Most violence seen in one day in over a year.
Suicide attacks kill 76 as Iraq reports arrest
Saturday 25 April 2009
Monday 20 April 2009
Addressing YOUR emergency from the comfort of a starbucks
While my sister is finishing up her last shifts as SBux (hopefully ever- last time I checked nursing in Canada was still a viable employment option - certainly more secure than my own) I'm starting my new shifts.
I have now settled into the dubai-ified West Amman, joined my local Fitness First and have taken to weekends writing proposals from the comfort of what is possibly the largest Starbucks I have seen. Ever. There's probably a bigger one. It's probably in Dubai. But for now, Abdoun SBux is reigning supremo. I have my choice of coffee shops to work in, harking back to my student days - in Canada - living a block away from the closes Second Cup (yes... i live a block away from Abdoun's Second Cup). I can also choose from Java U (re-living a quebec only experience) or Caribou Coffee for all you east-coast and mid-west US people. I haven't seen a Timmies yet, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time before one enterprising expat Jordanian returns home an over-caffinated Tim Horton's addiction (they have it in Afghanistan - only a hop, skip, and a jump).
At first, living here still seemed like vacation (albeit with work). Amman is a great mental break from the immobility and frustrations faced with compound living in Iraq. Not to mention the infrequency of food poisoning and the availability of curries and sushi. But now I'm starting to wish I was still in the field. Speaking with one of my visiting technical advisors, we were talking about how people are writing proposals from headquarters in New York and London without the foggiest of what they are talking about. Laughing, I came to the realisation that I am now doing the same. Writing and developing programs for a population I have never seen. Yes. I have lived in Iraq for the past year, and hae experience in our areas of operation. But I was working on Peacebuilding with Youth. Not Internally Displaced People (IDPs), refugees or returnees (IDPs or refugees that have come back). I'm program for a population that I know limited amounts of knowledge. Based on field staff (who only really know the north) and reports published by international organisations, like the UN (which... errrrr.... are no help... sorry guys), and think tanks (which are more help... thank you USIP).
It's really incredible that I have turned into exactly what I do not want to be. I want to remedy this soon, by going back in (inshallah soon - after all I'm suppose to spend 50% of my time there), but even then, I will not know anything about who or what I'm dealing with in Baghdad. AS one of 3 people who have been in Baghdad, and the person who has been there the longest, I've become a sort of default go to on all-things central region. While I can answers questions about the best places to eat in IZ or what time the gym is busy, I can still only talk youth and peacebuilding. Sorry. Now with my new position, I stay in the north as well... soooooo... the knowledge of that area will reduce even further as time passes.
I still am learning a lot, particularly about the state of IDPs across Iraq, the way the government views and is dealing with it, and what is happening with the slow trickle of returnees that are coming along... slowly. I've also realised that Iraq is SCREWED if there is a mass return (which I highly doubt for the time being). There is no infrastructure in place to support this at all. Since 2003, 2.8 million people were displace, in addition 1.5 million before 2003. Can you imagine resettling the population of Ireland?
So far only 40 - 50 thousand people have returned, mostly displaced people from close by, and mostly those who have been displaced for 6 months or less. Very few people have returned from abroad... almost none of the returnees are from Iraq's minority populations (Christians, Armenians, Yazidis, Chaldeans etc etc). These groups were specifically targeted during sectarian violence and probably won't come back. Other displaced groups targeted such as Palestinian refugees are (doubly) screwed because they cannot go anywhere. Last I heard a few were being resettled in Romania... but a lot have been pushed out of Baghdad to camps along the border with Jordan.
The more I write, the more I realise this is the tip of the iceberg (and one depressing post). More things will be in store, but I don't think Iraq will get boring anytime soon.
I have now settled into the dubai-ified West Amman, joined my local Fitness First and have taken to weekends writing proposals from the comfort of what is possibly the largest Starbucks I have seen. Ever. There's probably a bigger one. It's probably in Dubai. But for now, Abdoun SBux is reigning supremo. I have my choice of coffee shops to work in, harking back to my student days - in Canada - living a block away from the closes Second Cup (yes... i live a block away from Abdoun's Second Cup). I can also choose from Java U (re-living a quebec only experience) or Caribou Coffee for all you east-coast and mid-west US people. I haven't seen a Timmies yet, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time before one enterprising expat Jordanian returns home an over-caffinated Tim Horton's addiction (they have it in Afghanistan - only a hop, skip, and a jump).
At first, living here still seemed like vacation (albeit with work). Amman is a great mental break from the immobility and frustrations faced with compound living in Iraq. Not to mention the infrequency of food poisoning and the availability of curries and sushi. But now I'm starting to wish I was still in the field. Speaking with one of my visiting technical advisors, we were talking about how people are writing proposals from headquarters in New York and London without the foggiest of what they are talking about. Laughing, I came to the realisation that I am now doing the same. Writing and developing programs for a population I have never seen. Yes. I have lived in Iraq for the past year, and hae experience in our areas of operation. But I was working on Peacebuilding with Youth. Not Internally Displaced People (IDPs), refugees or returnees (IDPs or refugees that have come back). I'm program for a population that I know limited amounts of knowledge. Based on field staff (who only really know the north) and reports published by international organisations, like the UN (which... errrrr.... are no help... sorry guys), and think tanks (which are more help... thank you USIP).
It's really incredible that I have turned into exactly what I do not want to be. I want to remedy this soon, by going back in (inshallah soon - after all I'm suppose to spend 50% of my time there), but even then, I will not know anything about who or what I'm dealing with in Baghdad. AS one of 3 people who have been in Baghdad, and the person who has been there the longest, I've become a sort of default go to on all-things central region. While I can answers questions about the best places to eat in IZ or what time the gym is busy, I can still only talk youth and peacebuilding. Sorry. Now with my new position, I stay in the north as well... soooooo... the knowledge of that area will reduce even further as time passes.
I still am learning a lot, particularly about the state of IDPs across Iraq, the way the government views and is dealing with it, and what is happening with the slow trickle of returnees that are coming along... slowly. I've also realised that Iraq is SCREWED if there is a mass return (which I highly doubt for the time being). There is no infrastructure in place to support this at all. Since 2003, 2.8 million people were displace, in addition 1.5 million before 2003. Can you imagine resettling the population of Ireland?
So far only 40 - 50 thousand people have returned, mostly displaced people from close by, and mostly those who have been displaced for 6 months or less. Very few people have returned from abroad... almost none of the returnees are from Iraq's minority populations (Christians, Armenians, Yazidis, Chaldeans etc etc). These groups were specifically targeted during sectarian violence and probably won't come back. Other displaced groups targeted such as Palestinian refugees are (doubly) screwed because they cannot go anywhere. Last I heard a few were being resettled in Romania... but a lot have been pushed out of Baghdad to camps along the border with Jordan.
The more I write, the more I realise this is the tip of the iceberg (and one depressing post). More things will be in store, but I don't think Iraq will get boring anytime soon.
Tuesday 7 April 2009
You would think development was tricky...
There's a proverb in Chad that says "a pregnant women has one foot in the grave". It captures the terrifying risks faced by millions of women in the world's poorest countries.
I'm not posting a full post today. I'm still very jetlagged, and don't have enough to speak of. But this article caught my eye. It's by Kevin Watkins and it was in the Guardian. It is a simple article that states exactly what all other editorials on development state. That big problems globally can be solved so easily. It's infuriating.
What is more is that the majority of these major problems are faced by women and children - and of that group girls and women. This article is about death in child birth, and simple steps that even some of the worlds LDCs (least developed countries) are doing to combat it. This may put a small dent in how far we are behind in catching those Millennium Development Goals, but it's a start.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/07/pop-stars-adoption-africa
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