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Deicide
Joined: 29 Jul 2006
Posts: 1005
Location: Caput Imperii Americani
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 Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 6:31 pm Post subject: If the price were right would you work in Iraq or Afghanista |
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-n?
If the money were spot on, would you do it? |
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Asinus
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
Posts: 4
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| Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 7:06 pm Post subject: The money would have to be awesome |
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The money would have to be pretty good.
Iraq is pretty much closing down, and Afghanistan is not very secure |
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Justin Trullinger
Joined: 28 Jan 2005
Posts: 3110
Location: Seoul, South Korea and Myanmar for a bit
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| Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 8:25 pm Post subject: |
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I had an offer to work in Afghanistan in 2008. I was planning to go, already applying for the visa, when the organisation that was funding the project pulled the funding for economic efficiency reasons. So yeah, I would. Or at least would have if they'd funded it.
Wasn't so much about money, though the money offered was absolutely acceptable. It was a chance to train English teachers in rural Afghanistan. Options like that don't come up often.
Best,
Justin |
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nickpellatt
Joined: 08 Dec 2006
Posts: 1522
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| Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 8:36 pm Post subject: |
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| I would go, as long as it wasnt connected to the military. Money wouldnt be an influencing factor. |
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johnslat
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 13859
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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| Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 9:21 pm Post subject: |
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Dear Justin,
"It was a chance to train English teachers in rural Afghanistan."
I'd go in a heartbeat - the money wouldn't matter.
Regards,
John |
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Global Hobo
Joined: 27 Sep 2009
Posts: 32
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| Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 9:33 pm Post subject: |
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| I'd go if I was still single. Even now I try to convince myself I need to do it for the money and for my wife and daughter. It doesn't really get past the daydream phase though. I'm pining for one more dangerous adventure.. might as well just wait for my mid-life crisis. |
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Cool Teacher
Joined: 18 May 2009
Posts: 930
Location: Here, There and Everywhere! :D
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| Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 5:07 am Post subject: |
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Difficult quetsion!  I supopose if the money was RIGHT then I would go but some parts are more dangerous than others.
Here's the story of one man's experience at the American University in Iraq:
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The important work of actually teaching students, as I learned in a most unpleasant way, takes a back seat to everything, especially to the egos of the administrators, including the current chancellor J*shua M*tchell. M*tchell is a straight-laced preppy conservative who both looks and sounds a lot like the New York Times columnist David Brooks. M*tchell makes little attempt to reach out to teachers or students. His driver pulls him up to the front door in a Mercedes every morning; he slithers into his office and is almost never heard from throughout the day. He�s completely out of touch with what�s actually happening on the ground level at AUI-S. When M*tchell does appear, he makes it a point to showcase his Christian beliefs, often quoting from the Bible during speeches, talks, and in email sermons to yours truly. For instance, he recently wrote to me, �You have shown yourself only too quick to point out the splinter in someone else�s eye but not the beam in your own.� (Matt 7:1-5) He ended a separate email lecture with a line that I could not find in the Bible, but which sounds Biblesque: �Be not a perfectionist, for the world you live in is a deeply flawed one, which seldom moves forward by force of arms or by the force of words.�
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I mosaiced the names! 
http://www.counterpunch.org/greuter11062009.html |
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Stephen Jones
Joined: 21 Feb 2003
Posts: 4124
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| Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 1:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| It was a chance to train English teachers in rural Afghanistan. Options like that don't come up often. |
Considering that the chances of you surviving in the job more than a week are pretty slim, I'm surprised. |
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Noor
Joined: 06 May 2009
Posts: 152
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| Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 2:02 pm Post subject: |
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| Great article. Thanks for bringing it to our attention, CT. |
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Justin Trullinger
Joined: 28 Jan 2005
Posts: 3110
Location: Seoul, South Korea and Myanmar for a bit
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| Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 2:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Quote:
It was a chance to train English teachers in rural Afghanistan. Options like that don't come up often.
Considering that the chances of you surviving in the job more than a week are pretty slim, I'm surprised.
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Disagree. My evidence is that this project ran for quite some time before funds were cut.
Three people I know were there, two more who I also know visited in a supervisory capacity.
Several others who I met in the application process were from the US and had spent considerable time in Afghanistan. (One is a rather long term resident.)
All survived, and all were there over a week.
A colleague of mine from work in another country is a woman from Tajikistan. Speaks Farsi, amongst other things. She was there- if she, as a Muslim woman, able to speak the local language, evaluated the situation as being safe enough, well...what can I say. I was going to go. And I was really $%&#ed off that the funding got cut before I got there.
Best,
Justin |
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Justin Trullinger
Joined: 28 Jan 2005
Posts: 3110
Location: Seoul, South Korea and Myanmar for a bit
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| Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 2:23 pm Post subject: |
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| PS- I'm with you, Johnslat. I was willing to go for the experience, before I even knew what was being offered. As it happened, the $$$ was extremely appealing as well. |
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Stephen Jones
Joined: 21 Feb 2003
Posts: 4124
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| Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 2:29 pm Post subject: |
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If you're in the Farsi-speaking part of Afghanistan you might be safe from being murdered for ideological reasons, though not for any other outbreak of lawlessness.
Western aid workers in Afghanistan are routinely targeted; dozens have been killed including half-a-dozen in a hostel in the center of Kabul only a few days ago.
One western consultant in Afghanistan requires the equivalent of at least half a dozen armed bodyguards and a security cost of at least a hundred thousand dollars a year. |
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johnslat
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 13859
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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| Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 2:44 pm Post subject: |
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Dear Stephen,
But surely you've been in the Middle East long enough to know that the span of one's life is all inshallah.
Regards,
John |
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Justin Trullinger
Joined: 28 Jan 2005
Posts: 3110
Location: Seoul, South Korea and Myanmar for a bit
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| Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 3:02 pm Post subject: |
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Could we get some sources on that, Mr Jones?
I'm not doubting you, but it simply isn't the situation described by my friends there.
Best,
Justin |
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Global Hobo
Joined: 27 Sep 2009
Posts: 32
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| Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 3:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Stephen Jones wrote: |
If you're in the Farsi-speaking part of Afghanistan you might be safe from being murdered for ideological reasons, though not for any other outbreak of lawlessness.
Western aid workers in Afghanistan are routinely targeted; dozens have been killed including half-a-dozen in a hostel in the center of Kabul only a few days ago.
One western consultant in Afghanistan requires the equivalent of at least half a dozen armed bodyguards and a security cost of at least a hundred thousand dollars a year. |
A friend of mine has been in Kabul for three years now, up until recently his security consisted of a man sitting on a blue plastic chair outside his guest house holding a stick. Now his guest house has two armed guards and several sandbags.
I hear the American university in Kabul are getting desperate for ESL teachers now, you don't even need an MA to get a job.
Justin, John, let us know what it's like when you get there:
http://www.auaf.edu.af/index.php |
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