The Working Poor, Uganda, and Blackwater (AKA 'Xe')

The second part of The Working Poor, pages 70-140, delves into the aspect of corporations and individuals taking advantage of poor people in America (bad wages, bad hours, hostile working enviornment, etc).  The whole second part reminds me of an experience I once had.

Al Asad, Iraq, 2007.

It was130 degrees outside and a young Michael was doing guardduty outside a hospital in Al Asad, Iraq.  His shift was six hours on, six hours off, six hours on, and six hours off.  He was loaded with an eight pound m16, three pound kevlar helmet, and a two pound gas mask.  Also conducting guardduty at the same time and place, where Ugandan soldiers who were part of the Multinational force in Iraq.  "How's it going?" One of the Uganda soldiers asked.  Michael said nothing, instead he stared straight ahead.  Michael's refusal to respond wasn't personal, in fact he enjoyed talking to the Ugandan's while on guardduty, his refusal to respond to the greeting was an order.  A few days prior, an order had come down from his command that "No soldiers are allowed to talk to the Uganda soldiers while on guardduty."  The order came down and the soldiers were perplexed by their commanders decision.  "Why can't we talk to them?"  "If we're on duty together for six hours, standing two feet next to each other, what are we going to do?"  "That's weird."  "Something's up."
The Uganda soldier looked at Michael, again he says "How's it going?"  Michael caves and ignoring orders, answers the man, "I'm doing good man, how about you?"  But before Michael can finish asking his question a Staff Seargeant pops out of nowhere. "Soldier," he said, "didn't you hear the order about not talking to the Ugandan's, don't let it happen again."  and just as quick as he appeared, the Staff Sergeant disappeared. 

Never one to be told what to do, and always looking to get into a little trouble, Michael decided to talk to the Ugandan's and see if perhaps he could get to the bottom of the why his entire unit was ordered not to talk to the Uganda military alies.  After several hours of conversation, Michael got to the bottom of the issue:

Blackwater (now known as Xe) was getting private security contractor deals from the U.S. government.  These deals were worth between hundreds of millions of dollars and billions of dollars.  Example:  The U.S. government would give blackwater 1 billion dollars to run security checkpoints on military instualations throughout Afghanistan and Iraq.  What Blackwater would then do is go to Uganda, load a bunch of people onto a bus a bring them to Iraq or Afghanistan.  Blackwater would then give these Ugandan's a gun and pay them a dollar a day to run the security checkpoints which they were paid a billion dollars to run.  "Do you know when I'll get to go home," one Ugandan asked Michael on that hot Iraqi day.  "No, what the hell are you talking about?" Michael replied.  "I've been here for over two years, and they won't tell me when I'm going home, I haven't talked to my family in forever and they worry about me.  When will I get to go home?"  "Beats the fuck out of me," Michael replied.  "What should I do with all of this?" The Ugandan said as he took out a wad of cash and waved it in Michael's face.  It turned out that not only was Blackwater taking these Ugandan's away from their families and not telling them what they'll be doing or how long they'll be away for, and not only do they have them working 14 hour days and getting paid only a dollar an hour, but Blackwater also insisted on paying the Ugandan's in cash, and since they didn't have access to checking accounts in the middle of Iraq, the Ugandan's carried around all their years of pay in their cargo pockets, never allowing it to leave their sites.  Point:  Blackwater gets a billion dollars to run security for a year, they use a few million to pay the Ugandan's for a year, and they keep the rest.


This example, is pretty much what the second half of the book is about.

Book Club - The working Poor.

The first thing that comes to mind when reading the book The Working Poor is that the author seems to paint a picture that poor people are idiots; and after the first seventy-seven pages, that is the only conclusion to be drawn.  The author--David Shipler--gives stories of poor people all across America.  The people are white, black, Asian, and Hispanic, they are maids, construction workers, drug addicts, alcoholics, and Walmart associates.  The author gives reasons of why certain people are poor, with the main reasons being they were from a poor family, or were middle class and married, and then became divorced and poor.  There are several stories and scenarios given in which poor people squander money and/or opportunities.  There were the dozens of families mentioned who were collecting welfare, yet, somehow were able to consistently pay ninety dollar cable bills, there were the stories of poor and struggling families, living pay-check-to-pay-check, who once they received their tax return they immediately bought a new TV or sofa.

Overall the book reminds me of a quote I once heard, the quote was somethings this:  "Two young brothers grew up in a broken home.  Their mother died when they were young, they were poor, and their father was an alcoholic who constantly beat and berated them.  Many years later when the young boys were both adults and in their thirties, a journalist interviewed them.  The first boy was a drug addict and alcoholic, and was severely in debt.  The journalist interviewed him and asked him, "why do you think you ended up the way you did?" to which the man replied.  "With my childhood, how can you expect me to be anything but a drug addict and alcoholic."  The journalist nodded, he then went and interviewed the other brother.  The other brother was a famous lawyer, he defended the weak and defenseless in court, and had written several best-selling books about being poor and becoming a famous high powered attorney.  The journalist asked him, "why do you think you ended up the way you did?"  to which he replied, "With my childhood, how can you expect me to do anything but help out the poor and defenseless.""

If the author's main point is to get the reader to dislike poor people, he is accomplishing his task.

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