No Fear by Steve Devereux

Author:Steve Devereux [Devereux, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thistle Publishing
Published: 2015-03-31T04:00:00+00:00

8

THE ARAB EXPERIENCE

D uring the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in the early 1990s, many jobs came my way. One was sourcing vast amounts of gas masks for the population of Saudi Arabia. It seemed that Saddam Hussein in his wisdom might have a go at all his Arab partners, one way or another, so the Saudis, especially those close to the Kuwait and Iraqi border, needed protection from a gas attack. This then became a requirement for all of Saudi Arabia, since Saddam had the ability to launch Scud missiles well inside the Kingdom. Every man and his dog from Ankara in Turkey to Jakarta in Indonesia, as well as Cadogan in London, was chasing the now infamous gas mask deal.

The requirement was for three million masks with spare filters, to be delivered immediately. It was a vast order and, potentially, there was a lot of money to be made even if we got just a small piece of the contract, so I started sorting out prices, checking availability and double-checking the specifications of certain models. I was in contact with some Russians who said that they could supply the latest military gas mask, the right quantity at the right price (whatever that was). I never actually got a quote from them, but in addition there were Danes who flew over especially with their samples, the Israelis with all their ex-army stock, and the Brits, who demanded an absolutely outrageous price for their old version of a particular mask that used to be issued to the British Armed Forces — the renowned S6 respirator — one of the best gas masks in the world at that time, later superceded by an even better version, the S10. I even sourced civvy masks from Korea. All the manufacturers had something to offer and were responsive to our requests, apart from the Brit who expected you to plead with them to return your calls with answers to your questions. I only experienced such arrogance from Brit companies.

My client contact was a Saudi Sheikh, their equivalent of a Royal, a Prince. I understood that there are hundreds of princes in Saudi Arabia but my contact was an HRH (His Royal Highness) and there aren't too many of them around. For most of the others, this applies:

Statement: 'I'm a Prince in my country.'

Reply: 'Not over here you aren't, mate!'

You have to know 'who is who' and once dealing with the right people, you also have to know, 'who owns who'. This was the biggest problem for all of us middlemen. Everyone thought they had the horse's cock of a client and no one else was in the running. It was like a game of poker. You stayed in the game as long as you could, or dared, trying to suss each opponent out to see if they actually had a better contact than yours or if you were actually sending your precious samples off to a competitor, thinking that they were the last in the long line of middlemen.

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