US opens a new front in the `war on terrorism': building a well in Kenya

NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , SIYU, KENYA
Saturday, May 01, 2004,Page 6

Why this particular fishing village, among the hundreds along the East African coast, may soon receive a new well courtesy of the Pentagon is no secret.

It is not because the people here have to walk long distances and brave harsh temperatures for the limited drinking water available on Pate Island, although they do. No, the US Central Command is concerned more with the loyalties of the people of Siyu than with their thirst.

It was from remote Siyu, investigators say, that the bombing of a Mombasa hotel that catered to Israeli tourists and a simultaneous failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli-chartered airliner were planned in 2002. The well is one of many public-works projects being undertaken by the US military throughout the Horn of Africa aimed at changing the locals' view of a country many of them had learned to hate.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/05/01/2003138743

off their hatred now.

next year with a Somali friend from work. But after these photos were released I don't think it's a very good idea.

Second trip in the last three years. It's way safer than you hear about on the news.

That's exactly what we should be doing.

(unfortunately we have another 1000 on top of that to backtrack to make-up for, but let's accentuate the positive...)

- has consistently cut funding to and belittled this sort of cooperation.

I could show you a set of 148 wells drilled in a rural area of an adjacent country - drilled in the 70's and abandoned by the locals. Why abandoned? Because the handpumps wore out and broke down (as mechanical things do) and the locals couldn't afford replacement parts (if they could find replacement parts).

Considering the short-term memory and miniscule attention span of the US government, this will probably happen here, too.

One who'd be cynical wonders if they were casually prospecting for oil.

Hmm, well, that just pisses all over that...

A terror suspect hid-out here. They are drilling a well, but they're also collecting soft info.

Drilling a well and installing the pipe and handpump there wouldn't take a small team more than a few days, maybe a week at the most. This is much ado about nothing - this is feel-good humanitarianism. It makes everyone feel good for awhile, but it doesn't create a sustainable gain.

This could be turned into a sustainable gain. There are a number of legitimate humanitarian organizations that routinely do this all around rural Kenya (and most other developing countries). Typically, legitimate organizations set-up the community to care for the well/pump themselves - with tools and parts and a system to raise money for a pump repairman.

It's not rocket science, but it takes a longer attention span than the US military can muster in a remote, non-strategic spot.

rather pessimistic with all the terrible news these days.
This really is a good move. I don't like ulterior motives for goodness, but a well for this area IS a good thing.
Thanks for that slap upside the head! :hi:

It's going to take a lot more than this.

Recently saw a commentator--Mahmood Mamdani, just found that episode of Moyer's NOW--

MOYERS: You say in your writing that the spread of terror as a tactic is largely an outgrowth of American Cold War foreign policy. During the last years of the Cold War, America created, financed and nurtured the terrorists who later began to plague us. Are you saying that we are ultimately responsible for the rise, the creation of a Frankenstein named Osama bin Laden?

MAMDANI: Sure. I'm saying a little more than that. I'm saying that the Cold War was not fought in Europe, it was not fought in America. The Cold War was fought in Asia, it was fought in Africa, it was fought in Latin America. The wreckage of that war lies in these places.

So, that stuck in my head, and it's like, well how much money did we spend fighting the cold war in Africa? I wouldn't say too much, not at all, although a lot of that money was illspent, pilfered even, and the threat of communism was definitely exaggerated and used to bilk and hoodwink the public. But on the whole I think that spending accomplished good things, and we should not have abandoned the allies we made and the commitments we had.

Mamdani's point is that we sowed violence and destruction, and his examples I wouldn't contradict. Take Angola. We funneled 10s of millions through Savimbi, and this funding was never fully and openly accounted for. That's immoral, indecent, and, history shows, unwise.

Angola's one example. It's telling I think that Mamdani doesn't mention Kenya, which presumably he knows well. And there's a lot of bad things that could be said about Moi and our relationship with his government. However, I believe that for all its warts the US has also done a lot to promote goodwill in Kenya. So if there's any overarching sense of resentment towards America among Kenyans, it probably stems from the way we handled the embassy bombings. It's not too late to make amends.

But I'm no expert, and I haven't even consulted some obvious sources, so cum granum salis.

This was his one big suggestion after the trip -- provide them access to clean water. It was that simple. In a way it's a shame that it doesn't get done unless the military wants to buy favor, but I guess it's better than nothing.

There are legitimate humanitarian organizations working on exactly this situation, every day, in just about every developing country. Their output dwarfs the piddling propaganda that any military does when it wants to curry local favor to collect info.

The shame is that the US government doesn't come CLOSE to pulling its weight in funding such humanitarian efforts. Furthermore, when it does contribute, the priorities often change with the administration. And the US government does not make community development commitments in excess of three years - even knowing that water resource development in any remote area generally involves decades.

Don't buy the propaganda - there are legitimate professionals who do this same work, do it every day, do it better, do it to last, and do it without clapping themselves on the back (at least not with the level of self-congratulatory fervor seen among the one-timers).