Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Cowboy Karma

I’ve mentioned some of the minor inconveniences of getting around and doing the simple things in life. It’s part of the daily life here, the confinement, the restrictions, the patronizing-like attitude by superiors...all of which are necessary and, in my better moments, appreciated.

That said; my misanthropy is in full gear. I’m trying to keep it at just that and not direct it towards specific persons that have thrown up some hurdles for me in getting out of town. As I’ve said before, I’m off to India—two nights in Delhi (in transit), and a few nights in Goa. I’ll get there eventually, that’s for sure...well I hope. I especially hope I’m there on Tuesday afternoon. See I was originally booked for the flight on Thursday. But this little conflagration over some comics escalating (I was going to do a post about that, but I care more about beaches right now than Muslim political culture), compounded with the Shi’a holiday where they self-flagellate (and the violence that erupted in Iraq on that day) this Thursday, my scheduled flight out is a no go for me. We’re on lockdown, our security personnel being quite precautious.

In a recent post VP has started writing a taxonomy of aid and development workers. Though I most squarely fall in the "mercenary" category, given my salary as a private sector contractor, I suggested another category for a lot of the "mercenaries" here, that of Cowboy. It’s not that I’m here just for the money and career advancement, it’s partly the wanderlust, the recklessness of it all, being in a post-conflict zone, etc, etc.

That attitude, that is somewhat common here, especially among the literal mercenaries, is part of the reason I pushed for this opportunity. It also explains my brazen and cavalier attitude towards the above-mentioned aspects of life here. You know: trivial difficulties don’t phase me—I got a job to do dammit—bombs going off, grenades being tossed, kidnappings, beheadings...eh—I’m off to sleep, wake me when the day begins. That attitude.

So it’s come to bite me in the ass now. I’m guessing its karma for my hubris (though I cant have, nor claim that much hubris. I’m no soldier, nor literal mercenary, nor a national who travels around with out a shooter and armed escort vehicle. Thank you security folks.) So rather, my karma is probably coming from my dismissive attitude, and my unjustly adopting the cowboy attitude.

I’m off to the airport on Tuesday. I’ve been remiss in posting. I’ll be even more remiss in the coming days, hopefully. Oh I hope I get on that flight...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Okay okay okay. I have a mighty confession for Kabulog readers. Twas MY sheer stupidity / naivete / incompetence that cause Quasim to pick the highly political Day of Ashurah as the day for departure. So twas me that was the deliverer of karmic forces.

And pfffttt.... isn't it sacrilegious for a Muslim to be talking about karma anyway? Isn't karma the domain of Non-People of The Book like my own Buddhist arse?

quasim said...

VP,
How many times are you going to force me to say that I'm equally at fault for not checking the dates you chose.

You being the Bhuddist arse can tell me this, can one person's karma fall on another? Isn't that kinda antithetical to the point of karma?

Sacrilege is the new black. And I'm jumping on the bandwagon.

Anonymous said...

My Buddhist arse says:

Karma is about cause and effect. Simple as that. It is not about sin nor guilt nor punishment nor deliverance. So one does not own karma. So if one does not own karma, your question of 'can one person's karma fall on another' has no meaning.

And arse here is a body part, not 'ass', as in description of a person. And I hope you have a sound appreciation of my Buddhist arse.

But sacrilege is so passe. So three months ago.

quasim said...

I'm tempted to start taking issue, but i'll back off...it was going to be contesting your use of "own" along the lines of intellectual property/thought "ownership".

So the "arse", I was taking to mean neither of your suggested readings, but rather the animal. Figured the Hindus have a cow, why not give the Buddhists a donkey...

Anonymous said...

What what? Intellectual property of karma?

Pffft... never known you to back off. You usually go for gold, no?

Hell, I didn't know you had an affection for Buddhist donkeys. Well, each to their own, and all.