Thursday, June 21, 2012

Dangerous Situations - Graft and Corruption





The Afghan Adventure Continues

It’s been awhile since I’ve written in my blog.   I will try to catch up on some of the happenings.
So I will tell you a couple of my Afghan stories.

Story 1… A couple of weeks ago I made a visit to one of my job sites in Char Bulak where we are building a police outpost in a small remote village.  It is an area that where the Taliban is very active.  The Army Corp of Engineers will not visit the site and only send their Afghan employees. Actually in the last month I’ve made two visits to the site.  During the first visit about four weeks ago I went with Don, my American Electrical Engineer, to inspect the site and review some electrical installation problems. 

While driving to the job site we were forced off the main road due to road construction and had to take a one lane dirt side road that went through very small villages in the middle of no-where – here we were two Americans driving with one guard through a Taliban active area.  During the drive we saw men that our driver identified as Taliban.  The guard put a live round in his AK-47 and made sure it was ready to use.  To be honest Don and I were very nervous about our drive to the site.  We arrived at the site with no problem. Now came the real nervous part, driving out… We knew that the Taliban knew that we were on site, and they knew we had to drive out.  During the drive out we had two incidents with the Taliban one was a car that came upon us very quickly out of no-where stayed behind us for a while and then veered of f the road and stopped, shortly after that a motorcycle rider again came out of no-where behind us and passed us slowly watch us and eyeing us…. He had strapped to his shoulder an AK-47, he passed us and stopped… we proceeded to drive, guards gun at the ready and we drove past him… I believe that they were just trying to put a scare to us letting us know they knew we were there.

Okay, now back to my next visit a couple of weeks ago, the main office called me and asked me to go to Char Bulak to take care of a problem they were having. I called and checked and the road was clear and I knew I could go visit using the newly paved road.  This time I took 2 guards and went to the site.  No problems either going or coming. 
The next day there was a bombing in the village center killing 6 police men.  A message was delivered to our on-site security that next time they will get the American. (Me) I will not be going back to Char Bulak.

I do believe, no I know that the Lord has been watching over me.  In my blessing before I came I was told that if I listened to the promptings of the Lord I would return home safely.  I have prayed to have the Gifts of the Spirit necessary to be able to be safe.  I am grateful for the Prayers of my children and friends, for I believe in the power of prayer and know that when I have been weak that those prayers have carried me.

Story 2…… Today… We are in the process of completing the project I’ve been living at Camp Shaheen. Tuesday the Army Corp of Engineers had their final walk and on Saturday we were going to have a Ceremony to turn over the site to the Afghanistan Army.  Today I went to meet with the different Afghanistan Commanders to invite them to the Turn over Ceremony where we were going to have a flag raising, where we take down the American Flag and raise the Afghanistan Flag giving them official control of the site and then we were going have an traditional Afghan lunch.  On my visit with the first official when I was talking about the Flag Ceremony I mentioned that they would need to bring an Afghan flag so that we could raise it… He stated to me, through my translator, NO… you need to supply the flag for us… I stated that we didn’t have an Afghan Flag and that needed  to be provided by the Afghan Army and again he demanded that we provide it… I stood up and stated that the US was providing a 10 million facility to them and that they needed to provide their own flag... again he said NO you provide and I said okay... there will be no Flag Ceremony and I left….. 

Later in the day we met with the Afghan Commander in charge of the total base at his guest house. In that meeting were three other Afghan Commanders over various other divisions under Commander Nahim.  During the meeting one of the other Commanders over the Engineering Division demanded that I leave him two of our conexs (living quarters) for his use, I thought he was kidding and laugher and suggested we arm wrestle for it, making a joke, I looked at him and he was very serious, I said NEY (no) we needed them at other job sites, he then asked for 2 cars stating that another contractor had given him 2 cars again I said no… (all of this through my translator) then he asked for cash, I got up and stated we would not be having a Ceremony and thank them for meeting with us and I left them. 

As I left I called Mailk (My Company’s VP) to let him know what happened and what I had done.  He told me that I did the right thing and that the Company would not be a part of a bribe.  He told me he was going to call Azaimi our Company’s President to make sure we didn’t have any further problems.  He stated Azaimi knew someone in the Government that would take care of this. 

I them went and had a meeting with the Army regarding a request of a bribe and was told they were aware of this problem with this Commander and that they would follow up with it once we were off site to insure my safety.

Later that day I was told that the Commander over the Engineering Division was being called to Kabul by the Minister of Defense to be either reassigned or terminated. Who knew that my action today would have such an end result. 

This evening I received a message through my PM that Commander Nahim (the head Commander) did not approve of the other mans actions and that we would have no problem in closing out this project and removing our living quarters and materials. 

I had heard of the graft and corruption in Afghanistan, but to witness it and to see it … to live it and be a part of it like I was just was so emotional for me. I had to make a stand. My men were surprised that I got so upset. That I made such a big deal of it. But I could not and would never be a part of something like that.   I have found out that what I saw was just a tip of the iceberg. It is just the way of life for all Afghan people here.  If they want something they have to pay someone for it.  It is a normal way of life and it goes all the way to the top. 

Can you imagine how much of our money being sent from the USA to rebuild Afghanistan is being diverted into the Afghans private pockets.

 Again while we (Americans) do not have a perfect system it is nothing like this.  Again I truly appreciate and Love being an American.

Just another part of my Afghanistan Adventure.