Outbound

I'm sitting at the military side of Baghdad Airport now, having left the Embassy earlier today for the last time. Since my last post, I've been busy with packing, cleaning, passing on the last bits of wisdom to Pat (the guy who's taking over most of my duties), and all the other things associated with closing out another phase of my life.

Our weather looked like it was going to have an impact on my travel. Yesterday the wind picked up and last night it got really dusty - I mean really dusty. Looked like a heavy San Francisco fog, except it was orange and gritty. Fortunately, I knew the weather might be an issue, so I had arranged for both a ground and an air option to get my butt over to the airport today. Then this morning the skies were bright and rapidly clearing. Great day for a helo ride! So right after noon, I caught a ride over to Landing Zone Washington. I was a couple of hours early but had nothing to do but hang out anyway. Then began the Great Bag-Drag Caper.

I checked in with the air ops people to let 'em know I was there for the flight later this afternoon. The kid checked through his paperwork, but I was not on the manifest. Ooops. I had a confirmation email yesterday, so I knew I was on the flight. Then he asked if I was a State Department guy. Yep, I am. So he said, you gotta go check in with the State Department air ops office. They're on the other side of the LZ. Okay, no problem. I grabbed my bags (one wheeled duffle, one wheeled carry-on, my shoulder bag, my body armor which weighs almost as much as my duffle bag, and my helmet) and waddled off to the other side of the field. Once there, I found the air ops office and reported in. The guy flipped through his paperwork and asked how my name was spelled two or three times before deciding that I wasn't on any of his manifests. So he called and talked to another office back at the embassy. Somebody there found my name on a list (yay), only I had to go back to the first side of the LZ to check in. All right, what else do I have to do, anyway? So I grabbed my bags and walked back across the LZ for the second time to the first office. About a half hour later, one of the ops guys came out and told me that the flight I was supposed to take was cancelled due to weather. Huh? It's beautiful outside! Yeah, but not up north, where the helos were flying from - it was dusty and they were grounded. However, the State Department guys might have something flying that afternoon. So I grabbed my bags and tootled back around the LZ for the third time. Turns out there was another State Department flight scheduled for later in the afternoon and I could probably get on it. So I sat and waited.

A while later, with a bunch of us sitting there hoping, a guy with the flight manifest came out and rounded us all up. He'd scored a hop for us with a couple of military helos. Except - you guessed it - it was going to leave from the other side of the field. Now a whole bunch of us made the LZ Bag Drag trip, me for the fourth time. We stood around for a little bit and then the guy came out and said that half our group was to catch the military helos and half would catch the blue State Department ones. Guess which group I was in? So for the fifth time, I dragged my bags around LZ Washington.

Hell, with as much walking as I'd done, I could've been at BIAP by then!

But finally they took our bags and loaded us into the helos and off we went. After all that trouble, the actual flight only took about six or seven minutes. We lifted off, arched over the old Palace, down across the Euphrates, and over the west side of Baghdad. In no time we were crossing over the runways and then settling down at the military side of the airport. After collecting our bags, we were shepherded through the military facilities (big steel temporary buildings surrounded by T-walls, not exactly the most picturesque environment you can imagine) and into Sully Compound. I got checked into my room, explored the adjacent BX compound, and then had dinner at the DFAC.

Now it's time to kick back and unwind. I'll go watch some mindless TV and hit the rack. I've got an early showtime tomorrow morning for a flight that doesn't leave until much later, but that's the way the military runs things. Let's just hope that I don't have to drag my bags all over BIAP tomorrow, too!

Nits and Noids

I finished a new painting last night.  It's in acrylic, about 30"x24", more or less (I don't have a ruler), and based on a watercolor painting I did a while back.  I discovered that I do not like working in acrylics.  At least here - with Iraq's low humidity, I usually had less than a minute to use any color I mixed up.  Even then, it was like painting with tar.  The acrylics just wouldn't flow or blend or anything.  I felt like I was fighting the paint most of the time rather than thinking about the image.  It just wasn't fun.  As for the image, well, I think it's not bad for somebody that hasn't been in the studio for months.  

The painting was one of the things that I needed to wrap up before leaving.  I got everything at work done, so last night I dove into the painting and finished it.  Today I spent most of the day running around doing the checkout sheet.  It took me over a week to get checked in when I arrived, but almost all the checkout was done in just over two hours.  The rest can't get done until I'm actually ready to head out the door.  

After finishing up most of the checkout sheet, I went for a jog.  We had a really beautiful day here, fairly clear skies, temperature this afternoon in the low 70's.  It was too nice to waste, so off I went for my slow plod around the compound, waving "bueno' tarde'" to the Peruvian guards at all their posts.  (I noticed that they drop the "s" off the end of a lot of their words - took me a long time to be able to do it myself, dunno why).  Now I'm cooling off from the run before grabbing a shower and heading out to my farewell dinner.

There are three of us leaving the office permanently in the next two days.  I was working with the Corps of Engineers on their job offer rather quietly, and about the time I was finally able to announce that I was leaving, another guy in the office (who's been here for a year and a half) announced that he had decided to head home, too.  Then just a few days ago, one of our military officers, a reservist who was here on six-month orders that he was trying to extend, found out that not only was his extension not going to be approved (due to an odd technicality), but that he had to be physically home by the time the orders were up.  And when they started looking at everything he had to do with travel, outprocessing, flight availability, all that stuff, they realized, "oh, you have to leave on Friday" (this was on Monday).  Nothing like a little preparation, huh?  So our boss has NOT been in a good mood this week.  

I've written a good bit about how things have been improving here in Iraq.  Overall, it's quieter now than even when I first arrived in September.  But this morning we got a reminder that all is not yet well.  I was walking to breakfast at the DFAC when there was this ungodly loud POOOOOM from across the river, loud enough to shake the buildings, followed by a lot of rattle from AK-47's.  A lot of rattle.  One of the old hands in our office said it sounded like a 240mm mortar explosion.  It was a very sharp sound, certainly different from that of a car or truck bomb (which are usually a deep "thud").  Baghdad still gets several explosions a day from car bombs or suicide bombers or roadside IED's.  They're mostly targeted against other Iraqis, such as politicians, police, army, or judges.  There haven't been any attacks on the Embassy the whole time I've been here.  

I was picking up a few items in our little PX the other day and got to wondering about some of the things they carry in there.  Now, consider: here we are, a small group of civilians and military, living in a pretty nice compound in a war zone.  You'd think that they'd have a somewhat inadequate selection of the basics.  Well, you're mostly right.  But why would they have a whole bunch of Mad Dog 20-20??  Yeah, they have beer and wine and hard spirits because this is the State Department and not subject to General Order #1 like all military people are (General Order #1 prohibits drinking alcohol and having sex, among other fun things, and applies to all the hormone-crazed young men and women running around Baghdad in uniform).  But wouldn't you think that State Department people would want to give a somewhat better impression to the non-alcohol-drinking Iraqi natives than to have a large stock of Mad Dog??  And over on another aisle, they had a selection of quarts of motor oil and automotive paste wax.  This in a town where nobody has a private car and all the vehicles are maintained by KBR.  The only thing I can think of for the paste wax is that a lot of the military guys shave their heads these days, so maybe a coat of wax would add that final sheen.  Can't think of any use for the motor oil, though.

'Nuf for now.  Gotta get rolling.  Have a nice day!

Wrapping Things Up

I'm scheduled to leave the Embassy on Saturday to start the journey home.  That will be the end of my tenure with the State Department, a 6-month stint that has been extremely rewarding.  Ever since my last post, I've been working like a madman in the office, trying to wrap up several projects and get things ready for handoff.  I can't say I'm handing them off to my replacement, because there isn't one.  If (and that's a big "IF") they ever get somebody in here, it'll be many months down the pike.  In the meantime, there's one guy who's getting custody of my files and some of my duties, and I need to be able to tell him what needs to be done.  So I've been trying to gather a lot of information together in a sort of "How To Do Skip Rohde's Job For The Complete Idiot" guide.  Yes, I hear the wags out there saying that it should be a 1-page book, and half of that blank.  But you're wrong.  It's two pages, including the copyright notification.  

Today I passed a milestone.  (Much better than a kidney stone, but that's beside the point).  Today I finished up a report on the status of our ongoing projects.  For the record, there are 256 reconstruction projects still ongoing at the present moment, most of which, contrary to media reports, are going well.  There was a big meeting this afternoon that discussed a couple of key projects from that list and the way forward for both of them was locked in place.  Then I had this great feeling of relief, as in "My work here is done ..." I was able to shift my focus from finishing the big reporting jobs to wrapping up my desk and getting files ready for handoff.  Late this afternoon I was able to go for a jog around the compound.  It was a nice day for once and I was happy to be able to get out and enjoy it.  Then this evening, a group of us got together for a special Italian dinner.  Most enjoyable.  

I'm looking around my room at this mess and thinking about packing.  Right now it looks like the aftermath of an explosion in a dollar store.  But there's a logic to it.  I keep trying to get stuff into boxes, but every time I do that, I wind up needing something from the boxes the very next day.  So half of what I pack soon gets unpacked again.  I'm thinkin' that I should just organize my stuff into general piles: this stuff gets packed up and stored until I come back, this other stuff goes with me on the trip, and that other stuff gets mailed home or thrown out or something.  Decisions, decisions.

But now it's late and I'm bushed.  Time to hit the rack.  I'll worry about my dollar-store explosion tomorrow.

Adventures with Bodyguards

I got to participate in something today that was, for me, highly out of the ordinary.  And, as it turned out, highly fun.  I took part in some exercises with our personal security teams.  They were running some drills and needed somebody to be the high-value VIP.  Somebody who didn't know squat about how these drills are supposed to be conducted, who therefore wouldn't anticipate things, and who might do something completely unexpected.  Somebody like me.  Fortunately, I happened to be in the right place at the right time and volunteered for the job.

They ran the drills at one of the bases here in the IZ.  We'd drive up to the building for a meeting with the "minister".  The security detail would do all their security stuff, then we'd go in the building and start our "meeting".  Then all hell would break loose.  Their job was to get me and two other "VIPs" safely out of the building and loaded into the cars and outa there.  

Without going into the details, I can say these men and women are pros.  They know their stuff and I'd go anywhere with them.  I'd be talking away with the "minister" when the action would start, and those guys would have me under a protective umbrella in nothing flat.  Then we'd begin the movement to the car - lots of team members rotating back and forth very quickly, everyone covering everyone and everything else.  They weren't gentle with us VIPs, either: they'd physically steer us wherever it was they wanted us to go.  And when a big burly guy with arms as big as your legs has you by the belt and shoulder, you damn well go where he says to go!

We ran several drills, each a bit more complex than the last.  Our little group of VIPs each got to play different roles, too.  Once I was the Ambassador and another time I was a kidnap victim.  Besides having a lot of fun, I gained a new appreciation for our security guys.  You'd expect to find only the best of the best in a place like Baghdad, and you'd be right.  They're professional, highly skilled, highly trained, and extremely disciplined.  And completely irreverent cutups when the action is over.

Your tax dollars at work.  Well spent.

An Interview With An Artist

Several of my artist friends have been doing interviews with other artists and posting them on their blogs lately. Here's an especially good one. If you want an insight into the life and mind of a contemporary working artist, read Constance Humphries' interview with Genie Maples.

Art in Baghdad

There's a very interesting article in the New York Times, from a few days ago, about an art exhibit in Baghdad.  The title was "Beacons of Humanity", with 80 works from 39 Iraqi artists.  Most interesting, the exhibit was held in conjunction with a Shi'ite religious holiday and was sponsored by followers of Muqtada al-Sadr.   

You may remember al-Sadr.  He is an extremist Shi'ite religious leader whose Mehdi Army was one of the most violent paramilitary forces during the height of the Iraqi insurgency.  He is a sworn enemy of the United States and almost everything Western.  For maybe the past six to nine months or more, he has apparently been living in Iran, maybe pursuing his religious studies, maybe doing something else.  Anyway, for whatever reason, al-Sadr left Iraq last year and since then his movement has pretty much fallen apart.  The recent elections appear to have relegated his followers to the sidelines.  People in Iraq are tired (and afraid) of his extreme religious militancy.

And now this art show.  Held by an extremist Shi'ite movement.  It's a non-sequitur, like going to a rave party sponsored by the Seventh Day Adventists.  Islamic fundamentalists don't condone the representation of the human figure, yet here were many paintings with figures.  Drawings, paintings, and prints lined the walls.  Abstraction is big here - for many artists, it is the only form that gives them adequate freedom to express their feelings.  This wasn't a Sadrist propaganda show, since few of the artists were Sadrists.  Rather, it just seems like the Sadrists decided to sponsor something that would show the Iraqi public that they're not really the bad guys that the media says they are.

Have the Sadrists really changed?  I don't know.  All I know is that they sponsored a very inclusive show, filled with some work that looks very, very good.  It's a rather daring move.  Most of all, it's encouraging: it means they're trying a different, more constructive approach to winning hearts and minds.  With art, something that's near and dear to me.

During the time that the art show was up, a Sunni female suicide bomber walked into a tent that provided shelter for Shi'ite pilgrims on the way to Karbala.  She killed herself and 40 other people, mostly women and children.

Iraq still has a long way to go.

Gettin' Short

I still find it hard to believe that in a couple of weeks, I'll be leaving the Embassy, my home for the past six months.  But it's true.  I'm trying to wind up my projects and get them into decent shape for handover to another guy in the office.  I've been busily making travel arrangements for the trip home.  And I've been filling out forms and taking online courses like a madman to get all the Corps of Engineer's employment and deployment requirements met.  Meanwhile, Janis has been making appointments for me at home to get tax stuff done, some dental work done, and more forms to get filled out.  With all this busyness, there's no time to sit and think about what it all means.

I was told, when I was going through the State Department training last summer, that everything in Iraq was in a constant state of change.  That has been borne out.  If it's not the Iraqis changing things, it's us ... and if not us, then the Iraqis.  I arrived when our offices were still in the Palace but we were starting to live in the new Embassy compound.  Now the Palace is back in the Iraqi's hands and we live and work at the Embassy.  The old BX has been turned over as well.  During the next year, more US compounds in the International Zone will go away.  The commands will consolidate onto fewer FOBs, or move out of the IZ entirely, or even leave the country.  Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who has headed the Embassy for two years, is leaving.  Our mission in Iraq is probably going to change in a big way very soon, since President Obama has stated his intention of drawing down the American presence fairly quickly.  And the Iraqis are gradually assuming more and more control over their own affairs.

That's not to say things are going smoothly.  Today a female suicide bomber killed herself and 40 other people, mostly women and children, who were on a religious pilgrimage to Karbala, south of Baghdad.  There are bombings in the city every day, mostly targeting police, judges, and prominent political leaders.  Corruption is still rampant throughout the government.  And venturing beyond the FOBs and the IZ is still dangerous, both for Americans and everybody else.

I'm happy with my decision to leave the State Department and go to the Corps, though.  I'm looking forward to getting more involved in planning and doing, rather than monitoring, which is what my job has entailed up to now.  I'm also hoping that I can get around the country more.  And the military mentality of the Corps is more in line with my own way of thinking than is the State Department's essentially political mentality.   Looking at the general plans for the Corps, the military, and construction projects for the next six to twelve months, I'm excited about the possibilities and opportunities ahead.

But right now, my room is a mess.  I'm starting to sort my stuff out.  I'll put a good bit of it into boxes and take it over to the Corps during my last couple of days here.  Some will go back home with me, and some will just get dumped.  Unfortunately, it seems like I still need all the stuff in the "take it to the Corps" and the "dump it" piles!  So I'm gonna have to live in a pigpen for a while.  Some things just don't change ...

A Signing Ceremony

Today was the culmination of the working group that I was involved with over the weekend.  There was a ceremony in which the US transferred ownership of the Basrah Children's Hospital to Iraq's Ministry of Health.  The Ambassador, Ryan Crocker, and the Iraqi Minister of Health, Dr. Salih, were the two officials signing.  It went off very well, much to my relief, since I did much of the coordination for it.  The event was held in a small courtyard at the Al Rasheed Hotel.  We had Iraqi and international press front and center, with a lot of people who've been involved with the hospital in one way or another observing.  

Here's Ambassador Crocker giving some very well-spoken remarks just after the signing.  Dr. Salih is pretty pleased, having just been given ownership of a very expensive, as yet unfinished, hospital.

Ever wonder what these events look like from a distance?  Here ya go.  I noticed that, quite often, the further back the individual was, the more work they'd done on the hospital.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I'm going to change jobs in another month. I'm going to leave the State Department and go to work for the Army Corps of Engineers. They're just down the road and I've been working with them on a daily basis for most of my time here. Last month, they made me an offer I couldn't refuse. It's a very interesting and responsible job, more in tune with my interests and capabilities than the one I'm doing now. Plus, the pay is better. And I'll be working with an organization whose functions I understand better. And finally, I will be able to get out and see the country more than I have here.

I'll probably be in Iraq longer than I originally planned, too. The job has some interesting aspects to it that I'd like to see play out. So my end date for my Iraq deployment will probably be a few months later than planned. But that's life.

Janis is comfortable with this new development. Neither of us are big fans of this separation, but having a videochat capability so we can talk every day is a big big BIG morale booster for both of us. We talk about all the daily events and it keeps us close. I'll still get breaks every few months and get some time at home.

So that's the news. I've had a good time here at State, but I know a good opportunity when it comes along, and this is one. Time to jump!

The Conference

The conference that I was coordinating is over and I survived.  What an experience that was!  Yesterday was the first day and of course there was a new checkpoint on one of the two main routes to the Embassy, which meant traffic was snarled.  We started about an hour late.  That afternoon, we were 4 hours into the conference and 3 hours behind schedule.

Iraqis and Americans have very different ways of conducting meetings.  Here's a typical exchange among Americans:

Ralph: "Give me a status report on the project.  Start with line 1."

Bob: "Lines 1, 3, and 5 are done and signed for.  Line 2 will be done this coming week.  I need your people to provide us with a Mark 2 shnabblefratzer before we can move any further on line 4."

Ralph.  "Right.  You'll get it tomorrow."

Bob: "Roger that.  Then we'll be done with line 4 by the 25th of the month."

Now for the equivalent exchange between an American and a team of Iraqis:

Ralph: "Give me a status report on the project.  Start with line 1."

Iraqis: A 20-minute discussion of line 1 ensues, complete with five people talking at once, mostly in Arabic with some broken English, arm and hand gestures to rival the Italians, sometimes sounding like they're about to come to blows, and the hapless translator is completely overwhelmed and unable to provide more than a rough outline of what's being said.  And at the end of it all, we still haven't even started talking about line 2.  And Bob?  Bob gave up about ten minutes ago and went for a cup of coffee.

Americans are very businesslike about meetings.  Facts and clarity are paramount.  Not so with Iraqis: personal relationships are the key thing.  They'll spend a lot of time in small talk, trying to get to know who you are.  What you know is not that important, even if what you know has a direct impact on their business.  It's a way of life that's well adapted to their social roots and history.  It's not well adapted to high technology and a fast-paced, globally interconnected world.  So when the modern Western way collides with the ancient Iraqi way, people on both sides can get perturbed.  We see them as slow and inefficient.  They see us as pushy and insensitive.

Today's session was very similar to yesterday's.  We started almost as late despite the fact that there was no checkpoint to delay traffic.  And when we jumped into the first topic (a planned 30-minute review of something previously settled), we promptly ground to a crawl.  It was like they'd never seen the document before.  Two hours later, with only an hour left before we had to leave, we moved on to the second (more important) topic.  The third and fourth topics (even more important) were covered in ten minutes, mostly by skimming over the all-important (to us, not to them) details.

So the next time I conduct a conference like this, I'll try to keep a few things in mind.

1.  We won't really start until an hour after the scheduled time.

2.  Iraqi watches evidently have no hands.

3.  We'll move at the speed of a snail for the first 80% of the meeting.  We'll speed up a bit for the next 30%, and only lightly touch on things for the final 20% as we madly try to wrap things up.  You'll notice that's more than 100% of the meeting time.  That's because it will go well over the allotted schedule.

4.  Don't present them with something new and expect them to make an immediate decision.  If at all possible, give them some time to go ask their boss.  It's pretty likely that they're not empowered to make those decisions.

5.  Be respectful.  Their way is not our way, but that doesn't mean it's wrong or bad, just different.  

Thursday Thoughts

What a week it's been so far, and I still have several more days to go before its over ...

I've been setting up a conference for this weekend.  Actually, I took over the conference this past Monday, because nothing had been done for it.  It's been scheduled for a month, but there are two individuals in two different organizations who've been adamantly saying that the other guy is responsible for it.  And one of 'em then left the country on leave.  Consequently, at C minus 5 days, with no venue, no schedule, no invitations, no nuttin', I got fed up with their pissing contest and took over.  The conference kicks off tomorrow morning.  We've got a nice room here in the Embassy, with a computer and projector, comfy chairs, tables, and whiteboards.  Almost everybody is on the access list ... except a few that haven't bothered to tell me they're coming, and I know there will be some from one particular agency.  (So if they spend a few hours twiddling their thumbs at the gate because they didn't bother to notify me, hey, no skin off my nose).

I swear, I've had more emails come through my computer in the past 48 hours than I've had in the past five months.

So, anyway, the conference is going in the morning, ready or not.  I'm pretty happy with the job that my team has done getting it together.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

I just talked to Janis at home in Asheville.  They've been having lots of snow and bitter cold weather this winter, and last night it got down to 4 degrees.  Didn't have the heart to tell her it was in the upper 60's here.  But now I've let the cat out of the bag and I'm sure I'll hear about it!

I did a lot of whining earlier in this post about work.  But y'know, even with that, life here isn't bad.  I was walking by a group of young Air Force airmen outside the PX earlier today.  One of them, a young woman, noted in the most wistful voice you can possibly imagine, "Oh, they have indoor bathrooms here ..."

Puts it all into perspective, doesn't it?

Iraqi Election Coverage

Here are a few good articles about yesterday's elections:

"Pointing to a New Era, US Pulls Back as Iraqis Vote", NY Times.

"Baghdad Bureau", a blog by NY Times reporters (many of whom are Iraqi).

"Iraq's Democracy May Not Be Perfect Yet, but it Could Be Someday", Wall Street Journal, by an Iraqi expat.

Election Day in Baghdad

Today was provincial council election day in Iraq.  What has struck me most about this event of potentially world-shaking importance is how normal it has been.  All the news reports have said "little" violence ... I just saw a CNN report that three mortars exploded in Tikrit (about 100 miles north of here), and that's it.  Pretty impressive for a country that was seriously at war with itself less than a year ago.  From my own observation, I only heard one quick siren late in the day.  No big booms from car bombs.  No small-arms fire.  The mullahs sounded normal during the call-to-prayer over the mosques' loudspeakers.  

My TV has been tuned to Iraqi channels this afternoon.  They looked for all the world like American channels during our own elections.  An assortment of anchorpersons (male and female) chattered away at anchordesks.  They cut away to various reporters on the street, who interviewed regular men and women, and showed footage of people in polling places putting ballots in ballot boxes and getting their fingers dunked in the inkwell.  Then back to the anchordesk where some pundit would solemnly analyze proceedings so far.  Then some footage of various high mucky-mucks like Nouri Al-Maliki and Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani.  One station followed all that up with something kinda like a half-hour music video, featuring some guy in a suit proudly singing while the scenes behind him showed busy markets, crowded streets, mosques, the marsh Arabs, army or police officers marching in parades, people on amusement park rides ... in other words, normality.  

If this was presented to western news reporters, there would be a sense that it was probably for show, or that the reporters would be slanting the news somehow.  But this is on Iraqi television, for Iraqi viewers, who have excellent built-in bullshit detectors.  I can't wait to talk to some of our local Iraqis over the next few days.

One reason the elections have gone so peacefully today is that there is a very large security presence.  Iraqis have taken the lead and provide the visible forces.  American forces are positioned to support the Iraqis, but are staying as invisible as possible.  The troops and vehicles have been pretty much pulled back into the bases.  Our helicopters, however, have been going non-stop - every time I've gone outside, there have been flights going by overhead, sometimes several.  

A group of us travelled over to another base here in the IZ for a meeting today.  Traffic was exceptionally light and there were Iraqi police everywhere.  But still, there was no sense of crisis or danger: the police were standing around, relaxed, smoking cigarettes, and waving at us as we went by.  Just another day in Baghdad, only quieter, more ... normal.  

Results of the election won't be posted until around February 15th.  They'll shape the political environment for the next round of elections for national officials later this year.  There is some anxiety about what will happen when the results come out, and whether that will trigger another round of violence.  From what I saw today, I don't think it will.  Iraqis seem to be very proud of where they are now and how far they've come.  Although there will probably be a lot of grumbling and griping, and maybe some violence, I don't think it will reignite the massive troubles we saw in previous years.  Nobody wants that anymore.

Photos of the New Embassy Compound

A while back, I gave you a link to some photos of the old Palace, where the Embassy was located.  Wanna see where we live and work now?  Go back to the Baghdad Anne website and look at the new collection of photos.  These will give you an idea of what the State Department's newest and biggest Embassy looks like.  They even show you the inside of one of the apartments.  This guy obviously did a major cleanup before taking the pictures, as very few guys on their own keep their room that neat ... your intrepid reporter included!

Our weather has warmed significantly in the past couple of weeks.  Our lows are now around 45-50 and our highs approaching 70.  Really nice.  Today, though, the wind picked up, meaning that tomorrow the air will be loaded with grit and sand.  Yuck.

A couple of months ago, I mentioned that I was going to the Rock-Hard Abs class at the gym.  Well, I've kept it up, going usually twice a week.  Yesterday, while getting dressed, I actually saw my abs again!  Yes!  They looked like they were covered with a thin comforter, but hey, there they were, very distinct below the ribcage.  I haven't seen them in 30 years.  So tonight at the abs class, I showed everybody ... you know to motivate them ... but nobody was interested.  My marshmallow-covered abs aren't very impressive next to some 20-year-old gym rat's.  Oh, well, they're my abs and I'm just happy I can see them again. 

I gotta keep going to abs class because our DFAC (the dining facility) is getting better.  When it first opened it ... well, it left a lot to be desired.  But the staff worked pretty hard at getting things better, and for a while it was all right.  But then it started to slide.  We'd see the same stuff at meal after meal, the layout of the serving lines was poorly thought out, and the quality wasn't as good.  Well, friends, our DFAC is on the upswing again, because Mr. Lee is back.  This is a retired Army chief master sergeant who ran Army chow halls his whole career, and went to work for KBR doing the same thing after he retired.  He's a little guy with more energy and enthusiasm than should be legal.  Mr. Lee ran the DFAC at the Palace for a while, and ran one out at the airport for a while, before having to go back to the States for a year or so.  Now he's back and we've got him.  He's making lots of changes with every meal and responding to comments every day.  It's amazing how fast things are improving.  We're the envy of the IZ right now.  Seriously.  One of the other compounds has a really good food service setup, but they were whining because we got Mr. Lee and they didn't.  Too bad!

And no, you won't see pictures of the DFAC nor Mr. Lee on the link above.  We're keeping him on a short leash!

Iraqi Elections

The Iraqi elections are only about 36 hours away.  With over 14,400 candidates vying for 440 council seats, there are a lot of people looking for air time for their messages.  I was watching an Iraqi channel on TV a little while ago and saw non-stop political ads.  I mean non-stop: there wasn't any scheduled programming!  Just ads for this candidate or that, with a bunch of "rock-the-vote" style ads in between.  All sides are going all-out.  Some ads are "guy-in-the-street" interviews, one was animated (pretty sophisticated animation, too), some feature patriotic music and Iraqi flags waving, and some seem to suggest that a vote for the other guy is a vote for the terrorists (sounds like our ads, huh?).  There are even spots featuring Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, who is the biggest of the big Shiite religious leaders.  Sistani has said it is everyone's duty to get out and vote for the "most qualified" candidate, and he has been very careful to ensure that his words cannot be construed to endorse any candidate or any political party.  His words carry a lot of weight here.

The Sunnis boycotted the last round of elections.  As a result, the Shiites and Kurds took a disproportionate share of power while the Sunnis were left out in the cold.  This time, the Sunnis are determined to gain at least a modicum of power back.  They are really energized and will turn out in droves.

The Kurds are going to turn out, too.  They know that their gains from the last election are fragile and fear that a gain in Sunni power will come at their expense.  So they're energized, too.

The only ones boycotting the election this time are the Al Qaeda guys, and there really isn't a lot of popular support for them, anyway.  They will probably take out their anger in some form of attacks, but nobody expects major disruption from them.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of election monitors in-country right now.  They're going to virtually every polling place to make sure the process is as fair as possible in a place like this.  I was in an office today where a group was getting a last-minute briefing before heading out to their assignments.  My roommate left yesterday to his posting, which is a small town way out at the end of the road somewhere. 

As you might expect, with this many people going out to monitor this important an election, the logistics are daunting.  The US is taking the lead on providing transportation, support, and security for the monitors.  (Well, duhh: who the hell else could do it?) I've watched the planning develop for several months now and have been impressed with the way our military, in particular, has stepped up to the plate.  Our guys live and breathe organization.  There are plans, back-up plans, and contingency plans.  Every helicopter, C-130, MRAP, and cargo hauler in theater will be working pretty much every minute, and the schedules have been scripted (with back-ups, of course) for quite a while.  A really amazing effort.

In contrast, there are other organizations here in town whose approach seems to be to sprinkle magic fairy dust and then *POOF* everything falls into place.  And no, I won't name names.

While checking the news this afternoon, I saw that the Iraqi government announced that Blackwater is going to be invited to leave the country very soon.  Do you think it's a coincidence that the announcement was made just two days before the election?  Do you believe in the Easter bunny?  And yes, that little item is getting quite a bit of attention here.  My experience with Blackwater has been unfailingly positive: the guys are pros and know what they're doing.  At least the ones I deal with are, but I wasn't here during that infamous shooting in the traffic circle last year.

But that's the news from my little corner of the IZ.  The next two days will be very interesting.  Let's just hope they're not too interesting!

Mac Attack

I love my MacBook, I really do, but contrary to the "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC" commercials, Macs aren't perfect.  Programs hang up occasionally and you get the "spinning wheel of death".  Or they just act funky.  The iChat program on Janis's computer hasn't worked quite right for many months now ... it'll run, but she needs to do some odd workarounds to get it to do things that it should be doing with one simple keystroke.  

I've had issues with the AirPort on my MacBook ever since I got it.  AirPort is the Mac's wireless connection.  It has never connected with our wireless router at home.  Other people's Macs will connect, but not mine.  Of course, when I took mine to an Apple store, it ran perfectly.  Little bastard.

Here at the Embassy we have an "internet cafe".  I've come over here many times because the bandwidth is much better than in our rooms.  A couple of nights ago, though, my Mac wouldn't connect.  It would see the network, but it wouldn't hook up.  I took it back to the room and it worked fine on the wire (just like at home).  I looked at the Apple discussion boards and found a bunch of things to try.  I also found out that my AirPort problems are not uncommon.  Anyway, I tried lotsa things and nothing worked.  Couldn't connect.  

So I shut the thing down and let it rest for hours.  Came back over here with another list of things to try and as soon as I fired it up, it worked fine.  Go figure.  I know that PC's get sleep-deprived if they go too long without an overnight rest, but Macs were supposed to be pretty much immune to that.  Not!

Okay, enough griping.  My computer works (again), we had a beautiful day here (low around 40, highs in the low 60's, bright and clear), and work is going pretty well.  And I've got a great big chocolate chip cookie waiting for my "cookie attack" which is due in about an hour.  So there: I just talked myself into a better mood.

Two New Watercolors

Waiting

Watercolor and ink on paper

Fallujah Kids

Watercolor and graphite on paper

Inaugurations and Blogs

On Tuesday evening, the Embassy staff set up a projection TV to show President Obama's inauguration.  It was in a large room that was well filled with people.  And the bar was open.  I joined the crowd because you shouldn't watch something this important in your room by yourself.  An inauguration reflects your country, and you should be with your countrymen and countrywomen to witness it.

And at the conclusion of "... so help me, God", I turned to my friends and we toasted our new President with the finest free champagne in all of Baghdad.  You wanted the job, Mr. President, and now you've got it.  Go make us proud.

So far, he's doing a good job of it.  His speech was exactly the right tone, with inspiring calls to action and service, sober recognition of the military, economic, and social stresses we face, and stern warnings to those who would stand in our way.  A master at work.  Such a change from the doofus who preceded him.

The crowd watching the inauguration was certainly a mixed group.  The majority of us were Obama supporters.  There were a lot, though, who weren't.  But then, the popular vote was only a little over 50/50, so if the McCain supporters weren't there, I'd have been very disappointed.

Okay, enough politics ... I think every blogger and journalist on the planet has pontificated on this subject by now, so I won't contribute any more.  

Instead, I'm going to point you at three very interesting blogs.  I've mentioned the first one in here before.  It's "Embrace the Suck", written by a young soldier in Afghanistan.  He has some very sharp and insightful comments on what our new President ought to do in that country.  Normally his stories have me rolling, but this one is very thoughtful and well-reasoned.

The second one is an entry called "Five Years in Iraq (Shameless Vanity)".  It's on the Free Republic web site and was written by someone I work with.  She has been in Iraq for, yes, the past five years, working as a civilian in various occupations around town.  Many people seem to assume that we civilians are here just for the money.  Well, the money is good, but we're here for other reasons, too, and this posting addresses that.

The third blog is a brand new one with exactly two posts as of this moment.  The writer, Molly Dingledine, is a jewelry artist that I know from Asheville who is going to work in Cameroon with a volunteer organization.  It'll be very interesting to read how her adventure develops.

And that's the news from sunny Baghdad.  Stay warm, America!

CARE Packages

A while back, an old friend of mine said he was going to send me a CARE package, and asked what I wanted out here. Cookies? Candy? The answer, surprisingly (since I'm a big fan of cookies) is: nothing with sugar. Please. We have sugar coming out the wazoo out here. The DFACs have fresh-baked cakes and piles of big chocolate chip cookies, as well as an ice cream section. My office still has candy bowls filled with Hershey Kisses and gummy bears and all sorts of other goodies dating back to Halloween. And lots of people get packages from home filled with sweets of all kinds, much of which winds up in the "Take it, please!" pile. So we are not lacking for sugar. But CARE packages are always welcome. So what do we like to get out here?

Toys.

Yup, toys. Silly little footballs that we can throw at each other. Doodads that we can stick on top of our computer monitors. Gooey balls of some kinda slimey silly putty that we can stick on each other's desk and gross them out. Stuffed animals. Little monster trucks. Things that make us laugh.

Over Christmas, I ran around wearing a Santa hat that would wiggle to the tune of "Have A Holly Jolly Christmas". At least, I did until the music thingie burned itself up, at which point the wiggling didn't make much sense. One of the guys in the office was constantly getting small rubber Chicago Bears footballs. I'd find out about it when the new ball bounced off my computer screen or the back of my head. A woman in the office has a collection of stuffed green frogs that are often rearranged on her desk into very compromising positions. (Yes, we are equal opportunity harrassers).

So my friend's package arrived yesterday. Inside it, I found:
- A Washington Post newspaper (I'm so thankful it wasn't a Washington Times ...)
- Four movies. (Every little Iraqi store around here sells black market DVD's for dirt cheap, but their quality is often pretty bad and, as an artist, I'm sensitive to copyright infringement, so real movies are greatly appreciated!)
- A matchbox-sized monster truck.
- A small American flag.
- A bag of marbles (to replace the marbles I've lost ...)
- A toy compass, so I can find my way out of this country.
- A tiny little sunshade.
- A whistle (just in case I decide to be a whistleblower ...)
- A membership guide for AARP. Thanks, John ...
- A wind-up flashlight.
- A hand-held electronic Uno game.

The CARE package is achieving its mission. About a dozen of us have read the paper and there have been lots of laughs about all the other items. I have a section of my desk now reserved just for toys.

So if you're going to send a CARE package to somebody over here or Afghanistan, don't send them cookies or candy.

Send them toys.

Thinking About Art

Janis sent me a "care" package recently that had a lot of my magazines, including a couple of issues of Art in America.  Even though I'm working as a program manager right now, I still consider myself an artist first and foremost.  This State Department job is just a temporary assignment, not a career change, and I have intended from the beginning to go back to my studio when this is over.  So I keep tabs on what's going on in the art world.

But going through the December issue of Art in America was a bit unnerving, to tell the truth.  It has a lot of ads trying to get people to visit Art Basel Miami Beach, or Art Miami, or Pulse Contemporary Art Fair.  It also had some words here and there about the turmoil in the art market ("turmoil" here meaning "nobody's buying anything").  All of which gave the magazine an air of desperation.  

The art world is always the first to get hit when there's an economic downturn and the last to recover.  During the last downturn, the art market started heading down in, oh, early 2001, and tanked after September 11.  The recovery from that was really odd.  Remember, many people lost their jobs early on, but then we had that "jobless recovery" in which few of these jobs reappeared.  I noticed at the time that there were a lot of people who had always harbored a dream to be an artist, and when they lost their jobs, they decided to go into art full-time.  So there were suddenly a lot of new artists applying to galleries and art festivals and so on.  The art world was able to absorb the newcomers, more or less, since the downturn wasn't very severe.  That's definitely not the case this time: when the Wall Street Journal is regularly using terms like "crisis" and "possible depression", then I seriously doubt that people will go looking for careers as artists.  Even flipping burgers at McDonald's can start to look pretty good.

For me, what goes on in the art fairs and galleries has only a tangential effect.  My paintings are not the kind of works that galleries clamor for.  They're pretty serious works about not very cheerful things, and they're definitely not the sort of works that somebody buys to hang over their couch.  (Not unless they've got a really strange couch!)  So at the time my opportunity to work with State came along, I was pursuing a very different line of marketing.  But even this approach needs a healthy gallery scene to give the corporations and NGO's I was (am) targeting some confidence that art is a good investment.  And, of course, that's pretty much gone now.  

Bummer.  On the positive side, I picked a helluva good time to find employment!  But I'm still planning on going back to my studio and painting pictures that few will probably ever buy.  It's what I do.

Okay, enuf doom and gloom.  There is some good news out of the art world every now and then.  One of my teachers at UNC Asheville was Virginia Derryberry.  Her paintings have always been strong, but over the past six years or so, they've reached a whole new level.  Now she's got a web site where you can see them.  Go take a look: virginiaderryberry.com.  I'm putting a link to her site in the "artists I like" section, too.