Post-Christmas

So I can't believe Christmas has already come and gone and the end of 2009 is just around the corner; I have no idea where the year went. I have to share a few pictures of some of the Christmas trees that appeared around base. I guess someone ordered them a while ago, they were decorated and then somebody decided to plant them so they would hopefully be there next year. I have a feeling next Christmas there's going to be a lot of dead brown scraggly trees around here. Anyway, nice thought, but the decorations leave a bit to be desired.
The past few days have been pretty uneventful. The Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Amos, stopped by yesterday and talked for a while with all of the Marines. I know I mention these visits (Commandant, Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, etc.), which probably doesn't mean much to most people reading this blog. However, it is not common to see all these 4-star Generals and whatnot, and it is the only break in the routine.
I also realize I mention these visits and the USO visit, so it must seem like we don't work over here. Trust me, we do. It's not real difficult or interesting work, but we're here in the office from about 7am until 9pm. So we get in a solid 14 hours or so each day. It's not too bad, simply because there's not much else to do or places to go, so you might as well be here at work.
Anyway, hope everyone had a good Christmas and enjoys the New Year. Thank you for all the emails, cards and packages (mail has been delayed because of the weather on the east coast - all mail comes out of JFK in the States).

Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Eve! I don't really have anything new, but it is already Christmas Eve here in Kabul. As I think I've said many times, the days are all the same here, so you really only notice certain days when calling home and whatnot. There are plenty of make-shift decorations up around the camp, I think the term is 'trailor-fabulous'. There's a few 2 foot little trees people had sent out (even a couple 5 foot real trees they've found someplace), some Christmas lights, Christmas cards posted up around the office and plenty of the finest Chinese-made paper decorations you can find in Afghanistan. I'll try to take some picture today and tomorrow and post them soon.

We are having dinner tonight with all of the Marines on base. Then tomorrow they have a Christmas brunch basically all day long. And then the day after Christmas our shop is getting together for a little 'Secret Santa' exchange (which I'm guessing might be a lot of care package re-gifting). Anyway, enough goings-on around here to at least make the time pass.

I don't really have any new pictures handy. So thought I'd share this one. It's one of our new additions, Flight Lieutenant Cath Bailey (Team UK) experiencing her first Twinkie. I get a kick out of little things like people never experiencing Little Debbie snacks. So I've done my best to introduce the Twinkie, Nutty Bars, Oatmeal Pies and whatnot to all the coalition folks.

Anyway, Merry Christmas Eve to everybody!

CJOC

The Combined Joint Operations Center, or CJOC, is picture to the right. To be honest, I didn't think I could share a picture or discuss to much about it, but this photo was distributed on the unclassified network and thought I'd share. The CJOC is the command and control center here. I do not work in that room; I'm just outside of it. This is what all the visitors want to see when they pass through Kabul and the ISAF IJC. Anyway, it's similar I guess to what you see in some movies. I always think of that old 1980s movie (I think it's called War Games) where a kid almost starts the Cold War from his home computer or something like that. Yes, the CJOC has a whole bunch of computers, phones and screens that track a lot of things. It's very interesting to see, though again, I don't have a whole lot to do with directly.

USO Tour

Here's a quick post for the recent USO Tour. Billy Ray Cyrus, Anna Kournakova, Dave Attell and Nick Bolletterri (tennis coach; not pictured) visited for a few hours. They posed for pictures, signed autographs and chatted a bit. A few observations...

Billy Ray definitely 'looked Hollywood'. He was very nice and sang a verse of Holy Night when he visited the CJOC (I'll explain that in my next post) room.

Anna would look good in a feed sack, as my father would say. She was also very nice and was the most popular here amongst the service members (not sure why :)

Then there was Dave Attell. He's a comedian and was on 'Insomniac' on Comedy Central a few years ago, which I watched pretty regularly. The picture does not mislead you...it looks like he's lived a hard last few years. He was scheduled to do some stand-up shows at other stops on their tour, but not here in Kabul. Again, he was nice and we talked quite a bit (as he really didn't have a line of people waiting for his picture/autograph). Anyway, it was great to see all the entertainers and provided a nice break to the routine here.

Progress

So it looks like another several days have passed since my last post, when it feels like I updated this blog only yesterday. I can't say often enough how the days just blend together here. Anyway, I have some pictures that should be ready to post in the next day or two. In the meantime, I have another 'deep thoughts' (remember SNL Stuart Smiley?) rant to share.

Gordon (Team UK) and I were talking the other day about the whole customs/importing process, as it has become a real pain dealing with some of the Afghan Ministries and their processes for completing simple paperwork. We wondered if it was like this for the U.S. and U.K. back in the day (i.e. 200 years ago); because this country runs like things 200 years ago (i.e. still use donkey and wheelbarrow for transport, very limited computer access).

We decided the major difference was that for the U.S./U.K., there wasn't anything better out there back in the day. Our countries made slow and steady progress and evolved as technology and information became available. In Afghanistan, you're trying to make that 200 year evolution all at once. So when you think about it, we've probably made 100 years of progress in the 8 years or so U.S. and international forces have been here. Not too bad, but still a ways to go. And that (the other 100 years of progress) is why assistance is needed here for several more years. 200 years is a long time; generations of people have to change, which can't be done overnight.

That was a pretty big epiphany (spelling?) for me. And that's just in relation to simple paperwork processing (i.e. we have to get stamps and signatures from about 10 different people in a sequential order to process customs paperwork - if one person is out of the office, the whole process comes to a halt and awaits his return; no concept of delegating authority, let alone automation). So then you relate that to everything else - tribal relations, security, transportation, living conditions, health and sanitary, etc, etc. Again, we know 'how hard it was for grandma to use a computer' or 'how fascinating Skype is for mom', now try to introduce countless significant changes in every facet of life for every generation all at once. I think it'll take some time to say the least.

Countryside

A quick post today to pass along a few pictures of the countryside I took while flying into Kabul. They're taken from the airplane window, so the quality isn't the best. It was about the only time the air was somewhat clear (before we got over Kabul).

Okay, I think that's about it. There's a rumor that a USO tour is stopping by this morning. I'll let you know soon if that's true. For those that don't know, the USO is probably my favorite charitable organization. They arrange for entertainers to visit deployed troops, as well as run volunteer welcome centers at airports and organize care package drives and many other things.

Some thoughts

Okay, so I don't really have a lot to say, but thought I'd share a couple random thoughts...

First, on the trip to Dubai...yes, your tax dollars at work. But about half of it was paid for by NATO (not sure who's tax dollars that is). And I don't feel too guilty because for the last 2+ years in Japan, we've paid full state and federal taxes without even living in the U.S. (and therefore not enjoying the services (i.e. police, road construction) taxes are supposed to provide for).

Second...Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, made a visit through here the other day. I saw him a couple times (he had to go just before I could actually shake his hand) and he had dinner with a group of soldiers and airmen. I think Secretary Gates is very popular amongst the military personnel (I am a fan). He obviously has some political backing as well, as he was one of the very few (only?) to stay on during the Administration turnover. Oh, and Team NATO kept asking if it was Bill Gates and if he was handing out $100 bills. Needless to say, they were a bit disappointed.

Finally, a couple notes from my recent trip to Dubai and the pleasure that was flying out of Kabul International Terminal and flying Pamir Airways. The commercial terminal in Kabul isn't much. There's some counters, machines and crowd dividers with 'donated by the people of Japan' or 'Germany' stickers on them. The flight itself wasn't bad after the delays. They served a good meal (even on a 2 1/2 hour flight) and had decent flight attendants. The worst part was hanging out in the terminal (for what wound up to be about 5 hours) with 200 of my closest Afghani friends. We also flew in and out of basically the cargo terminal in Dubai; so it wasn't the nice one with all the shops or anything (though they still had free wi-fi).

One other observation on that...as I was checking in in Kabul, one guy took my bags and moved them up to the check-in line; I gave him a dollar. Another guy wanted some money for him to move me up to the front of the line (I declined) and yet another guy wanted some money to 'get me good seat, window seat, what I like' (I declined again). That gets you thinking about the fine line of 'corruption' (the popular term with Afghanistan) and 'tipping'. For example, in the U.S., you definitely tip the baggage porter (at the hotel, airport, etc.) and airlines now charge like $10 extra for a window or aisle seat. So other than one being more 'shady' than the other, what's the real difference? In the U.S. you also 'tip' on many other occassions for good service (i.e. a waitress, a cab driver). If the argument is that 'corruption' is on a larger scale, I think you only need to look at some CEO bonus payments, especially in the case of federally bailed out banks or carmakers. Something to think about I guess. Personally I guess it comes down to ethics on when you can and cannot accept money and, in Afghanistan, corruption is accompanied by physical threat/violence and the risk of something not happening at all (i.e. if you don't tip a waitress it's not like she'll throw the food in your face and stab your hand with a fork).

Dubai trip

For those I wasn't able to tell before I left, I made a quick trip to Dubai. Basically spent two days, three nights here, as we had a meeting with our largest fuel contractor, Supreme. They needed someone from the IJC in Kabul to attend and I was the only one of the three available people who had both a passport and civilian attire. So I got a nice little break kind of by default.

Anyway, I arrived late Saturday night. On Sunday we had a full day of meetings, working through both lunch and dinner and putting in about 14 hours straight. Monday we were able to finish up around lunchtime, leaving me the afternoon to try to run around and see all of the sights.

I took a whole bunch of pictures and I'm trying to attach two here. The first is in front of the world's tallest building, the 110 story Burj Dubai. The second is at the beach with the seven-star Burj Al Arab Hotel in the background.

Both very impressive structures. I also saw the man-made islands off the coast, the ones in shape of a palm tree. No wonder the city is going broke :) Through all that in, along with a trip to two malls, and the Gold/Spice/Silk Souk areas (famous shopping area) and it was a busy afternoon.

So now it's 345am and I'm back at the Dubai airport, awaiting my (already delayed) flight back to Kabul. It was snow flurrying in Kabul as I was leaving a few days ago; we'll see what it has in store when I get there in a few hours. I think that's about it for now.