Michael Dobbs, a national reporter for the Washington Post, was swimming off Sri Lanka when the tsunami hit. After personally witnessing the disaster, he did set up a private relief effort.

His report explains what is wrong with such efforts.

• Professional help organizations, NGOs, take too long to react. They are in competition with each other over donars money and do not coordinate. The do unbalance the local economic, social and power structures without knowing what they do.

Some fishermen are claiming replacements for boats they never had, while others have submitted duplicate claims to different donors. What’s more, part of the fishing fleet is controlled by relatively rich individuals, who have succeeded in intimidating the poorer fishermen and are trying the same tactic on the donors. If you buy a fisherman a boat, the next fisherman is likely to be upset, both with you and with the first fisherman. The answer, you might think, is to buy boats for an entire community of fishermen. But then the neighboring communitywould be angry. And so on.

And how many fish will be left when everybody goes fishing with new equipment?

• Foreign state organizations have more propaganda value for their state than real impact.

The first time I became aware of a USAID presence in Weligama was last week, when teams of laborers wearing USAID caps showed up in the town, frantically shoveling away rubble in advance of a visit by presidential tsunami envoys George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

• Private help has the same problems as professional help, only on a more personal level. When NGOs bring in new prefabricated houses for every family, the local construction company will be bankrupt.

.. a group of German divers who arrived in Weligama soon after the tsunami, intending to retrieve boat engines that had been washed into the bay. Since they were on a humanitarian mission, they offered their services free of charge. They thought they were doing everyone a favor until one day someone threw a stick of dynamite into the water after them. The explanation favored by aid workers: The Germans were stealing business from local divers who had been charging fishermen $50 for every engine they recovered from the bay.

All this well intended help does disturb the local social, economic and political structures in unforeseeable ways. Bring in food during a temporary shortage and you may take away the incentive to grow next years crop.

The solution I prefer is to give money, not goods, not outside expertise, but lots of money. Give to every family an amount relative to the family size. This leads to a big push for the local economy. If they have a need, they can and will buy the stuff and expertise that fits their needs and preferences.

.. the fact remains that most of the relief that flowed into Weligama in the weeks immediately after the tsunami was provided not by NGOs but by local businessmen ..