Feral Jundi

   Oh say it isn’t so? An actual article about the U.N. embracing Private Military Contractors? lol.  All I have to say is that I am flabbergasted.

   Now the rule of thumb here, is don’t be the typical customer and not care about what goes on with your contract or how it is written.  If you actually care about the quality of the product, then hold the company you are contracting with to the standard written in the contract.  It takes leadership, and I highly suggest using your powers of firing people or defaulting the contract, and get the service you want.  Don’t do like the State Department, and look the other way while a company does a completely crappy job or embarrasses them.  And don’t go cheap, because you get what you pay for in this industry–learn from everyone else’s mistakes and you will do well.

   As to the companies involved with providing these security services to the U.N., all eyes are on you. The media and myself will be all over you, if you screw it up.  If you apply Jundism to your contract, and just ensure that the U.N. gets good quality customer service and satisfaction, then you will do just fine.

  By the way, I hope the author of this article, and the U.N. for that matter, understands that more than likely they are not getting all Royal Gurkha Rifles.  They are probably getting Nepalese guards(former army and police), with maybe a few RGR’s mixed in. It would be like calling a bunch of U.S. mall guards, Green Berets. The Gurkha or RGR’s are Nepalese/British special forces, and it is disrespectful to those who really are Gurkha to confuse them with the regular guards. It’s a pet peeve of mine, because everyone that talks about the Gurkha usually have in mind the kick ass dudes that protect Madonna or the Sultan of Brunei, and that just isn’t the case. –Matt

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U.N. embraces private military contractors

By Colum Lynch

Sunday, January 17, 2010

For years, the U.N.’s top peacekeepers have been among the world’s staunchest critics of private security contractors, often portraying them as unaccountable mercenaries.

Now they are clients.

As the U.N. prepares to expand its operations in Afghanistan, it is in talks with a British security firm to send in scores of additional Nepalese Gurkhas to the country to protect them.

The U.N.’s top security official, Gregory Starr, the former head of U.S. State Department Security, has also been advocating an increase in the use of private security firms in Pakistan, where U.N. relief workers have been the target of kidnappings and killings, according to U.N. officials.

The embrace of a private security contractor marks a shift for the United Nations, which has relied on governments to supply peacekeepers to protect U.N. staff. In Iraq, the U.N. used a contingent of Fijian peacekeepers for protection. But it has accelerated its move toward hired guns in Pakistan since the Taliban launched an October attack against a U.N. residence, killing five U.N. employees, including two Afghan security guards, and triggered the withdrawal of U.N. personnel from the country.

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