More pictures from Iraq

Many thanks to friend, fellow cigar smoker and great New Orleans microbrew tourguide Ltc Robert Buckman for babysitting Goliatha.

The dragon is now on her way to Lome, Togo. (That in the continent of Africa, in case you want to look it up on a map.)

Before Goliatha left, however, Ltc Buckman sent a couple of pictures of Goliatha visiting some important sites in Baghdad.

On the right is a picture of Ltc. Buckman and Golliatha at the Crossed Swords monument that was in all the news.

And below is the mausoleum of the Ba'ath Party founder (they've removed his body, though).The Ba'ath Party was the party that was run by the late dictator Saddam Hussien.

Look at the miles

Goliatha has had some journey so far. (All those crisscross lines are her travels.)

1. Bryan, Ohio to Ypsilanti, Michigan = 72 miles
2. Ypsilanti, Mich., to Beloit, Wisc. = 272 miles
3. Beloit to Chicago, Ill. = 70 miles
4. Chicago to Sao Paulo and then Brasilia, Brazil = 5,750 miles
5. Brasilia to Baghdad (via Miami for military mail) = 10,432 miles

She is now on her way to Qatar for an additional 700 miles.

So far she has traveled at least 17, 296 miles.

From Qatar she is bound for Lome, Togo for another 15,000 miles or so.

And her travels have really just begun.

Too bad she is not getting frequent flier miles. Dani could have a real nice vacation with all those miles racked up.

Made it to Baghdad: Pictures

Thanks to Col. Robert Buckman I was able to see something of Baghdad last month.

Here I am with Col. Buckman at the Duck and Cover club the army has in the middle of the international zone of Baghdad. As you see by the way the colonel is dressed, this is still not such a safe area.

I've got more pictures coming pretty soon.

Made it to Baghdad

Got confirmation a couple of days ago that Goliatha made it to Baghdad, Iraq.

Col. Robert Buckman is showing the beastie around the Green Zone and his Army base.

We should have pictures and text soon.

Goliatha and Iraq

Goliatha is heading to Iraq.

Dani's uncle has a friend who is stationed there. Actually he has several friends in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Neither of these places are very nice to be in because of the wars taking place there.

Goliatha wants to learn more about the war and what is going on there. She wants to know what it is like for the men and women who are assigned there by the U.S. military and State Department.

In maybe a week or so she will find out.

She did learn that 1,484 men and women from Ohio were either killed or wounded in Iraq since 2003.

That has to be sad for everyone.

Some facts and figures

While Goliatha is on her way to Iraq, I thought I might take this time to explain why it is important to know more about the world.

Sometimes when we are in the middle of the United States, we tend to forget (or never know) just how closely we are connected to the rest of the world.

Too many times in the newspapers and on television news the rest of the world looks like only the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or some sort of disaster such as an earthquake or flood.

But there is much much more. And you might be surprised just how close the rest of the world is to you. And I don't just mean the Japanese or Korean car you or your neighbors drive or all the cheap Chinese-made products at the local Wal-Mart.

Ohio, like the rest of the United States, depends on companies from other countries to buy things and to sell us things.

Look at the labels in your clothes. If the clothes are not made in China, they are probably made in the Dominican Republic or maybe Haiti. Or maybe Vietnam or Malaysia. (Look them up on the map.)

Think about those delicious green Granny Smith apples. From September through November the apples you buy might come from the state of Washington. The rest of the year they probably come from Chile.

Are you ready to give up those great apples because they are not grown in America?

And of course you know that most of the oil that makes the gasoline Americans use comes from other countries.

We borrow money from other countries to help build new factories and roads. And other countries borrow money from us for the same reasons.

In the past couple of weeks we have seen how close the American economy is tied to the rest of the world.

• Our banks get into trouble and people in Hong Kong and Paris get worried about their banks.
• Our stock market goes down. The rest of the world's stock markets go down.

And then there all the jobs that get created when countries trade and loan money to each other.

Think about all the jobs that are created because of exports from Ohio. Think about all the jobs that are created because of foreign investments in Ohio.

With Goliatha traveling to other countries maybe she will learn more about how we are all connected in the world. And how that can help the state.

So how does Ohio sit with the rest of the world:

• Almost a quarter (23%) of the manufacturing jobs in Ohio depend on exports.
• 11,371 companies in Ohio export goods. Of that number a little more than 10,000 have 500 or fewer employees.
• In 2006 213,300 Ohio workers were employed by foreign companies with factories or offices in Ohio. (That makes Ohio the 8th most popular U.S. state for foreign investment.)
• The two partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) -- Canada and Mexico -- account for about $23 billion of purchases of Ohio goods. Japan and China each buy $1.5 billion dollars of goods as well.
• And Ohio sells $1.3 billion of goods to Brazil, the country Goliatha just visited.
• The total amount of exports by Ohio to the world was about $42 billion last year. And this year it looks as if even more will be sold.
  

We all know that Ohio has an unemployment rate of 7.2 % as of September 2008. And in northwest Ohio the rate is even higher. This is not good. The national rate is only 6%. (And that is high.)

Just think how many more people would be without jobs if Ohio did not export things to these other countries. Just think about how bad it would be if we told other countries we don't want their products here.

First, all the cheap items in Wal-Mart will be gone. Second those same countries will stop buying our things. So all those companies in Ohio that export goods will have to close. And that means more people out of work.

What it all means is that we would have much less to buy and it would be more expensive. And more people would be out of work than they are now.

That does not sound very pleasant.

Goliatha learned that many things are very expensive in Brazil because that country limits what can be imported. And so what they don't produce in their country becomes very expensive. Plus what they do produce is also very expensive because it is only for the Brazil market.

So before anyone says foreign trade is bad, think about how your life would be different without the rest of the world buying our stuff and sending us their stuff.

Here are some good links to learn more:

• International Trade Statistics for Ohio
  
• Ohio Employment Figures
• Exports, Jobs and Foreign Investment in Ohio

Gettin' out of town

Well, I'm all packed up and ready to go.
I am told I will be visiting Iraq and Togo first.
Then I'm not sure where I am off to.
Wish me luck.

G

Another update from Brazil

Last night -- October 7 -- I watched the presidential debate with a bunch of diplomats from other embassies in Brasilia.

I met the deputy chiefs of mission (DCM) from France, Spain, Canada, and New Zealand. Also, the guy who covers the United States and Canada for the Brazilian foreign ministry (like the State Department) was there.

The talk among the diplomats was pretty interesting. They had all lived in so many exciting places.

The DCM from New Zealand was raised in the Washington, DC area because his father worked for the World Bank. The DCM said he returned to New Zealand for his university course. As part of the course he went to Antarctica.

How cool is that! (Really cool actually. Even during the summer it is below zero degrees Fahrenheit.)

The Canadian DCM is from Nova Scotia way on the east coast of Canada. He has also lived in Colombia and Venezuela.

The Spanish DCM was assigned to his embassy in the United States before coming to Brazil.

All of the DCMs have only been in Brazil for about two months.

The same as my hosts, Dan and Lisa.

You know, everyone thinks of diplomats as very stuffy and formal.

These folks were very casual and relaxed. They stood around talking about life in Brazil or the latest news.

They were all a lot of fun to be around.

One of the things that was clear was that everyone at the debate had opinions about the answers. No one said he or she was for one candidate or another but they did have some thoughts about the way the two candidates were answering the questions.

One thing they did notice, the only foreign policy question asked was about Iraq.

No questions about China or the rest of Asia. Nothing about Africa. Nothing about Latin America. And nothing about Europe.

The visiting DCMs wondered if Iraq and Afghanistan are the only things Americans think about when they think about foreign policy.

Good question.

What do you think?

A visit to an embassy

Wow!

This is so cool!

I actually got to meet the U.S. ambassador to Brazil. He took time from his very busy schedule to show me his office yesterday (Oct. 6).

Amb. Clifford Sobel took me into his office where I got to see the office and learn about the kind of work he does.

Let me tell you a little about what an ambassador does.

The short and simple is that the ambassador is the personal representative of the president of the United States.

Back before reliable telephone lines and the Internet whenever a president wanted to communicate with the leaders of other countries, he would send a telegram to his ambassador and he (usually "he" in the past) would request a meeting with the king, queen, prime minister or president of that country.

But even at a time when the U.S. president can pick up the phone and call anyone in the world, ambassadors still have the very important role of delivering personal messages from the president to world leaders.

Some ambassadors -- like Amb. Sobel -- are from the private sector. They are often business or political leaders. They all have special skills or talents that the president thinks will help improve relations between the United States and the host country.

Other ambassadors are professional foreign service officers. Again, these people might have special skills as negotiators or have knowledge of a country to be named.

What both these groups have in common is that it takes the approval of the U.S. Senate to become an ambassador. So you can imagine it is not an easy job to get or do.

Ambassadors spend their days promoting American interests.

Some days it could be meeting with the president of a country in the morning and then with a group of students who want to know more about the United States in the afternoon.

Every day is different.

It sounds very interesting. And it is. But it is also very tiring. Amb. Sobel works very long days. Even when he is on vacation he checks in with the embassy staff to see how things are going and suggests meetings he wants to have when he gets back.

And speaking of the embassy staff, as with any large organization, the ambassador depends on the embassy team to get things done.

The job of running the embassy falls on the shoulders of the deputy chief of mission. In the case of the U.S. embassy in Brazil, that person is Lisa Kubiske, Dani's aunt. (That's her on the right with her driver from the embassy.)

There are lots of issues the embassy has to keep an eye on. Everything from local elections to military affairs to business deals to local arts and culture need to be covered and reported back to Washington.

Besides the embassy there are three consulates (think of them as branch offices of the embassy) that have staff to keep an eye on local things.

But it is the embassy that has the "big picture" of events in Brazil that are important to the United States.

Most of the employees are in the State Department but others work for the Commerce, Defense, Justice and Agriculture departments. Lots and lots of people are in this embassy -- and embassies around the world -- working to keep the U.S. government informed about what is going on in the world.

Pretty neat work. If you can get it.

I found out that the people in the embassy are from all over the country. (One woman is from northern Michigan. So much for the idea that only East Coast or West Coast people get in.) All they had to do is take a test and pass an interview. (Gee, just like any other job.)

And once they pass everything, they get training in languages and the skills needed to work overseas.

And then they get to live overseas.

How cool is that?

Here is the link to find out how to join the Foreign Service: State Department Careers

Well, gotta go.

I am going to be stuffed back into a box pretty soon and sent off to places yet to be determined. I have heard a lot of possibilities. One is even Iraq! Another is Peru.

I can't wait to see the rest of the world.

A meeting and some sightseeing today (hopefully)

'm off for the U.S. embassy in Brasilia today.

The ambassador, Clifford Sobel is back in town after traveling in the States and around Brazil. (Lots of important visitors in the country from the U.S.)

Hopefully Amb. Sobel will be able to take a minute or two from his VERY busy schedule to show me his office and maybe a bit of the embassy.

What I do know about the embassy is that it is VERY big.

And for those who can't remember the difference between and embassy and a consulate...
The embassy is where the ambassador is based. This is the main office in the country for the U.S. government. The consulates should be considered "branch offices" of the embassy.

Usually the embassy is located in a country's capitol. Sometimes (as in the case if Israel) it is not.

Besides the embassy the U.S. government has three consulates in the country: Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Recife. And of course the embassy is in Brasilia.

Brazil is just a bit smaller than the United States but has many fewer people. (About 192 million as of last year -- or the fifth most populous country in the world.)

About half the country is jungle -- the famous Amazon Forest.

But many parts of the rain forest are under attack as landlords try to expand their farms. The problem is that the jungle soil is not very good for most agriculture. So lots more things have to be done to get the soil prepared for agriculture and in the meantime, new breeding grounds for disease-bearing insects are created and endangered species loose more of their habitats.

Plus there are fewer trees to absorb the growing levels of carbon dioxide, thus leading to more global warming. (At least that is the argument.)

Any way, here are some links to learn more about Brazil:

• State Department Background Notes
• Library of Congress Country Study
• CIA World Factbook

Gotta run.

Hopefully later tonight I will be able to post some pictures with the ambassador and the embassy.

In Brasilia

Remember that Brasilia is in the Southern Hemisphere. That means that September is spring not fall and we are heading into summer.

The winters here (summer in the States) is very very dry. So dry that there is no rain at all for months. Now that spring has arrived so have the occasional thunderstorms.

And sure enough it was raining soon after I arrived.

The house where I am staying is the official US embassy residence of the deputy chief of mission -- the #2 in the embassy.

She is Dani's aunt.

Here is the story of Brasilia:

• The idea of a new capitol city started way back in 1823.
• By 1922 the first foundation stone was set just outside the current city.
• In 1955 presidential candidate Juscelino Kubitschek promised to build a new capitol city if elected.
• The first streets were paved in 1958.
• The city was inaugurated in 1960.
• The main design is called the "Plano Piloto" or Pilot Plan. The main part of the city is shaped like an airplane.

The buildings and design of the city were done by Oscar Niemeyer, who just turned 100 years old this year.

Here are some pictures of the building of Brasilia.


This is the construction of the Congress building

And this is the national cathedral under construction.

Compare those two pictures to this one of the city taken early July 2008.

Moving from Beloit to Brazil

So after a very nice visit with Adam in Beloit, we finished up the visit with brunch at Denny's. (Nothing like easy over eggs, sausage, pancakes, and hash browns to remind one about what makes the States famous.)

From brunch Dan and I headed for Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

We got in pretty early.

The flight was slated for 9:30 p.m. but was pushed back to 10:30 p.m.

We arrived at the airport about 3 p.m.

Yep, that meant a lot of time sitting around. Fortunately, Dan is a member of the Red Carpet Club. So we sat in relative comfort and had plenty of free soft drinks, cheese and crackers, and vegetables and dip.

We also had a Wi-Fi connection so Dan was able to take care of e-mail and other online goodies. The really cool part was talking with his wife via SKYPE. (This is a great set up for free communication between Skype members and really cheap phone calls to non-members.)

Eventually we left the club for the departure gate.

We climbed on board and were lucky enough NOT to have anyone next to us.

Dan was able to stretch out and be comfortable.

The 9 nine and a half hour flight went pretty quickly. (Slept a lot on the overnight flight.)

Got to Sao Paulo, picked up our bags, cleared customs and headed for the check-in area for the flight to Brasilia.

We arrived in Brasilia at 5 p.m. ADT (Atlantic Daylight Time).

That meant from the time we got on the plane (10:30 p.m. CDT) until we got off in Brasilia (5 p.m.) we were traveling for almost 16 hours. (Suddenly makes those 2 hour trips to Ypsilanti seem easy.)

So now we are in Brasilia.

Moving on...

Just a couple of things before we start talking about Brasilia.

1. It is a long-long-long way away. We took a 9 1/2 hour flight from Chicago just to get to Sao Paulo. Then we waited about three hours for an hour and a half flight to Brasilia. All told from the time we got on the plane in Chicago until we got to the house in Brasilia, we were traveling 17 hours.
2. Brasilia is not in the Amazon jungle. (Sorry folks, better learn your global geography better. All of Brazil is not rain forest.) It is in the high plains of south central Brazil. And as summer approaches (south of the Equator and all) the area is heading for the rainy season. And I do mean RAIN.

Okay, so now let's talk about getting to Brasilia.

In Ypsilanti I got stuffed into a suitcase for a pretty easy flight to Chicago. From there by car we went to Beloit, Wisc. (Actually I stayed in nearby Janesville, Wisc.).

The guy who took me on this excursion and later to Brazil is Dani's uncle Dan.

We were in Beloit for a family weekend. Seems Dani's cousin, Adam, just started attending Beloit College.

So Dan and Adam looked around the place. Dan attended some of Adam's classes -- including Chinese.

They went out to dinner.

Dan met some of Adam's friends.

And they went to a concert by the Cajun band Beausoleil. (Left me in the room.)

Got a couple of pictures while in Beloit. This is the new science center on
the right.

On the left is a picture of me in front of the campus. One of the really neat things about this school is its anthropology department. (Some say the character of Indiana Jones was based on the head of Beloit's anthropology department. Not sure if that is true, but it's a great story.)

In the picture on the left you can see slight mounds behind me. Those are ancient Indian mounds.

The college only has about 1,200 students. So the professors and students really get to know each other. And Adam said over and over how much he enjoyed being at Beloit.

In another posting I'll talk about getting from Beloit to Chicago to Brazil. (Believe me, you don't want all of this in one shot!)

Made it to Ypsi.

Got a good start on my journey.

Here is a picture from Ypsilanti with my travel mate and good friend Danika's grandparents.

The Journey Begins

So far Goliatha has made it from Bryan, Ohio, to Ypsilanti, Mich. But soon the dear beast will travel to Chicago, Beloit, Wisc., and then Brazil.

Trying to figure out where she will go next is difficult. We think she will head for Peru next. But first, there are many things to see and do in Brazil. (Actually after a couple of days in Brasilia she will be ready to move on.)

Stay tuned!