Thread: Employment Opportunities

Originally Posted by p38arover

Here's one I took earlier. Gorgeous!

Do they breed them with a mouth like that???
Multipurpose???

Hi BBC,
Your photos have given me an amazing insight into Afghanistan, the people, their difficulties, and also of the defence forces trying to make a difference.

With deep gratitude,
Peter

Originally Posted by JohnE

Guys interesting bit of to and froing,
as you know I can;t claim longevity in the o/s world of danger,
but they all seem alike( the places where sport is firing an rpg)
And oiling the funny part about where i was , we were teaching ethics, corrupt behaviour and the like, but to whose standard? it was a package from the place that started it.
The colonel in charge was sniping the students, the local px was sniping us, two prices local prices and expat prices. the manager of the pumping station turned the water off and wanted my mob to pay daily rates( even thought the water bills had been funded from the government offices, the immigration guys at the airport wouldn;t let us out of the country because we didn;t have exit visas( that had only been introduced two days before on the saturday public holiday.)mind you the hand was out the whole time for the chai break!
I used to speak to one of the local shieks a well educated man who spoke good english( where i was working) explained it as a normal practice , my interpretation was it was a form of superanuation, as the state did not provide anything.

mate keep it up,
at least your photos are attracting geater interest than my boring ones did.


john

Everywhere, wherever business and governance is based upon the balance of power you get ripped.

We say, here in Afghanistan, the Westerners have all the watches but, the Afghanis have the time.

In the early days of my being here I had to supply 2 x telescopic loaders fon a dry hire basis (without operator) for the Dutch to assist in the construct of their camp. Both loaders arrived, on a single low-loader flat bed. There was the truck driver in the cabin, along with a driver to unload each forklift, plus a spare bloke.

They had driven from Kabul via Kandahar, where they had been delayed waiting for a convoy with security to depart for Tarin Kowt.

We met the truck at the security at the front gate, had it searched and escorted it in to where the Dutch were to take delivery. The boys parked the truck, an then went about untying the chains. Then, through my interpreter I told them to commence unloading. They then all started to talk excitedly to my 'Terp'. He relayed to me....'They tell me that the batteries on both loaders were stolen while the truck was waiting in Kandahar'......

I then told my Terp, 'OK, put them in the truck, and we will go have lunch and find out what can be done'....So, the four got in my truck. I drove them down to the front gate and just outside....speaking through my Terp I told them...'Town is that way, you don't get your truck back until I have batteries'. You have to appreciate these boys were not of that province, and Uruzgan is considered 'Bad-Lands', even by Afghanis.....they were back within 1.5hrs...with new batteries.

[

WOWWhat a dill!!! The doors need to be at the back to unload it.

Listen out for 'Mozambique' by Bob Dylan. I had never heard it myself, before I went.

In 1999, all I really new about that part of the world was of Apartheid in South Africa and the wars and conflict that never seemed to end. I was told I was selected to be the next COMASC...Commander Australian Contingent, to lead the next rotation of Operation Coracle, which was Australia's assistance via the UN to help clear the landmines of Mozambique.
I was selected because of my earlier foray training deminers in Cambodia.

Australia had been there since 1994, initially 4 military under ONUMOZ which had the mandate of running the first election in Mozambique. They set up a demining training organisation to assist with the safety of the conduct of the elections. The organisation grew to become the NUPAD (UNADP in English) which in Portuguese was...Os Nacoes Unidas Programa Accelerado Desminagem..the United Nations Accelerated Demining Program. It was a 500 man program which operated in the bottom end of the country south of the Beira-Chimoio Rd:



There were two of us that deployed, myself and a Warrant Officer. I was located in Maputo, the capital, in the very south.





My Warrant Officer was in the best place you can put a WO2......500kms away...(ONLY JOKING...Ivan and I remain the firmest of friends to this day) up the coast in a small town called Maxixe (Masheesh for the Portuguese challenged).






What a great job!!! I had the roam of almost a 3rd of the country in either a Nissan Pat or a TLC. I worked in with two Kiwis and a Ex East German Stasi Intelligence Colonel. I ran the operations and I was responsible for the training, QC, reporting, and the writing of their SOPs for a project which kept me busy, which was the integration of Manual, Mechanical, and Explosive Detection Dogs capabilities into one operational process...the first time it had been employed anywhere as such.

Extra work involved me being normally the person responsible for the Emergency Reaction Team. The ERT was activated when there was a minefield incident that needed a victim to be recovered. Being where we were, close to the South African border, every approach to Xmas used to have the illegal workers from SA trying to get back into Mozambique...they would have a wad full of money and did not want to make a donation to the Border Police...so...they used to make the usual sort of choices most people in Australia would never contemplate...try your luck packed inside a vehicle load through the border gate, try your luck through the border minefield...or.....head further north into the bush....which was Kruger National Park...and run with the lions.

A friend was a zoologist who was tracing the migration paths of elephants. He told me of more than once coming across lions feeding...and paper money floating around.

Well, we had to deal with the boys who chose to take a chance through the minefield. We pulled out 4 bodies before Xmas 2000.

Humanitarian Demining, when conducted according to the International Mine Action Standards is a very safe pursuit. It is just that the consequences for stuffing up are fairly severe. You don't take a step outside of a defined lane, without knowing it has been swept by at least two different mine detectors.

So Ivan was in the bush...but a in lovely setting, and I was in the big smoke. It was the first time for both of us in Africa, and definitely Mozambique. It was fascinating, so full of life. The people are wonderful, friendly, inquisitive, hospitable, even though, it was then one of the world's poorest countries with a life expectancy of 35.

Maputo city looked flash but, like so many African cities it is surrounded by slums, or Favelas. Amongst Sth Africans, Mozambique is notorious for crime. For me, it is the opposite. Yes, there is crime in the place, but I have yet to experience, and I always had more concern in SA. The poor areas of time are always so lively and full of people.





Keep your eyes peeled for the Landies:





Manual Traffic Control. You can just stand there and watch the flair that these blokes undertake their job with:





Other means of transport:





Shopping is fascinating, and will probably hark many people back to what life was before supermarkets dumbed us down:











Do you need a muffler?

deleted

Driving...anywhere...in Mozambique was a challenge. Much of it was sand driving, along the millions of tracks that criss-cross the country. This bridge had been taken out during the war:



I had six days driving with a man who used to be the RE (the senior ranking officer) for the Rhodesian Engineers. It was my Mozambican battlefield tour..he would relate what was done and when and by whom. He knew who blew up each bridge.

One of my jobs was to oversee Mozambique's compliance to the Ottawa Treaty involving the destruction of landmines. I used to have to go and inspect their magazines, do inventories...if such a thing existed, and get them to organise the demolitions....some of these places were very dodgy..with munitions going walkies.