The first Dhakanniversary

One of the most frequent questions I receive is how – really how – did you come up with the idea of joining the Foreign Service. What prompted the switch? Was this a last ditch attempt to avoid growing up? Was it to satiate my vagabonding dreams?

Until recently, I never contemplated a post explaining why I chose to quit my old job and lifestyle and take onto the unknown, dragging a wife and two kids along. As the one-year anniversary of our arrival in Dhaka rolls into view, more and more people have asked me what catalyzed the decision to take that first step. Most make the natural assumption that, weighted down by a boring-filled existence, I got burned out and looked for a way out.

When I was still in middle school, I became obsessed with traveling the world. I seriously dreamed of becoming a navy officer. That was the only trade that would guarantee an escape from a closed communist system. It took a very hard stance from my mom to squash those intentions. If the stubborn roots of this career switch can be traced to one thing in my life, those dreams are it.

And so here I am in Dhaka, one year into my first assignment. I am a happier and more relaxed person than I ever been, with thousands of stories and pictures from some of the most fascinating places on earth. I have come to love Asia more than I ever expected, from the street food to the people to the millions of small, quirky things that make each and every day a smile-inducing adventure. The overriding feeling is that all of this – the dirt, the many mountains to climb and people to meet and all the glorious food – just feels right. How lucky is that???

The glorious, magical Dhaka commissary

One of the privileges we are so grateful for here in Dhaka is definitely the US Commissary. This is the grocery store that serves the diplomatic personnel. It is about the size of a small neighborhood market store and carries most of the brands and stuff you would see in the US.

Not all the foreign diplomats in Dhaka have the same privilege. The Canadians don't have anything similar and cannot shop there. For the most part the prices are comparable, but there will be a premium for items that need to be transported in a refrigerated container all the way from US. However, it is comforting to shop for something familiar once in a while.

The Bangladeshi markets are just fine and anyone would be able to get along great once they learn how to navigate them. But I have to tell you, it is a nice to walk into the Commissary and see the frozen pizza in the refrigerated case, the Mac ‘n Cheese, Tostitos, cheese, ice cream, frozen OJ, soups, Reeses Pieces, garlic bread pretzels, frozen salmon fillets, Dr Pepper.

And don't forget the virtually impossible to come by here in Dhaka: the ALCOHOL (any beer beer, wine or hard liquor you can think of at duty free price). And yes, the bacon Vlad is so found of!

We got wheels!

We bought a car!!!

Driving in Dhaka is a bit of a dilemma. While we looked for a car we had a hard time deciding between getting the biggest SUV possible – intimidating – and getting something small enough to squeeze through the crowd.

We live in the posh area of town, Baridhara. Yet, two blocks off the street could be a dirt road. Numerous times even on a paved street you can't find any resemblance of concrete. So we decided we needed an SUV. After all, MIGHT IS RIGHT on the Dhaka streets!

Traffic is a major issue. Roads built for two lanes most of the times accommodate four. I can't logically explain how, but I see it all the times. Passing on a two-lane road doesn't mean waiting until no one is coming, it just means getting all the vehicles to fit side-by-side. 

Traffic is pretty much a given. People you talk to measure distances in both with- and without-traffic times: “It takes 10 minutes to get there without traffic; about an hour and a half with.”
So, there a number of implications for car buying. First, almost everyone who has a car also hires a driver. This seemed strange to me, after all I am buying a car to drive it. After talking to people, we were convinced that the reduced stress and lower blood pressure are worth paying a driver to do it for you. So we’re hiring a driver. This means that when buying a car, you should take a close look and see how comfy you feel in the back-seat not in front.

The second implication of the traffic is that all the cars have massive metal bumpers. They’re like big metal cages, both front and back. In the fender-benders they may save you some paint. But most off all, they are there to demand RESPECT!

So how do you actually buy a car in Bangladesh? Well, you can buy from another diplomat who is leaving or you look to Japan – thousands of used cars, relatively inexpensive, and they also drive on the left side. It is a little weird even for me (who I am diagnosed online shopaholic) that you can actually buy used cars online, just like shopping on Amazon. You go online, look at the pictures, ire them 15 thousand and you get a car on the boat. Unlike Amazon, you don’t get free shipping, but in our case, the Embassy would have picked up the tab.

We went the first route, found a car from a diplomat leaving post. Here’s the car we picked! Not too big, but still big enough to get some respect on the mean streets of Dhaka!

The Blood telegram

I talked in one of my previous posts about Henry Kissinger and his support of Pakistan against what it is now Bangladesh.

It fills my heart with pride to say that not everybody went along with Kissinger's policies. Archer Blood was back then the consul-general in Dhaka, East Pakistan. He witnessed the beginning of a massacre that would take millions of lives. The Pakistan army, faced with a rebellion, slaughtered thousands in an attack on the University of Dacca and the barracks of Bengali police. Columns of troops followed the roads throughout the country, burning and killing.

Blood in his first cable described what he termed a "selective genocide," alerted President Richard Nixon and national security adviser Henry Kissinger to what was happening and urged them to pressure Gen. Yahya Khan, the Pakistani dictator, to stop the killing. His cable, dated March 28, 1971,  wrote:

"Here in Dacca we are mute and horrified witnesses to a reign of terror of the Pak military ..."

Problem was that Nixon and Kissinger had decided to support Pakistan as a counter to the Russian influence and didn't want to hear what Blood was reporting.

That cable was followed by another, signed by 20 Americans diplomats stationed in East Pakistan, decrying the official American silence as serving "neither our moral interests broadly defined nor our national interests narrowly defined ..."

A courageous and upright diplomat, Archer Blood was never seen again in any forefront. He was soon called back of Washington and put in the doghouse, for as long as Nixon was in the White House. When he died, in retirement, there was family, a few old friends and an entire nation to mourn his passing, but the nation that grieved for him was not his own. It was Bangladesh.

One year anniversary

This week I celebrated one year since I joined the Foreign Service. And what a year this has been!

Left peaceful Michigan, made a stop in beautiful DC and ended up in sunny Bangladesh.

As a newcomer in the Foreign Service the questions I found most annoying are also the ones the most often asked:

"Tell me, what is this Foreign Service, is it like the French Foreign Legion?"

While I might look a little bit like Jean Claude Van Damme, I never owned a white cap and getting one is not on my to do list yet.

"Tell me, what is this Foreign Service, is it like the CIA?"

This one is by far the trickiest. Whoever is asking it already knows the answer, so it is not even worth trying to argue. Yes, I am sort of a 007, but I can't show my gun, dude! Sorry about that. And yes, my shoes can turn into a weapon on top of being a listening device.

The Foreign Service is a very low-key organization, that is why only few people have any idea what we are or do. The only time any attention is paid to us is when there's a catastrophe overseas, like the killing in Libya. Otherwise, Americans really don't care very much, as long as other countries do things the way we want them to.  Also, unlike the military, the Foreign Service has no political clout like the military does. We have no political clout or domestic constituency, we have no uniforms and no one knows what we're doing out in Dhaka or Katmandu or wherever the hell we are.

And yet we are America's other “army”. Often misunderstood, misperceived, and, sometimes maligned. But our "fight" affects the everyday lives of all Americans, their safety, security, ability to travel and communicate with people in other countries, their employment and prosperity. And yes, I can  hold my head high when I think I am part of it.

Bangladeshi beer?

In terms of the law, Bangladeshis are not allowed to drink or carry alcohol without an alcohol licence. You can get a licence with a doctor's prescription, so possession of alcohol can be legal for `medical reasons'. There are a few bars in Dhaka that serve alcohol, however if you are not in a expat club prices are just prohibitive. A beer at the Westin bar in Dhaka will cost you around $13. As a foreigner you are not required to possess such licences and you can drink all you want at any of the expat club.

Amongst ethnic minorities, because such people are either Buddhist or Christian, there is not only an acceptance of alcohol but there is often a culture surrounding it. You do need need a license to prove that you are a Christian or a Buddhist, but hey, that comes with benefits!


And yes, Bangladesh has its own beer. Hunter! And why bother trying to design something when you can just copy somebody else's design, logo and colour, and shamelessly I might add, steal the look and feel from Australia's Foster. The taste? Do not ask me. I try it once at the Nordic Club and, well, you get what you pay for…Lets just say that Hunter taste like....

There is soccer (football) in Bangladesh

I will start with a story about South Africa and apartheid. Robben Island was an isolated island where South Africa's white regime imprisoned many for opposing the brutal system of segregation that denied basic rights to the country's black majority from 1948 to 1991.
South Africa sent its political prisoners to the isle off Cape Town to serve hard time. The prisoners' job was to break rocks. Their captors' job was to break spirits. But the prisoners kept their spirits, and soccer was part of that. For years, prisoners demanded a right to play sports, including soccer. And for years, prison authorities said no, but eventually they caved in under pressure from the International Red Cross. The league was operated in three divisions — A, B and C, based on players' abilities — complete with trainers, managers, referees and coaches. The league had several standing committees to deal with a range of issues, including discipline and maintenance.
Running is freedom in physical form. The prisoners could forget about prison when they were playing a game, as physical exercise to keep their minds and bodies sharp — and as a way for those from differing political factions to work and play together. It was a unifying factor. Up until football, every activity on the island was self-segregated not by race but by political party. Then, for the first time, as football was established, the parties began to train together and play together in prison.

Now, there is very little resemblance between myself and a political prisoner in apartheid South Africa. I am here on my own will and I am loving it. There is nobody trying to keep me in Dhaka by force. Still, there are plenty of similarities. As I compete for the ball, as I run out of breath on many occasions and as I stand the risk of getting my knees busted again, it is the love of the game that keeps me going. Soccer is a huge part of me and being able to take this with me in Bangladesh brings such a joy to my heart. And not last, forming a "franchise" of my former Ursus team and bringing it to Asia, still gives me the chills :)

Country is burning

We are being asked this question over and over again by our friends and family. Are you safe there?
The answer is YES, so far we are. Is tomorrow going to be the same? And this time, the answer is: WE DON'T KNOW YET.


The fight for the future of Bangladesh is playing out in the streets. For a month, masses of moderate activists have camped at a Dhaka intersection demanding harsh punishment for those accused of crimes during the 1971 independence war from Pakistan. Meanwhile, the hardline Islamic opposition party that wants to install Shariah law have been attacking government buildings and setting fire to trains in a rampage that — along with a crackdown by security forces — has killed scores of  people. The party, Jamaat-e-islami, says the government is using a war crimes tribunal to decimate the party leadership, and claims it is in a fight for its very existence.


The protests for and against Jamaat, the main Islamist party in the country have convulsed Bangladeshi politics. It shows that the wounds of the bloody 1971 liberation war have still not healed. Most of estimates I have read internally estimate that three million people were killed and thousands of women were raped. Before the war, Bangladesh was East Pakistan, separated from the rest of that country by a wide expanse of India. The war pitted Bangladeshi separatists against Pakistani soldiers and local collaborators, who were known then as the Razakar Bahini. I will go deeper into the history in a latter post.

But for now, I am quoting from Jamaat's "To Do" List (from a message posted on Jamaat-Shibir's propaganda Facebook page)


1.      All train tracks have to uprooted at this moment.
2.      All launch terminals and bus terminals have to be disabled.
3.      Dhaka has to be isolated from all districts.
4.      All police stations have to be surrounded.
5.      The 'agent/traitor' media outlets have to be attacked.
6.      Images of the police's brutal firing and shooting have to published in the world media.
7.      All the embassies in the world have to be surrounded and resistance have to be built.
8.      Dhaka has to be besieged.
9.   The houses of all Ministers and MP's have to be burnt.

This is pretty disturbing , but so far, there has not been any violence directed toward foreigners, and we hope it stay the same. But everything else is getting affected and the country seems like is about to come to a halt.

We finally reach Dhaka

We finally reached Dhaka on January 29th. We will call this home for the next two years.

We strongly felt we were mentally ready for Bangladesh and for Dhaka after making our best efforts to familiarize ourselves with the language and culture. We talked to Bengalis, read books, ate Bengali food, and studied the language and culture for two months. Still, Dhaka gave us an overwhelmingly eye opening and sense of rattling experience that we could not prepare ourselves for. To quote Cristina: “Landing here feels like somebody hits you in the face with a brick.”

Walking thru the airport was not much different than doing the same at most US airports. We even breezed thru the customs and immigration (thanks to our diplomatic passports). Outside, however the general feeling changed on a dime. There is no sense of organization and/or reason. Waves of people and cars streamed in and out from all directions. There were farm animals alongside pedestrians. Seemed all drivers honked at the same time. The road from the airport was paved, but dusty, filled with papers and was neither controlled nor marked.

Dhaka is a very third world country capital, some would say maybe a fourth world. It is densely populated. And mean I say dense, you can’t really comprehend the word unless you live here. It feels like God played this game where took as many human being as possible and confined them to as small a space as you could find.  If you would like to replicate this in a Western country, maybe what you could do is next time you go into your doctor’s office, try to get into the waiting room with fifty other people, place a bag of fish in every corner, turn the heater to the max and have somebody throw papers and dust around like a maniac. That will come close to experiencing Dhaka, but it would not include the traffic jams or the dirt roads or the animal carcasses or more traffic jams.

A passport to be proud of!!!!

I applied and had been issued my first DIPLOMATIC passport this week. For some reason, every time I think about it, I remember the scene at the end of Lethal Weapon 2, in which the official from the apartheid-era South African Consulate in L.A. claims diplomatic immunity after shooting Riggs (Mel Gibson), and is subsequently shot by Murtaugh (Danny Glover)?
Scene goes like this:


[Rudd shoots Riggs, then holds his ID in front of his face]
Ambassador Arjen 'Aryan' Rudd: Diplomatic immunity!
[Murtaugh shoots him through the ID/head]
Roger Murtaugh: It’s just been revoked!

Here’s the lesson that guy should have learned first: Diplomats don’t enjoy diplomatic immunity when they’re shooting at police officers.


The diplomatic immunity is a product of a practice between the Italian city-states in the Renaissance of exchanging permanent embassies. The idea is that diplomats serving in foreign countries are immune to the laws of their host countries. The idea rests on the principle of reciprocity: You protect my diplomats in your country, and I’ll protect yours serving in my country. And every state has an incentive to have ambassadors serve in other capitals to represent its interests, so each state should see to it that the principle of diplomatic immunity continues to thrive.

It also reminded me of bitter debate in the country I was born in, Romania. A very popular Romanian musician, Teo Peter, (I grew up listening to his music) was killed in a traffic accident in Bucharest in a very early morning of December 2004 when an U.S. Marine embassy guard, drove his Ford SUV through a red light and into a taxi carrying Peter. The American was drunk. He was given a breathalyzer test at the scene which confirmed his drunken state, but since he was a guard at the embassy, he had diplomatic immunity and was allowed to leave the scene. The Romanians requested that the U.S. government lift his immunity, but the U.S. refused to drop his immunity and lifted him out of Romania to Germany. To make things worse, the whole incident came only a year after the Iraq invasion, so we definitely didn’t need the story.


I also remember a similar incident years prior, one in which the U.S. found itself on the other side. On January 3, 1997, a Georgian diplomat, Makharadze, was driving home in DC after heavy drinking when he killied a 16-year-old girl. The Georgian Embassy reminded U.S. authorities of his diplomatic immunity, and he tried to flee the U.S., but under heavy U.S. pressure, Georgian President Shevardnadze waived Makharadze's diplomatic immunity in order to maintain good relations with the U.S. The judge at the trial called Shevardnadze’s decision "courageous." And it was.

Anyway, having my black American Diplomatic passport definitely fills my heart with joy and pride!!!!!

And the winner is: Bangladesh!!!!!!!!!

I volunteered for my first assignment and expressed my desire to go to Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Reasons?

I joined USAID because the organization represented my personal culture – to whom much is given, much is expected. Bangladesh has attracted my interest because of development challenges it is facing and the opportunities it presents. I wanted to be part of the exciting times that are transforming the country.


We’ll be living in Dhaka for two years starting next January. First things that come into mind about Bangladesh? Poverty, hunger, overcrowding, natural disasters, corruption, political riots! The country is the most densely populated in the world. There are over 160 million people (half the US population) living in an area the size of Iowa. Nevertheless, we are all really excited about it, even though we are aware of the challenges. After all, this why gave up our comfortable life to take the unknown road.

On top of it, we never set foot in Asia and to quote one of the most famous Bangladeshi ever, Rabindranath Tagore: “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page”.

Saying good bye

We always thought that it would be very hard to say goodbye ... and it was hard. Yet we considered ourselves fortunate to have met so many special people ... that it made saying goodbye so hard!



We will miss everybody dearly and we will remember them fondly. Although we may be separated by time and distance in the interim, nothing will diminish the important role that our Michigan friends and family  have and always will play in our lives. We wish all of them the best and hoped to keep in touch, and who knows, maybe they would visit us in Africa, South America or Asia, or wherever we might be.

The party we threw was the best we ever had. And my brother surprised us by coming announced from Alabama on a very short notice.

My Ursus soccer teammates!

Foreign Service Hiring Process

My agency, USAID  uses the Foreign Service classification system. The USAID Foreign Service Officers are not required to take the Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT)., but after that the process is somehow similar to the State Department.

For me it all began on their website, which is filled with all sorts of information about the Foreign Service,  the different positions and the current open position. You can apply for an open position, it requires you write multiple answers to questions on experience related to several skills.

If you are selected, somebody will contact you and invite you for an interview in Washington DC. There are three components in the Oral Assessment  a Case Study (this requires you writing a memo in response to a case situation relevant to the position), a Group Exercise (this one can be a little awkward, as you are required to develop a solution to the case study with the candidates you are competing against), and a Structured Interview with a panel made up by of a Human Resource person, a Foreign Service Officer, and a Technical expert. After the Oral Assessment I went home day and waited for almost a month to receive a response on whether I was accepted. They followed up with references that you provide and your package of your scoring from the interview, your experience, and your reference responses will be forwarded to a final panel for determination.

Security/Medical Clearance Process
The successful candidates will begin a preemployment process. You need to obtain a Security Clearance and Medical Clearance. Expect the process to take several months.

Final Suitability Review/Position Availability
Once these hurdles are cleared, you will be on their register or list of eligible candidates. Cleared candidates are grouped by their backstop and then often rank-ordered. A panel will then review the eligible candidates and make their selection on those to appoint.

There is a forum where many people discuss the USAID Foreign Service:

http://federalsoup.federaldaily.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4834&PN=1&title=usaid-junior-officer

The State Department hiring process is  fairly similar. The main exception is the Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT) being the first step to the process. After passing the OA, the process is the same like the one for USAID.

The process is explained on their Website:
http://careers.state.gov/officer/selection-process

State Department's positions are more general. State has 5 main career ladders or "cones". Every cone though will have to do a tour or two doing Consular work which means issuing visas for foreigners or assisting Americans abroad.

FSOT & Language Test
While filling in your basic information in the application, you will also have the opportunity to indicate whether you have any language capabilities. After completing the application, you have to select a test date to take the FSOT.

After taking the test, if you indicated you had a language skill, you may be requested to do an over the phone language test as you will receive bonus points to your score in the end if you pass the OA.

Qualifications Evaluation Panel (QEP)
If you pass the FSOT, you will be invited to the QEP stage. There will be questions on experience and you will have to provide a short answer response on that. After providing your response to these questions, your file will be sent to the Board of Examiners and they will categorize you based off your selected cone and review candidate profiles based off their QEP responses, their FSOT score, language proficiency, etc. This will take another month or two.

Oral Assessment (OA)
There are three components: the Group Exercise, Case Study, and Structured Interview. After the day of testing is complete, State provides immediate feedback of whether you will move on or not. Candidates will be placed in a room and called out. If you are not successful, you will be greeted by two of the examiners and be given a file with your results for the day and be given the chance to ask any questions.

If you are successful, then you will begin the clearance process and eventually be placed on a register for eligible hires.

Why the name of the blog?

It's been almost seventeen years now since Cristina and I arrived on the Promised Land.
We can remember even now, very clearly, how scared we were. As time went by, we realized that on top of our wonderful family we had something very precious there. Friends! Despite the fact of being in a foreign country, having friends has provided us with the support network we needed to feel home. Now, why are we writing all these sentimental memories? Because, the news is, I have become a career diplomat and we are heading away, so this is a farewell letter!
Why diplomacy?
We have always been proud for achieving our dream to become Americans. I grew up with my grandfather pointing to the skies and reassuring me that one day the Americans will come. This was thirty plus years after the WWII was over and the poor old man had lost everything he had worked so hard for, but he kept his hope. Every week, granpa would pull out his worthless titles for the land that had been taken away from him and would read them again and again with tears in his eyes.
While there are many people who admire our nation, there are a vicious few who would see it destroyed. For some situations, military action may be the appropriate response. For many others, diplomacy is called for. That’s where we think we can make a difference. Because we have been so blessed to be a part of this nation, we feel it is time to give something back. We’ve had a lifelong interest in cultures and languages, creating in us a compelling desire to get to know many others. We’ve wondered if
there was a way to serve our adoptive country while satisfying our desire to get to know other people and cultures. Conditions may be rough, the assignments may not always be glamorous, and the welcome may not be warm for an American on foreign soil, which will deepen our appreciation for our homeland and challenge us to reach out and find common ground. Who could ask for a better opportunity?
Are we having a midlife crisis? Why would we give up this comfortable life here to take the unknown road?
We asked ourselves these questions: What do we care about? What ideals are we willing to commit to? We believe that every one of us has and will have unique opportunities to make a difference, if only in small and quiet ways. A successful life is about spotting those opportunities and acting on them. The only mistake one can make is to ignore the quest, to settle for an ordinary life, to just look out for Number One, to live and die without ever having made a difference. We’re not talking about becoming Mother Theresa, but just about merely trying to better the lives of others.
Poet Mary Oliver asked this question, "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" This is the most important question any of us will ever ask ourselves. We decided to challenge ourselves to act, to be of service, to let our life become as meaningful as it is meant to be.
And like Dacia wrote in a school essay: "All we can hope for is that somewhere in a small village, in a foreign country, there is a small boy with his grandfather hoping and praying for our arrival"