neurotic Iraqi wife
April 30, 2006
100% hand made perfect quality wife....
Remember the time when I wrote about how one US company was making millions and it built nothing...Now that it is published, I can speak about it...Im reading an article right now about that same company in the LA Times. Its funny how the contractors blame the Gov and vice versa....In all honesty and truth, and I should know cuz I know people who worked on this project, Parsons are the ones to blame for the massive failure. The project managers who were overseeing Parson's progress, predicted that the program will never finish in Dec of 2005. Parsons promised to deliver 142 Primary health care clinics (PHCs) by end of Dec, the project managers predicted only a few will be completed by then. But the upper managemet believed who else but Parsons, in hope that they might be saying the truth....Umm yeah sure...
Parsons took millions, millions of Tax payers money and did nothing, nada, zilch...even the ones they completed in some instances were of such poor quality that the Iraqi ministries refused to sign the accpetance letters....Had they given the contracts to Iraqi contractors who would do the work themselves then this job ould have been completed by now, with half the money spent...I dont wanna linger on that subject, but all I wanna say is that it WAS NOT the US government's fault that this program failed....It was the upper management of the organisation that gave their own employees the deaf ear whoch brought this whole thing on....The only fault the gov committed in my opinion is giving such contracts to US companies....Instead of encouraging Iraqi construction firms, and contractors, and benefiting them, they chose the hugely beauraucratic money grabbing firms....And i aint gonna say no more about the subject...
I have completely blocked the news surrounding me ... dont wanna know whats goin on...I just read the news articles and make no judgement nor form an opinion, for Ive had enough of the S*** that is going on...Its becoming like a broken record...same thing everyday, killings, shoot outs, kidnappings, suicide bombers...I dont want to even know if the gov is formed or not...I stopped caring, well not entirely but for the time being....I cannot handle the bad news....I wanna take a few days off, just a few days....
Another guy, an Iraqi British, was given the boot today...It is just hilarious how the firm is targetting Iraqi expats..I mean give me a break....it became a laughing matter...so far there are 4 remaining....And we joke and make bets who will be next on the list...All the other non iraqi expats are staying, infact they are bringing more people in....I certainly dont care but HUBBY started getting on my nerves....He keeps saying, I iwll fight it, I will show them...Im gonna come back...Umm huh???come back where HUBBY??? I will come back here if I dont find any jobs in 3 months...You will see, I have loads of opportunites here...I mean just him saying that infuriates me...Cuz here I am, resigning from a job I enjoy doing, kinda looking forward to living a normal married life, when I get him saying every now and then, I will be back...sounds just like whats his name, umm, Arnie....So again I stopped commenting...I keep telling him to get over it, but he doesnt listen...this guy is gonna give me a heart attack one day...
On to some other stuff....I have to start packing my things, and i have no clue where to start...Im keeping my shoes last...but umm...I have so much clothes here, and Ive only worn a quarter of those in the past year....I dunno what to do, where to start and what to give away...I absolutely hate packing, although when I pack, I have to admit, I pack meticulously, but its just sitting down and deciding what needs to be out and what needs to be in...hmm, I think I will leave the packing till later...Now my packing wil be much much easier than HUBBY's...OMG...the amount of stuff he has is just unbelievable...I mean I think I should take a pic of my cabinet and his to compare....He is worse than a woman....he has like over 30 pairs of pants, over 30 shirts, and most of them are stuff that umm cant be even worn to a grocery shop....
I still remember 2 years ago, before he came here, during our 3 day honeymoon, how he asked me to take him to the cheapest stores there are...Umm needless to say I didnt know any except for an Indian market that no longer exists...He fell in love with it and bought god knows how many clothes with such little money...I think he enjoyed the haggling part more than the clothes themselves...I tend to shy away from such stuff...really bad at bargaining, except here where I use my Iraqiness as a TRUMP card...The stalls here in Baghdad, tend to sell stuff double, three times, even four times the price to the Americans...Once I talk to them in Iraqi, they give me lower than half price...lol...but I pay them the full amount in any case, just proving a point to myself that hey I can do it too....lol...So in anycase, HUBBY fell in love with that Indian Market, I mean utterly in love....I guess he felt somehow smart by bargaining...
HUBBY: How much are these pants
Indian seller: Sir they are 150
HUBBY: A HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS!!!! (his eyes popping out)
IS:No sir no, 150 dirhams (shaking his head from side to side)
HUBBY: A HUNDRED AND FIFTY DIRHAMS!!! WHY???I can get much cheaper in America (accent turning slightly to match that of the IS)
IS: But sir, this good quality, this is pure cotton sir, look at the quality sir...(taking the pants on his hands and turning them inside out)
IS: LOOK sir, look, this is TOP, TOP quality...u no find anywhere in market same same...
HUBBY(looks at me, and Im just staring into space, indicating I dont wanna be part of this)
HUBBY: Ok look I buy 5, i give you 150...(HUBBY starts taking the cash out)
IS: No sir, no, cannot, is good quality sir, see hand made...
HUBBY: ok i buy 4 i give you 100...(Im laughing my ass off here)
IS: Oh noooo sir (the shaking of the head becomes vigourous) NO, what you do is haram...I have baba(father), mama(mom) mal ana(all of a sudden the indian seller turns speaking broken arabic) fee old, very old people...have to give food, no money...
HUBBY: Ok I no buy..too much money this..BYE...
AS we walk away...The IS shouts, ok sir ok, for you i give 100, HUBBY tells me under his breath to continue walking and not look back...but im really feeling sorry for the IS now...we continue walking...The IS's screams become louder...SIR SIR I GIVE YOU 90...HUBBY again tells me to continue walking....The screams becomes begging and we hear running footsteps...The IS is behind us..OK sir he says...his eyes twitching..ok sir, what u want to pay???HUBBY tries to act cool and says I changed my mind...IS contniues...Ok sir I give you this look good quality 100% cotton, 50, only 50..HUBBY rolls his eyes, and shakes his head...IS then said ok sir, take (pushes the pants onto HUBBY) and tells him give me 20....OMG im thinking..OMG...from 150 to 20!!!! WTH.....yet i felt soooooooo bad for the guy, I mean i know they probably make good money, but still...HUBBY took out the cash and without hesitating paid him the 20...I nudged him and said give him extra khatiya(poor guy)...HUBBY said watch and learn from the expert with a cute smirky smile covering his entire face...Umm needless to say this scenario was repeated quite alot of times, until HUBBY ended up with 2 suitcases filled with 100% hand made cotton pants, 100% hand made cotton shirts, 100% hand made cotton shorts, oh and forgot to mention 100% hand made cotton socks!!!!LOL...
So umm Im gonna give packing HUBBY's stuff a miss, and settle for doing my own stuff only....Sorry HUBBY, I no give you 100% hand made perfect quality wife...
Parsons took millions, millions of Tax payers money and did nothing, nada, zilch...even the ones they completed in some instances were of such poor quality that the Iraqi ministries refused to sign the accpetance letters....Had they given the contracts to Iraqi contractors who would do the work themselves then this job ould have been completed by now, with half the money spent...I dont wanna linger on that subject, but all I wanna say is that it WAS NOT the US government's fault that this program failed....It was the upper management of the organisation that gave their own employees the deaf ear whoch brought this whole thing on....The only fault the gov committed in my opinion is giving such contracts to US companies....Instead of encouraging Iraqi construction firms, and contractors, and benefiting them, they chose the hugely beauraucratic money grabbing firms....And i aint gonna say no more about the subject...
I have completely blocked the news surrounding me ... dont wanna know whats goin on...I just read the news articles and make no judgement nor form an opinion, for Ive had enough of the S*** that is going on...Its becoming like a broken record...same thing everyday, killings, shoot outs, kidnappings, suicide bombers...I dont want to even know if the gov is formed or not...I stopped caring, well not entirely but for the time being....I cannot handle the bad news....I wanna take a few days off, just a few days....
Another guy, an Iraqi British, was given the boot today...It is just hilarious how the firm is targetting Iraqi expats..I mean give me a break....it became a laughing matter...so far there are 4 remaining....And we joke and make bets who will be next on the list...All the other non iraqi expats are staying, infact they are bringing more people in....I certainly dont care but HUBBY started getting on my nerves....He keeps saying, I iwll fight it, I will show them...Im gonna come back...Umm huh???come back where HUBBY??? I will come back here if I dont find any jobs in 3 months...You will see, I have loads of opportunites here...I mean just him saying that infuriates me...Cuz here I am, resigning from a job I enjoy doing, kinda looking forward to living a normal married life, when I get him saying every now and then, I will be back...sounds just like whats his name, umm, Arnie....So again I stopped commenting...I keep telling him to get over it, but he doesnt listen...this guy is gonna give me a heart attack one day...
On to some other stuff....I have to start packing my things, and i have no clue where to start...Im keeping my shoes last...but umm...I have so much clothes here, and Ive only worn a quarter of those in the past year....I dunno what to do, where to start and what to give away...I absolutely hate packing, although when I pack, I have to admit, I pack meticulously, but its just sitting down and deciding what needs to be out and what needs to be in...hmm, I think I will leave the packing till later...Now my packing wil be much much easier than HUBBY's...OMG...the amount of stuff he has is just unbelievable...I mean I think I should take a pic of my cabinet and his to compare....He is worse than a woman....he has like over 30 pairs of pants, over 30 shirts, and most of them are stuff that umm cant be even worn to a grocery shop....
I still remember 2 years ago, before he came here, during our 3 day honeymoon, how he asked me to take him to the cheapest stores there are...Umm needless to say I didnt know any except for an Indian market that no longer exists...He fell in love with it and bought god knows how many clothes with such little money...I think he enjoyed the haggling part more than the clothes themselves...I tend to shy away from such stuff...really bad at bargaining, except here where I use my Iraqiness as a TRUMP card...The stalls here in Baghdad, tend to sell stuff double, three times, even four times the price to the Americans...Once I talk to them in Iraqi, they give me lower than half price...lol...but I pay them the full amount in any case, just proving a point to myself that hey I can do it too....lol...So in anycase, HUBBY fell in love with that Indian Market, I mean utterly in love....I guess he felt somehow smart by bargaining...
HUBBY: How much are these pants
Indian seller: Sir they are 150
HUBBY: A HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS!!!! (his eyes popping out)
IS:No sir no, 150 dirhams (shaking his head from side to side)
HUBBY: A HUNDRED AND FIFTY DIRHAMS!!! WHY???I can get much cheaper in America (accent turning slightly to match that of the IS)
IS: But sir, this good quality, this is pure cotton sir, look at the quality sir...(taking the pants on his hands and turning them inside out)
IS: LOOK sir, look, this is TOP, TOP quality...u no find anywhere in market same same...
HUBBY(looks at me, and Im just staring into space, indicating I dont wanna be part of this)
HUBBY: Ok look I buy 5, i give you 150...(HUBBY starts taking the cash out)
IS: No sir, no, cannot, is good quality sir, see hand made...
HUBBY: ok i buy 4 i give you 100...(Im laughing my ass off here)
IS: Oh noooo sir (the shaking of the head becomes vigourous) NO, what you do is haram...I have baba(father), mama(mom) mal ana(all of a sudden the indian seller turns speaking broken arabic) fee old, very old people...have to give food, no money...
HUBBY: Ok I no buy..too much money this..BYE...
AS we walk away...The IS shouts, ok sir ok, for you i give 100, HUBBY tells me under his breath to continue walking and not look back...but im really feeling sorry for the IS now...we continue walking...The IS's screams become louder...SIR SIR I GIVE YOU 90...HUBBY again tells me to continue walking....The screams becomes begging and we hear running footsteps...The IS is behind us..OK sir he says...his eyes twitching..ok sir, what u want to pay???HUBBY tries to act cool and says I changed my mind...IS contniues...Ok sir I give you this look good quality 100% cotton, 50, only 50..HUBBY rolls his eyes, and shakes his head...IS then said ok sir, take (pushes the pants onto HUBBY) and tells him give me 20....OMG im thinking..OMG...from 150 to 20!!!! WTH.....yet i felt soooooooo bad for the guy, I mean i know they probably make good money, but still...HUBBY took out the cash and without hesitating paid him the 20...I nudged him and said give him extra khatiya(poor guy)...HUBBY said watch and learn from the expert with a cute smirky smile covering his entire face...Umm needless to say this scenario was repeated quite alot of times, until HUBBY ended up with 2 suitcases filled with 100% hand made cotton pants, 100% hand made cotton shirts, 100% hand made cotton shorts, oh and forgot to mention 100% hand made cotton socks!!!!LOL...
So umm Im gonna give packing HUBBY's stuff a miss, and settle for doing my own stuff only....Sorry HUBBY, I no give you 100% hand made perfect quality wife...
9 Comments:
It will be interesting to read the actual audit report as opposed to the LA Times summary of it.
When the violence began to rage in Iraq, most other international agencies delayed reconstruction projects. I think the U.S. Government was among the few that plowed ahead despite the worsening conditions.
Iraqi Wife: It is my understanding that most of these prime contractors like Parsons *did* hire Iraqi contractors to do most of the work. When you say that the U.S. Gov. should have hired Iraqi contractors, do you mean hire them as the prime contractors?
I think the U.S. Gov wanted U.S. prime contractors so that it could-hopefully--put anybody in jail for fraud who deserved it!
NIW,
It's time for you to take a break and leave Iraq for a while. You may want to return later but for now, it's time for you and your husband to take a break.
When it was my time to leave, I didn't want to. But the time was right.
Be careful my friend,
Raven1
USA Today reports on reconstruction
Hundreds of civilian contractors — 516 since March 2003 — have been killed on the job. Last year, 235 contractors died in reconstruction-related activities; 62 fatalities were U.S. citizens, the report says. In the first three months of this year, 49 have been killed; 17 were U.S. citizens
I had no idea so many have been killed.
Haha! Sounds like your hubby would enjoy a trip into Mexico, or to el mercado in Texas.
I hope your packing goes well, and your trip out. I agree with Raven1, it sounds like it's time for you to go - for a little while atleast. Forget Rome, Iraq is eternal - she'll be there when you get back, and hopefully in much better condition to welcome you home again.
Oh, and I'm quite partial to Cadbury's Milk Chocolate with Hazelnuts, myself. :D
The full report from the Special Inspector General is now available at this location.
Some very good construction/reconstruction work has been done in Iraq by the USA. The Inspector General noted in one case of a new Iraqi Army base that the construction work was of very high quality. He believes it is because the American Quality Assurance inspectors lived on site and made sure problems were solved.
Yes Jeff, I mean the US Gov should have hired Iraqi prime contractors. Parsons depended on Iraqi companies who were formed after 2003 by Iraqi expats. I even know the names of these companies. They came here solely to make money...now probably business ppl would ask and whats wrong with that???well, millions of dollars went into bad quality construction. Had they paid their sub subs well, the quality would have been better...But the chose to take most of the money and give peanuts...Not only that but those Iraqi expat contractors are liers!!! I dunno how far their contacts go but I tell you, they are high up the chain....
As for the deaths, I am not surprised, before I even came here, I used to hear about many contractors being killed, and once I got here, I knew of some incidents were at one project, a suicide car bomb went off and many were killed, I also heard of bad quality ceilings that once fell on workers, etc...I can give u many examples that account for these deaths, and you know what, majority are Iraqis...either getting kidnapped for "collaborating" with the enemy then gets chopped off, or passing by shootings etc...
Hey Raven, long time no hear!!! how r u doing??? and how are you adjusting to a normal life??? Yeah u r right its time to leave, for me, i think ive had it...for HUBBY, i dunno its another case with him...lets hope he gets a job and we settle down...Im keeping my fingers crossed...
Rhianna,lol...i love cadburys infact i just had one teeny weeny piece that was left by a colleague...its yumm.... :-)
Hello NIW:
All what you have mentioned was real and true...because I am one of those females whom are living in the Red Zone and had worked with such companies like these but not in Baghdad. I know how hard it is to put our lives on risk and work very hard, but we don't see the difference and that what keeps killing me.
The error is in the company it self but not the government.
I would like to thank you for all of your articles, you know why?
Because I learnt a meryaids of new vocabulary that I needed in my English test so called the ITP test, I took the test and scored well, most of the words were the same you used.
So thank you so much and I wish you really the best of luck always.
I enjoy reading your articles. Especially this one the end was great. Pleas ebe safe and I hope all works out well for you and everyone in Iraq.
Sincerely
An italian guy from the
Smokey mountains
Anon, lol, I dont think my vocab is good at all...I write slang...wish I had the IQ for good vocab...and btw, congrats on scoring high on your test...Wish I can do more than just write...and thanks alot for your kind words...It really touches my heart to know that there are people out there who read my non sense ramblings...
Italian Guy, things will work out for Iraq, maybe not yet, but it will...the problem lies within us...and if we are able to cleanse ourselves from the hatred and the animosity we have, then believe me Iraq will prosper..
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