15 is the number

Salam to all, yes 15 is the number, as the day in which myself and my close family were born, 15 as in the number of months since my last posting on this blog… so as we have accustomed ourselves on this Platform let’s start by catching up!

I was telling you about Somalia on May 26th 2008, a context that I was starting on, and an experience that will have lasted…15 months; a context on which I will have spent the most time (as I did for DRC) but by far the most tiring, intense, and complicated context, and of which you least come out ok; 3 as in the number of NGOs with whom I will have collaborated. Save The Children for 6 (3X2) months, then back to Action Against Hunger for 6 months (3X2 still), and to finish, 3 months with Doctors Without Borders. 3 as in the number of kidnappings of NGO workers, that I will have faced directly (managing the ACF hostage taking) or indirectly (consequences of the 2 MSF expat kidnapping, as well as the ACF Kenya one where colleagues of Trayle were taken) 3x3=9 aid workers still missing (7 ACF expatriates and 2 pilots)

3 Million, as in the number of people in need of Aid in this country that has ceased being one a long time ago, and for which our presence should be all but questionable, to see how necessary the humanitarian IV is… Somalia, a sum of contradictions, paradoxes, permanent questioning, where the dark side cohabits systematically with humanitarian duty of care; a context that will have contributed to radicalize all forces on the ground (NGOs and militias alike) where everyday we are pushed to the limit. The limit of what’s acceptable, tolerable, conceivable, the limit of our mandates, of our personal will, of our means too… you can see (or not) why you don’t come out unhurt of today’s Somalia

But all those considerations set aside, this remains an experience of incredible wealth, a kind of a culmination of those past field years. A historical context first of all of a rare complexity (cf. my 2006 postings on the Somali border where Trayle and myself lived) a current context also illustrating the confusion of genres like nowhere else (cf. my 2007 postings on Afghanistan), and a security context that has rendered access to beneficiaries something almost impossible for us expatriates, which has consequently put our national staff on the front line (pun intended) like nowhere else…

So, security. This field of the humanitarian sphere in which I was always implicated through one’s operational culture, weary about their team’s security in the course of duty. Or through one’s decision to develop it, conscious of the bigger role this topic is taking in our post September 11 world, for which we could never thank enough those who have illustrated on the ground de concepts of axis of evil and other words of wisdom, which have contributed to this joyous humanitarian and military mess, as well as to the confusion of genres I just mentioned, the latter having sadly become something to factor into the Aid we are trying to provide to the victims of the “ War on Terror”

Security, a field where NGOs are beginning to give themselves the means to counter this now infamous confusion, and to adapt to the evolution of our trade, the latter becoming one of the most dangerous today (sad contradiction) A good transition.

Firstly to tell you about my new job which sees me going back to Save The Children in a regional safety and security specialist role for Eastern and Southern Africa. A beginning of specialization in the form of a technical advisory role, one less operational and less concrete than the field work I have been involved in until now, but a challenge of the most interesting ones, and the possibility to improve access, but mostly and simply to improve our conditions of intervention in a riskier and riskier trade, increasingly drawn into considerations in which it should never be drawn into…

Secondly, to step down a bit from all this emotional investment of the last 5 years, and concentrate on my private life…so where am I standing? Following our settling down in Nairobi, and the discovery of Expatriate life in its most stereotyped and epicurean meaning, Trayle and myself tied the knot; first in smart clothing in Nairobi, then with our feet in the Indian Ocean water: a wedding just the way we wanted it, and where we wanted it. Many friends and families were absent for obvious logistical and financial reasons, but as we said to everybody, celebrations do not end here ;-) Time now to increase the size of the family, from 2 to 3, and for that time to change our professional lives a bit, this explaining (partly) my new professional role: nappies and trolleys soon? Inshallah!

But for now, time to rest a bit and what better than honeymooning to turn this page properly? So the Maldives here we come, followed by the Kenyan coast, so as to compare the Indian ocean beaches, before writing the new page which I sincerely hope will be calmer and less passionate… let’s see if this remains possible in this humanitarian world, so engaging and so violent, but so necessary…

I would like to finish this posting by dedicating it first to my 7 ACF colleagues and the 2 pilots still detained today in Somalia, hoping for their freedom as soon as possible and the end of this hell that should never have existed… dedicating it then to all Somali national staff still detained there, and whose faith sadly seems to less matter since nobody seems willing to talk about it, and finally to all Aid workers that still work on Somalia with increasing constraints, and that try to make a difference in conditions that do not deserve anything else than the utmost respect…big up to all of you.