AF Day 234 - II

AF Day 233 – II

The Gulf of Oman at 1030 – Tuesday

I am airborne as I write this blog entry and was briefly enjoying the view out over the Persian Gulf/Gulf of Oman, not far from where Iran has recently made headlines for threatening to blockade the strait and prevent oil transportation from occurring. I say briefly because there are now clouds obscuring a great deal of the horizon beneath the plane. We are just east of the United Arab Emirates peninsula flying south and nearing our turn east to circumnavigate Iran and, I presume, fly north into Pakistan and ultimately into Afghanistan from the south. We are flying a route today that will stop us at Camp Bastion and Camp Dwyer in Afghanistan before reaching our final destination of Kandahar Airfield with AeroTech Aviation, doing business as Eastern SkyJets.

Aboard the aircraft this morning are many Turkish Nationals, civilians, being transported into Afghanistan to perform, I presume again, contract work in a variety of fields, including construction management and construction skilled labor. Most of the Third Country Nationals, or TCNs, are here from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, etc., although there is mostly Turks onboard this flight. I find it extremely amazing the diverse group of ethnic, religious, and geographical representation among the civilians working in Afghanistan. Nearly all of the fighting forces in Afghanistan, whether International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) – the good guys or the Taliban fighters and other similar insurgents – the bad guys, are foreigners and the same holds true for support workers in the fields of construction, aviation, etc.

Afghanistan is slowly being rebuilt into a nation capable of competing regionally, and someday globally we should all hope, with agriculture and eventually, if the Afghan's neighbors have their way, with potentially profitable precious resource exports. Today the extent of viable business, from my own limited perspective, is internal market deliveries of agricultural produce. Rebuilding a war-torn nation takes time, precious time, and it seems that Afghanistan is on the right track. History will be the ultimate judge as to whether or not these good people embrace the best benefits of the current globalization efforts underway (massive infrastructure projects, including civil, governance, security, etc.) in their wonderful country. I have blogged many times about how incredible I find it to work alongside the Afghan people in Zabul Province and rebuild, or build for the first time in many cases, their infrastructure after nearly 2,000 years of near-continuous tribal, regional, religious, or ethnic warfare. I do not add global warfare as we are here defending the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan not invading or attempting to subvert or conquer as with their erstwhile archenemy of the 1980s (think north of Afghanistan) and their current would-be biblically religious attackers (the Taliban).

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is a diverse city-state and, along with having the tallest building in the world and the most expensive manmade islands ever constructed, is a vacation destination from all points around the globe. One may initially think of anywhere in the Middle East as a scary place for the common tourist, but it seems Dubai has made itself wealthy from amassing wealth beyond oil-related business and tourism has taken hold to ensure a stable economy long after their oil reserves dwindle away. I have not done much sightseeing in Dubai, but what I have seen is reminiscent of any major metropolitan city situated on water and in a warm climate. Skyscrapers are everywhere; I presume again that they are mostly luxury hotels and condominiums, as well as mansions as far as the eye can see when flying into or out of Dubai International Airport. One very interesting observation, my own of course and I presume all Arab countries are similar, is that their passport control services all appear to conducted by members of the royal family. They wear ultra-conservative and traditional royal family garb, complete with the sandals, robes, and headwear typical for Arab royal families.

I should say that my opinions are merely just opinions, as well as all of my presumptions. I do not ever speak on behalf of any entity, government, or anyone in this blog and I do not claim to be an expert in Middle East culture, socioeconomics, governance, etc. I merely like to write about my thoughts, observations, and experiences from this yearlong journey on which to be on I am so very fortunate.

143, Kaesen.

Good night and good day.