"Need fast cash? If You Crave Professional Challenges-Spend a Yr In Iraq."

[kpete]

Invitation to a Cordial Iraq



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The Agency for International Development's Office of Acquisition and Assistance is encouraging its host country employees -- such as Peruvians working for AID in Peru -- to apply for jobs in Iraq.

"Need fast cash?" the in-house e-mail asks. "If you crave professional challenges and your family will let you . . . spend a year in Iraq."

The ad lists many benefits, such as 25 percent danger pay and "nowhere to spend money here in the international zone." It also gives you "a chance to clean up other people's messes, and create some of your own."

There are "personal and social" advantages to working in Iraq, the e-mail notes. "Tired of being called a bore? Acquire some new hobbies like salsa, bridge and belly dancing." What's more, you can "get buff" at the "excellent gym facilities, and a large swimming pool complex adjacent to the mission." This is in addition to maid service, "completely furnished two-room houses . . . a queen-sized bed."

And you can "fulfill your childhood dream of riding in a helicopter!" (Assuming you don't get hit by ground fire.) The jocular tone may have unsettled some folks, however, since those being encouraged to apply could be from places in Africa, such as Senegal, Malawi, Benin and Zimbabwe, where local employees may be let go as a result of budget cutbacks to pay for efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The light tone was intended to "generate a little interest" in the openings, an AID official said. "There are no net job losses," he added, though jobs are "shifting based on reprogramming needs."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/05/AR2006030500819.html