 'hotel' of very low standard. Our failure to pay them has to do with a failure of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development to pay us, but we must be responsible in some way. It's adding to my list of reasons to hope never to return to Oxfam.
Colleague and house mate Quokka beat me tonight at Scrabble for the second time. I'm going to keep track of the games unless it gets too humiliating. Therefore...
Scrabble: Quokka 2 - Tom 0
I'm pretty anxious to soak up some decadence right now because I've just come back from two slightly rougher weeks in the field - one in Panjao (Central Highlands of Afghanistan) and one in Kandahar City - where security rules prevented me from leaving the Oxfam compound for four days.
Programme for the next few weeks: Working in Kabul until September 10, then two weeks in Delhi to avoid any troubles brought on by the Afghan elections, and then working here (perhaps including two weeks in Badakhshan) until the end of my Oxfam contract on October 31.
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