August 7, 2006--The Hezbollah Foundation
To many in the so-called “donor community,” foundation officials and staffs, it is felt that a healthy society requires that there be many robust NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) to offer services governments are either unable or unwilling to provide. It is the role of these NGOs, these institutions of “civil society,” to hold governments accountable to the people they presumably represent.
These independent not-for-profit groups are necessary in order to keep pressure on governments to provide basic services, protect human rights, establish effective schools, help poor people establish livelihoods, protect the environment, and provide adequate health care, among other things. Thus, funders look to make grants to NGO organizations of this kind in order to improve people’s lives and foster the growth of free societies.
In my former role as a senior director at the Ford Foundation, we attempted to help do things of this kind both in the United States and in the “developing world” (though the proper PC way to refer to this part of the world was to call it “the South” since “Third” and “Developing,” we felt, didn’t quite capture the truth of the situation).
So to have an article on the front page of the NY Times about the work of a foundation such as Ford, an article that praises the work on the ground of NGOs we were funding, would be welcomed. Thus, when just yesterday there was this kind of front-page story about work underway in Lebanon, effective efforts to help with health issues, education, security, and support for micro-enterprises, I was disappointed, as a former FF staffer, to discover that the article was not about Ford or another major US funder, but about, yes, Hezbollah (see linked article).
Without elaborate “field offices” and high-priced staff set up in sumptuous subsidized housing with drivers, servants, and security guards, it appears that Hezbollah has, for years been, quietly going about getting the job done. When poor people get inflated electrical bills, Hezbollah often pays them; when someone does not have the resources to cover the cost of expenses for medical treatment, Hezbollah frequently covers the bill. They run schools, provide policing in neighborhoods where the government doesn’t, and make micro-loans to help incubate small businesses.
No wonder a car mechanic in southern Lebanon was quoted as saying, “The trees in the south say, ‘We are Hezbollah.’ The stones say, ‘We are Hezbollah.’ If the people cannot talk, the stones will say it.”
Any wonder that Israel, with all its US-Supplied smart bombs, is so bogged down?
Even the stones are fighting back.
These independent not-for-profit groups are necessary in order to keep pressure on governments to provide basic services, protect human rights, establish effective schools, help poor people establish livelihoods, protect the environment, and provide adequate health care, among other things. Thus, funders look to make grants to NGO organizations of this kind in order to improve people’s lives and foster the growth of free societies.
In my former role as a senior director at the Ford Foundation, we attempted to help do things of this kind both in the United States and in the “developing world” (though the proper PC way to refer to this part of the world was to call it “the South” since “Third” and “Developing,” we felt, didn’t quite capture the truth of the situation).
So to have an article on the front page of the NY Times about the work of a foundation such as Ford, an article that praises the work on the ground of NGOs we were funding, would be welcomed. Thus, when just yesterday there was this kind of front-page story about work underway in Lebanon, effective efforts to help with health issues, education, security, and support for micro-enterprises, I was disappointed, as a former FF staffer, to discover that the article was not about Ford or another major US funder, but about, yes, Hezbollah (see linked article).
Without elaborate “field offices” and high-priced staff set up in sumptuous subsidized housing with drivers, servants, and security guards, it appears that Hezbollah has, for years been, quietly going about getting the job done. When poor people get inflated electrical bills, Hezbollah often pays them; when someone does not have the resources to cover the cost of expenses for medical treatment, Hezbollah frequently covers the bill. They run schools, provide policing in neighborhoods where the government doesn’t, and make micro-loans to help incubate small businesses.
No wonder a car mechanic in southern Lebanon was quoted as saying, “The trees in the south say, ‘We are Hezbollah.’ The stones say, ‘We are Hezbollah.’ If the people cannot talk, the stones will say it.”
Any wonder that Israel, with all its US-Supplied smart bombs, is so bogged down?
Even the stones are fighting back.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
10:41 AM
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