Pause and Rewind: Guilty Posing with a Gun

Noone likes to get called out. And it's tough when you're also doing a job of trying to save the world which makes you feel holier-than-thou, to have a website which several times a week brings you down: www.stuffexpataidworkerslike.com

Once a week I return from a meeting in a local partners office, a focus group discussion on the floor of some village hut, or a long buffet lunch from one of the big hotels downtown, to log on and find out what other characteristic, habit or trait I share with every other single person in my profession, ready to be taken down a notch. 

The best one yet was the post: Posing with Guns

For the younger, more red-blooded EAW male (and for others who would never dare admit it) one of the attractions of working in a conflict zone will be the abundance of weaponry on display. Invariably from Europe, where gun control is strictly enforced, the newly arrived EAW will play it cool and refrain from ogling the local army or militia’s firearms too much. Over time, a few pics will appear on Facebook featuring the EAW standing next to men with guns. These will progress to pictures where the EAW is actually holding a gun (although he or she will be sure to hold the gun ‘ironically’).

You can literally taste the irony

Guilty. Though this photo was taken in 2008, when on holiday in Southern India and going on a jungle trek. I think the gun was carried for dramatic effect by the park guard whom we had to pay to "guide" us, and possibly to shoot the leeches which my cotton galoshes proved useless against. The worst part is that not only did I pose with the gun (and typically fail to keep my eyes open),  but I also did a very bad  impersonation of the then-alive Saddam Hussein. I have no idea why? I wasn't even wearing a fedora, nor can I grow a moustache. Looking at the photo it was probably because my gun closely resembled the one he used for one-handed-firing-at-public-gatherings.

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