Emancipations

Well, I just tried to brush my teeth with my hairbrush. It’s a good thing its Friday.

On the metro on the way home, I fell asleep, got disoriented and the only reason I didn’t not get off at my switching spot from leg one to leg two was because the train got held up there and after about 3 minutes of sitting on the stopped train asleep, I realized where we were and got off…prompting some puzzled looks from my co-travelers. Then I wandered around the metro station for a minute trying to figure out if I had done the second leg of the trip yet or not and if I was going to work or coming home. I figured it out eventually. It’s a good thing its Friday.

I started the morning by a mad attempt to get clearances from all semi-involved parties for a letter I wrote to Senator Brownback in response to a letter to Ambassador Hanford about a lady in China that was beaten to death after being arrested for distributing Bibles. I only had to get 5 people to approve the letter so I thought that would be easy. Unfortunately, people think that “clearing” a letter means editing it to sound the way they would have said it had they written it. Instead of limiting themselves to content changes or grammatical corrections, they insist upon making stylistic modifications. The problem with this, of course, is that I ended up with FIVE different versions of the same letter all saying the same exact thing only with five different styles. Then as the drafter it is my responsibility to decide which changes to accept and cross my fingers no one will get mad at me for sending a letter the ‘cleared with changes” that I then changed back… every phrase one person added, another person marked out… and it was SO pointless because the way I wrote the letter in the first place worked just as well! As a relatively skilled writer, I am accustomed to getting high grades on papers and few marks from the professor…with some exceptions. It is difficult for me not to take it personally and get emotional when someone writes me back attacking the letter because someone ELSE’S change created a situation where a word was getting used twice in one paragraph (heaven forbid!)…. ‘This is ridiculous. The word concern is used twice in one paragraph. Fix it and resend, I won’t even review something so unpolished.” …this is someone I’ve never even MET who is writing me a note like this. And the word was used twice because my supervisor inserted it a second time in her initial edits. AHHH… I’ve been told this is the worst thing about the State Department’s system: getting clearances. I understand the need for everyone to be on the same page regarding US policy. However, a simple 1.5 page letter should not take 1.5 days to get permission from everyone to send it over stupid stylistic preferences!! I finally got it out late in the day. It’s a good thing its Friday.

Someone I’ve found myself as the research director for the Saudi Arabia project. In the words of the ambassador, this is the biggest and boldest step the IRF office has ever taken. We’ve been given the evidence (or the opportunity to find it) that will allow us to hit them hard and force reforms. It’s very secretive in the office now because we’re quite certain we’ll meet big opposition from elsewhere in the building. No one wants to rock the boat. I’m just grateful the people I’m working with understand Islam and aren’t afraid to say that Islam in its basic pure form is violent; therefore, we have to understand that “extremist literature” with hate ideology is not coming from some deranged cleric, its coming from the Saudi Arabia (and other) government and its being consistently preached as true Islam—in opposition to the watered down version that so many want to espouse as peaceful. Anyway, today I went through a process of getting contacts in the CIA and interviewing them for information on this topic. Fun, no? It was somewhat challenging in that CIA agents don’t list their specialties in the yellow pages, and somewhat frustrating in that they don’t seem to know as much as I wish they did… but none-the-less…it was frontline research and I love that. Monday I tackle the FBI. Not literally though cause they’re armed. I have collected about 1000+ pages of paper in this research project thus far… my desk is a neatly organized but highly piled with stacks of red-binders. Just as I was about to leave work (almost early!) a press guidance came in…meaning someone in the press asked a question at the State Dept press conference today about the Dept’s response to the initial report on Saudi export of hate ideology which prompted this whole project. I got assigned to answer the question which meant going through the whole clearance project again (this time someone called me Jesus when they commented on the answer to the press question…and I think it was a joke but I didn’t get it?) Anyways, answering a press conference question was a first for me…hey-I could get quoted in the Post! Nah, that won’t happen cause I basically put them off so we have more time to draw conclusions before we tell them anything. Amazing how it can take so long to put together just a few words to put them off…but on the other hand, I’m hypersensitive to how things are worded after having my writing massacred this morning. Monday I have to put together a real answer which means we have to draw conclusions so we can share them. I feel trusted that I’ve been given this project (we have two other staff members that are also working full-time on this issue, but I’m the main research person) and I’m excited that the impact of this will probably be real and significant. I’m also feeling overwhelmed by the vastness of the unsorted and unanalyzed information that really makes this first hand research—verses reading research everyone else has already done. Today I ended up with a lead that dead-ended in a completely Arabic website. Altavista babblefish doesn’t translate Arabic =( If Arabic were more like Chinese I might be able to figure out the letters…you know… this one looks like a house with an apple on to so it must be the word for hospitality…. Jk…we do have a brand new employee who is also an Arabic translator in the office so I called him to the rescue. Monday I have to not only do more interviews and follow every lead I can get my hands on, I have to condense it all and brief Ambassador Hanford before he heads to a White House meeting. The task is more than a little overwhelming. Good thing it’s Friday.

I started my weekend with a shower and some chicken noodle soup. I have a cold and have been really congested so I thought that might help. Well, actually, I didn’t have any choice cause the cabinet was empty and I wasn’t going shopping tonight but hey, it might help the cold anyway =) I plan to work on my homework the rest of the night to try and get ahead so I won’t be doing it when I have company the last two weekends of the month…but I might fall asleep before I get much done. Good thing it’s Friday.

The rest of my weekend plans include an attempt at socialization. I want to try and get tickets to a big dance performance tomorrow night that is multiple interpretations of the creation story. Looked interesting and I figured I need some cultural enrichment while I’m living in a city where it’s available. I’m also tentatively planning on going to the church’s football game on the mall and super bowl party afterwards on Sunday. Doing more than a church service might help me build some relationships in the church, which I’ve really just been too busy and exhausted to do. Speaking of which, I better do something productive before sleep overwhelms me. At the risk of sounding annoying, it’s a really good thing its Friday.

E-Mail at: mailto:abbasdancer@yahoo.com