Thursday, September 22, 2005
22-Sept, 2005 5:45 pm Baghdad
thurs.
I'll keep it quick since the electricity is out and the internet cafe is on generator. i'm down the street in central baghdad blogging from a public cafe.
20-sept after arriving in baghdad via the airport, we met up with the permanent cpt team here, had a couple of briefings and then headed out for our first appointment, after lunch. we visited sayyid ali, the immam of the shrine of kazimayah. you may have read about the many people who died in that part of the city last week in the accident over the bridge. this imman is one of the major figures in the shi'ia community and follows ayatolla sistani. first night in baghdad.
21-sept during a.m. we visited the al dora electrical plant, the largest in baghdad, to learn about what's going on in electrical production. although we had a scheduled meeting with the plant manager and everything was arranged, we were challenged by us forces guarding the plant who say 'we are in charge' before we could get through to out meeting. good meeting, lots of stats about the current power generation, past, and future plans. only 2 of 4 units are currently operating .... this long after the us invasion. before 1991 iraq had a production of 9,600 mwz and only neded 7,500 mwz for the entire country. today the need is for 10-12,000 mwz but only 5,500 is being produced. complaints about lack of parts and (still) no money to buy them with. as soon as al dorah's 2 other units are back online they need to take the others offline to fix.
overhead i can hear us choppers.
thurs.
I'll keep it quick since the electricity is out and the internet cafe is on generator. i'm down the street in central baghdad blogging from a public cafe.
20-sept after arriving in baghdad via the airport, we met up with the permanent cpt team here, had a couple of briefings and then headed out for our first appointment, after lunch. we visited sayyid ali, the immam of the shrine of kazimayah. you may have read about the many people who died in that part of the city last week in the accident over the bridge. this imman is one of the major figures in the shi'ia community and follows ayatolla sistani. first night in baghdad.
21-sept during a.m. we visited the al dora electrical plant, the largest in baghdad, to learn about what's going on in electrical production. although we had a scheduled meeting with the plant manager and everything was arranged, we were challenged by us forces guarding the plant who say 'we are in charge' before we could get through to out meeting. good meeting, lots of stats about the current power generation, past, and future plans. only 2 of 4 units are currently operating .... this long after the us invasion. before 1991 iraq had a production of 9,600 mwz and only neded 7,500 mwz for the entire country. today the need is for 10-12,000 mwz but only 5,500 is being produced. complaints about lack of parts and (still) no money to buy them with. as soon as al dorah's 2 other units are back online they need to take the others offline to fix.
overhead i can hear us choppers.
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