Keileuk ruften

Another news clipping: CNN carries a story of people claiming that cows moo with a regional accent- cow dialects so to say. I had heard about birds, dolphins and I believe whales developing group languages, but cows actually imitating the human local dialect when mooing?

As for absorbing local language, M. and T. are also getting more streetwise at their Dutch school. Among the new words they have picked up

• 'kut' (one of the rudest words in Dutch meaning female sex organ; T., 5 years old, used it at home. Milan in his innocence told me he thought it meant 'middle finger', so I suspect she made the 'up yours' gesture as well - isn't that girl getting some fine education...)
• 'ruften' (slang for 'to fart') ;
• and that most typical of Brabant words: 'keileuk' ('very nice', 'great fun') . M. used the latter two words spontaneously while talking about school with me on the phone today.

The IMF and the World Bank are in town again to check on the country's economic and financial state (improving from catastrophic to merely disastrous). In the meantime the President buys a military transport airplane and it is not quite clear where the funds have come from. We can understand however that he feels he has to do something to get his troops in the North to control the rebellion. We are also hearing about enormous signing bonuses for government members on diamond and gold exploration contracts. Now that the country has been stable for some time all sorts of investors are coming in, and many play by their own rule-book.

A most unpleasant incident on Monday: my Italian colleague, as always difficult to handle in his last week before leave, completely blew his top and chose me as his target. I had organised the drafting of our next programming document, something to which all sections have to contribute, but mine (Social-Economic section) most of all. He complained by e-mail, cc. to all, that it was late (it wasn't, but he leaves soon and finds it impossible to delegate anything to his section members), and that his section would not be able to contribute etc (his section would have to draw about 3-4 pages out of a total of appr. 70), and that he should have gotten it sooner. He got a rather sharp public rebuttal by the boss and a one-on-one by me, saying that I didn't need my professional conscience to be chaperoned by him (his remarks had been preceded by numerous similar incidents in the past). At that point he went nuts, wrote back that I didn't have any conscience at all nor respect for others etc. I was seething with anger because of the completely unjustified personal insult. After that he received a message from the boss that was as close to an official warning as one can get, telling him to behave and to go home to calm down (which he didn't). The boss, very angry himself, showed it to me later.

I did what any aspiring Buddhist should do in such a case and tried to put myself in his place. He's tired, becomes completely impossible when tired and under stress, and has a fairly lonely life as far as I can tell so no way to take some distance from work. I actually think he has a bit of a mental problem, the way he went completely out of control, screaming and apparently close to tears in his office, over something utterly trivial; I've always found him rather on the paranoid side, seeing complots, frauds and hidden agendas everywhere. These thoughts were enough to calm me down, even though the incident continues to be on my mind. It was not enough for me to get over the insult, for which I want an apology which I know I will never get. Unnerving, but on the other hand something beyond my control, so I'd better forget about it.

It is now official: I am not very happy with my CeFiMS course on Public Financial Management, which is way too hung-up on public (financial) management methods (or fads?) (accrual budgeting and accounting, budgeting by objectives etc.) which are fine for New Zealand and UK city councils but completely impossible to realise in countries at the every bottom of the development ladder. Getting the basics of public financial management right is hard enough as it is, and the basics are given short thrift in this course. I'll just try to put up with it, it's only one of the seven courses needed for my degree. Pity though, I had expected more of it. I'd better check the remaining courses for their applicability.

Having said this, I'd better hit the books again. All this blogging is mere procrastination, an art I thought I had forgotten about, but on which I am rediscovering my considerable talents.