The Foreign Service Journal, January 2007

C O V E R S T O R Y 30 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 7 Guayaquil, because of a disconnect with the embassy. Financial problems abounded and the consulate always got the short end of the stick. But I understand some of these issues have changed for the better. Helsinki — Endless summer days and endless winter nights; hard to adjust to. Islamabad. Security, high stress, isolation, high work- load. Istanbul. There is a disconnect between the “tourist” lit- erature and the daily existence in the city/country. One is unable to walk safely around the city (without fear of being mugged, harrassed or conned). When you are in a town where you are advised not to ride public transportation for fear of a bomb, you should get danger pay — which we don’t. It’s a toss-up between Oslo and Santo Domingo. Neither was ade- quately funded or supported by their respective bureaus. Bad schools. Oslo has only a very poor English-system school. Jakarta, for the pollution, traffic and very limited work opportunities for spouses. Also, the embassy communi- ty is split geographically and resources go almost exclusively to those living near the American Club. Kiev was the worst. Housing was atrocious and the embassy was worse. My wife almost left me because of working conditions. The school was really bad. Kingston: Poor management, lack of transparency and a tendency for tenured officers to push more duties on to untenured. Kinshasa. Stressful, too many micromanagers and not enough autonomy. No jobs for spouses. Lagos. High crime rates; poor health conditions (inter- nal parasites, TB, cholera, malaria, etc); dangerous travel, whether driving or flying; miserable climate. Lilongwe. The security situation was abysmal, yet State and USAID billed it as a family post. Also, post manage- ment was not family-friendly in the slightest. Schooling was also terrible. London. The embassy was large and impersonal, and one had the feeling that the FSNs ran the place instead of the American supervisors. Maputo — poor morale because of weak leadership, both within USAID and State. My current post, Muscat. Why? Because we are 50 percent below full staffing, so we are drowning in paper- work and suffer from the high number of hours we have to put in every week. New Delhi. Oppressive poverty, disease and health con- cerns, unpleasant climate, filth and environmental degrada- tion, noise and congestion. Port-au-Prince: disastrously bad management, horrible living conditions, country in a tailspin. Reykjavik — poor morale and winter darkness, plus it’s so expensive you cannot live on the local economy even with the COLA. It’s also boring for teens. Riyadh, because of the constant threat of terrorism and the accompany- ing stringent security restrictions, plus the onerous restrictions placed on women. Tijuana has been a disappointing post so far. Post management has been slow to respond to spousal employment issues and the needs of junior officers. Tripoli. The department went about establishing the post in haphazard fash- ion, and ignored the post’s pleas for help after the new employees arrived there. Local conditions also left much to be desired. We in Baghdad received no support from State while working at the Coalition Provisional Authority, whether force protection, personal body armor or the armored vehi- cles necessary to do our jobs. And when the embassy formed, those of us who were seconded to DOD were treat- ed like outsiders and continued to receive very little support from the embassy. Yaounde had no mail service when I was there because of the anthrax scare. It was difficult to travel because of bad roads and plentiful traffic accidents. There were limited cul- tural options, and it was hard to connect with local people of equivalent social/economic status. There was no ability to repair anything, no Internet access for almost my entire tour, and poor medical care. Yerevan: A two-year camping trip, without heat or elec- tricity. Worst Posts • Continued from page 28 It’s a toss-up between Oslo and Santo Domingo. Neither was adequately funded or supported by their respective bureaus.