$9 Million to give Iraq Zip Codes?

I think we owe Iraq quite a bit, but instituting a postal system and building prisions for them is not something I want my taxes used for:

http://www.azstarnet.com/attack/30923U.S.-Iraqreconstructi.html

Well, a functioning system of law enforcement and a functioning communications system are pretty important things for a society to have, and without them, it makes things difficult to get things done.

I remember reading that after WWII, we “modernized” the confusing and ineffecient system of addresses in Japan. As soon as the U.S. occupation ended, they simply reverted to the old system.

I’ll do it for $8M…

John Mace : I’ll do it for $8M…

Are you crazy, Mace? They’ll probably want you to buy mail trucks and such. The real money is in…

*** $100 million * **

"To protect - and perhaps relocate overseas - 100 witnesses and their families who testify against former government officials, terrorist groups or organized-crime figures. “Without an effective witness protection program, it is simply not possible to prosecute these cases.”

Look. We buy a Holiday Inn with 100 rooms on the beach in the Bahamas for ten million. Then we give the witnesses fifty thousand a year for pin money, and then we hire body guards and bribe the local politicians to keep the assassins at bay for five years or maybe less-- that’s roughfly another forty million bucks. We wait, we clear fifty million dollars for our trouble.

Hey, that’s better that the stock market! That’s America!

Milum:

I like your idea, but I think you miscalculated a bit. Since it’s 100 witness and their families we’ll have Amnesty International all over us like stink on poop if we don’t give them each more than 1 room. Probably need a 300 room facility, so we move the operation to, say, Haiti and it can still probably get away with $15M or $20M for the hotel, which leaves a reasonable $40M still in the pot when everything’s over.

I’m an aid worker in Iraq. I don’t know about the price tag, but I can tell you that a working postal system is a desperate need in post conflict countries. It is not just a matter of getting letters from point A to B, but also helps us move goods and materials.

When I was in Kosovo, the lack of a standard addressing system caused all kinds of unforeseen consequences. We ended up having to send people with vital supplies, communiques, etc. to a town with instructions “ask someone when you get there” it made for unbelievable delas.

Currently, when we want to send a truck load of school supplies we have to equip people with gps units and the coordinates because of poor addresses. If you think
9 million is expensive, think about giving every mailman, delivery person and beat cop a gps as well as developing a national database of gps coordinates.

This really is an urgent need.

You mean Iraq did not have a functional mail system before it was occupied? I find that hard to believe. It seems to me the war has totally disrupted their operations and facilities.

To be honest, I don’t know if the state of the postal system before. I’d guess it was pretty good, but there are experts who know a lot about postal systems and getting them going in post conflict countries.

I do know that we have a really hard time getting goods delivered to sites.

Regardless, Iraq needs a postal system now and I think it is both the US’ obligation and in the US’ interest to get one going.

Well, once all the guys who worked in the government mail-opening facilities took off for the hills, the system just fell apart.

Sailor said… “You mean Iraq did not have a functional mail system before it was occupied? I find that hard to believe. It seems to me the war has totally disrupted their operations and facilities.”

You clever devil, Sailor, you caught us. We deliberatley destroyed the Iraqi’s zip zones because we wanted to overpay americian zip zone companies to reinstate them. Yes** Sailor**, once again you’ve exposed the evils of Captialism and demostrated by constrast the high virtues of the Communist State. Oh my.

madmonk28 said… “I’m an aid worker in Iraq. I don’t know about the price tag, but I can tell you that a working postal system is a desperate need in post conflict countries.”

I’m with you** madmonk28**, I think that John Mace and I were just having a little fun with the phrasing of the request for nine million for the installation of zip-zones. As well, we were having a gentle dig at the governments propensity to overspend the taxpayers hard-earned cash. Forgive me if I trivialized the dire needs of the Iraqi people.

To me** madmonk28**, people like you are the epitome of that which is good in mankind. And if I had any balls I’d be in Iraq helping you as you help the iraqi people as they rebuild the new Iraq.

Thank you for your unassuming love and courage.

Milum:

If you follow Sailor’s posts in other threads, he is usually one of the staunches supporters of capitalism.

Yes, Madmonk, the earlier posts from Milum and me were pure satire. I couildn’t resist when I saw the thread title. Keep up the good work, and help us get a clearer picture of what’s actually going on in Iraq. The press is doing an awful job, IMHO.

Uh…sorry** sailor**, I guess I got carried away with the assonance of what I was saying rather than the accuracy of what I said. I apologise. :smack:

[hijack]

Monk , how did you end up doing overseas aid work , is there a web site with jobs needed/ stuff needs doing ?
[/hijack]

Declan

Milum, John, Declan

That was really really cool of you guys to say. I just don’t know what else to say.

As far as aid work you can check www.internationaljobs.org, and www.developmentex.com as well as write me an email when I update my profile, which I’ll do right now.

Sorry If I didn’t have my irony sensor on in regards to the earlier posts.

For those of you like me, with 1600X1280 resolution at 8 point fonts. There is a comma in that link above, here’s the link sans comma.

http://www.internationaljobs.org/