December 16, 2008 - On
December 13, my office moved from its old premises in the Palace to its new
space in the "New Office Building" (NOB) in the New Embassy Compound
(NEC). The move also represents a
turning point in the U.S. relationship with Iraq. On December 18, the Ambassador and the rest
of the Embassy front office will move, after which we will close out our
presence in this remnant of the Saddam regime and return the Palace to the
Iraqi government. The transfer of the
Palace will accompany the implementation of the Security Agreement and provides
a strong signal of the diminished role the U.S. government will play in the
running of Iraq's affairs. I for one
leave the Palace, however, with mixed feelings.
Like the vast majority
of my colleagues in the Palace, I'm used to moves. I've moved at least every three years
throughout my working life, and, for a period of a decade, averaged one move a
year, but I have to admit that I didn't look forward to this move. The photos in Anne's website are a historical
curiosity now. None of us, and possibly
no one, will be lazing around the Palace pool, catching a few rays, and none of
us will be checking the pool from a second-floor office to see whether a woman might
be stretched out instead of the usual guys in speedos. Nor will anyone be playing ping pong or
billiards next to the pool, pretending they're at a Club Med, instead of the
Baghdad "sand box."
I was comfortable in
the Palace. I would walk from the south
entrance toward my office in the north section in the morning. As I passed the Palace mini-DFAC, I would
fill up my thermos with coffee and duck into the mini-DFAC to grab a boiled egg
or energy bar for breakfast. Late
mornings, I would take a break by walking back to the mini-DFAC for a cup of
coffee and to get a free copy of the military Stars-and-Stripes newspaper. One or two evenings a week, I would go to the
Palace movie theater to see a first-run movie.
The ten-minute commute to the Palace was also a time to mentally prepare
for the day, to read the Stars and Stripes, to catch up with friends who
happened to be on the same shuttle, or eavesdrop on other people's
conversations. We now have a five-minute
walk to the Embassy from our apartments, but are missing the casual socializing
that took place on the shuttles.
Some amenities are
being transferred to the NEC, but, of course, the transition period is
difficult. We received a staff notice" yesterday
that a snack bar would open at the NOB, to accompany an existing one that has
been operating in the New Office Annex (NOX) next door for several weeks. Of course, when I checked on it, the doors
were still closed and nothing had been prepared, so I went across the street to
get my coffee at the NOX. The NOB snack
bar's coffee and hot water servers had been filled and were operating the next
day. I'm still not sure where I can get
a Stars and Stripes.
There were a number of
other small problems, primarily because we were working against a deadline to move
entirely out of the Palace by the end of the year, so the move occurred before
everything was quite ready. We're often
doubled up in cubicles, but the cubicles haven't been provided with extra
telephones and still lack the additional computer terminals. We were also told that we would have to
choose between the telephone and the terminal because each cubicle only had one
extra electronic outlet. I share a waste
basket with the next cubicle. I also
expect the extra set of drawers that we were promised will be a long time
arriving.
The lay-out really
sucks. I have to know three combinations
to get to my office. My section has also
been divided up into two different office spaces, which are actually a fair
distance apart. Because of the silly
security rules, no toilets could be installed in the classified space where I
have my office, so I have to walk around the corner, through two sets of doors,
and walk to the far corner of the building before I get to the toilet. We're not allowed to keep our office door
open, so we're walking down anonymous corridors of locked doors and, once
through the doors, find ourselves in a Dilbert cartoon of cubicles with no
privacy. During this transitional
period, the drab furnishings are accentuated by a deserted feel. The office where I work, which will
eventually hold 17 people, seats five right now. On the other hand, the greater separation
between seats does mean that my neighbor can actually have a semi-private
telephone conversation.
The most aggravating
issue, however, is the lack of telephone connectivity. We are not allowed to bring cell phones,
which we relied on completely, into the new building at all. Unfortunately, our desk telephones are
remoted into an exchange in the U.S. We
can call each other, but anyone in Iraq has to make a long-distance call to the
U.S. in order to reach us. For the same
reason, we can't set our cell phones to forward calls to our desk phones, which
was the normal procedure at my last post.
The Palace always had a
jury-rigged feel to it. Its larger ball
rooms and auditoria were sub-divided into rooms constructed of white-washed,
construction-grade plywood. Desks were squeezed
into large rooms to maximize occupancy.
My old office, for example, was crowded with a motley assortment of
desks of differing styles and age to hold 12 people in an approximately 30" x
20" space. The Palace, however, with its
over-the-top decor, had a distinctiveness and personality that is sorely
lacking in our new office space. If
you're reading this to prepare for your assignment to Embassy Baghdad, then you
will only have Anne's photos to appreciate the faded grandeur that was once our
daily environment. I will miss it.