Paroled!!

I just arrived in Dubai and I feel like I just got out of jail. Don't get me wrong, the experience in Kabul was definitely life-changing and once-in-a-lifetime, but when I got off the plane and felt 70 degree weather, and air-conditioned airport, I felt as giddy as I did the first time I went to the Rose Bowl or seeing the Sistine Chapel or meeting my lady.

Even sweeter, as I exited the airport after a long passport line, a dude was there waiting with a sign with my name. SWEET! I never had the upper echelon treatment before, so this next 24 hours will be money. (note: I would move to Kabul for a year if that meant I would never have to wait in line ever again. Waiting in line is my biggest pet peeve in life by far. That, washing dishes, Denise Richards and Cristiano Ronaldo.)

Now I'm going to hit the pool to disinfect in some chlorine and then hit the town to purchase a hookah. I may break down and have a Big Mac. I think I deserve it.

Good times!

Insomniac

Dealing with a bit of insomnia right now going into my final work day. At least the power has stayed on, so I’ve been able to pass the time by watching the final round of the Buick Invitational. I must have insomnia if I’m watching a meaningless golf tournament. It was either that or some movie starring Martin Lawrence and Tim Robbins (who knew such a flick existed). Coincidentally, I saw parts of this movie early in the trip while still working on jet lag.

Tiger Woods is starting to take over and the rookies atop the leader board are choking which is keeping me interested. I started thinking about golf announcers and if they ever get sick of coming up with superlatives and praise when talking about Tiger. They sure don’t act like it. I think Jim Nantz just offered his body to Tiger.

My final work day should be a quiet one. Today is Ashora, a Shiite day of atonement and mourning, and is a national holiday. What little I know about this holiday is that it is a day of mourning for a couple of Mohammed’s prophets. At least, that what I have been told. Not too versed on the background of this holiday, so I’ll just leave it at that. I guess if you’re interested, you could hit wikipedia.

Apparently, Shiites celebrate this day by flagellating themselves on the back with some steel rods. This has also historically been a day when there is potential for some revolts and the international community has been put on lockdown. Again, the folks staying at the hotel aren’t thinking twice about it. Everybody said they will just work from the hotel. I think I have been here long enough too, as I am not worried about it at all either. The office is only a couple of blocks away and is in a fairly quiet area, so it should be fine. Plus I need to get online to post this entry, check work email, meet my boss for lunch etc.

I am intrigued by the whole Ashora thing and am curious to see how the local Shiites “celebrate” this day. An Afghan guy here said it wouldn’t be a problem if I were to watch, saying I could blend in pretty easily, but just don’t open my mouth or take any pictures. I may feel comfortable here, but I’ll probably just stay in the office and watch any coverage they have on local TV.

Tiger with a two shot lead with one to play. I guess next I’ll be watching to see if Big Momma and Nook LaLoosh can overcome their cultural differences and successfully pull off a heist.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie....oy, oy, oy

The internet continued to give me grief this week resulting in limited posts. 48 more hours to go! I'm so ready for a long, hot shower and swim in Dubai.

I had a fun weekend. Yesterday I went to an Australia Day celebration here in Kabul. The party was complete with Foster’s beers, INXS music, sheep racing, and Australian beef pies. The weather gods cooperated as well and for the first time since I’ve been here, the weather was above freezing.

I recognized a handful of people from previous nights out, making the party all the more fun. I also met a couple of American “security” guys. Not sure who they are working for or what they were doing in Kabul as they kept that information pretty close to the vest, but I found out one of the guys lives in the Mission district in SF. Of course his buddies, a couple of old, rugged-looking New Yorkers, were busting his chops about being from San Francisco and of course the obligatory gay jokes were getting thrown around. The guy from SF responds, “Yeah, when I drop a quarter, I kick it to Oakland before picking it up.” He then turns to me, “you’ve probably heard that one before.” I quickly replied, “sure, that’s an old one” as I quickly remembered that he had just told me he is legally authorized to carry a gun at all times when he is in SF due to his “security” role.

Here are some party pics:

Interwebs

I can't believe that this trip is coming to a close and I only have four nights left here in Kabul. Besides the interesting work and experiences so far, I think having access to the internet has been the single biggest factor in helping me pass the idle time. Thanks to the web, I definitely don't feel like I'm 6,000 feet above sea level and thousands of miles away from home.

I am able to send emails to friends and family, update this blog, read the LA Times Sports section, watch American TV, basically do everything I would be doing from my SF apartment. Interestingly, the server at the hotel was down last night and I couldn't access the internet. This made me realize how much this technology is relied upon and also how, in the not so distant past, access to such information on a global scale was extremely limited.

I remember traveling through Europe in 1996 with the college mates and having to search for newspaper stands that had English language newspapers to get some state-side updates. (I was in Barcelona and learned about Tupac's Las Vegas shooting this way. It was in USA Today. Don't ask me how I remember such things.) The point is, a mere 10 years ago, when one was traveling internationally, you knew you were away from home. No internet cafes, no satellite TV, not even DVD's to help pass the time. Only newspapers and a long distance call on a pay phone were the accessible tools to get in touch with home.

Today's technology has made traveling so much easier. Since I've been here I've made hotel reservations in Paris, paid credit card bills, and coordinated a trip to LA in March. Although missing face to face contact with friends and family remains difficult, thoughts of being homesick have been minimal. Last night, I had hoped to get online as evenings here coincide with the middle of the business day in San Francisco. When I found out the network was down, I was at a loss. I could have read or watched a movie instead, but I was focused on getting on-line. Without access to the information superhighway, I felt stranded. Luckily, I reconciled by watch some golf tournament on TV and falling asleep.

Today, the office email server is down limiting my productivity, but at least I can still get on-line....hence this entry.

Break from the 3rd World

I went to a steakhouse with some folks from the office today. Upon my return the Oscar nominations were being announced. In a break from Kabul, here are my Oscar picks (let it be known that my co-workers bought me two glasses of scotch prior to returning to the hotel. Also, some movie with Hillary Duff and Heather Locklear is playing on one of the 5 channels on my tv, so my picks may be skewed.)

Best picture: My favorite movie of the year, Blood Diamond (and Jackass Numer Two), was not even nominated so its a tough call. I've only seen 3 of the 5 flicks nominated and didnt think The Queen, Babel, or Departed were particularly epic. All of them were pretty good and to be honest, The Queen was actually the most interesting since I didn't know the back story going on during the Princess Di fiasco with regards to the crown. In my opinion, and not what I think will win, I'll have to say The Departed was my fave of the options. Jack, Leo, gangstas and Boston accents are always entertaining.

Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio is my hands down choice. Unless he is asked to play an athlete, DiCaprio is always pretty money. I mentioned to Natalia when we saw Blood Diamond that him and Denzel are always money regardless of the quality of the film. The conflict diamond story was interesting as well and he did a great job I thought. Truth be told, I didn't see any of the other flicks here and only know that one of the other nominees dates Rachel McAdams, another personal favorite. (See pic. Further props to her for starring in The Hot Chick with the Bay Area's own Rob Schneider. Anyone who enjoys working with SF-bred, half Filipinos will always rank highly in my book.)

Best Actress: Meryl Streep. I saw this flick on the way out here and although nothing annoys me more than the repetitive story of the frumpy midwestern chick with no style making it in NY after a milisecond, Streep played the bitch role perfectly. Again, I only saw three of the five flicks here, but Streep struck a chord. Maybe it was being on a plane for 14 hours, but she was good. I'm almost tempted to blindly pick Kate Winslet since she might be my favorite actress, but I didn't see the flick yet.

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson. When I was in NY, we saw a "double feature" of Blood Diamond and Dreamgirls. I've never seen people applaud in the audience during a singing number in a movie before, but people did just that after a couple of Hudson's solos. That alone is Oscar-worthy.

Best Supporting Actor: Djimon Honsou. My bias to Blood Diamond is clear at this point, but he was great I thought. Alan Arkin is also a personal fave (Slums of Beverly Hills and Glengarry GlenRoss are great), but I didn't see Little Miss Sunshine. Marky Mark was only in two scenes in The Departed, which makes his nomination a joke to me. Eddie Murphy is also deserving I think. Hopefully, Charlie Murphy is in attendance with him.

Best Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Viva Mexico! I may be biased towards the latino filmakers of the world, but it takes some skill to juggle the numerous storylines taking place in Babel, and I thought he presented them well, especially the Tokyo stuff. Scorsese has so many better flicks that I think a win for him here is just a salute to his body of work, which I can accept.

Progress?

Today marks the 7-day countdown until I leave Kabul and return to the developed world. First, Dubai for 24 hours, then to Paris for 4 days, then finally back to SF on Super Bowl Sunday.

I had an interesting discussion with an Indian woman at the hotel this morning over breakfast. She has been working here in Kabul for over 1.5 years (and has lived at the hotel the entire time. She’s great. She definitely throws her weight around the hotel and gets perks like extra heaters for her room, specially made eggs, warm milk, etc.) I learned that she has been working on various urban development projects for over 20 years in various under-developed countries including Tanzania and the Balkans. She said the model for development is virtually the same everywhere, which makes complete sense to me. All the money comes from big money organizations like United States Agency for International Development (USAID), The World Bank, the United Nations, UK Department for International Development (DFID), and the Asian Development Bank. With these funds, they support development projects (economic development, governance, civil society, law reform, education, health, you name it) that implement approaches that fit into a familiar model. This model is traditionally developed in the ivory tower of Western universities and rarely do projects stray from this style. Whether this approach is the most effective continues to be debated. Afghanistan could potentially be one of the arguments for seeking alternative development angles.

This woman told me that one of the biggest factors impeding the progress of development here is the distrust of Western experts guiding the development projects. The locals would rather work with development experts from Asia rather than the West. Stepping back and thinking about this logically, it makes sense. Contributions from the west in the past have mostly been violent and aggressive. Distrust and skepticism over this history has prevented many of the projects from expanding. Whereas in places like the Balkans, an eagerness to develop and partner with the European Union has made them welcome Westerners (Western Europeans, that is) to help them in this process.

Another huge impediment to Afghan development is the lack of education of its population. Again, since the Russian invasions and subsequent regimes, education was disrupted virtually for the past 25 years. While many civil society organizations have standardized processes that they intend to incorporate to build Afghanistan’s infrastructure, the lack of adequate knowledge and skills by local Afghans have delayed much of its progress. For this reason, impact has been minimal. I also learned that substantive results likely will not be able to be measured until 10 to 20 years down the road.

Additionally, many of the appointed directors of various ministries and the central government institutions are actually Afghan-Americans or Afghans educated in the West. I found out that many of these appointees are younger than 35 and have not necessarily lived in Afghanistan their whole lives. A question persists whether these individuals will stay on or return to their foreign homes after their terms are complete furthering complicating the legacy that these projects are having.

Its really such an exciting time to be here to see a country at this point in its development. The question remains whether the billions of dollars in foreign aid being invested here will provide a stronger Afghanistan or have no effect at all. The consensus here is that it is still unknown.

definitely not on myspace

As mentioned in a previous post, I have been able to glom on to a social network of ex-pats living in my hotel.

What's crazy about this is that for the first time in a very long time, I am considered a youngster. These guys and gals are all veteran international consultants that have worked and lived all over the world. I am still just getting a taste.

Its definitely a rarity for me to be the youngest of the group. I am the eldest in my family, eldest of my 15 first cousins, one of the oldest of the UCLA lads (Escalante has me by a couple months), senior member of the NYC posse, and oldest of the SF homies besides KDo (also only a two month difference). Not sure what this role has played in social interactions or hierarchies (if any), but I'm sure it means something, making this time in Kabul even more interesting.

Just last night I mentioned that I had just seen Dog Day Afternoon for the first time yesterday. I went on to say that I thought it was great and how awesome the young Al Pacino was in the movie. (As an aside, Pacino was so money in this flick that I thought for sure he won an Oscar for it. Great one liners..."Attica! Attica!" among others. This flick definitely set off a lifetime of great Pacino lines most recently from Heat, Devil's Advocate, Glengarry Glen Ross, and Scent of a Woman. FYI- he was nominated but lost to Jack in Cuckoo's Nest. Tough to argue that one. 1975 was a good movie year.)

Anyways, rather than getting some responses from the crew, I was asked whether I was even born yet, and stories about what they were doing in 1975. Pretty funny. One guy immediately asked if I had seen Reservoir Dogs. Now, anybody of my generation knows that Tarantino's first flick influenced a whole genre of movie making and everbody I know has seen it multiple times. I guess what's interesting is that I wanted to talk about Dog Day some more, but the conversation shifted to a movie I've seen and talked about a billion times already.
Maybe they didn't remember the flick as well as I did, didn't like it, or simply didn't care. I'm probably making a bigger deal about this than is actually there, but the point is I think after 33 years, I got my first taste of being treated like a little brother amongst peers...at least I consider myself their peers. The interesting thing about this role is that they have gone out of their way to offer advice about good restaurants, invite me to parties, tell me about good Afghan rug stores, etc. In other words, they made sure I was taken care of.

I guess this is noteworthy because I think I have been more of a nurturer than nurturee (for better or worse) over the course of my life, and rarely am I in this position. It doesn't necessarily feel awkward, but worthy enough for me to write about. When placed in a forced social settings, roles within a group dynamic seem to reveal themselves pretty quickly. I think I'm just not used to being a pup after all these years.