Another sneak preview

This article will be published soon in Backstage, the Journal of Trainees for the European Commission

----

Aceh, Indonesia, 4 years on
By Meinke Lignac

Romi Fartia (25) was still fast asleep on the early morning of 25th December, 2004. The night before he had gone to a party, and he been staying at his friend’s place. At first he thought his friend was trying to wake him, but when he realised it was not his friend but an earthquake shaking him around he sprung up and rushed outside, afraid the house would collapse.

Once awake and outside, Romi decided to go home straight away. This decision saved his life. Fifteen minutes later, the first giant flood-wave of what later became known as the Indian Ocean tsunami completely destroyed his friend’s house, along with large parts of the rest of the city. Romi’s own house was still standing, but had become uninhabitable as the flood had washed inside debris and dozens of dead bodies.

Most of us still remember well what we saw when we unsuspectingly switched on the news on the day after Christmas in 2004. The images of the immense destruction that first reached us mostly came from the famous tourist destinations in Thailand. Only gradually it became clear that the less accessible strife-torn province of Aceh, Indonesia was even worse hit.

Here, it turned out, an estimated 168 000 people were killed by the waves of the tsunami, which in some places were as high as 15 metres and had reached 7 km inland. In the provincial capital Banda Aceh alone 60 000 people were killed. Countless others had lost everything they owned. Around 800km of coastline was flattened – roughly the distance from Paris to Berlin. From the beginning it was clear that rebuilding would take many years to come. How has this province fared over the past four years?

Gallows humour
In the Christmas atmosphere of charity and generosity, the world community donated big-heartedly, which led to one of the largest humanitarian relief efforts ever seen. Hundreds of international organisations (INGOs) and dozens of UN organisations flocked to the disaster areas. The European Commission played an important role in the overall international response: it committed € 123 million in humanitarian aid and € 350 million in rehabilitation and reconstruction for the tsunami-hit areas in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

Overall, the initial relief effort in Aceh is seen as a success. Given the enormous logistical challenges, aid reached the affected populations relatively quickly and outbreaks of diseases such as cholera have been prevented. Two days after the tsunami, Romi received the first aid from NGOs. With the thirty chicken his grandmother kept, he had enough food to survive the first weeks after the tsunami. “We could use the chicken to get additional food. You can well imagine the price of chicken during the first weeks when food was hard to come by. In those days full of misery, my grandmother and me used to joke that we must be the richest survivors of Aceh, because we could eat rice and chicken.”

Another major achievement during the first year after the tsunami was the signing of a peace agreement between the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Indonesian Government. This made an end to 30 years of conflict and paved the way for the true rehabilitation of Aceh. The EU played an important role in consolidating the peace with by leading the Aceh Monitoring Mission.

Building back better?
The phase of rebuilding and rehabilitation proved to be less straightforward and more difficult. Lack of money was not the problem here, most organisations had more funds than they could dream of and were wondering how they could spend it all within the given timeframe. The Government Reconstruction Agency (BRR) had ambitiously adopted the slogan ‘Building Back Better’.

The large reconstruction and rehabilitation effort also helped to create employment an revive the economy. Along with tens of thousands of others, Romi has been working for NGOs since the tsunami. His average wage went up from 1,5 million Rupiahs (around € 65,-) to as much as $ 450,- (around € 455,-) “You can imagine, for a young boy like me, this seemed like a big treasure.”

But the combination of virtually limitless availability of money, the scale of the disaster and the presence of hundreds of NGOs created an enormous pressure to deliver tangible results quickly. This led a lack of coordination and even to competition between aid organisations. The result was that in some cases the quality of the reconstruction left much to be desired.

Housing is a notorious example. Many of the houses built by NGOs were of inferior quality and already started crumbling only months after they were delivered. Romi had also lived in one of these ‘NGO houses’ for 1,5 years when he was working for a relief organisation in one of the disaster areas. He doesn’t think that the NGOs were the only one responsible for the poor construction of his house: “I think corruption on the part of the contracted construction companies played a large role in this,” As a result, many survivors simply refuse to occupy these houses, leaving them uninhabited.

Challenges
Despite these problems, after four years the reconstruction of Aceh has come a long way. Almost all people have moved from their temporary shelters to permanent housing. Slowly but steadily, normal life is returning in villages that have been completely rebuilt, in some cases even on a different location.

Challenges still remain. Many wonder how the economy of Aceh, now largely booming on aid money, will cope after the departure of the aid organisations. A total of 20 000 people, mostly construction workers, will reportedly be out of work when organisations wrap up and pull out. Some fear that the Acehnese have become too dependent on aid and that the economic bubble will burst after most aid organisations leave the province.

Worries also remain about the fledgling peace process. There are many hopeful signs that Aceh has left its violent past behind and is developing vibrant democratic institutions. But over the past months in the run up to elections next year - the first one in which local parties are allowed to take part - tensions and violent incidents have been on the rise. Fears are that one such violent incident could spark up the conflict again.

Hopes for the future
The INGO Romi is currently working for will close its doors in December. He will have to start looking for another job in a climate of rising unemployment and inflation. But he remains optimistic about finding a new job: “I have a good education, I speak English and I have gained valuable working experience with the NGOs over the past years. I’m pretty sure I will find a new job.” It will be harder for people with little or no education, such as the drivers and the construction workers. “Many of them are thinking of opening up their own business,” according to Romi. Some NGOs provide trainings on how to set up a small enterprise as part of their exit strategy.

Others emphasise the unique opportunities that the disaster has offered to Aceh. Decades of bloody conflict between separatists and Indonesian security forces had left the province isolated and inward-looking. But some believe that the exposure to the “outside world,” a new world created by the humanitarian and aid efforts, has cultivated a sense of openness and, most importantly, a stronger desire for progress. Romi’s has high hopes for the future: “I believe that there is a chance for Aceh to be in peace forever. No more war, no more disaster and no more political intrigue. Last but not least, I hope some time I can go to Europe even if it was for only a brief moment.”

Meinke Lignac has worked for HelpAge International in Aceh, Indonesia from March 2007 until September 2008.

Sneak preview

This article will be published soon in Backstage, the Journal of Trainees for the European Commission

Dairy of a stagiaire

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
My umbrella didn't even survive its first morning in Brussels. The storm already tore it apart before I arrived at the Madou tower where the first meeting of my traineeship (or stage as I believe it is called in Eurospeak) was taking place.

Today, I was acquainted with the bureaucratic side of the Commission. My stage started with a long talk on rules and procedures. Next, we had to stand in line to get all the paperwork concerning our application sorted out and then in another line to get a bunch of other papers with yet more rules and procedures. That was my first day at the Commission. Standing in those long lines I couldn't help but wondering how I would be able to adjust in my new working environment, after having worked as a development worker in a nice and warm tropical country with little or no rules that could not be bent.

But this afternoon brought back some colour. A friend who's working as an assistant of a member of the European Parliament gave me a tour around the enormous building. Amidst the ocean of serious-looking people in grey suits, the hallway of the European Socialists was refreshingly colourful. Here, the dress code was jeans and sweaters, and the walls were full of protest posters in dozens of languages. I'm curious what the people at my DG will be like!

Tuesday, October 7th
I've got almost 600 new friends, instantaneously!
Over the past two days there was a Welcome Conference for all new Stagiaires. During the speeches we learned that the European Commission is even more energy-inefficient than the average European, had a small peek behind the scenes into the workings of the European Parliament and the Committee of the Regions and learned about the worries within Euroland about where it's heading with our Union after that annoying little country in the north-eastern corner of Europe spoilt the party. But, more importantly, the Conference brought nice and long lunch breaks and… drinks!

This evening I hardly felt the cold wind anymore when I walked home with a great smile on my lips, happy about all the nice and interesting people that I had met and talked with. What an international crowd! I have already discovered that you're really not cool if both your parents come from the same country, and you might as well pack your stuff and go if you’re in a relationship with someone from the same country as well. I think I’ll fit in quite well in this new working environment after all! :-)

Thursday, October 9th
Great fun with my roommates at the 10th floor of this huge Commission building today. All four of us are still facing some difficulties settling into Brussels and our new working environment. I myself had come in late today, because I had been waiting 1,5 hours at my Commune to register, only to get a letter stating that I should come back in three weeks.

When I came in one of the other stagiaires in my room was making bewildered phone calls to her bank, because when she went to the ATM this morning to withdraw money, the machine swallowed her money. The third girl in our room had gotten married since she applied for the stage, and wanted to use her husband's name at the Commission. She will have some more bureaucratic walls to conquer before that can be achieved!

Our male roommate then had just heard that his accommodation in Brussels was cancelled and was searching hard for a new place. The only thing he had found so far was located in a street called Rue de Facqz. The poor guy was wondering how to on earth to pronounce this, and how he, as an Italian would ever be able to explain his address to a girl. Of course this immediately became the running gag of our room.

Wednesday, 15 October
What to choose?! So much nice stuff to do! Teach my language, learn another language, write for the journal, prepare the Who is Who book, parties, movies, sports, excursions, conferences… waah, when am I going to sleep during the coming five months?!

My Italian roommate is still lost in translation. Today he came back from lunch with new football shoes for the Stagiaires' football competition. Looking at the shoebox, he was shocked to find out that he had been shopping at Place Cocq!

Saturday, 24 October 2008
Fog, great fog and big pounding hammers in my head this morning, or actually I’m afraid it's already afternoon. I remember lots of wine of different kind's yesterday evening, and cheese as well. I had a great evening, or at least I think I did…

Oops, an embarrassing memory pups up from the clouds in my head. A nice fellow stagiaire offered me a ride home, a gesture I didn't refuse after I almost got mugged in that creepy area on my way to the party. Although his face looked vaguely familiar to me I didn't think we had been introduced yet. Gosh, was I wrong... Turned out we had a very interesting conversation during drinks at the Welcome Conference, the contents of which he managed to reproduce flawlessly at 3am this morning… Damn, what an impression I must have made. Too many new faces, information, drinks, parties, meetings… I think I need a few more hours of sleep now…

Thursday, 13 November
I'm one of the lucky few who managed to get on the list for the trip to NATO! Actually, all you get to see of NATO is a conference room, the rest is inaccessible because of security restriction. But of course we didn't tell that to our poor jealous roommates who had to stay behind in the office! They were incredibly happy with the NATO-pens and other goodies we had bought them.
Can’t believe it’s not even 1,5 months since the stage has started. Adjusting to my new working environment turned out to be a lot less hard than I feared that first windy day at Madou. Already I have seen and done so many new and interesting things, and then to think that the fun has only just started!