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Disastrous Encounters

E-BookEPUBePub WasserzeichenE-Book
308 Seiten
Englisch
Books on Demanderschienen am29.11.20221. Auflage
This book is the English version of the 2019 published German book ' Katastrophenbegegnungen-Anekdoten und Episoden von der Helferfront', written by Gerhard Fischer and translated by himself. In the framework of his assignments abroad for aid agencies he encountered many disasters in the past 20 years: Earthquake, Tsunami and armed conflicts. However, he also experienced many disastrous encounters, amongst others with employers, accommodation, artisans, bureaucracies as well as return from his assignments. Besides his work he reports on those recurrent aspects in ten chapters. Especially, the funny, bizarre as well as dramatic anecdotes and episodes are presented authentically and with great humour: in Serbia a day was stamped in his passport, which does not exist. Further, he experienced twice a rain of money in the truest sense of the word and witnessed a historical event. A craftsman appeared in Kosovo without any tools. In Sri Lanka a troop of monkeys harassed him and in Ingushetia a supposedly relaxed evening developed to a real attack of Chechen rebels. And much more.

Gerhard Fischer was born in 1966 and grew up in Lower Franconia in Bavaria/Germany. His study of Political Science and History led him to Heidelberg. After the degree as M.A. as well as several jobs as a driver and construction worker he went to Bochum/Germany, where he enrolled and finished the postgraduate study 'Master in Humanitarian Assistance'. This paved the way for his career to work for aid agencies. During his assignments abroad he completed his third degree as MSc of Development Management. In addition, he married and lives nowadays in North Black Forest/Germany.mehr
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Produkt

KlappentextThis book is the English version of the 2019 published German book ' Katastrophenbegegnungen-Anekdoten und Episoden von der Helferfront', written by Gerhard Fischer and translated by himself. In the framework of his assignments abroad for aid agencies he encountered many disasters in the past 20 years: Earthquake, Tsunami and armed conflicts. However, he also experienced many disastrous encounters, amongst others with employers, accommodation, artisans, bureaucracies as well as return from his assignments. Besides his work he reports on those recurrent aspects in ten chapters. Especially, the funny, bizarre as well as dramatic anecdotes and episodes are presented authentically and with great humour: in Serbia a day was stamped in his passport, which does not exist. Further, he experienced twice a rain of money in the truest sense of the word and witnessed a historical event. A craftsman appeared in Kosovo without any tools. In Sri Lanka a troop of monkeys harassed him and in Ingushetia a supposedly relaxed evening developed to a real attack of Chechen rebels. And much more.

Gerhard Fischer was born in 1966 and grew up in Lower Franconia in Bavaria/Germany. His study of Political Science and History led him to Heidelberg. After the degree as M.A. as well as several jobs as a driver and construction worker he went to Bochum/Germany, where he enrolled and finished the postgraduate study 'Master in Humanitarian Assistance'. This paved the way for his career to work for aid agencies. During his assignments abroad he completed his third degree as MSc of Development Management. In addition, he married and lives nowadays in North Black Forest/Germany.
Details
Weitere ISBN/GTIN9783756826476
ProduktartE-Book
EinbandartE-Book
FormatEPUB
Format HinweisePub Wasserzeichen
Erscheinungsjahr2022
Erscheinungsdatum29.11.2022
Auflage1. Auflage
Seiten308 Seiten
SpracheEnglisch
Artikel-Nr.10356910
Rubriken
Genre9200

Inhalt/Kritik

Leseprobe

Introduction
As the phrase goes: anyone who goes travelling has stories to tell. In this respect, I have an immense pool from which I can draw on. Since I have been working in the areas of humanitarian aid and development cooperation for more than twenty years, I have been active in various countries, regions and contexts. Whether triggered by the forces of nature, armed conflicts or simply poverty, the common factor was the need for immediate humanitarian action or longer-term support for the people and societies affected by catastrophe.

At a party, someone like me is a hit, at least at the beginning, and can impress others as soon as I begin to talk about my adventures. It is not only my daily work, but also the circumstances that are immensely different from those back at home. Above all, I can score points with funny events or incidents. And: the notion of working in an area that has either been hit by a natural disaster or where an armed conflict has been and is being fought sounds dangerous and spectacular.

Certainly, a portion of love of adventure is part of why I work in these places in countries or regions that are certainly not a normal holiday destination. On the contrary, these were mostly places, for which travel warnings had or would be issued. Who can claim to have been to a war zone, experienced a terrorist attack or witnessed the effects of such at first hand? On the other hand, who travels to countries that end in -istan? Sounds way too much like the dark Orient, suicide bombers, or other such dangers. The same applies to areas that a natural disaster hit. For me, these environments were almost part of everyday life. At the same time, they were always strange to me at first, sometimes surreal, but at times somehow dangerous. In addition, where I worked was usually the focus of international media. When do you ever meet someone like me personally who has a direct connection to these events and who was able to tell you first-hand impressions or stories from such incidents?

How many times have I heard the sentence that I would at least do something useful because I would help other people? It was more or less by chance that I encountered this field of work. Namely as part of a call for volunteer work in refugee camps in the former Yugoslavia in 1994, although I, at that time still a student of political science and history, had actually looked in the newspaper for personal vacation destinations for the coming holidays - what a paradoxical beginning of my career as a humanitarian worker. Actually, I applied more out of curiosity, as it sounded spectacular to me. The organization selected me and a little later, I started to work.

Then it was clear to me that I wanted to work in this area after graduation. What I should do afterwards with my master s degree, I had never thought about it anyway. Some might describe it as naive, others as haphazard. I would describe it as an unforeseen perception: the right inspiration at the right time. Fate? First, my academic degree ended with the fact that I had earn my living as a gardener and truck driver. Fortunately, I then received a tip about another option to study for a Masters in Humanitarian Assistance. I decided to apply and managed to get on the course. Less than four weeks after having graduated, I started to work as a project coordinator for foreign aid at the headquarters of a German aid organization. One year later, the organization sent me to Serbia to open an office and my professional career abroad had begun.

In the meantime, I have learned that there are definitely personal conveniences working in the fields of humanitarian aid or development cooperation abroad: a higher salary due to allowances and having a more senior role that I acquired relatively quickly, and for which I would probably have had to wait years to achieve working back home. After all, I started as a project manager in Serbia, which on the one hand was quite a jump in my career - because there I suddenly had the most responsible position. Above all, that meant that I had to take decisions that I could not discuss with colleagues. I was all alone. On the other hand, at the time I really did not know what kind of responsibility I was taking on.

Even though I was the head of the organization, a very experienced local colleague whom I hired right from the start took me by the hand and taught me many of the tools that laid the foundation for my professional career. In the beginning, I was simply uncertain and excited. Every situation, no matter how small, seemed to be an overwhelming challenge for me. Suddenly I became the one who was responsible, was spoken to and had to answer questions. It took a while for my own tension to subside. In spite of this, I was never able to take it off completely in the period that followed, as I was always the team leader in a new environment in subsequent missions for other aid organizations. Therefore, I kept seeing myself always as a beginner. I have certainly grown professionally since then and have now achieved a certain calmness that, from today's perspective, occasionally makes me smile if I was too excited in one or the other situation at the time. At the same time, I found out for myself that I really enjoy working in this area and that I have personally found a kind of fulfillment, at least in professional terms.

However, it should not hide the fact that behind this there are often serious disappointments or different experiences that I had in the context of disasters. With all my dedication to those in need, I noticed in the course of time that aid organizations also compete in the market of misery and act accordingly in an entrepreneurial manner. My initial naivety that everyone working in this area acted solely out of compassion or humanity and, above all, free of charge (!) for the benefit of those in need, shattered step by step. After all, I have now understood, money counts always. So pure greed for profit? Certainly not at all. Because somehow the assistance has to be paid for. In addition, not only the relief supplies, but the necessary personnel. Aid organizations are not immune to this either. Nevertheless, I experienced the one or the other behavior that I would have expected tough business people to do. Instead of expressing condolences in the face of a death in the family, for which I, working in Sri Lanka at the time, had asked for special leave to attend the funeral, I only received the answer that the desk officer would forward my request to the HR department! Later, only my line manager expressed his condolences. I would like to meet the humanitarian worker on duty who has not yet experienced any frustrating moments - occasionally just encountering disasters.

That is exactly what I want to tell you. Less in the form of a field report, in which I describe what I gradually experienced. Rather, I describe my encounters in different countries based on recurring aspects, chapter by chapter. I particularly focused on anecdotes and other interesting episodes. Because they not only spiced up my own everyday life, but always left me with fond memories. I think they are well worth sharing. Even today, I have to smile about the one other occurrence and then I notice repeatedly that I have not only experienced a lot, but also seen a lot of the world. Besides, they should draw a picture of what my job consisted of. Nevertheless, the individual sections follow a kind of chronological pattern: from deployment to return.

The title disastrous encounters is quite complex, but also to be viewed ambiguously. On the one hand, disasters form the framework in which my various encounters took place. On the other hand, the encounters, whether with people, cultures or objects, were sometimes disastrous, too.

Before any assignment abroad, I had to find an employer, thus an aid organization. Overall, many different relief organizations deployed me. Times longer, up to two years. Sometimes shorter, just a few weeks. I already had bizarre encounters, from my point of view, during the selection process. Later in the field, I had experienced the perfidious way in which people sometimes provided aid. Once on the spot, the story was often about me as a German abroad and respective admiration that I often experienced as a result. Hence, I will raise some peculiarities that are supposedly assigned to Germans as stereo types. In fact, I realized that these were frequently unsubstantiated. Surprisingly, people also assigned me to other nationalities, which always left me smiling. By contrast, it was and is more problematic for me to name an exact job title.

Encounters with foreign cultures and traditions I was not familiar with were also not always easy. Only over time, did I understand and learn that I could by no means expect my own way of thinking and working one-to-one from others abroad. In any case, they have broadened my own horizons. Once, no twice, I even witnessed an actual rain of money (!). How I was always accommodated during the mission also seemed worth to be mentioned. Not only did those accommodation encounters differ in terms of comfort, but also with regard to the odd landlord - in some places even too exotic animal housemates. The primary purpose of all my missions abroad was to implement aid projects of various kinds. During those project encounters, I worked with many international and local colleagues. One even went so far as to say, I would have changed his life!

According to my own perception, I have never been in immediate mortal danger. Yet, I had all kinds of encounters that my adrenaline level suddenly rose and that were dramatic. Especially when I witnessed a terrorist attack firsthand. I evidently successfully ignored such concerns when I was all of a...
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Autor

Gerhard Fischer was born in 1966 and grew up in Lower Franconia in Bavaria/Germany. His study of Political Science and History led him to Heidelberg. After the degree as M.A. as well as several jobs as a driver and construction worker he went to Bochum/Germany, where he enrolled and finished the postgraduate study 'Master in Humanitarian Assistance'. This paved the way for his career to work for aid agencies.
During his assignments abroad he completed his third degree as MSc of Development Management. In addition, he married and lives nowadays in North Black Forest/Germany.