This is “Upgrade Your Electric” week for the Obama Administration. First, the President announced a $3.4 billion upgrade for the US electric power grid.
Then yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the State Department had decided to help Pakistan upgrade its electricity to prevent the frequent outages. These electricity problems, according to the State Department’s website, stem from outdated equipment, mismanagement, and non-payment.
The same website says the program will consist of six projects, such as the repair of 11,000 agricultural pumps, which are used for electricity transmission, and improved efficiency at various power stations, including a dam on a section of the Indus River in the Northwest Frontier Province.
Electricity in Pakistan is, I understand, very expensive. In a country with such huge income inequality, I do not know if this new plan will help those who cannot afford power.
I don’t doubt Secretary Clinton really wants to improve the lives of Pakistanis or that better electric service would be a help. The problem with this sort of announcement and project is that, unlike huge US projects of yesteryear, this kind of Lady Bountiful act does not serve US interests as well as the State Department PR department seems to think it will.
This kind of aid is not soft power. It’s naked power, albeit of an economic and political kind. The plainly visible strings attached can only fuel the suspicion and cynicism of those in Pakistan who are already suspicious and cynical towards the US.
Real aid is a real gift – it can be offered in charity (as in natural disasters) or as the right assistance at the right moment (as with the Marshall Plan). The right time for America to have helped Pakistan with its power was probably decades ago. We should still give it, but unfortunately, this gift from the US is probably not going to change any hearts and minds.
I myself hate it when people go around telling me they are going to give me what I really want, when they haven’t even had the respect to ask. As in Afghanistan, the trick is not to give the people what we think they must want most. It is about what they think they want most.
