Shady is relative

After being in Afghanistan for a total of nine months (8 months the last time and currently 1 month) my shadar is getting pretty good. I have now experienced a level of shadiness in two very different countries. Korea was my first test. There I encountered the Adashady. He is very good at his craft. There are two types of his shadiness. The first lies with the Adashady who works for the U.S. Government. He and his posse usually occupy one building all day long and maybe do about thirty minutes worth of real work. For the other eight and half they are usually a) sleeping b) washing their clothes in the common laundry facility or c) all of the above. Oh they also read the paper too. Usually when someone who the Adashady thinks is in charge or could "turn them in" comes around they feign work. You also have the American contractors (shady with contractor is like the silent p in pneumonia) They are usually in Korea to get away from something and you never really know what they do. They usually work at MWR, teach English or consult.

Afghanistan, on the other hand brings a whole new angle to shady. The local Afghan is very similar to the Adashady. Like Adashady, the Afghan has perfected the art of napping and eating with a little work thrown in. This is where the similarities stop. Here local national Afghans have also perfected the art of shakedown and bribery that would make those in Vegas blush. Bribery is a past time over here. Bribery usually comes in the form of a local national attempting to bribe non local nationals . In once instance a local national contractor offered to fire his current work force and hire a new one at half price but keep the current contract in place and split the money with the non local national. In another scenario one local national is paid by a non local national. He exits his work place and he goes through a tax collection lines of sorts. Usually hands are outstretched and his hard earned cash rapidly diminishes. I wouldn't feel too sorry for this individual because again it is all relative. Today he is shaken down tomorrow he returns the favor, in some way or another.

Contractors in Afghanistan are also shady. Most of the contractors over here "train people" or consult. The Afghanistan contractor is usually found frequenting the PX, the haircut and sucking up free wireless at the USO. The letters K B and R usually appear somewhere on their clothing. Like in Korea I am certain these guys also have a story of some sort. In Afghanistan the contractor makes lots of money and is shady. That is quite a combination. Although my study in shadiness is not scientific it is comprehensive and informative none the less.