Technical Assistance From the United Nations— as Seen in Pakistan

Extract

On an evening in the large, comfortable Circuit House (guest house for government officials on tour) in a city in the interior of West Pakistan, a dapper young Pakistani District Commissioner (our official host) burst in on a group of UN experts from Iceland, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States. After a few perfunctory salutations while we were unpacking our bags after a long day's drive from Karachi—my first visit up-country a few weeks after my arrival —we were subjected to a blunt attack on foreign aid to countries like Pakistan. The target was western aid in general—and the concluding blast of an hour's discussion over our scotch and soda was something like this: “Your aid is not of much importance. What the western nations are doing does not represent a ‘drop i n the bucket’ in relation to their wealth or to the needs and poverty of the East”. This was a rare experience in my two years’ duty as Resident Representative of the UN Technical Assistance Board (TAB) in Pakistan, as Pakistanis seldom show signs of temperament and are usually soft-spoken and very friendly. I should add that a few days later this young commissioner and his wife invited us to a nice dinner at his sumptuous official residence and carried through the formalities of the occasion in a very “correct” manner reminiscent of the days of the British regime.