The emerging new country of South Sudan, which has voted overwhelmingly for secession from the north, has already become a leading nation of "the workshop": not a place where hard work gets done under duress but where the language of aid is taking hold even among the natives. 'I feel like a stakeholder now,' exclaimed a woman of the Dinka tribe, the region's most prolific.All words I have become incredibly familiar with, then inured, whereafter sick of. Thanks, Economist, now I'll start delousing my vocabulary.
All the favourite words of NGO-speak are now aired in the makeshift corridors and canteens of Juba, the fledgling capital. Top of the list are 'empowerment', 'capacity-building' and 'stakeholder' (not someone actually carrying a stake). 'Governance', 'civil society', 'facilitators' and 'disadvantaged' follow fast behind. British NGOs have a fondness for 'focal groups'. Americans like anything that leads to 'inclusion', especially of the 'excluded'.
July 7, 2011
From the Economist, January 2011:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment