Looking for potential publisher
Dear friends,
Its been very long time since my last post in this site. Kind a miss you all 
This post actually sort of advertisement and cry for help. I am looking for potential publisher regarding my book “History Grows in Our Kampong – Journal of Aceh Hot Zone Tsunami” which already translated into English. I welcome and appreciate everybody who interested in publishing my book, help me with contact to the right publisher, or giving me advices regarding this matter.
To be honest, first i was bit worry about translation quality since we know that translation process always degrading the spirit of original book. Then I changed my mind after reading the result. I am telling you, the translation is really great. Mr. Oei Eng Goan, senior editor of The Point, doing great job of keeping all the drama tones just like in the original version.
So I am very pleased by the quality.
Of course this English version not only about translation, I added several more chapters regarding situation in Aceh. The title would be “Struggle Continues in Aceh”.
Looking at Aceh’s face today, I remembered an excellent book written by William Easterly, a professor in New York University. The book called “The White Man’s Burden, Why The West Effort To Aid The Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So
Little Good”. I really enjoyed this book and found so many things related to my experiences while doing a whole year of voluntary job in Aceh.
Through his book, Mr. Easterly asked very important question: ‘what kind of aid that could help needy people”. The author quoted Rudyard Kipling’s poem “White Man’s Burden”, 1899, as a nice opening. Kipling encouraged white people to do moral obligation to save the Rest which is other than white people. This spirit gain its eternity. All of big and glamorous NGOs, funding and donor institutions, in this modern history have the same obligation to save the world.
The obligation that failed to succeed because the have wrong fundamental. White people supremacy prevent them to do good things to the Rest. Pouring huge huge aid eventually only bring so much ill and little good.
I couldn’t more agree with Mr. Easterly.
While doing job in Aceh, I witnessed how those billion dollars affecting people dignity. Big NGOs, big donors, that I deal with in Aceh mostly only care about number, statistic and program that already planned in Washington, London and Berlin. Their list of questions are : how many schools has been built, how many boats has been delivered, how many houses could be built in certain areas and how much dollar have been disbursed.
Mr. Easterly called this kind of institution as “planners”.
Planner do not care about much more fundamental question: how could those schools, boats and houses match with people’s need? How could we give that money without jeopardized local people dignity? I am sure you notice that dignity is the most valuable thing that being eroded when so much money thrown by foreign aid.
Small NGOs, on the other hand, working hard based on what people need. They did not come with exact big plan from Jakarta, Washington or London. They came to the people, talk to them, bringing out their own spirit, and accompanied them to reach their own dream to rebuild their own life. When the job has done, the
people will say “we did it by our own”.
Mr. Easterly called those Small NGOs as “searchers”.
Unfortunately, as I experienced, these searchers do not have sufficient support from big donors and funding institutions. Those glamorous institutions do not like the abstract idea of ‘accompanied local people”. Of course they don’t like. There is no physical outcome that could be showed off to the world like building school, houses and boats.
I knew exactly what is the difference between planner and searcher. I worked with both of them, as I describe vividly in my book. Of course I didn’t know the terminology of ’searcher” and “planner’ back then, i was knowing them by instinct as a journalist and as an activist. Mr. Easterly’s book really a wide opening eyes for me to see what’s going on in Aceh after trillion of dollar aid thrown in this area.
Now I am looking for potential publisher to bring my book to the world. I hope this book will give contribution to the world, especially in term of improving aid methodology. Hopefully to make a better world.
Again, I welcome everybody who have interest in this issue. Help me, guys, to find the right publisher.
All the best,
diyah
