The School Safety Belt

Lucky for a Pillow

When we checked into housing tonight at the Army Base South of Baghdad, two things struck me. One was that instead of on the back the room door a fire escape map, there was at reception a “Warning Sirens explanation Chart” so that you could tell the differnce between “Incoming, all clear and this siren is ok because it us firing out”. The other was that somehow when Producer Andy Stenner and Chuck Holton, a fellow cameraman/correspondent traveling with us, rushed into our room I somehow managed to pick the only bunk bed that did not have a pillow.

The pillow issue being resolved I find myself at 11:30pm writing this entry lying in bed in my sleeping bag with a headlamp on trying to figure out where the last 48 hours have gone.

The best part of the trip so far has been flying around Baghdad in the Army Blackhawks below 1000ft over the roofs hoping that the movie Blackhawk Down had been a box office failure in Iraq. These machines are like being buckled into a muscle car and bullying your way thru the skies. With the cold winter air rushing past the machine guns and buffeting me as I tried to film the classic gun turrets over rooftops. The adrenalin rush is always tempered by the thoughts of how many times I heard of helicopters beng shot down over the course of this war, whilst at the same time the incredible sense of awe and excitement is a complete rush. For those used to hearing radio reports of traffic on the I 95 I can tell you that traffic was moving well on Route Irish today but expect delays at checkpoints near the bridges.

The question is of course is the war being won, if so how is victory assessed. From what I have seen so far “ The Surge “ has been effective for it has provided Iraqis to have what is being called “ The Awakening”. Local’s have started to organize themselves into teams of Concerned Local Citizens or CLC’S and armed with nothing more than a yellow safety reflective belt, they are cooperating and assisting the local police and the US forces to give them intelligence and help with patrols.

What can a man do with a yellow plastic safety reflective belt, by himself not much but when groups of locals all start wearing the belt, it becomes a symbol of hope and provides the people of the villages and towns a new beginning of hope and of a future for their children. No mother ever wants their child to grow up in an environment where hatreds and frustrations lead her son or daughter to become a suicide bomber for the cause of desperation.

What is evident is that US troop morale is very high, for the first time in a couple of years they sense that there is an end to this war. It will not be tomorrow or in the next couple of months, but the pride of the people we met yesterday armed with a plastic safety belt, has become their new symbol of pride and hope. Small steps and snapshots of life here, now if they could only use this power of for once in long time, the “Yellow Revolution” may be the start of the winter of hope.

Waiting for the Colonel

Many days have passed , since i wrote this but it is a start 4.30 am Frday , south of Baghdad lets go back .....

This entry will be written over the next few hours from the lounge in Frankfurt to Kuwait. Perhaps one of the truly bizarre things about traveling in this business is that you just accept it as travel. I honestly worry more about bus timetables down to the rail station when on holidays in Australia than I do about flying.

Somehow you always believe that it has been taken care of and somehow computer magic will ensure that all flows smoothly without a blemish. So imagine my surprise this morning arriving in Frankfurt to be told that yes I had a seat on the plane to Kuwait but I did not have a ticket and that if I wanted my seat it would cost $3500, the full cost of a return ticket Frankfurt – Kuwait.

I did not bother calling the travel agent who made the bookings back in the states as no one there makes much sense at two am on a Monday morning.

So as I sit and wait for “the Colonel” aka Ollie I think and reflect on how bizarre it is that we can simply say see you in the lounge on Monday and have no idea whatsoever as to the travel plans or flight details of the other members of the team. Keeping it simple like see you in the lounge sounds good just hope they turn up in the next hour before I figure out am I going to get on a plane to Kuwait if no one else from the team is on the plane . Then again all my gear is theoretically on the plane so at least I know I will be getting on the plane if for no other reason than … my gear is in the hold

Hang on … Hello Ollie are you there ?

12:07 pm

Ollie walks in the lounge , off to our ritual photo shop visit .

Rituals and routines are something that I do not like to break on every one of the trips I have done to Iraq with Ollie we have always gone down to the photo shop in the airport in Frankfurt. And we have comeback from every trip safe and sound . Some people have lucky rabbits foots , well Ollie and I go and look around the photo shop at Frankfurt airport. I used to have a lucky red war neck hankerchief but it faded to white and thus became not so lucky

Back soon

in the belly of the beast

5.45 am kuwait
Crammed into webbing seats wearing flak and kevlar
33 soldiers and our team heding into Baghda5
Should be an hour half flight hope sleep but flying economy on Pakistan airlines would be more comfortable
Nerves are tingling as another tour begins
More from baghdad
And by the way no movie inflight just a bottle of water you carry
Engines are turning

Game Day Face

Ben Gurion Airport [Tel Aviv]
4:28 am

It is game day, and the airport seems a good a place to begin another trip into Iraq with Ollie North.

What is Game Day Face, it is the moment when you realise that you no longer are planning and thinking various thoughts. But as I was told " I have not been as focused as I normally would be leading up to this trip" . That was my warning that I need to get the face back.

Fact 1 Iraq is still dangerous and whilst everyone seems to be proclaiming things are getting better, from what base are they judging this. Fact 2 It seems that to many camera crews in the last year or so have been killed or injured whilst working in Iraq.

The time has come again to refocus, my personal life will be on holidays till Dec 22, the professional life will be at Defcom 4 , what ever Defcom 4 is, but they use it in all the movies. I worry for my family and friends more for the wishes and thoughts they have for me.

Trust me I will be careful, life is too short. But three weeks can be a long time

Mal

A jar of drin

Well as the sun sets over the city ,absolutely nothing has happened as of yet which is good news, talks are about to start in Annapolis and we are waiting in a car park for a live shot in the dark.
The only thing of interest today apart from Urban Renewal which I will write about later is that there is a good business to be had here in selling spell check to printers of restaurant menus. getting the menu is about as much fun as eating the food because basically the food here is like going to Groundhog Restaurant it never varies. We live not in the land of milk and honey but the world of humus and chicken. It will taste good it normally does, but the menus always provide the best laugh, here are todays classic mistranslations

FreAnch Fries
Antrikot (entrecote) sReak (steak)
Shnitzel
Fried CalaMARY
Gold Drinks
Coke bottel

and the winner today "A jar of drin"

Was tempted to order the jar of drin, but opted for a Gold diet coke bottel

Later going for a kaffee

Mal
Sederot

Sederot and Annapolis

Two cities thousands of miles apart. Whilst one is the centre of news for the next 48 hours the other is quiet , the newest addition to Sederot is that they have built bomb shelter in the car park .
Over 1400 qassam rockets have been fired into this area around Sederot from Gaza just 3 miles away .
In my last week in the bureau here before going to Iraq next week the onto my new base in London , i find myself sitting and waiting for incoming missiles . Their is always the fear that perhaps one day one of these point shoot and pray missiles will hit . Just another day in the unholyland only six more to go
Life goes on hopefully it will be quiet very quiet and the talks in Annapolis well they will not stop these missile attacks .
More later

Preparing for War

I know that I have been not blogging much of late, due to the fact that nothing major has been happening here in the Middle East of note. The same old same old , quick trip to the West Bank city of Nablus, Bad Boys refusing to gibe their weapons up to the Palestinian Authority because the Authority will not protect them from the Israeli Army, sort of like the right to bear arms argument they have in the States. So we stand around this Mexican stand off for an afternoon where the main concern of the Palestinian Police was that I did not film them eating.

And then the good news of the week, doing a Medical story on a new device that can predict whether you are susceptable to a heart attack. Now our correspondent Reena a young fit healthy woman decides that she wants to be filmed for the story getting the test done, and scores a 1.99 , the figure you worry about is when your test comes back at 1.67. Reena is pleased with her result and in her way of gloating walks around talking about how healthy she is. I jump on the table do the test and my result leaves the doctors wondering, the old Mal pulls a 4.04 and the doctors start mentioning about how this is one of the best results they have seen. Just have to laugh, Reena just shook here head in dismay.

Ok so where does the title come into play and what does it mean for the Unholyland News. Well Monday week heading back to Iraq for a 3 week embed so daily updates and a chance to report back on life in Iraq.

The move to London looks set for Christmas but as always will believe it when I am on the plane

Cheers
mal