Basrah Diaries

The Financial Controller Let us call him Ahmed Hafiz.     An unusual character- moody. Quiet disposition but prone to being feisty esp on emails. Also keeps dropping the md's name for every little thing. Last time he didnt have his way he threatened to escalate to mark. Also andrew ..and then simon. What is he thinking? I have never escalated anything in shell since my first run in with maurice liew in shell singapore. The lesson i had learnt is that no good ever comes from an escalation . It states that 2 individuals cannot agree on a decision and therefore someone else must decide for them. Frankly, the decision is what both the individuals are paid to do. Others can do it but then they would not need you. Maurice and i had a war of words between us but we managed to bury the hatchett. We never became friends but we could exchange a pleasantry and a half if someone put a gun to our head. Our professional paths rarely crossed after that.  GB is another animal. Incre...

As I lay on my bed in Block 2-Room 11, in the campat khor al zubair, a distant memory came rushing in ..seemingly out of nowhere. But while the analysis of why it came could wait, I thought it best to pen the memory itself. Kenneth Charles Ryan (KC Ryan).. Ex quarterback for univ notre dame now salesman extraordinaire for spx contech ( pronounced contetch by kartik) . He used to be the main man for our business with Daimler Chrysler. We would visit the chrysler headquarters in Auburn Hills , Michigan- that really elegant north detroit suburb. The office was out of this planet for a car maker. Sleek as hell- futuristic with the then in vogue gangster car strewn randomly across the corridoor. I forget the name ( PT Cruiser? ). I had wanted one but could never get beyond the predictable and pragmatic toyota corolla. My first as well as second car- need to tell the story about the demise of my first car. ( btw, now I drive a beautiful and german Audi Q7 SUV).  I looked forward to these...

Leadership has to be value based and not normative- as complexity increases, rule books cannot be all encompassing and cannot keep up with the rate of exponential change. Therefore you need values and emanating from those values are the ethical considerations which are part and parcel of your interiority- that has to be the guiding force- and to me it is the only way forward. Which then means that leaders need to be compassionate people and not power hungry megalomaniacs- which is a change from the last century- and you see the tech industry already reflecting what I feel is a larger impending phenomenon.    Where Indians in particular, but all developing countries within a democratic set up in general have a leg up over their counterparts is that these folks have had first-hand experience dealing with inequality and systematic macro-inequities all their life. Therefore if you find someone within this mix with the right values, chances are that they are the real deal. It is ba...

Where Ability is only superseded by credibility and reliability Where Actions speak louder than words Where Values always trump Affiliations Where one’s    Personal Brand obviates ostentatious marketing campaign Where Peer pressure expedites collaboration instead of petulance Where Leaders are able to read between the slides Where true Talent is delivered from sub-optimal survival tactics Where Dignity and Respect is guarded by Soldiers, not Sentinels Where hr departments are largely a force of good Into that heaven of Freedom, my father Let my company awake

After a weekend where I did not feel relaxed and it was visible to the wife as well, here I am back on the road to khor al zubair. And I am wondering where do I go from here? I want to exit but still feel like there is one last punch remaining in me. An opportunity where I can give these naysayers something to remember. I played PKs rant back in my head almost in a continuous loop- and then began my beautifully framed repartees- well considered and well articulated coming back at him- except I was talking to myself in my backyard with a smoke in my hand. And this was obviously not the first time I reacted this way when jerked around by power. I often wanted to punch back at power- but failed every time- the dominance hierarchy that has been ingrained in our genes for 300 million years of life ( it exists even in crustaceans) kept making me shrink and bring forth considerations of fear- that I - and by extension those in my care- could somehow be harmed if I spoke my mind to power. ...

The trap of second comings They say that the second coming is never quite the same as the first- and the incandescence of the first time in any successful endeavour is a tough act to follow. Parallels particularly present themselves from the rock music industry where there is a band that brilliantly bursts into the scene and produces some magic on their first album- never to quite repeat that ever again. Infact , our own bangla band in Singapore was a bit like that. In 2011 no one expected much from a pot pourri of amateurs that were only marginally bengali or even Indian to begin with but who took the stage innocuously at 9.30 pm on Nabami Night. What followed were some high quality renditions of familiar band songs. It left many people in the audience in awe- not just entertained. Bengalis are notoriously squeamish about offering any praise in matters beyond their ken. Music was one of those subjects where they , generally speaking, could be said to profess some degree of knowledge t...

Ridiculous call with Paul Kalsbeek Write the story in detail…. (Exchange of pleasantries) Fe I: Well I had applied to the gm-1 roles but they were announced weeks ago therefore I know I did not make the cut . I would have thought I may have some opportunity within the entire space of MSC-because if not MSC then what? P: (suddenly tensing up) I am picking up an undertone that says Shell owes you a job- now that is a dangerous thing. If that is what you are thinking, it is really dangerous I: not sure why you are picking that up. No one owes me anything- all I meant was I think I have a compelling case for a role in MSC. It is an area of strength not just for the experience of my current role but also my previous experiences which dovetail together to form what I would say a unique narrative in support of my candidature. And given my experience, education and track record you cannot blame me for thinking that I am a deserving candidate surely. P: ( reverting to details of the Oman interv...

This is the first week where I felt I was entering my final leg- the final countdown had begun. My assignment of a lifetime was coming to an end- my boss announced my farewell party a good several weeks before I actually would leave for good. Martin left Iraq yesterday for the last time to take on his next assignment in Trinidad. I simply had to wind down over christmas and do a handover to my successor in January before I left mespotamia for good sometime in early february to settle into my new gig in dubai. There were no locals that showed up this week - same as last week. Today they did show up only to be evacuated by 11 am- as there was a rumour that roads would be blocked again and there would be more protests. Iraq’s arab spring looks like it has arrived    though perhaps 5 years too late. This is a land of 40 million people with median age 20. And it is no coincidence either. All the older people were pretty much driven to extinction by conflict starting in the 1970s - ...

On the flight back after another rough week. Last year I had done 3 jobs and still landed a slightly above average ipf. This year I bequeathed procurement to Stuart but still hung on to freight forwarding. I was dissatisfied enough to get rid of both but then i thought well maybe this time I will have a different boss who might recognize my efforts and reward me accordingly. However my new boss has his own methods of coming up with the ratings and it depends on feedback from stakeholders. As it happens some of that feedback is very negative. That is surprising- people generally dont hate me. I must be doing something different! I cant wait to hear the feedback.    But on a heavier, more practical note, it may spell the end of a career in Shell. One poor ipf and i am toast- in this day and age, and given the structural disadvantages I have around skin colour and passport, it is not likely to get me to the next level and I can either hang around at this level or just leave grace...

Martin mentioned that he was in dubai    on a sunday and was asked by hr to be the travel buddy of this new malaysian guy who was starting out at bgc. Hence both martin and this chap would be travelling into basrah on monday on new visas. Lets call him Van. Van came over to meet martin at his desk and incidentally was carrying all his paperwork- visas, work permits, oilfield passes - everything in triplicate. Martin was amused and advised him that only one copy was required at basrah airport.    Van smiled and said he felt better carrying the extra copies just in case. Also required coming in on    a new iraqi visa was the precise sum of usd 202 to be rendered to some obscure iraqi person in a box at the airport immigration. Martin remembered this and promptly withdrew said amount from the atm at the bottom of the office. The next day these guys breezed thru the dubai airport and after a short flight landed in basrah without any fuss. Martin and van stood i...

A few weeks ago a further and more drastic headcount reduction was announced.    "It will be 40 pc of our expat workforce on average" said Simon with a composure that seemed rehearsed. One never knows what to make of such leaders- is he    sad? Is he indifferent? Does he feel accountable? All irrelevant matters. What mattered is that 40 percent were going home. Most of these were from the Projects department which was to lose 60 pc. The bgc LT had met a few weeks into march and each lt member representing his department was asked to volunteer some staff to be let go. Most of the members were either humane enough, man enough or professional enough to defend every member of their team with as much gusto as they could muster. save one...a mark denneny, c and p manager. Just like during the last round of cuts, he offered to sacrifice more of his soldiers than was necessary.    In particular there were two chaps he didn't care for- ahmed abdul razek, the Egyptia...

Abrar was on the bus this morning. He was asked to be based in dubai in the new year but was now being asked to fly in to iraq again. It wasnt clear if he was going to be based 50pc in iraq or just conduct business travel. There is the difference in net compensation - per diems are gathered which are not spent since all meals and hotels are paid for. I thought about the reorg in the materials and transport department again. Much as i wanted i could not avoid this. It just came back to me repeatedly and astounded me each time. The decision making around how many    as well as the mix of people to sack, relegate to dubai and keep as status quo was confounding. The reasoning was exaggeratedly specious. Yet there was no mechanism to challenge it.    Several routes were considered ( detail adds here). I am often complaining about how the opposition party in the indian parliament is an arbitrary blocker to any initiative that is tabled by the bjp. I now saw why this was no...