WASHINGTON, D.C. -- There's this old joke that goes this way, "If you cross a parrot and a lion, that monster would need a boxful of crackers." However, if you put things together in a way that they would make sense, it would go something like this, "If you cross a parrot and a lion, you would get an NGO."
How on earth would that make sense? You may ask. Well, come to think of it, it would sound silly - or even awkward - to mix up two creatures with extraordinarily contrasting characteristics, and then ending up with an NGO. Technically, the lion may even eat up the powerless bird, won't it? But when you think about it from another perspective, you start thinking that everything's coming back to you.
Sure, you know what a parrot is, how it looks like, and how it sounds like. More often than not, parrots are known for mimicking sounds, usually phrases and sentences we human beings use. So technically, parrots don't really speak the same way we do. They're simply imitating what we tell them to say; they don't really know what our sentences mean at all.
If you know Simba, then you know what we're talking about. Those large, loud, and intimidating lions just scare the guts out of us, even if we've only seen them on television or read about them in newspapers and magazines. They're famous, scary, and humongous. Need we say more?
So now, having described the different characteristics of both the parrot and the lion, we guess it would make more sense crossing both creatures. We still don't know if you understand what the cross has to do with NGOs, though.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are cause-oriented groups with varied aims. Some exist for humanitarian causes, such as the Red Cross; some exist for environmental advocacy, such as the Haribon Foundation and World Wildlife Fund. There are hundreds of thousands of NGOs all across the globe working in different countries for many other aims and causes.
We visited three NGOs on April 27 --The Asia Foundation, the Carnegie Institution for Science, and Freedom House--to learn more about them and about what they do to help countries around the world who need their help. All three NGOs have different goals, but they all boil down doing one thing in common: to support and promote the well-being of everyone in the world. The Asia Foundation works for the welfare and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region. The Carnegie Institution for Science promotes the value of science and research. Freedom House works for the freedom of speech and the press in various countries around the world, usually those in which media and political rights are partly or totally denied. Representatives of these NGOs told us about their activities and how they solve problems in the countries where they work. Some countries have improved their situations, the others haven't yet.
We know you still haven't figured out what the cross between the parrot and the lion has to do with these NGOs we've visited. The explanation is pretty simple: NGOs mimic the sounds, usually the needs of the people and places they work for, and relay those messages to the rest of the world in a way that resembles the lion's roar. The governments of the countries where these NGOs work may not necessarily heed this lion-parrot call, but this call stretches out to other people concerned so they can help these people, be it in cash or in kind, or in simply helping out themselves.
Simply put, non-governmental organizations serve as bridges between the needy and the world. It is pretty much a misconception to think that the NGOs solely provide the needs of the people around them. They need help to in order to keep their work going, and that explains why there are a lot of channels and branches of these organizations around the world. So the next time somebody asks, "What do you get when you cross a lion and a parrot?" get serious and then answer, "An NGO." And you'll leave your listener scratching his head.
Raffy Cabristante (Philippines), Steven Thinn (Burma), and Paul Fachiri (Indonesia)
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