News: DRC UN Staff on Strike
E. points out that while yesterday we were discussing whether or not we, aid workers, are not paid too much, at the same time local staff working for the UN Peace Keeping forces in DRC (MONUC) went on strike.
They claim lacking of promotions and raises in wages since MONUC started in 1999, and the discrepancy between wages for equally qualified local and international staff.
Even though this incident involved UN Peace Keeping Operations (UNDPKO), which are seperate and very different from UN humanitarian operations, it shows the relativity of the issue: while some of us work in comfortable headquarters, feeling we might be paid too much, others working in the field might not paid sufficiently for the work they do...(Full news-item here)
Picture courtesy Myriam Asmani-MONUC
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Peter. Flemish, European, aid worker, expeditioner, sailor, traveller, husband, father, friend, nutcase. Not necessarily in that order.
1 comments:
I also believe that it's a much-needed reminder of we may also be at 'fault' in perpetuating the international/local staff interaction. Another type of 'colonial' (albeit benign - for the good of these lesser fortunate and oh maybe, just lesser 'evolved' people) behavior/attitude?
Are we not meant to be setting examples for others to morally follow? Is this the type of example to set?
E
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