An outpouring of support

Here in Bayji, we've been preparing for the beginning of the school year by hording supplies with the intent of doing a big contribution to the local communities. We (the CA team and the FSO's) were hitting all the websites we could find. Some of the best ones are: Beyond Orders, Operation Iraqi Children, and Victory Boxes. I was expecting a couple more boxes, but I have been overwhelmed with the flood of boxes full of stuff for the Iraqi people. Notebooks, pens, pencils, clothes, toys, etc. We are going to have one heck of a school opening push.

One of the best mission I've gone on

Last week we went on one of the best missions so far. We went to a fairly isolated and infrequently visited town. Because of its' distance, it is independent and CF friendly, which is a rare combination. Anyway, it was a great little town and they've actually had the initiative to take care of their own w/o looking to CF first. They've started construction on their public clinic, they've started paving the street, they've started to fight the AIF on their own (and doing a darn good job, apparently)...all w/o our "help."

It was fairly rewarding to see a town that took care its' own. The police protect the town, the town supports the police. It sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? But the normal state of affairs seem to be a little different. Sometimes the population resents the police as the IP's are corrupt, from a different tribe, non-participatory, effective or a combination of all of the above. I know, I know, "effective" doesn't really belong in this group. You would think that an effective police force would actually garner support, but noooo, not if they are from a different area or tribe. Sometimes the IP's are doing well, but the population is at best on the fence. At any rate, there seemed to be a pretty good relationship here. Perhaps one of the reasons is b/c the town is a little isolated so they have to rely on each other.

Anyway, we spent a good bit of time there looking at the schools, the clinics, the water plant and the ferry. I got some good pics of the historic Tigris and a bunch of enthusiastic kids.

This brings up an interesting issue: When does help become hindrance? as much effort and money that we've poured into places like, say, Bayji, nothing seems to change or improve much. I wonder if it because there isn't much financial incentive to do so. After all, why work hard to improve your city if all you have to do is wait a bit for CF to lose patience and do it themselves? I will respond to that: there are plenty of people who want to see Iraq prosper and its' people live w/ justice and in dignity, but the governmental system that is currently set up seems to take forever to do anything, and, when something IS done, it becomes corrupted somehow. I think that the idea was to set up a series of checks and balances to combat corruption, but all that has done is add levels of unresponsive bureaucracy...and still corruption sneaks in. So, how much oversight should CF have? how much intervention should we do? Or do we act as "advisors" to the budgetary process in the hopes that we're listened to? Doing nothing is out of the question. Doing everything is impossible. So where is the practical middle ground?

Some things you need to look out for:

In Iraq, there are many things that you need to watch out for. IED's, snipers, mines, etc are the top priorities, of course. But with Civil Affairs, there is another that you will soon experience if you are not discrete: the street mob. The street mob is when a crowd of screaming kids see you handing stuff out and come running. Then, other kids see them running...and they come running. I don't know what the tipping point is (five? ten?) but soon you are surrounded by a bunch of kids all pretty much saying the same thing: "mister mister, give me____ give me____". It really doesn't matter what you are handing out. Last week we were handing out PSYOPS fliers, for goodness sake. (Look at the top photo past the first line of kids. You can see the crowd in the background). Kids were grabbing these fliers like they were candy. Heaven help you if they see you with a camera. (See second picture: one of the kids is holding up the PSYOPS pamphlet like it was a prize).