What is available on satellite television? Is it regulated?
We have two satellite networks, showtime and orbit. There isn’t any government censorship both channels cater to the Arabic world. There are some channels with American sitcoms I never watched in the states and some movie channels. It seems like there are always Alias reruns on. Lots of news channels CNN, Skynews and BBC world, plus Fox and Al Jazeera.
I just watched a Friends episode. There is always a Friends episode on somewhere in the world. Off to bed for me.
I’ve heard several news reports that indicate much of the money, earmarked for construction, is being eaten up by the need to provide security for the projects being funded. Also that constuction projects are sabotaged at or near completion. Do you have any insight on those issues?
Security really does eat up a lot of development money. We are a not for profit and in our grant it sets a limit for how much of a percentage of the grant money can be used for security. This limit is nowhere near 50%.
On some of the really big for-profits working here, they do spend close to or over 50% on security. I think this has a lot to do with the way their contracts are structured. They can bill the US for every penny they spend on security plus their profit muliplier and get a hefty sum of money without actually doing any of the work they were hired to do (they make a profit just for hiring a security firm to protect them). I’m pretty cynical about some of the for-profits running around Iraq with US contracts, though.
So what’s for dinner in Baghdad?
We pay the wife of our Iraqi staffers to prepare meals for us. It’s usually rice, some meat and veggies. It varies as to quality and the variety is lacking.
Back in 2003 we would go out to restaraunts. There is (maybe was) a great outdoor restaraunt with fountains where you could get a nice traditional middle eastern meal with lots of little side dishes like hummus etc. That was a great place because you could get a nice bottle of wine and after dinner a hooka with flavored tobacco, it was like you weren’t in the middle of a war. Those places are way too dangerous now, for us and for the business owners.
This weekend (friday and saturday for us) we had a cookout on the roof last night and will do the same today. Kebab and burgers.
I find it amazing that you’re doing this type of work and can keep a positive attitude. Hope that what you and your organization contribute keeps the worst case from becoming reality.
So how long have you and your wife been married? Have you ever had a joint posting before? I’m just thinking about how difficult it would be for both of you to be apart so much of the time…
GT
We’re not officially married. I say wife because that best reflects our relationship. We keep meaning to make the deal official, but I kind of like that it upsets one my uptight in-laws that we live in sin 
.
We’ve known each other for about 10 years and have been together 5. We worked together in Kosovo. About two years ago, between our the two of us we were hardly together at all. That got kind of scary, the biggest fear I have for our relationship is that she just gets used to me not being around, that I become a guest in my own house. For people I talk to on deployment in the military they seem to have similar concerns and issues.
That’s why this is my last posting like this (hope that’s not an omen). We are going to either find jobs in DC with fairly frequent travel to the field, or get a joint posting somewhere that we can be together. I wouldn’t want her to come here, it would really freak me out.
We have a deal where the other person can veto a deployment and neither of us has used it so far. Some friends have started sending her job announcements in Iraq so we could be together. If it came to that, I’d quit and go back to DC and I think I might have to use the veto to keep her out of here (I know that hypocritical).
It is always harder for the person who stays home. When my wife is out on a job, the time crawls back home. I’m in the same routine, but she’s gone. It’s lonely. For the person in the field it is exciting and new and the time flies by. The deployment is over before you know it. We are in the talking stages of having kids. If we do, I plan on being around for them. I work with a lot of people who just kind of send the check back home and raise the kids by email, I don’t want to be that guy.
BUMP
I think there must be more questions for madmonk28??
Sorry for the bump, madmonk. I have a couple of questions I want to ask you offline but apparently hotmail hates me. Could you please shoot me a note at rsandy at gmail dot com?
This is certainly an insightful thread. It brings home the difficulties Iraq faces.
At the present rate of progress, when do you see Iraq getting back to normal?
If the US leaves (for whatever reason), how bad will it get?
Seconded.
I have great admiration for what you are doing.
What is the weather like?
How much does gas cost?
What is the worst part of your day ?
Sorry I ignored this thread, I just thought it had died.
Shirley Ujest: The weather is still kind of nice, not too hot. Today it just poured rain off and on all day. Gas is really cheap. I don’t buy it for our fleet, but in 2003-2004 I used to drive around pretty much by myself and it was something like $.40 a liter which for Iraqis is apparently more than they are used to, but not for an American. The worst part of my day this week has been woken up by car bombs on my days off. It’s a pretty usual occurance, but one day this weekend there was one close enough to shake dust off the light bulbs at like 6.30 a.m. That sux.
chique I’ll drop you a line, I think the email address in my portfolio is out of date.
posted by glee
I don’t know that Iraq will get back to normal, I think there is a good chance it will become a failed state. In another thread I started (but now I can’t find), I mentioned that we are starting to see more internally displaced people, who have been driven out of mixed Shia/Sunni neighborhoods. We saw the same thing in Yugoslavia, and I think that is a likely scenario: ethnic cleansing and civil war made much worse by the intervention of outside states taking sides.
Here is a quote of mine from this thread
I’m not very optimistic, and I suspect the US has run out of good options.
I really appreciate people’s good wishes and interest.
Is Alladin Sunni or Shia?
What is the current state of the power/water, etc infrastructure in Baghdad?
Also, when you leave the compound for work, do you have an armed escort, and if so are they local Iraqis or from a privately contracted security outfit from the States or wherever?
Thanks for any replies.
Klaatu We have generators, but city power runs for I’d say 4-6 hours at a time, sometimes longer. When it goes off, we switch to generators.
We have water that comes out of the tap, but I don’t drink it. I know from my work that a lot of the water treatment plants are not operating at full capacity and that a lot of the water is contanimated, so I avoid it. I’ve gotten really sick from bad water before, so I’m pretty careful.
I’ve worked with both Iraqi armed guards and international firms. I’d rather not talk about my current security arrangements. I’m reasonably comfortable with how we handle security.
But I will tell you about some of my previous experiences with security firms here in Iraq.
At one time here, I worked on a project that got its security from a firm called XXXX (decided not to name the company). XXXX is now barred from bidding on US government contracts because of its poor performance and allegations of malfeseance (although they simply reformed their company under a different name). Anyway, they supplied security guards who were on the whole a gigantic bunch of screwups. Twice one of their guys accidently shot Iraqi national staff when they were “cleaning” (playing with) their guns. One guy was killed.
Another one of their freaks would go up on the roof during the call to prayer and scream obscenities (we quickly got him out of town). Not an insignificant number of their staff were Serbs who were veterans of the French Foreign Legion. Now, ask yourself what kind of Serb soldier needs a new name and new French passport in the mid-1990s (war criminals, that’s who).
I’ve also worked with low-key security firms. On another project I worked on here, we traveled in local cars instead of big American SUVs bristling with guns, tried our best to blend in. That’s how I prefer it.
There are also a lot of gunmen floating around Iraq with little or no training who call themselves security experts.
Hey, madmonk28, nice to see this thread again. Thanks for answering my question earlier.
So…are you keeping a journal? Seems like you’ve had some really interesting experiences that you might not be able to share now, but would make really interesting reading later.
GT
madmonk,
Are you white? Is there a difference in how non-white internationals are treated/perceived in Iraq?
If you could change one thing about U.S. policy in Iraq (or the region in general), what would it be?
Thanks for the cool thread, and for putting your butt on the line.
gardentraveler I don’t keep a journal. I keep meaning to, but I never do. My whole life is adding up to just a bunch of stories I tell at cocktail parties until I forget them.
VarlosZ I am white. The interesting thing about Iraqis is the really broad range of appearance. In Mosul, I’ve seen a lot of Iraqis with red hair (maybe not a lot, but more than just one or two, it’s not that uncommon there). I’ve seen other Iraqis who look sub-Saharan African, very dark skin.
Race relations are funny here. People just assume the white guy is in charge. I was working here with a friend of mine who is Lebanese American. He was in charge of the office and I was just there to set up a project. I was in charge of my project, but he was the boss of all the other work going on out of the office and any decision relating to the running of the place. He’d tell one of his Iraqi staffers to do something and they’d look over at me to see if it was okay. Man I used to gust his balls about that. We’d drive around the city together and it would freak people out when I drove, they assumed my peer was actually my driver.
As for what I’d change, if we are talking about time travel, then I choose that we never invade. If I couldn’t stop the invasion; then invade with enough troops and don’t disband the Iraqi army (absolutely disasterous decision) and put a stop to the looting (second biggest mistake).
If we are talking about what I’d change in the present; I’m not so sure. Like I said, I don’t think there are many good options for the US. We’ve really screwed the Iraqis over and now I get the sense Americans are ready to wander off and abandon them right when the going is about to get a lot tougher.
I would actually consider doubling the size of troops here, we never secured the country. I don’t think it would help at this point though. It’s probably too late.
Most of all, I wish the US would stop treating the Middle East like its own personal gas station. Maybe develop an alternative to gas, or at least stop driving in gas guzzling SUVs with American flags and support our troop decals (nothing makes my blood boil more than the site of those back home).
Heavy, heavy stuff.