There for the grace of God go I. That's a phrase my dad (who is not religious) was fond of using in my youth. He used it to remind me of how lucky our family was growing up, mostly lucky just to be born in the U.S. And I am reminded of this daily - reminded of my dumb luck being born in the U.S. - while here in Afghanistan.
The U.S. Army has done away with MOS's (Military Occupational Specialities) like cooks and janitors, contracting them out to lower paid minions, while focusing on the essential military functions. Makes sense to me. But contracting overseas is a different game than SCA contracts in the U.S., where the wages are essentially set and those lower paid minions are U.S. citizens. In Afghanistan, those performing less desirable jobs are most definitely not U.S. citizens. In overseas contracting parlance, anyone who is not a LN (Local National) or a U.S. Citizen is an OCN (Other Country National). Contractors will typically use a tiered wage system with LN's and OCN's, and there are tiers within tiers of OCN wages. The compensation rates are usually plucked from the comp rates in those countries, which, compared to U.S. rates, can seem shockingly low. In Afghanistan, the LN's (Afghan's) are the lowest paid of all, then come the Indians, the Bosnians and Kosovars, and finally, at the top of the heap, American citizens. The Afghan's are the janitors and the food service folks. In the DFAC, instead of hair nets, the men all wear beard nets, which keeps those suspicious looking curly hairs out of my food. That's a good thing. The Indians, Bosnians and Kosovars are doing the blue collar/lower level technical work. Some of them are quite educated as well and many do excellent work - there is a gentleman working in a clerical area who has a degree in physics. Can't get a decent paying job in his home country. And I repeat, he performs a clerical function. They're paid at rates slightly above what they'd earn in their home country in the same or similar occupations. However, it still takes the same coin to buy an unlocked Iphone. The last time I checked, Apple didn't have a tiered pricing system for people from other countries wanting to buy their slick products.
As I've said before, pretty much every American citizen working in Afghanistan is making six figures. Most of the Americans working in Afghanistan were not making anything close to six figures back in the U.S. Very, very far from it. And why the high salaries? Simply due to their being born in the U.S. and the U.S. being a prosperous nation and having a high GDP and comp rates. And, as I've said before, many of the U.S. citizens working overseas in support of DoD contracts are not the cream of the crop. In support of that assertion, here's an objective stated on someone's resume (italics added):
No, really. Someone educated in the U.S. actually wrote that. This goes to demonstrate that many American's working overseas making larger than life salaries are not necessarily any smarter than the LN's and OCN's they work side by side with. The U.S. GDP helps justify higher rates of pay and some jobs require a clearance, which you need to be a U.S. citizen for. Again, there for the grace of God go I, because I could have been born anywhere else in the world, but I wasn't. If I was born elsewhere, my citizenship alone would have prevented me from those top paying jobs in the contracting world overseas. Just like that.
My wife is half Japanese. She often reflects on the fact that her family could have been part of the Japanese diaspora in the 1920's - 40's to the Pacific, and she could have been born on Saipan, Chuuk, Kosrae or in the Marshall Islands, where we met. But, there for the grace of God she went, and instead, her family emigrated to the West Coast of the U.S. After her mother's family was she taken away to what is still euphemistically called 'camp' during World War II, her mom ended up settling in Los Angeles and that's where my wife was born. That blue passport is a fine thing to have. We both recognize that being born a U.S. citizen, with the excellent public education, clean drinking water, good health care, roads, sewer, police, fire and military, not to mention living in a democratic nation where there has been uninterrupted, smooth transition to power since 1776, is a wonderful thing. We could have been born anywhere else in the world. But we weren't.
We lived in the Middle East for a while. While the Middle East does not have the most attractive geography in the world, they were geologically blessed being born sitting on a bunch of oil. They didn't do anything to be born atop those oil derricks. After this oil was discovered and shipped out and the money flowed in, then Middle Easterners hired maids and tea boys and general laborers to do the heavy lifting work that they just didn't want to do anymore. And here's a story I heard from an Army Officer who was serving in Iraq. A village elder contacted the U.S. military at a Forward Operating Base, pleading for a shipment of water. They had no water, and were in desperate need. The military arranged for a flatbed of bottled water to be delivered to the village, and when the truck arrived, the village elder was very grateful and thankful. "There is a small problem with the delivery, sir." The Army officer asked what the issue was, and the gentleman said, "Sir, since the war started, our Filipino's have left. We have no Filipino's to take the water off of the truck for us." The Army Officer was indeed a gentleman and quite hospitably said, "Well Mohammad, today is your lucky day. You are about to get some good old fashioned on the job training." Snap!
I could have been born in Dafur, or anywhere else in the world which would have made my pathway to a comfortable life most likely more difficult. There for the grace of God go I. Or as my wife likes to say, "You are just the luckiest mf I've ever met in my life." True that.
There for the grace of God go I. That's a phrase my dad (who is not religious) was fond of using in my youth. He used it to remind me of how lucky our family was growing up, mostly lucky just to be born in the U.S. And I am reminded of this daily - reminded of my dumb luck being born in the U.S. - while here in Afghanistan.
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| A little kindness to these guys goes a long way. |
As I've said before, pretty much every American citizen working in Afghanistan is making six figures. Most of the Americans working in Afghanistan were not making anything close to six figures back in the U.S. Very, very far from it. And why the high salaries? Simply due to their being born in the U.S. and the U.S. being a prosperous nation and having a high GDP and comp rates. And, as I've said before, many of the U.S. citizens working overseas in support of DoD contracts are not the cream of the crop. In support of that assertion, here's an objective stated on someone's resume (italics added):
OBJECTIVES:
To obtain a challenging position in better prospects for a bright future
using my education qualifications and professional experience, an experienced
quality oriented person with demonstrated success in the ability analysis
problems, recommended solutions and implemented procedures to achieve
production objectives. Solid communicational and interpersonal skills allowed
the development of strong working relationships and well within time
concentrate while maintaining bottom line sensitivity.
No, really. Someone educated in the U.S. actually wrote that. This goes to demonstrate that many American's working overseas making larger than life salaries are not necessarily any smarter than the LN's and OCN's they work side by side with. The U.S. GDP helps justify higher rates of pay and some jobs require a clearance, which you need to be a U.S. citizen for. Again, there for the grace of God go I, because I could have been born anywhere else in the world, but I wasn't. If I was born elsewhere, my citizenship alone would have prevented me from those top paying jobs in the contracting world overseas. Just like that.
My wife is half Japanese. She often reflects on the fact that her family could have been part of the Japanese diaspora in the 1920's - 40's to the Pacific, and she could have been born on Saipan, Chuuk, Kosrae or in the Marshall Islands, where we met. But, there for the grace of God she went, and instead, her family emigrated to the West Coast of the U.S. After her mother's family was she taken away to what is still euphemistically called 'camp' during World War II, her mom ended up settling in Los Angeles and that's where my wife was born. That blue passport is a fine thing to have. We both recognize that being born a U.S. citizen, with the excellent public education, clean drinking water, good health care, roads, sewer, police, fire and military, not to mention living in a democratic nation where there has been uninterrupted, smooth transition to power since 1776, is a wonderful thing. We could have been born anywhere else in the world. But we weren't.
We lived in the Middle East for a while. While the Middle East does not have the most attractive geography in the world, they were geologically blessed being born sitting on a bunch of oil. They didn't do anything to be born atop those oil derricks. After this oil was discovered and shipped out and the money flowed in, then Middle Easterners hired maids and tea boys and general laborers to do the heavy lifting work that they just didn't want to do anymore. And here's a story I heard from an Army Officer who was serving in Iraq. A village elder contacted the U.S. military at a Forward Operating Base, pleading for a shipment of water. They had no water, and were in desperate need. The military arranged for a flatbed of bottled water to be delivered to the village, and when the truck arrived, the village elder was very grateful and thankful. "There is a small problem with the delivery, sir." The Army officer asked what the issue was, and the gentleman said, "Sir, since the war started, our Filipino's have left. We have no Filipino's to take the water off of the truck for us." The Army Officer was indeed a gentleman and quite hospitably said, "Well Mohammad, today is your lucky day. You are about to get some good old fashioned on the job training." Snap!
I could have been born in Dafur, or anywhere else in the world which would have made my pathway to a comfortable life most likely more difficult. There for the grace of God go I. Or as my wife likes to say, "You are just the luckiest mf I've ever met in my life." True that.
