Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/01/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Jan 29, 2007, at 8:29 AM, Mads Christensen wrote: > Steve, Don et al. > > Thanks for the interest shown as regards my wellbeing. a clear summary of a challenging situation... to say the least... thanks Mads... good luck and God bless.... Steve > > Please be sure that I am alive and kicking but things seem to be > getting nastier... > > A friend of mine asked this morning if this country was not a > beautiful albeit dangerous place? Here is what I told him: I really > don't know if it is a beautiful place because I am not in a > position to see and judge for myself. But I know now for sure that > it can be deadly dangerous. > > I live in a compound in the green zone and this is also where our > offices are located. I am working with three colleagues on capacity > development (human and institutional, that is) and hence we need to > be in as close as possible dialogue with our counterparts in the > ministry. That institution, however, is located in the red zone and > hence we are going there at odd intervals throughout the week for 2- > hour-'visits'. We are riding with private security firms using > armoured vehicles and we are all wearing flak jackets and kevlar > helmets. We are guided to/from the building by our armed guards and > they stand by outside the meeting rooms because of the risk of > shooting incidents and attempts of kidnapping. This kind of working > situation is of course far from ideal when trying to promote new > styles of working and new structures and work processes in the > ministry but this is what the security situation calls for. > > When shuttling in the vehicles, we are subject to the risk of car > bombs but so far our intelligence have prevented us from being > 'too' close to such events. A couple of nights ago, we had two > rockets 'landing' in the compound; one went through the roof of the > block that I was just passing by and when I reached by own block > for shelter, we were all told to seek shelter a different place > because another rocket had actually penetrated the outer wall my > block, at the opposite end of where my room is located. That had > happened just seconds before the rocket the impact of which I > witnessed. None of the two rockets exploded because the explosive > material apparently had lost its power! Thus we were lucky to have > only minor casualties that night, which was my first incident of > this kind. During the day in the green zone we have frequently > 'lock downs' because of imminent risks of explosions of bombs that > sometimes turns out to be true and sometimes turn out to be based > on inaccurate intelligence. Sic! > > I look forward to my leave in February... > > Stay safe guys - whereever you are, > > Mads > > -- > Der GMX SmartSurfer hilft bis zu 70% Ihrer Onlinekosten zu sparen! > Ideal f?r Modem und ISDN: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/smartsurfer > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information