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The Life of Ralzzz
This blog will be used to post tidbits of thoughts I have from time to time.
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My New Quiz: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Big Joe
A new quiz of mine has been placed online! It is in the Music T-Z category, in Music. Click on the link below to play it, and feel free to leave comments!
My New Quiz: Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Songs (22
A new quiz of mine has been placed online! It is in the All Time Top 500 category, in Music. Click on the link below to play it, and feel free to leave comments!
My New Quiz: Ten Genres, One City (Part 4)
A new quiz of mine has been placed online! It is in the Music Grab Bag category, in Music. Click on the link below to play it, and feel free to leave comments!
My New Quiz: Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Songs (25
A new quiz of mine has been placed online! It is in the All Time Top 500 category, in Music. Click on the link below to play it, and feel free to leave comments!
Afghanistan Trip
Hi everyone!
I have recently returned from an extended trip to Kabul, Afghanistan. The purpose of the trip was to assess parts of the existing airports in the city. There is the international commercial airport and a military airport that we worked at. The old Soviet Union occupied the area in the 1970s and when they left, they left all sorts of equipment, fuel storage tanks, buildings and other aircraft fueling items (piping, labs, electrical buildings and etc.). We went as a team to determine what could be used and what needed to be replaced. The premise was to save as much tax payer money as possible. The US Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for funding this project, so their intent is to minimize the tax payer burden as much as possible. The project went well and we determined that there is actually some value in reusing some of the existing equipment. Since I had not really spent much time in Afghanistan (I was there briefly in 1991), I was a little hesitant about what to expect. Obviously, there has been some violence there recently. In fact, the week before we left, the US Embassy received incoming rocket fire, but nothing found its target. Our camp was set up near the embassy, so we were afraid if they were targeted again, we could become collateral damage. Once we arrived, we were briefed on the threat level in the area. Luckily for us, we were at the lowest threat level. From what we saw, it was pretty accurate. We never saw anything to indicate there was any threat. We actually worked with a large amount of Afghan people and they were very happy to have the military presence in country. There were troops over there from nearly every country I could think of. Romania, Moldovia, England, Greece, Turkey, the UK, Australia, Portugal...you name it, they were represented. The French Army were providing one of the most valuable services that I was aware of. They were in charge of demining the heavily mined public lands of Afghanistan. When the Soviet Union left, they left behind millions of live land mines. The French were detecting and disposing of these terrible items that kill several hundred local Afghans every year. By the way, I learned that the local people are Afghans, not Afghanis. Afghanis are the currency. They really hate being called Afghanis. That would be like collectively calling Americans "dollars". I also learned that the Afghans are very proud people. They may not have much in physical property, in fact, their assets are basically nil, but they are proud to show you and share with you what they have. Afghans will always make sure that they offer their guests whatever they have, even if that means they will go without. Clean water and electricity is minimal there as well, so they really have a hard time providing. One of the main priorities of the military engineering is to get the infrastructure back in place. Decades of war have taken a huge toll on the country. I also learned that the treatment of women is coming around. We were briefed before we left that we may see some treatment of women that would be considered alarming by our standards. Actually, I saw the opposite. I saw men give up their seats in horse drawn buggies to elderly women while the men walked beside. I saw younger men offer to carry water and other household items for women. The women are doing away with their burkas (face coverings), they are acting more independant and they are even allowed to conduct family business. This was all not allowed under the Taliban regime. So, it looks like the people are coming around to living in a freer society than ever before. I make no bones in my stance on the US led war efforts in the Middle East. I am against much of the presence we have there. I'm against the deaths of soldiers and civilians. I am against the tax dollars we spend there while we have other domestic issues. However, after spending some time there and seeing that there is some good happening, it makes me lessen my stance a little and see that there is some benefit to the money spent. The first time a young child approaches you on the street and thanks you for buidling them a school where they can learn to read, there is no choice but to feel good about it. |
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