July 7, 2011

From the Economist, January 2011:
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 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'.
All words I have become incredibly familiar with, then inured, whereafter sick of. Thanks, Economist, now I'll start delousing my vocabulary.

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