Building Capacity, One Citizen at a Time

It is last Friday afternoon, and all the top-ranking people have left just left the classroom. Those that remain are all dirty and smelly, either covered in the fine grey "charcoal" dust of our earlier chemical-decontamination training, or the burning-lemon scent of the industrial-strength wipes we mistakenly used to attempt cleansing ourselves of the charcoal. It is a beautiful Iowa spring day just outside the armory door, and even the brigade S2 (Intelligence) officer giving us the briefing says he can practically smell the beer he has stashed back in his hooch.

We are getting the once-over-the-world counterinsurgency (COIN) brief. The uppity-ups and muckity-mucks got to leave early this training day, but they'll get theirs later, when they attend the full-bore three-days-or-more "COIN Academy."

We few, we happy, non-chai-tea-drinking few, will drink it all in, in less than 60 minutes.

The PowerPoint slides tell of varying levels of insurgency, offering relevant historical examples of each, and relating them to recent (anything in the last 50 years) political situation in Afghanistan. The briefing also heavily quotes U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal's recent counterinsurgency guidance.

I've got something of a reputation for asking questions. Sometimes, I'm trying to be smart. Other times, I'm trying to get smart.

And then, there are the times that I'm trying to make a point.

A Friday afternoon of an over-long week of training, stuck in a dark room on a beautiful sunny spring day, while swimming in our own lemony-fresh filth is probably not the best time to ask, "Where are the civilians in all this talk?"

I do anyway.

The Junior JAG ("Judge Advocate General"--an Army lawyer) says that the military is there because we're the ones who can secure the environment and set-up civil-structures quickly. "The hippies in the civilian agencies and NGOs [Non-governmental Organizations] take too long to get there," she says. "And after they get there, they want to take 50 years to get things done."

A crusty and wise warrant officer reminds the class that the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (P.R.T.) are now under a more-unified command. The 160-person PRT are multi-disciplinary, multi-agency, civil-military units that focus on helping Afghans extend the reach and influence of the central government.

Despite the room's grumpy vibe, I'm able to help steer the conversation back to some brief and pithy points. Granted, what little I know about civil affairs and capacity-building I've learned as a grassroots neighborhood activist. I've also been a homeowners association board member (a suburban jirga!). I also have a little book-learning about consensus-building and community planning from some studies in architecture school.

So, here's a World of COIN According to Sherpa:

1) The "hippies" are right, counselor. Counterinsurgency fights are decades-long.
2) In order for the military to focus on what we do best, we need more civilian experts downrange.
3) We also need to engage more civilians at home, to help bring changes we all desire to Afghanistan and surrounds.

My blogger-buddy Jeff Courter recently attended a Chicago-area fund- and awareness-raiser with "Three Cups of Tea" author Greg Mortenson. Mortenson, a former mountaineer, started the privately funded Central Asia Institute (CAI) to help build non-religious schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We need more Greg Mortensons.

Through Courter, I've been introduced via e-mail to Dallas-area businessman John Stettler. Stettler's actively supporting a number privately funded efforts aimed at building awareness, capacity building, and helping people. (Check out War Kids Relief site for one example.) Not only that, he's thoughtfully attempted to gather interested parties following this coming Saturday's (17 April 2010) Dallas-Fort-Worth-area World Affairs Conference.

The theme of the 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. symposium is "Afghanistan: The Next Phase." The list of speakers is impressive--and even includes U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey, Jr. I just wish any "next phase" discussion would also include the potential and necessity of private, civilian solutions within the COIN fight.

We need to find ways that we can address the political, strategic, humanitarian, and infra-structural problems in and surrounding Afghanistan. We can continue to address them through our military, but this is only a partial and short-term solution. We can address them through our governmental agencies. We can address them as private citizens, through donations, through awareness campaigns, through non-governmental or non-profit organizations.

We build capacity by building relationships. If you'd like to connect with John Stettler regarding this weekend--or taking part in a larger conversation about building positive change in the world--please do so at:

jmplastinc (AT) aol.com
972-636-9555

Tell him Sherpa sent you.

I'm a Fan of the J-bad FabLab

Given my musings about making (manufacturing?) organizational change the past couple of days, I thought I'd take a moment to mention an interesting experiment in fabrication and communication happening in Jalalabad, Afghanistan (aka "J-bad," at least according to some buddies who have been there). The whole FabLab movement involves a loosely connected worldwide network of small manufacturing shops to custom-build needed technology and design solutions at a local level.

Wow. That was a mouthful of jargon. Let me try again: FabLabs design and build cool stuff cheap, in order to effect change at a local level. Here in the American Midwest, there are examples at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, as well as one up in Wisconsin.

But, like I said above, it's also reaching all the way to Afghanistan.

Blogger Kanani Fong, who writes variously on military and mil-spouse issues, the writer's craft, and the art and business of fashion--along with her armed-and-dangerous-civilian buddies at Free Range International--has been relaying the story of how a couple of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) faculty and students have been, among other things, installing a Wi-Fi network in Jalalabad. Apparently, these "FabFi" types have been beating the technological pants off of better-funded efforts by more-established agencies.

As an architectural geek, I've always daydreamed about hooking up with a multidisciplinary, purposeful design effort--like Samuel Mockbee's Rural Studio, Stanley Tigerman's Archeworks, or Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr's Architecture for Humanity.

As a technology and communications guy for the U.S. Army, I'm also really digging the technological character of the J-bad project.

And, of course, there's the appeal of a hands-on, do-it-yourself, be-the-change, think-global-act-local approach to solving the world's problems.

In other words, I think I'm an Afghan FabLab and FabFi Fan.

Go to Fong's blog to see how you might be able to help the Afghan FabLab by donating books via Amazon.