Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Taxi Story - The Jordanian
Posted by Pickledeel at 7:55 am 1 comments
Labels: Jerash, Jordan, Taxi Story
Monday, September 24, 2007
Jerash - Roman City
Jerash is a well preserved and partially restored Roman city on the outskirts of Amman. I happily wandered its streets for hours (and the driver seemed content to wait which was very decent of him). Here are the wide colonnaded streets, pavement still cut by chariot and wagon wheels. Here too the little lanes into roofless houses in high density apartment dwelling we would be very comfortable with. Cellars. Temples. Fountains. A hippodrome. Two amphitheatres still in working order and used for performances today. Shopping centres. Churches. An earthquake in 790 AD pretty much ended this city – all those blocks of stone resting on columns must suddenly have looked like a liability when the earth started moving.
But there are other durable pieces of stone work that can only be admired for their creativity and ingenuity. With some of the buildings stripped down you could see how they hung ceilings and floors two or three stories high – with a lot of cantilevering. There is a remarkable dedication in stone to the nymphs, a collection of fountains placed in a wall, fed by water down two kilometres of piping. The piping has gone, the fountains remain. Even the way the stone was dressed was mimicked in Victorian stone masonry 1500 or more years later and you can see the same style of work in London, Sydney, Philadelphia (which incidentally used to be the name by which Amman went by). Those cut pavers, the apartments with their cellars and an old well hint at real people walking around this place. They have an eerie presence still. Most poignant were the fallen stone decorations, on which you can still see the chisel marks of the masons. Nearly 2000 years dead yet his handiwork is still visible. As I was caught by the sight of it lying in the dust of centuries I thought of our yearning for immortality – a universal desire across all time to be able to spend all time crafting what we can do best. How disappointed that mason would be to see his work thrown down like this. Or would he be happy to know we are thinking of him? Happier still no doubt if he was still plying his craft.
Posted by Pickledeel at 4:29 pm 1 comments
Labels: Jerash, Jordan, Roman Ruins
970,000 American Casualties. Is Iraq Worth It?
To answer the question, the short answer is yes. Not only from a personal business point of view but also from a broader perspective as well. This place is on the mend but there is no denying it has a way to go. And it is on the mend because local Iraqis are resolved to mend it. Be they the occasional and too infrequently met local, the public servants or the young diplomat I met in the queue waiting to check in this morning. He and a few others were off to Rome to do a course. He has high hopes for Iraq and his belief in what was possible was heart warming and encouraging. People like this make the effort worthwhile I think. Interestingly we discussed the convulsions that have been at the root of the building of other nations. Starting with the US – which is “united” at the cost of more than 970,000 of its citizens dead and wounded. Can you imagine that body-count being reported in today’s press? About the same number of Americans killed by each other as perished in WWII. (And as a footnote is it not interesting that the US had a 12 year Reconstruction period after its civil war? We all want Iraqis to sort themselves out in a couple of years!). Japan. France. Even present day Russia. Vietnam. India. South Africa. The Balkan states. If we could forge nations in other ways we could and should. But sometimes it happens in the worst way. We parted with a handshake (when I was called to a spare seat on an earlier flight (not everything that happens in Baghdad is bad!!)) and a controversial observation – he cocked one of his eyebrows at me and wryly noted that none of their Arab brothers were coming to their aid – it was all the Christian states who were helping, and he said Iraq would always remember its friends. This young man has an interesting diplomatic career in front of him to say the least. But it is that freedom of expression that comes with all other freedoms that we all want to see in Iraq. He said something he would not have dared utter five years ago. Now he feels free to voice his views to a stranger. If we can achieve that, without him eventually becoming a casualty for his forwardness, then Iraq’s people are worth it.
Posted by Pickledeel at 2:16 am 1 comments
Labels: Baghdad, Iraq, Middle East
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Baghdad Rooftop Reflection - with some help from the Frogs
Posted by Pickledeel at 5:25 pm 1 comments
Labels: Baghdad, Iraq, Middle East
Friday, September 21, 2007
A Lizard Kills a Stereotype
Posted by Pickledeel at 5:08 pm 3 comments
Another Blogging Traffic Tool - Maybe Worth A Look
I don't normally have the patience to bother messing around with the tools that supposedly promote, expose, advertise or otherwise make claims to broaden the readership of this blog. On the other hand something that claims to do all those things without me doing much more than inserting some html is worth at least a shot. And for no cost. Click here to be taken to Blogrush and a video that explains it better than I can and in less time than I could.
Posted by Pickledeel at 3:46 pm 4 comments
Labels: Blogging
("Mandela's") Answer for Iraq
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? And who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people wont feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to be the same. As we are liberated from our own fears, our presence automatically liberates others."
Nelson Mandela, Inaugural speech 1994
Postscript: 22 Sep. Always check and double check your sources. When I finally got to check Nelson's addresses here and here seems these words were not there. A further check suggests they should be attributed to Marianne Williamson from a volume called "A Return to Love." (Kind of ironic since I would not ordinarily cite someone writing in this genre.) But then I have not been able to check that source either. I'll leave the words here since they caught my ear when thinking about Baghdad and still have relevance, regardless of author.
Posted by Pickledeel at 1:40 am 2 comments
Labels: Baghdad
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
An Obscenity We Don’t See or Feel – Is Still an Obscenity
It is a sobering thing to watch as you realise you are witness to someone’s day being ruined – all for nothing as Malik would say. But it is sobering for other reasons as well. The delight at watching aircraft fly around now becomes a guilty sin. Being on the edge and feeling alive is now at someone else’s expense. At the expense of real people I have met in the street. And you feel equal measures guilty and equal measures angry for what the incident becomes to everyone else – meaningless or irrelevant. A non event. A tree falling in the forest unheard. The booming crump and the shuddering glass never makes it to most of the on-line papers around the world. Heck, it barely makes the coverage of those carrying Iraq news. The BBC carries a small article. I confess I am surprised that only 7 people are killed, 20 are wounded. The blast felt bigger than that. People bombed lining up at the hospital to identify dead relatives. Obscene, cowardly, diabolical. I am offended by that. But also by the normalcy such a “small” blast has become. By the fact that no one else in town turns their head (no doubt relieved they were not incidental to its maw). I am offended for these victims that the press got it wrong – there were two blasts. And the lack of human touch in the press – who is that man, and what is his story? His pain? And what are we doing about it? The memorial stain of smoke over the sky is an obscenity as well, in part for its brevity. Who of us in our own cities would tolerate a stain like that? No, I thought not. But here it has become part of the grist of life and barely stirs a ripple. An inexplicable sadness for that knots my stomach for the day. I don’t know what else to say.
Posted by Pickledeel at 5:13 pm 4 comments
Labels: Baghdad, Iraq, Middle East
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
My Name is Malik and I Live in Baghdad
(An invention based on an amalgam of things and people seen, and conversations with locals in the last week. I could fill 10,000 words like this - Baghdad is a seething story and everyone has a tale to tell.)
Posted by Pickledeel at 7:50 pm 3 comments
Labels: Baghdad, Iraq, Middle East
Baghdad Layers
Posted by Pickledeel at 12:16 am 1 comments
Labels: Baghdad, Iraq, Middle East
Monday, September 17, 2007
On the Lighter Side
Part of the preparation for visiting a place like this is to have a “Run Away Quick” bag. More colloquially known as the F^%* off Quick Bag in another organisation I once worked for. Or perhaps simply a “Grab Bag”. Its not a bad habit to have when you are travelling. Have all the survival essentials in one little bag along with your passport and tickets in case you have to make a run for it. Leave the suitcase and souvineers behind for the new ruling junta and keep the essential stuff.
I thought I would share some of the essentials to surviving in Iraq – which is actually a very civilised place in which to survive. For me at least. A snapshot of the workdesk reveals some critical items – and tells some of the story of my stay.
Green Numerals First.
1. Diary. What was I doing here again? Good to have a note here to remind yourself. Actually a boiled down version of the RAQB – every contact, meeting, appointment, timetable, itinerary all in one document. Sachet of cash as well. If worst comes to worse the diary, passport, tickets and wallet are all I need. Clothes probably help too.
2. Lamp. Made in China. Chinese instructions still pasted across it. Careful of the lead, one of the lads gave himself an electric shock on one. Room is dim and cool, to combat that 43 degrees out there. So a light becomes important.
3. Indonesian betatine – past its use by date but still stings like crazy. Useful if a limb is lost.
4. Pepsi. Sits side by side with that other cola drink in the fridge. Important part of the Dubai Tea Formula. See “8” below.
5. Movie. Black market version but keeps Hussein in his little store in food and water. I have not seen a reproduction as bad as this in twenty years – filmed in a theatre, so the audience contributed to this version as well. It’s taken me four sittings so far and I have not yet finished it – which indicates how bad it is. Good therapy though.
6. Dental Floss. My new South African friend hands out biltong which he has made himself. Its actually very good. But you need floss for three days after to dig the last of it out from your teeth. This is a multicultural environment in more than one way.
7. Would hate to leave it but would if I had to. But new RAQB designed to include this. I no longer travel with a separate laptop case.
8. My Saudi friends introduced me to this stuff as Dubai Tea. Regardless of brand, age, malt, it is all Dubai Tea. As in, “I think I will nick over the border this weekend for some Dubai Tea.”
9. Pocket New Testament. Food for the soul and balm for the heart.
10. Pear Soap. And something for the body!! Advantage – cake dries very quickly (almost instantly) after use and can be thrown into bag without leaving soapy slime everywhere. Sorry, nothing here about whether it is good for your skin or not. I still have a baby soft bum after 45 years anyway so don't need any special soap.
1. Multivitamins –Executive Stress formula. Need that around here? Am convinced the stress stuff is good marketing baloney but the multivitamins are not a bad idea when you are on the road. Sometimes (most times) local menus need supplementing.
2. AA Batteries. Longest life ones you can find. Nothing worse than the lens retracting into the camera as a battery dies just as the shot of a life time pulls into view. Be careful of AA’s loose with coins in pocket – nearly started a fire once. They were Beijing back lane AA’s which lasted for 3 photos but had enough zap to start cooking me. I think they were radioactive. My theory and I am sticking to it.
3. Listerine. Helps with process at 6 above.
4. It is a civilised place after all, so mixing Green 8 with Green 4 in the can is not the done thing. Use the mug. Never wash it out of course, we are not THAT civilised.
5. There is a tray of 24 of these at my feet, all being fed into the fridge where they have a very short time to cool – I am going through 4-6 of these a day.
6. Passport with wallet (out of sight) - with exit visa stamped and signed. Part of the RAQB but out on the desk since I need it on a daily basis to get around this place.
Posted by Pickledeel at 2:13 am 4 comments
Labels: Baghdad, Travel Resources
Sunday, September 16, 2007
There is Nothing Like Death to Make you Feel Alive
I am not going to pretend the same applies in Iraq. Perhaps not yet. But there is something about this place that has the same appealing ingredients. Two things help highlight it after a week here. The first is the local help. The cooks and cleaners come in from the Red Zone and in their general joy of life (manifest in a dozen different ways, including a puppy washing session) it is hard to view them as anything except laid back and friendly neighbours. Well, they are but they are neighbours from a few kilometres away who, with their families, are living on the edge, every day. Secondly, Fuzzyjefe reminded me of a truism today – that through the sanitising of the press we forget there are real people that create those headlines (comments in a previous post). This afternoon, while on the roof watching Apache helicopters tool around the sky a loud concussive crump happened off to the west. Nothing seen but it’s a distinctive sound that makes you pause for a moment and wonder who has just had their day ruined. In the news later we see a suicide bomber has killed 8 at a police post. Somehow the sound of the bomb gives a real dimension to the headlines. Real people like our cooks and cleaners and groundsman died this afternoon, making me pause, and generating headlines we don’t really take too much heed of. But still these people hang on and make the most of what they have. They create a vibe that is infectious and is a very positive feature in a place like this. Ironically, thanks to its people, it is a place that makes you feel very much alive.
Posted by Pickledeel at 4:57 pm 3 comments
Labels: Baghdad, Iraq, Middle East
It Is all A Matter of Perspective
Posted by Pickledeel at 2:38 am 1 comments
Labels: Artillery, Baghdad, Iraq, Middle East
Friday, September 14, 2007
An IED Survivor
Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.
- Sir Winston Churchill
Posted by Pickledeel at 9:22 pm 4 comments
Labels: Baghdad, Iraq, Middle East
Thursday, September 13, 2007
An Evening in Baghdad
Posted by Pickledeel at 8:40 pm 3 comments
Labels: Baghdad, Iraq, Middle East
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Guns and Dogs, Dogs and Guns
Here puppies are having the same mellowing affect. I took this photo after being downtown. A couple of Abrams (main battle tanks) pulled over for a break in the shade. Four Australian LAVs went speeding past. I have lost count of the number of HUMVEEs that have grumbled past. It's all fascinating stuff but not “normal”. Off the main road we pull into our house and here are six puppies having their lunch. They are being watched over by a very friendly, likable Iraq guard, kitted up in an armoured vest and wearing his folding stock AK-47 machine gun casually slung across his chest. He has taught me the Arabic word for puppy. He has taken a liking to these animals and is constantly feeding them, getting them water and doing all the things Mum should be doing. She, no doubt thankful, is lying in the shade watching the surrogacy from a distance. Most times she barely lifts her head though her eyes are not closed when her pups are out. Guns and dogs. With the puppies around you forget for a moment that so many guns are around, even on the friendly guard, none of which are intended for pigs or rabbits. Regrettable really.
Posted by Pickledeel at 7:38 pm 1 comments
Labels: Baghdad, Dogs, Iraq, M1 Abrams, Middle East
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Saddam's Dias - Shifting and Fleeting
Posted by Pickledeel at 8:33 pm 3 comments
Labels: Baghdad, Iraq, Middle East
Monday, September 10, 2007
Apache Flares and Casevacs
Posted by Pickledeel at 10:54 pm 1 comments
Labels: Baghdad, Iraq, Middle East
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Dante's Inferno - with Choppers Thrown In
Posted by Pickledeel at 6:10 pm 1 comments
Labels: Baghdad, Iraq, Middle East
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Iraq's Ozymandias
OZYMANDIAS
I met a traveller from an antique landWho said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away
Posted by Pickledeel at 5:19 pm 3 comments
Labels: Iraq, Middle East
Friday, September 07, 2007
What is "Normal" in Baghdad?
Posted by Pickledeel at 8:08 pm 1 comments
Labels: Baghdad, Iraq, Middle East
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Baghdad Short Finals
6 September 2007
Posted by Pickledeel at 9:20 pm 1 comments
Labels: Baghdad, Iraq Middle East
Make your Money and Run, Boy
Queen Alia International Airport, Jordan
It is a fresh and clear morning and the traffic pretty much non existent as we ran from the city to Queen Alia. Immigration and passports and other officials were sleepy and inattentive, the immigration guy slumped down in his chair below the counter catching some sleep. The place is lousy with American men, and their accents echo through the building. All polite in their own way but making the mistake of speaking louder when someone fails to comprehend their drawl. Adventurers into Iraq I guess. Three out of four wear military style boots and carry military style backpacks. They seem to fall into two groups. Young men in late twenties early thirties age. Travelling in pairs or trios. Jeans, T-shirt and baseball cap. All seem to still carry their military style haircuts. It’s hard to leave the military nursery after all, even (especially) after your discharge is formalised. Most are fit and burly, straining T-shirts to breaking point. One short case looks like he could bench press a cement truck. The local boys in the café humour them although the Jordanian police sergeant refused to reply to a drawled “howya doin’ boy?” I suspect he would take no consolation from hearing the same greeting thrown at a couple of the American's buddies who later came up the escalator from immigration. The second group appear to be in their fifties or so. The uniform is similar although the hair longer and the goatee more frequent. They travel on their own. Same military backpacks. And definitely not as fit looking. I fancy they are seeking the same adventure though. Headed for Iraq and taking the opportunity to do something outlandish, historical or cash rewarding. The latter is a major attraction. Two of them standing behind me at immigration had one of those typically loud American conversations, for the whole immigration hall to hear, about how it was only the cash that drew them to Iraq. Quipped one, to the other , “make your money and run boy, make your money and run.”
Posted by Pickledeel at 2:58 pm 1 comments
Labels: Iraq, Jordan, Middle East, Military
It is All About Hospitality...
Posted by Pickledeel at 2:56 am 7 comments
Labels: Jordan, Middle East
Panorama from Mt Nebo
Posted by Pickledeel at 2:42 am 1 comments
Labels: Jordan, Middle East
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Mt Nebo - Moses' Lookout
Posted by Pickledeel at 8:46 pm 1 comments
Labels: Jordan, Middle East
Dead Sea
Posted by Pickledeel at 2:39 am 1 comments
Labels: Jordan, Middle East
Presidential Security - ATough Gig
3 Sept 07
Posted by Pickledeel at 1:58 am 1 comments
Labels: Jordan, Middle East, Military
Monday, September 03, 2007
I am the Good Shepherd - of Amman
But at one point we had a clear run from the Embassy into town and as we crested a hill and barrelled down the other side a young boy and his sheep wandered into the traffic. Everyone slowed and moved around him. No horns or signs of irritation. The boy ignored the traffic and marched along with his flock of sheep following him. His nonchalance and clear assumption of his right of way was laugh out loud stuff. But also a nice reminder that despite all the focus on oil and industry in the Middle East this part of the world is still about agrarian things. Even the front page of the paper today carried a story of a wrangle over sheep taxes, just in case we needed reminding! And even though this city has remarkable Biblical history roots they are impossible to see now. So this little flock represented those roots for me in a symbolic way instead.
2 September 2007
Posted by Pickledeel at 4:02 am 1 comments
Labels: Jordan
Sunday, September 02, 2007
CIA’s Jason Bourne Has Arab Friends
Posted by Pickledeel at 7:34 am 2 comments
Labels: Jordan
Its an Arab World
Posted by Pickledeel at 7:02 am 1 comments
Labels: Jordan
Short Finals into Amman, Jordan
Posted by Pickledeel at 6:59 am 1 comments
Labels: Jordan, Middle East