I don’t really like Afghanistan’s President Karzai. He obviously is willing to sell people out for votes and his government is corrupt enough that it might not make sense to back him. Still, I love this push back:
But Afghan officials have begun to push back, complaining the Americans are often overpaid, underqualified, and unfamiliar with the culture of the country. Even the best, most qualified advisers can sow mistrust because they answer to the US government or firms rather than to Afghan officials.
and when you see details like this:
A typical US adviser earns about $500 per day – several times what the average Afghan earns in a month. Add on the costs of security, accommodations, and support, and the cost reaches about $2,000 per day, or $500,000 a year, usually paid to a US firm, according to Paul O’Brien, a vice president at Oxfam America, a Boston-based international relief organization that monitors aid effectiveness.
you see that they have a point. They could get an advisor from India who knows the region better for much much less, but that wouldn’t help US firms. You can see the attitude here:
as evidenced in the case of Yeager, a Colorado geologist hired in 2006 to educate the Ministry of Mines staff about the process of soliciting bids for mineral exploration. Yeager, who was paid by a World Bank fund to which the United States is a major contributor, advocated the creation of investment conditions that would be attractive to Western mining companies.
But Afghan officials ignored his advice and chose a Chinese company in a process Yeager said was too secretive. The Chinese promised to build a railroad along with the mine, something that Afghans badly wanted. But Yeager said he believed that American companies should have been given more consideration.
“The United States has gone in there with our blood and treasure, but the US companies get no credit,’’ he said.
The secrecy complaint has merit (but how many non-bid contracts did the US give out in Iraq and Afghanistan?), but why exactly is an advisor to Afghanistan pushing so hard for US bids–isn’t he supposed to be working for Afghanistan’s interests?
Petunias 