27 October - Tedium of Television

Wow. Three days without an update. Sorry to all of you that have been waiting for pictures of the gang here in Islamabad; and thanks to everybody that has been visiting the site. It really amazes me how many people tell other people to come and check out the Foxhole when a big trip is going on. As always, I'm more than happy to pass on messages and e-mails to the fine folks I'm working with here.

There hasn't been much pressing work the last couple of days. We are still awaiting a decision on wether or not we will be moving our dish to another location. We have build a decent settup for the "bureau" here, and have been working on making everything perfect and foolproof. Of course, this turns out to be a lot more work than it sounds like. It's just not pressing work; it's not about get it on the air now, it's about getting things as good as they can be. Which is what I call the tedium of television. There isn't much exciting about making sure stuff is running well. There isn't the adreniline of deadline, or the competitive rush to be the first on the air. But it is important, and challenging, and often frustrating.

Our biggest challenge is the long path our signals take to get from here to your TV in the states. From here it goes by terrestrial microwave link to the Holliday Inn where our sister UK network Sky News is setup. We are sharing a satellite uplink with them, and the uplink is there, hence the microwave. From the uplink, we shoot to a satellite and come back down to Earth in London using what is called a "spot beam." A spot beam is a highly focused satellite beam that gives one region exceptional coverage, leaving others in the dark. So, we cannot see our own "return" from the bird since we're not in the spot beam. It certainly makes troubleshooting a bag of trouble!

The satellite is downlinked in London by Sky, who pipes the feed over to BT Tower (the main TV junction box for London). BT hands the signal off to another company who sends our video over an ATM line (digital data circuit) to New York. And in New York it gets turned into television, or sent down to DC on a DS-3 (another data circuit), where they turn it into TV, then give it back to New York to give to the world.

And if you have ever wondered, that's why you see a "delay" in responses to anchor questions from reporters overseas.

24 October - Wasting away in Loogie-ville

Finally we have some more gear to work with here. The day was spent improving our settup, and hopefully we won't be moving the office any time soon. We can now feed tape from the basement office. Earlier we had to drag a feed deck up to the roof. We also now have return video at the liveshot position on the roof. This is starting to look like a real TV operation. The frustrating part is all of this would have taken us 2 days to set up in the states. Here it took us more than a week.

In the cultural curiosity section today, we discuss the nasal hygine of the average Pakistani. I first noticed this at the airport when we were playing opossum with customs. There is a very big penchant here for "hocking loogies." This is done with much gusto; the person not happy with fewer than 3 or 4 loogies. A great deal of effort, and the associated sounds, come forth.

There aslo appears to be a tremendous lack of facial tissues in Pakistan. One the street it is not uncommon to see a man leaning over the gutter, finger on one nostril, heaving with explosive effort from the open side of the nose. Then on to the other nostril, and perhaps finishing with a nice loogie for good effect.

22 October - Shop till you Drop

Today was shopping day for me and Pat. It wasn't shopping for us day, just running around to get odds and ends that we had forgotten in the States, or stuff that we had planned on getting locally. We had been recommended a shop for some of our electrical supplies, which took some looking for to find it. Thank God we have local drivers to figure those things out. Not that I would want to be driving here - more on that in a future article.

The place that had been recommended to us by NBC was out of stock on everything we needed. But the shop next door was more than helpful. Not only did they have most of the things we needed in stock, they sent out boys to nearby shops to pick up the things they didn't have stocked. Connectors, cables, lights, they had it all. And the shop next door had batteries for our generator. Of course, these aren't very high tech batteries so I have to keep remembering that we'll have to get distilled water and occasionally check on the acid. Queries for sealed batteries were met with blank stares.

Back at the hotel for the evening, we decided to make a go at the private club again. Entry without locals was no problem this time. It was a great place with good food, a wine list, and Stoli. Oh, and a pool table to boot! We met Lorraine, the general manager of the club, who apologized for the previous evening and explained the reasoning. Since the club is private, ie. not on diplomatic territory, it operates with somewhat of an askance look from the Pakistani goverment. And one of the rules, the Paks not hers, is that it is for foreigners only. Since the club is dependant on favor of the government, their hands are quite tied in the matter.

Supposedly the reasoning of the Pakistani government is that the environment of the club would fully corrupt the minds of the locals, therefore they are not allowed in for their moral protection. Of course, the rules also only allow Pakistanis to work at the club. Such is the duality and hypocrisy of this country. Joseph Heller would be most impressed.

21 October - A Welcome Oasis

It had seemed that the Bassment (Marriott Bar) would be our only solace from the daily grind of life in Islamabad. Which is to say our only source of, shall we say, foreign drink. Tonight we discoverd two places that will turn out to be a last link to the western world, and sanity.

We began the evening at the home of Fred, an employee of the US embassy. It turns out that for diplomatic people, on diplomatic territory have fairly easy access to a whole range of western products. Fred, whom we had met during Powell's visit, was gracious enough to have us over for drinks. Fred has been "in country" for several years, and filled is in on a good range of local intelligence, customs, and hot spots. We also met Don, who is also attached to the Embassy. He came over on the 10th of September with his family.

From Fred's house, we made our way to a private club across town. There are a couple of these clubs around town. But, we were not able to stay long. We had brought out one of our local Pakistani fixers for the evening. To our surprise, there is a strict rule at the private clubs barring Pakistanis and Afghans from entering. It sounded like a load of BS to us, so we moved on somewhere else where we could enjoy the company of our entire party, not just the western ones.

20 October - Customs Part Two:

We arrived at the airport today at 9am to finish getting our gear. At 5pm we finally got it - all sive peices of it. Nine hours and a lot of hassle later. My attitude has flipped 180 degrees.