Tuesday, November 18, 2003

12:00 – Baghdad. At times, this place starts to wear on me. There’s a variety of issues. None of them particularly surprising, just profound annoyances.

On one hand, there’s the increasing bureaucracy at the PMO. This is expected. We’re just a lowly contractor here and our role as engineers is being gradually usurped by ranks of government employees – accountants, lawyers, bureaucrats, all. As usual, they judge their own progress by metrics that they established for themselves. They dwell on process, instead of progress. I was commanded to attend a meeting last night with a large gang of these types from the various CPA shadow ministries. They filled the thirty foot long conference table, speaking in acronyms and sounding important, as if theirs was the most vital and complex task in the world. What was this task? The filling of a form. Fortunately for them, the entire PMO engineering staff was seated along the wall to provide assistance. Project Title? Hmm. How about we use the name of the project for this one? “But what about the COR/DCOR AOR?”

On the other hand, there’s ineffectiveness at the Ministry. Under Saddam’s reign, government employees learned to make no decisions, for fear that the wrong choice would result in the loss of one’s head. Under the new regime, the Iraqis need to learn (quickly) to make decisions and accept the consequences. Until then, there’s a whole lotta nothing going on. There is a great deal of reliance upon CPA to decide on things and get the work done. This slows the transitional period. I think the phase out of the CPA by the first of June is a pipe dream, but dream they will until it’s time to awaken [insert your own sleepy little analogy]. My guess is that the CPA will be gone in June. Well, not really gone, just renamed “United States Embassy”.

If I had a third hand, I’d count the lack of clear communications between CPA, PMO, Ministries, and Governorates. The PMO is trying to do our thing, which is to usurp the CPA thing. It’s neither smooth nor easy, and the first thing to fail is communications. Typical.

Of course, my fourth hand would point to the state of my food and lodging. I’m eating dorm food at forty and sleeping in a six man closet. Nuff said.

My fifth (prehensile) hand would throttle local living conditions. As above, but add the fact that the showers and toilets are filthy. Really filthy. C’mon, for the average, fair and real generous Iraqi wage of three bucks a day, you’d think KBR could hire a couple of bathroom attendants. Maybe full time. Maybe three or four to a stall.

Six hands? Sure. Six hands. I need a phone. It’s a little embarrassing when there’s no way for your client to get a hold of you.

OK. Seven hands, but that’s my limit. I’ve been stuck in Baghdad for the past six weeks. That will change tomorrow, when my plan is to head north for the day. Get out of town. See some sights. Clear some of this dust out my throat. Collect some literary fodder.