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Boston Globe
30-03-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Trump's USAID cuts hobble earthquake response in Myanmar
But a three-person USAID assessment team is not expected to arrive until Wednesday, people with knowledge of the deployment efforts said. The overall US response has been slower than under normal circumstances, people who have worked on earlier disaster relief efforts as well as on aid to Myanmar said. Chinese search-and-rescue teams, complete with dogs trained to sniff out trapped people, are already on the ground in Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city and one of the places most deeply affected by the quake. China has pledged $14 million for Myanmar quake relief, sending 126 rescue workers and six dogs, along with medical kits, drones, and earthquake detectors. Advertisement 'Being charitable and being seen as charitable serves American foreign policy,' said Michael Schiffer, the assistant administrator of the USAID bureau for Asia from 2022 until earlier this year. 'If we don't show up and China shows up, that sends a pretty strong message.' On Sunday, the US Embassy in Myanmar announced on its website that the United States would provide up to $2 million in aid, dispersed through humanitarian groups based in Myanmar. But many of the systems needed to funnel US aid to Myanmar have been shattered. On Friday, as some employees in Washington in USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance were preparing a response to the earthquake, they received agency-wide layoff emails. Career diplomats working for USAID and other employees had been bracing for layoffs for weeks; Trump political appointees in Washington had already fired most of the contractors working for the agency. Advertisement The employees who received layoff notices were told they should go home that afternoon. Some had been coordinating with aid missions in Bangkok and Manila, the Philippines, which handle disaster response in Asia. Two of the employees in Washington had expected to move this winter to Yangon, in Myanmar, and to Bangkok to work as humanitarian assistance advisers out of the US missions there. But those positions were cut. Had they not been, the two employees would have been on the ground to organize urgent responses to the earthquake. After the disaster hit Friday, the US Embassy in Yangon sent a cable to USAID headquarters in Washington to start the process of evaluating aid needs and getting help out the door. And the next day, a Trump administration political appointee in USAID, Tim Meisburger, held a call with officials from national security agencies to discuss a plan. But Meisburger said that although there would be a response, no one should expect the agency's capabilities to be what they were in the past, said a person with direct knowledge of the call. A USAID spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment. The agency typically has access to food and emergency supplies in warehouses in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Subang Jaya, Malaysia. But the big question now is how quickly, after being almost fully dismantled, it can get goods from those places into Myanmar. The goods include medical kits that can each serve the health care needs of 30,000 people for over three months. Apart from career diplomats, the ranks of the agency's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance have included crisis specialist contractors who live around the world and can deploy quickly in what are called Disaster Assistance Response Teams. Many of those contractors have been fired, and the infrastructure to support them in Washington and other offices — people who can book flights and manage payments, for instance — was crippled by cuts over the past two months. Advertisement The agency would also usually put certified search-and-rescue teams in Virginia and Southern California on alert for possible deployment to the disaster zone, but transportation contracts for those teams have been cut, said one former aid agency employee. At a news conference in Jamaica last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would continue foreign aid work, though in drastically reduced form. He said the aim was to provide aid 'that is strategically aligned with our foreign policy priorities and the priorities of our host countries and our nation states that we're partners with.' On Friday, Tammy Bruce, a State Department spokesperson, said that crisis teams stood ready to deploy to Myanmar. The United States' ability to provide lifesaving aid has been hampered not just by budget cuts but by obstacles in Myanmar itself. Since grabbing power in 2021, Myanmar's military junta has closed off the country from Western influences. Myanmar is now embroiled in civil war, with a loose coalition of opposition forces having wrested control of more than half of the country's territory. The United States and other Western nations have responded to the junta's brutal human rights record with sanctions, and the military chief who orchestrated the coup, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, has railed against the West, thanking China and Russia for ideological and economic support. Nevertheless, in the hours after the earthquake struck, Min Aung Hlaing said he welcomed outside disaster relief aid — and not just from countries with friendly relations with the military regime. Advertisement Myanmar experts say they are concerned that some of the aid that goes through the junta could be diverted to the armed forces. The Myanmar military is underfunded and short on morale as it fights resistance forces on many fronts. This article originally appeared in
New York Times
30-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump's U.S.A.I.D. Cuts Hobble Earthquake Response in Myanmar
China, Russia and India have dispatched emergency teams and supplies to earthquake-ravaged Myanmar. So have Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. The United States, the richest country in the world and once its most generous provider of foreign aid, has sent nothing. Even as President Trump was dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, he said that American help was on its way to Myanmar, where a 7.7-magnitude earthquake ripped through the country's heavily populated center on Friday. More than 1,700 people were killed, according to Myanmar's military government, with the death toll expected to climb steeply as more bodies are uncovered in the rubble and rescue teams reach remote villages. But a three-person U.S.A.I.D. assessment team is not expected to arrive until Wednesday, people with knowledge of the deployment efforts said. The overall American response has been slower than under normal circumstances, people who have worked on earlier disaster relief efforts as well as on aid to Myanmar said. Chinese search-and-rescue teams, complete with dogs trained to sniff out trapped people, are already on the ground in Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city and one of the places most deeply affected by the quake. China has pledged $14 million for Myanmar quake relief, sending 126 rescue workers and six dogs, along with medical kits, drones and earthquake detectors. 'Being charitable and being seen as charitable serves American foreign policy,' said Michael Schiffer, the assistant administrator of the U.S.A.I.D. bureau for Asia from 2022 until earlier this year. 'If we don't show up and China shows up, that sends a pretty strong message.' On Sunday, the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar announced on its website that the United States would provide up to $2 million in aid, dispersed through humanitarian groups based in Myanmar. But many of the systems needed to funnel American aid to Myanmar have been shattered. On Friday, as some employees in Washington in U.S.A.I.D.'s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance were preparing a response to the earthquake, they received agencywide layoff emails. Career diplomats working for U.S.A.I.D. and other employees had been bracing for layoffs for weeks; Trump political appointees in Washington had already fired most of the contractors working for the agency. The employees who received layoff notices were told they should go home that afternoon. Some had been coordinating with aid missions in Bangkok and Manila, which handle disaster response in Asia. Two of the employees in Washington had expected to move this winter to Yangon, in Myanmar, and to Bangkok to work as humanitarian assistance advisers out of the U.S. missions there. But those positions were cut. Had they not been, the two employees would have been on the ground to organize urgent responses to the earthquake. After the disaster hit on Friday, the U.S. Embassy in Yangon sent a cable to U.S.A.I.D. headquarters in Washington to start the process of evaluating aid needs and getting help out the door. And the next day, a Trump administration political appointee in U.S.A.I.D., Tim Meisburger, held a call with officials from national security agencies to discuss a plan. But Mr. Meisburger said that although there would be a response, no one should expect the agency's capabilities to be what they were in the past, said a person with direct knowledge of the call. A U.S.A.I.D. spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment. The agency typically has access to food and emergency supplies in warehouses in Dubai and Subang Jaya, Malaysia. But the big question now is how quickly, after being almost fully dismantled, it can get goods from those places into Myanmar. The goods include medical kits that can each serve the health care needs of 30,000 people for over three months. Apart from career diplomats, the ranks of the agency's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance have included crisis specialist contractors who live around the globe and can deploy quickly in what are called Disaster Assistance Response Teams. Many of those contractors have been fired, and the infrastructure to support them in Washington and other offices — people who can book flights and manage payments, for instance — was crippled by cuts over the last two months. The agency would also usually put certified search-and-rescue teams in Virginia and Southern California on alert for possible deployment to the disaster zone, but transportation contracts for those teams have been cut, said one former aid agency employee. U.S.A.I.D.'s annual allocations for Myanmar were about $320 million last year. About $170 million of that was for humanitarian work, and the rest was for development initiatives, like democracy building and health. Only a few million dollars' worth of projects remain operational, though some of those programs, like one for maternal and child health, have not received funding despite being told the initiatives are not being closed down. Before the cuts, the annual costs of total U.S. foreign aid were less than 1 percent of the federal budget. At a news conference in Jamaica last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would continue foreign aid work, though in drastically reduced form. He said the aim was to provide aid 'that is strategically aligned with our foreign policy priorities and the priorities of our host countries and our nation states that we're partners with.' On Friday, Tammy Bruce, a State Department spokeswoman, said that crisis teams stood ready to deploy to Myanmar. The United States' ability to provide lifesaving aid has been hampered not just by budgets cuts but by obstacles in Myanmar itself. Since grabbing power in 2021, Myanmar's military junta has closed off the country from Western influences. Myanmar is now embroiled in civil war, with a loose coalition of opposition forces having wrested control of more than half of the country's territory. The United States and other Western nations have responded to the junta's brutal human rights record with sanctions, and the military chief who orchestrated the coup, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, has railed against the West, thanking China and Russia for ideological and economic support. Nevertheless, in the hours after the earthquake struck, General Min Aung Hlaing said he welcomed outside disaster relief aid — and not just from countries with friendly relations with the military regime. Myanmar experts say they are concerned that some of the aid that goes through the junta could be diverted to the armed forces. The Myanmar military is underfunded and short on morale as it fights resistance forces on many fronts. In Mandalay, residents said they were upset to see soldiers lounging around the sites of collapsed buildings. Some played video games on their phones, while locals used their hands to pry bricks from the rubble. Still, Chinese and Russian search-and-rescue teams, outfitted in orange and blue uniforms, were digging through the wreckage in Mandalay on Sunday, and a Belgian squad was making its way north. A good chunk of U.S.A.I.D. funding had been dedicated to areas of the country not under junta control. American assistance has gone to health care and schooling for internally displaced people. It has supported local administrations that are trying to form mini-governments in conflict areas. And it has tried to provide emergency relief to civilians battered by junta airstrikes. In the region of Sagaing, a stronghold of resistance against the junta, Myanmar military jets carried out two rounds of airstrikes on Nwel Khwe village hours after the earthquake destroyed buildings there, adding more terror to residents' lives. 'It's as if Min Aung Hlaing wants to make sure we die, if not from the earthquake, then from his attacks,' said one villager, Ko Aung Kyaw. But Mr. Aung Kyaw said he did not expect foreigners, American or otherwise, to be able to alleviate the situation. Sagaing has suffered for four years, and its people have died by the thousands in fighting the junta. Foreign aid, he said, would most likely end up benefiting the military regime, not those who most need it. 'In the end, we have only ourselves,' he said. 'We've been resisting for four years now, and it's clear that we'll have to find our own way forward, no matter what.'
Chicago Tribune
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Gavi Rosenthal: I worked for USAID for 16 years. I saw the profound difference it made.
This month marked the end of my 16-year career with the U.S. Agency for International Development's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance. Like thousands of other federal workers, I was dismissed without warning or explanation. In my time at USAID, I led response teams helping people during wars and after natural disasters around the world, on behalf of the U.S. government and the American people. My teams were the face of lifesaving U.S. assistance to affected communities, nonprofit organizations and other donor countries. I hosted Republican and Democratic members of Congress and their staff overseas. My colleagues and I have put our lives at risk in order to save lives around the world, in service of both Democratic and Republican administrations. Since Jan. 20, USAID has been painted as wasteful and excessive. Here's the truth: What USAID does is actually the minimum. USAID's humanitarian bureau lets people know they aren't alone during their worst moments, helps them survive and helps them fare better the next time disaster strikes. Remember the worst time in your life: Did you lose your home, or a family member, or survive a flood or a fire? Do you remember what helped? Maybe it was someone giving you a place to stay until you could get back on your feet or a neighbor bringing food so you didn't have to cook in your grief. Or maybe it was someone offering a gift card for the grocery store, someone saying, 'Your kids are safe,' while you went to find work or shelter, or someone feeding your kids because what you could afford wouldn't be enough to go around. Have you done these kindnesses for someone else? Of course you have. That's what USAID does; it's that basic. USAID says, 'The American people are with you and are here to help,' and then USAID helps communities to help each other. It cannot be said enough how little this costs, how universal and human this is. I've been privileged to represent the U.S. at its best, to work alongside the smartest, most compassionate, most professional people I've ever met, all trying to make life a little less difficult for their fellow humans. My team supported public health workers coordinating across conflict lines in the middle of a civil war to vaccinate Syrian kids against polio, reaching every kid when everyone thought it was impossible. I found myself close to tears watching trucks of food cross the border into Syria, knowing the months and layers of delicate negotiations required to allow such a simple delivery of food to people in need. I met Ukrainians fleeing across the border into Slovakia in the first days after Russia's full-scale invasion, and the hundreds of strangers mobilized to support and welcome them. I met families who fled the eruption of Mount Mayon in the Philippines, who survived because they had enough warning to make it to safety before the volcano erupted, because of the support that my office had provided for early warning technology. As basic as this assistance is, it is also incredibly complex to get right. Humanitarian aid is a field guided by decades of lessons learned, led by professionals, and dependent on trust and relationships in some of the riskiest areas in the world. This expertise and these relationships and lessons are being literally and deliberately erased. We can debate whether the world should be so dependent on U.S. assistance. In fact, we do, and my colleagues and I lead those conversations with other donor countries, pushing other donors to take on more. Or we did. Our global humanitarian leadership gave us the leverage and credibility to urge other donors to give more. We led global technical discussions about how to be more effective, and we led global efforts to improve humanitarian aid, including its efficiency. With each administration, we expect a review and changes. The current dismantling of USAID's work was not based on any debate and only a pretense of a post hoc review process based on lies and without consultation. Halting all programs, followed by inconsistent and unclear reinstatement of some, followed by further canceling, is quite simply cruelty. It's cruel to millions of people around the world reliant on basic food and health care funded by USAID. It's cruel to U.S. farmers and shipping companies losing income as the administration disrupts the pipeline of food assistance from U.S. farms to families in need overseas. And it's cruel to Americans who want to feel proud of the way we treat our fellow humans. USAID was the blueprint for this administration's threat to the whole federal government. What I've experienced these last eight weeks is personal but is also so much bigger than I am and bigger than USAID. In the midst of the reckless dismantling of lifesaving work and the mass firing of federal workers, Americans who care about the work done in their name, and the services being stopped in their name, have a role to play: Do not be overwhelmed, since that is what the administration wants. Use your indignation, and your humor, and your creativity, to unite against the cruelty. The administration has written a cynical script, and USAID was Act 1. But instead of watching it play out, we can insert ourselves and rewrite the script right in front of them. Collectively, those resisting and those questioning and those speaking the truth and those standing up for kindness are a character they didn't anticipate, so take the stage and find your light and help rewrite the script. The administration's biggest triumph would be our silence. Gavi Rosenthal, a Chicagoan, lost her position recently at the U.S. Agency for International Development after 16 years of service.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DOGE fired me. I'll be fine, but America is in trouble.
In September 2020, I was swearing an oath to uphold the Constitution in my dining room, eyes on my laptop. I had just started a new position with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), my first with the federal government, in the middle of the pandemic. Since leaving my home state of Indiana in 2003, my professional life had orbited USAID: My first real job was for a USAID contractor, and then I worked with a series of organizations that received USAID funding — in India, Haiti, Niger, and the U.S. Despite this, I had never seriously considered joining the agency, preferring to work on the programs that USAID funded and perhaps restrained by a faint bias: Weren't government employees disengaged and uninspired, working for a paycheck and little else? Opinion: What Trump gets right, and wrong, in cutting U.S. security costs abroad My colleagues in USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance quickly put the lie to such prejudices. They were passionate, tireless professionals strenuously committed to the bureau's mission of saving lives and reducing the suffering of the world's most vulnerable people. I saw them hop on planes with less than 24 hours' notice to respond to disasters in Turkey, Pakistan and Haiti; spoke to them after they spent nights in the basement of a Kyiv hotel while Russian drones attacked outside; and silently cheered as they prepared our top diplomats to try to stop a famine in Sudan. In short, they were an inspiration. And, believe it or not, they're no exception. Across the government, federal employees are driven by a belief in the importance of public service, toil long hours to advance their missions and bring specialized skills and knowledge that can't easily be replaced. But these workers — my colleagues at USAID and more than 2 million other federal employees around the country — are under attack. Elon Musk's dubiously deployed Department of Government Efficiency is remarkable for the speed, cruelty and, above all, the thoughtlessness of its unleashing. Under the guise of rooting out corruption, fraud, and inefficiency, Musk and clan have laid waste to an increasing range of government functions and agencies — USAID for one, but also the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Education. The Social Security Administration and Department of Veterans Affairs are reportedly next in the crosshairs. This is not a rightsizing or reimagining of government based on reasoned analysis in pursuit of clear objectives; rather, it is a slapdash yet deliberate effort to cripple the federal bureaucracy through truly unilateral cuts, thereby consolidating power in the executive branch. But why should this matter to Hoosiers who live far from Washington, D.C., most of whom no doubt would love to see a leaner, more effective government? First, this is only the beginning of Musk's and DOGE's campaign. The U.S. government is the world's largest purchaser of goods and services, and its grants to state and local governments and service providers invisibly underpin much of the world we take granted. Even cuts made with clear justification and foresight have unintended effects. DOGE's frenetic slashing will have significant human and economic consequences in the state, some predictable and some not. Second, our professional, apolitical civil service — the competent, dedicated people I described above — is one of the best things this country has going for it. All civil servants, including the 48,000 who make Indiana home, deserve humane treatment and a fair shake, a fair assessment of our value and contributions to the welfare of this great nation. A capriciously diminished federal workforce will inevitably result in a less safe, less prosperous, and less strong America. Musk and DOGE must be stopped before the worst comes to pass. It's too late for me — I was terminated Feb. 24, with the non-explanation that it was 'in the best interest of the U.S. government.' My wife lost her job with USAID, as well. In the long run, our family of five will be fine — we have savings and strong support systems. I wish I could feel as hopeful about the future of our country and my home state. We must make our voices heard while there are things still left to save. Peter Gaff is a former federal employee who lives in Washington, D.C. He grew up in LaPorte County. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: I worked for USAID. What I saw inspired me. | Opinion
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DOGE fired me. I'll be fine, but America is in trouble.
In September 2020, I was swearing an oath to uphold the Constitution in my dining room, eyes on my laptop. I had just started a new position with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), my first with the federal government, in the middle of the pandemic. Since leaving my home state of Indiana in 2003, my professional life had orbited USAID: My first real job was for a USAID contractor, and then I worked with a series of organizations that received USAID funding — in India, Haiti, Niger, and the U.S. Despite this, I had never seriously considered joining the agency, preferring to work on the programs that USAID funded and perhaps restrained by a faint bias: Weren't government employees disengaged and uninspired, working for a paycheck and little else? Opinion: What Trump gets right, and wrong, in cutting U.S. security costs abroad My colleagues in USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance quickly put the lie to such prejudices. They were passionate, tireless professionals strenuously committed to the bureau's mission of saving lives and reducing the suffering of the world's most vulnerable people. I saw them hop on planes with less than 24 hours' notice to respond to disasters in Turkey, Pakistan and Haiti; spoke to them after they spent nights in the basement of a Kyiv hotel while Russian drones attacked outside; and silently cheered as they prepared our top diplomats to try to stop a famine in Sudan. In short, they were an inspiration. And, believe it or not, they're no exception. Across the government, federal employees are driven by a belief in the importance of public service, toil long hours to advance their missions and bring specialized skills and knowledge that can't easily be replaced. But these workers — my colleagues at USAID and more than 2 million other federal employees around the country — are under attack. Elon Musk's dubiously deployed Department of Government Efficiency is remarkable for the speed, cruelty and, above all, the thoughtlessness of its unleashing. Under the guise of rooting out corruption, fraud, and inefficiency, Musk and clan have laid waste to an increasing range of government functions and agencies — USAID for one, but also the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Education. The Social Security Administration and Department of Veterans Affairs are reportedly next in the crosshairs. This is not a rightsizing or reimagining of government based on reasoned analysis in pursuit of clear objectives; rather, it is a slapdash yet deliberate effort to cripple the federal bureaucracy through truly unilateral cuts, thereby consolidating power in the executive branch. But why should this matter to Hoosiers who live far from Washington, D.C., most of whom no doubt would love to see a leaner, more effective government? First, this is only the beginning of Musk's and DOGE's campaign. The U.S. government is the world's largest purchaser of goods and services, and its grants to state and local governments and service providers invisibly underpin much of the world we take granted. Even cuts made with clear justification and foresight have unintended effects. DOGE's frenetic slashing will have significant human and economic consequences in the state, some predictable and some not. Second, our professional, apolitical civil service — the competent, dedicated people I described above — is one of the best things this country has going for it. All civil servants, including the 48,000 who make Indiana home, deserve humane treatment and a fair shake, a fair assessment of our value and contributions to the welfare of this great nation. A capriciously diminished federal workforce will inevitably result in a less safe, less prosperous, and less strong America. Musk and DOGE must be stopped before the worst comes to pass. It's too late for me — I was terminated Feb. 24, with the non-explanation that it was 'in the best interest of the U.S. government.' My wife lost her job with USAID, as well. In the long run, our family of five will be fine — we have savings and strong support systems. I wish I could feel as hopeful about the future of our country and my home state. We must make our voices heard while there are things still left to save. Peter Gaff is a former federal employee who lives in Washington, D.C. He grew up in LaPorte County. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: I worked for USAID. What I saw inspired me. | Opinion
