Somehow Karachi

Somehow I have always been hesitant to come to Pakistan... not a rational thing... Angola, El Salvador or the US are as dangerous (for different reasons perhaps), but anyway... I’m in Karachi, and if it is an organization to come with here, it has to be the UN, they take care after their own... every night I have a call from the security officer to see if I’m OK!

Seems that the more “worrying” the country, the more hospitable the people... it happen to me in Iran already... as here amazingly hospitable people.

My host is he director of the Marine Fisheries Department, a former Navy Captain that retired years ago to do a Masters in Public Policy, and you can see that he is strait as a stick, very unusual in the fisheries world.... he took the job 5 months ago, and actually he is the 1st one to admit he does not know much about fisheries, but he knows how to run public organizations... needles to say liked the guy immediately.

So far I have been hanging around boats in the fishing harbour.... Perhaps the most chaotic, polluted, filthy but as well active, crazy, and vibrant port I ever been (and I have been in a few).

How to explain.... put equal parts of a circus, a food safety expert worst nightmare, a ant colony, a really busy shipyard, a tea house, a polio+amputee+psychiatric hospital, a constant traffic jam, a 60’s psychedelic art studio, an orphanage, a truck workshop, plus other many things I fail to express, garnish with a LOT of dust... shake for 50 years of non maintenance... and try to imagine the result...

Roaming around with a camera would be quite stupid and dangerous... so sorry... only phone camera pictures...


The security situation is really rough.... for first time in my life I have followed the advice of not going to the streets alone... I even broke my golden rule of not eating in big hotels...

Getting into the hotel (that had already a big suicide bombing) feels a bit like one of those Iraqi road-checks you see on TV.
I commented to my host that I was quite surprised to see a big jail in the middle of town, but even more about the fact that was well painted... only to be respond with a huge laughter by him and the driver... whom w/out stopping giggling explain to me that in fact was the US consulate!

I was taken for 3-hour tour of the outskirts and the Old city... it must have been an outstanding city.... but that was many years ago...

Reality today is VERY grim in many parts of Karachi, many places look like the images we see from Afghanistan, Gaza or Baghdad, except that there was no war here... dust, open sewage, overcrowding, serious violence, and so on...

The road to the Karangi (another town near) fishing harbour, meanders along mangroves/rubbish dumps covered with crows and small children and fisherman living in the some of the worst conditions I have seen in my life anywhere... i felt out of breath, as normally I'm an optimist... but I really struggle to find any hope the situation they are... most of us (all of you and me) are truly fortunate fortunate people... incredibly fortunate...

It makes me understand fundamentalism better... If what I see, is your everyday reality... Then anything is better that that... When your days are so unkind, you just have nothing to loose, hence any promise of a better place, anything that takes your head out of reality... is a good one...

Therefore the security is more present than ever before for me... the good thing about working at this organization is that we all have blackberrys and get messages like the one below from the local security guy, that helps when you moving around.

Sent: Fri 3/14/2008 5:12 AM
To: Blaha, Francisco
Subject: Advisory for 14th March 2008

Dear All

Security Update:
A shutter down strike call has been given by Sunni Tehreek today to force the Government to expel the Danish Ambassador from Pakistan. Jammat Islami has also called for protest after Jumma Prayer on the same issue. The business community may join. Protest Marches are expected outside major mosques and at Numaish, Shah Faisal Colony, Saddar. No Significant violence anticipated. Cautious movement advised. All to avoid areas.

the day before

Sent: Thu 3/13/2008 8:14 AM
To: Blaha, Francisco
Subject: Advisory for 13th March 208

Dear All

Several Motorcyclists have been run over by a Bus at PNS Karsaz Shahrah eFaisal. In reaction angry mobs burnt that bus which caused traffic Jam and panic in the area. Staff advised to avoid general area.

This incident later on degenerated in looting and the burning of 2 government cars (just like the one I go around with)... and I guess as everyone is in the verge... things get completely out of control VERY fast

Every one I talked along the society says that General/President Pervez Musharraf should go... they are feed up with him and with his closeness to the US...

Everyone love talking politics... a well off guy a the sauna (a perk of staying at big hotels) told me: ... “the common factor of terrorism is the USA, see all he countries where there is terrorist attacks... they all have American troops on them... if the USA wants to win the –war on terror- they just have to stay home and stop messing around into others peoples countries”... I could not agree more.

But then all this security stuff is so incongruent with some of the views I also have of families in parks, the better off in clubs or in my hotel... the (at least for me) beautiful call to pray for the mosques, the unfortunately not well know gentility of Islam, the honest amiability of the people I meet... it puzzles me big time...

The real aesthetic treat... is the art in the buses, trucks and some fishing boats ... is just incredible.... I would love to buy one just to expose it... or get my car here to customize it... the guys take so much care in the paintings and layers after layers of adornments on it... the attention to detail is magnificent... no part is spare... man...painting the rims... fantastic... See the pics








In any case... this place is so vibrant but at the same time so looming that I cannot stop being fascinated by it.

The UN and Rome are not built in a day

Taking a job at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) was kind of always on the cards... but never seriously... (they get an average of 120 applications per job)... so when i was offered a senior position there, we had a “mature” talk with Vibeke... and went for it... I wanted to try for professional an non professional reasons (back in 1988 I did a FAO run training that opened unimaginable doors in my future life, and my first job in development was consultancy for them).

I finish paying my mortgage back in NZ so i was ready for some change, Vib wanted to be closer to her sick dad, and we think would be good for the children to live in a big city for while... ergo... here we are

Rome:

Feels like Buenos Aires, which shows me the HUGE influence that Italians have over the city.

Of course... there are things 3500 years older and cars are tiny and new... but I can not stop relating them in my mind… I see a small car crash… and it was so similar... the stone paved street… the old trees… the gestures… the thumb that joins with the four fingers to form a pyramid while the hand rises up and down… the moccasinos, the jeans, the stripy shirt, the gelled hair back... the other cars passing for the side… the bus going off with the horn… the bystanders... the punters in the corner‘s cafe (there is one in every corner) chatting among them and adhering its comments (of course without moving their bums off the chair).

The city and its histories stacked above each other… literally… in many places the foundations are of a long past century and 200 years later the place was transformed with stones removed of other ruins, and later reconstructed again in the medieval period… and then it finalises reconstruction 100 yeas ago tto what you see today… at times is like to walk in a museum where lives people, with many pizzerias, cafes and ice cream parlours.

The great difference is that in Buenos Aires you have the city in a grid, and Rome is a spaghetti of streets that only locals understand… things change once you leave the walls of the old city and the world of the monoblocks begins which is quite depressive (as everywhere I imagine) that is where inhabit the remainder of the people that cannot pay the exorbitance of the prices of the city.

But the fact that I am going to work walking a street in which 3000 years ago another bloke like me, also walked to to face his day… is full on… from my office I see the termas of caracalla… I have my macchiato looking toward the circus maximus, the coliseum and the Roman forum… quite cool i have to admit…

Food:

Impressive and excellent… everyone knows about food… for example the bloke that came to install the phone... i asked him how you say kumara (sweet potato) in italian... and of course he knew, as well where and the best season to buy... the conversation stop because he got a phone call... one of many actually... he was home from 11 till 4.30 pm! and most of the time on it mobile... but now we have 20mb fast internet

Remarkably the city is full of small food business, salumerias, butchers, dairies, bakeries, stores that are of the size of a garage and they subsist based on the loyal clientele… there are supermarkets… but the percentage per capita is the lowest of Europe... you need to leave the city to see a big supermarket

Already I have an adopted family… they are the guys of the pizzeria around the corner… a cubicle where you eat standing up…" angeli and diavoli" … masters…. to do pizza at home never will be the same…

Work:

Uh… forms, hierarchies, image, e-mails, PCs, permissions, entry cards, index, forms (yes again), coffee in the eighth floor, salary, subsidy, UN passport, etc… all this is new for me… many times claustrophobic…

For example: my category is P4 s9 (they go from P1a P5 and of s1 to s12), so I have the right to a large desk with formica cover and 2 chairs without armrest, a library and a coat hanger, if i was P5 then my equally serious desk will have a wood cover and the chairs would have armrest… the P3 and P2 has the right to smaller desks, 1 chair (without armrest) and they do not have access to coat stands!

Outside those idiocies... I’m learning a lot of… there are always interesting courses around (climate change, property rights, sustainability indicators, and so on) and my work while similar to what i did before is in a wider spectrum… and i manage to mix managing programmes and being a foot soldier

The people… as everywhere i guess…. crappie people, some conceited and useless, but also many cool and efficient people with fascinating backgrounds, Norwegian that grow up in Ecuador and is married to a girl of Ivory Coast... Swedish that grow up in Liberia, a Chinese bloke that is completely Italian, Portuguese American that lived in Wellington, and so on… professionally you have the whole spectrum, some are like me that came for the experience and to see what’s up... to others whose ambition of life It is to do career in the system of the UN.

i pass from feeling like a martian, to be among peers several times during the work day. I suppose that I will get used to it… but so far I really do not I see my self being part of the system.

Said so, coming to Rome was a family decision, and so far I believe my family has adapted remarkably well (better than me perhaps). Felix is flourishing at school, Kika shines at Kindy, and Vibeke seem full of plans and enthusiasm... even so we all miss our little island in NZ.

See Vib's blogg (The sack of Rome) on our life in Rome for a more day to day perspective

last 10 months

I know... I’m a terrible blooger... I just don’t have really big excuses... besides being busy, but overall procrastinating...

Has been along time... and some massive changes.... I don’t even live in my beloved NZ anymore!
So where to start...

Chronologically I been I a few places... spend most of the time in Malaysia which while fascinating in its diversity... but the somehow bland... and very bureaucratic! Not gonna write much about it... see the pictures...

Some short trips to Mauritius (very cool little nation), United Arab Emirates (suxs), Fiji+PNG (I like them with all its goods and bads and I have friends there), Jakarta Fishing Port (I had a good time mostly because I know people there), Vietnam (has lost its appeal to me), and Chile, which I really like.

Here are some random pictures.