Can You Drive a Skidder?

A post from 2011 on my blog -- Sleepless in Baghdad -- regarding the meaning of life.

Years ago, many years before he died, I remember asking my brother, Hugh, about the prospects of getting a job in Mississippi so I could be near the family. He said, "A job here? Sure -- uh, can you drive a skidder?" Note: A skidder is a tractor that pulls logs out of the woods.

I had never driven a logging skidder although I had done some pulp wooding with Fred Foster. Fred or "Boy" as his friends and family called him, was one of the most resourceful people I ever knew. One winter when I was on break from college, Fred and I had gone to one of the pulp wood yards and "rented" (I'm not sure how this worked because I don't remember a rental agreement being signed -- what I remember is Fred talking to somebody in the yard and they let us borrow a beat up 2 ton truck with a pulp wood hauling rack on the back -- it was best not to ask too many questions, and I didn't). Fred told me something that I never forgot -- he said the secret to making money in pulp wooding is to keep your overhead low. Good advice.

Fred had to gerry rig the truck to run and at one point had to repack the bearings in the axle to keep the wheels rolling. We cut wood off a site that the pulp wood yard had contracted to harvest -- again, I did not ask questions -- and we made money.

Fred died a couple of years ago. I found his obituary in the Daily Star, cut it out and pasted in one of the journals I keep. Fred was a good man and his commonsense approach to problem solving is something the high and mighty could learn from. I wondered if Fred had had more of a chance, how far could he have gone? I remember one time we were in Bruce Mississippi, his home town, and he showed me a restaurant where his local high school football team had a supper after their last ballgame. He said the coach had said how proud he was of everyone and of the team. I could tell from his explanation that this was a good memory. Fred had felt good being part of a team and being recognized for his efforts. Made me think about what could have been for Fred if things had gone differently. However, I don't believe this is a question that Fred would have thought about too much. You see, Fred knew how to drive a skidder.

In terms of what I do, I've been trying to answer that question for years. I like to think that my job is to solve problems related to US international development objectives in a particular place -- I've worked in Brazil, Guinea-Bissau, the West Indies (lived in Barbados and worked on 7 windward and leeward islands including Antigua and Barbuda, St.Kitts - Nevis, St; Lucia, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines), Honduras, Costa Rica, Peru, Nicaragua and Iraq. In everyone of those places I managed economic development programs -- primarily in agriculture but also private sector development including microfinance, job skills training, etc. I've also managed infrastructure and local governance programs. Through it all, my job was to design and implement programs that would foster stability and promote economic and social development which in turn helped promote US strategic interests.

From 1947 forward, the US strategy starting with the Truman Doctrine and later the Point Four Program was to promote international economic development as way to contain or prevent the spread of communism and to create strong allies in international relations, commerce and security. The most enlightening book I've read on the subject is "Bomb Power" by Gary Wills (see next posting in this blog --"Bomb Power"). As I read Wills's book I realized how the big picture evolved that kept me employed in international development for almost four decades now. Everything we did, have done, and will do in the future is tied to our national security. That approach is based on the advent of nuclear weapons and the policies put in place after World War II. Fascinating to see how it all evolved -- really it was like I was watching a wave come barreling in and seeing myself riding that surf.

I wish I had learned to drive a skidder and I'm sure that in a parallel universe, I probably did, nevertheless, the ride so far has been a blessing and, hopefully, it's not over yet.

Thank you, Hugh Irby, for the memory. I love you.

Michael Maxey