Mustafa Marwan 1/13/24 Mustafa Marwan 1/13/24

A Sniper’s Dear Mother

There is nothing like being caught in the rifle scope of a trigger-happy sniper to make you question your life choices.

*The consequences of an RPG taking out a sniper.*

***Misrata, Libya. April 2011***

There is nothing like being caught in the rifle scope of a trigger-happy sniper to make you question your life choices.

Well, that might be true for some people, but not for me. The truth was that the clank of bullets hitting the frame of my ambulance had driven away all thoughts except, “It could be any moment now.”

Our medical team had been trying to reach a hospital on the front lines, near the city’s western edge, when we realised that we’d gone too far. The next thing we knew, we’d fallen into the crosshairs of a sniper who held our lives in his hands with the power vested in him by his weapon.

The sun was high as we drove through the empty streets of that wounded city. The air stank of cordite from recent firefights. The walls still standing after the Gaddafi forces’ incessant shelling were pinpricked with wounds that looked like galaxies of black stars and angry planets. The one who controlled this city would win the war.

The sniper, one of the many government soldiers surrounding the city, shot at us only twice in thirty seconds. He was taking his time. There were no side alleys to dive into from that naked street. We would have to go back the way we came, which would leave us at the sniper’s mercy for a full five hundred meters.

Our driver swung back, exposing the ambulance’s rear end to the sniper. That left me, the one in the back seat, as the clearest shot.

What did I do? I took out my camera, put my head down, and started recording as another bullet clanked against the ambulance’s metal frame.

Could he see what I was doing in his rifle scope? I didn't know. I just hoped my camera lens saw the soldier. Scratch that: the killer. Bullets have rules they never break. Less could be said of the soldiers who become killers.

So, unlike in cinema clichés, my life didn’t flash before my eyes. Except for the tinge of guilt that hummed inside me like a tuning fork—for repeatedly putting myself in situations like this—I was totally immersed in the present.

Looking at the video now, I can see my team leader, Dr Hamad, patting the driver’s back and telling him not be scared as he sped away, still in reach of the sniper’s bullets.

The drama might have taken less than a minute in normal time, but its gravity was of that of a lifetime that didn’t end until we dove into a side road.

***

“War is the real obscenity.” -Larry Flynt, Hustler.

After working in more than a dozen conflict zones around the world, including seven Arab Spring countries at the heights of their uprisings—and after these springs crashed into cold winters—I can’t find a more apt quote about war.

In war, extreme becomes the routine. Emotions reign. I have good reason to hate that sniper who tried to kill me as I rode in an ambulance. Hate that was compounded after I witnessed the “Vascular Sniper” cases, our nickname for the pattern of injuries we had been noticing since we’d arrived in the besieged city.

With a lot of time on their hands, snipers become imaginative. Head shots were no longer the measure of a savvy sniper, nor even best practice. Snipers now vied to be the best at hitting arteries and veins. Most famously, the femoral artery in the thigh. This killed two birds with one bullet. First, the wounded soldier dropped out of battle, with the Grim Reaper sucking his soul like water down a plughole. Second, valuable human and logistical resources were redirected to the evacuation and treatment of the wounded, as opposed to the rectangular hole in the ground needed to deal with dead ones. What a beautiful world we live in.

The rebels neutralized that sniper the same day. They played cat and mouse for four hours, during which the sniper took out five lives. Finally, the rebels destroyed the whole floor he was on with RPGs.

I met one of those rebels in the hospital when they returned with their wounded. He told me there wasn’t much left of the sniper, but, miraculously, his phone had survived. The rebel handed it to me. It was a black Nokia. The old kind. It could have been another ad for the durability of these old phones, but what captured my interest was not the phone’s sturdiness. It was one of the contacts in his phone: Dear Mother.

I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t feel bad that he would never speak to his dear mother again. That his dear mother would not find enough left of his body to fill a grocery bag. Or worse, that she will always wait for him, refusing to believe that he was truly dead.

To this day, I still think about his Dear Mother and millions like her all around the world.

Indeed, Mr. Flynt. War is the real obscenity, especially when even the Dear Mothers are not spared.

Video: A Sniper Shooting at our Ambulance in Besieged Misrata

Guns and Almond Milk is out now. Buy on Amazon.

Mustafa Marwan 12/29/23 Mustafa Marwan 12/29/23

My favourite short noir stories

This is my list of my favourite short noir stories. If you enjoyed them half as much as I did, then you're in for a treat!

This is my list of my favourite short noir stories. If you enjoyed them half as much as I did, then you're in for a treat!

Emergency, Denis Johnson

If you are looking for a story that gives you a front seat into the human soul, then look no further than Emergency by the National book award winner of Tree of Smoke and twice Pulitzer prize shortlisted, Denis Johnson. This story comes from his infamous short story collection Jesus's Son which became a movie starring Jack Black and where Johnson himself gives a cameo as the man who got stabbed in the eye in Emergency.

Emergency is by far my most reread short story. There is something in it which is like listening to a sage's psychedelic dream. Emergency offers the perfect mix of comedy and tragedy. I think that's part of its magic. Scenes like when Georgie who is on drugs sweeps the floor of the operating room or the one where a man walks three blocks with a knife in his eye planted there by his wife because he was peeping on his neighbour. You get the feeling that the drugs consumed in this short story hide a massive amount of pain.

There are two personal reasons to make this story very special. I have a very soft spot for how the knife was taken out of the patient's eye in this story as I witnessed a similar event when I was volunteering in the field hospital in the Egyptian revolution in Tahrir Square, where senior surgeons where debating how to take out a sniper bullet stuck in a patient's neck. In the midst of their debate, a medical student stretched his hand and extracted the bullet.

The second personal story is how the first blurb for my debut novel, Guns and Almond Milk, was from the talented writer, Richard Thomas, who gave me a praise I am sure I don't deserve by mentioning Jesus's Son and Guns and Almond Milk in the same sentence. It remains a very dear blurb to my heart. Richard happens to be the one who told me about Jesus's Son and how he was sure I would like it. He wasn't wrong.

2. The age of reason, WILL CHRISTOPHER BAER

This is a dark fairy-tale for adults. A supernatural encounter that two medics have upon responding to a house call. WCB have a style of his own. Some writers are excellent at metaphors and similes, many are good and others are trying to be good. But only one can do it the way WCB does it.

WCB is know for his Phineas Poe series. If you want to know more, there's no one better than his friend and equally talented writer, Craig Clevenger to tell the story https://open.substack.com/pub/craigclevenger/p/religiously-cold?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=su0f2

You can find the Age of Reason here to read for free in The Coachella review.

3. It's Six am, Do You Know Where You Are? by Jay McInarny

Labelled as the Voice of a generation. Jay McInarny is the Teacher of writers as influential as Chuck Palahniuk.

Writing in the 2nd person is rarely done right. Some managed to do it like ablutions, but the one resurrected it was Jay McInerny.

You can find it masquerading as the first chapter of Jay's first novel, Bright Lights, Big City or in the short story collection How It Ended. Interestingly, only in the audio version (with completed stories), not the kindle version! This is because this short story is an example of novels that started as a first version which we will meet another example to it later in this article.

Published in 1982, this short story is a reflection of the angst of the 80s generation. An editor liked something he wrote but didn't find it suitable and asked him if he had something else. So, He wrote it overnight. I guess this kindles some hope in those of us who are closest writers.

If you want to find more information about Jay written by himself, read it here.

4. Father, Son and Holy Rabbit, Stephen Graham Jones

This is one of those rare stories that Leaves a mark on your heart forever. A father, a son and a rabbit are left in the cold in a blizzard. How can these three character and one setting mix together to become this memorable story is a testament to the skill of Stephen Graham Jones as much to the power of love between a father and a son.

You can read this short story for free here (I'm assuming this is a legal source, otherwise I wouldn't have added here)

5. The Pugilist at Rest, Thom Jones

This is a story I have to read every few months. a member of a rare club. One of the best blurbs I have for my book, coming from Kirkus book of the year writer, Lee Durkee, is a one comparing my work to Thom Jones. I first knew about Thom Jones from Chuck Palahniuk’s recommendation at the end of his insightful book about the writing craft, Consider This. I didn't get to read him at that time though. Until a fellow writer in another famous writer class, William Boyle, told me that a short story I have read reminded her of Thom Jones Cold Snap short story. I dove into his short story collection, Night Train, and the rest is history.

I'm influenced the most in my writing by war, mental health, aid work but all this indirectly discusses the human condition like most writers. One of the few writings you don't feel pretentious when you talk directly about the human nature itself is this writer as exemplified in this timeless short story.

This story also talks about what matters in life and what the society consider heroism to be. All through

Jorgeson, the marine soldier in the Vietnam war, and his narrator friend. Jorgeson and his artistic tendencies and 'real heroism' in the face of death and the narrator and his boxing and fake military achievements.

The vast majority of Jones' stories are interlink with the thoughts of his favourite philosopher Schopenhauer. So if you're an optimist, these stories are not for you.

6. Numbers Game, Craig Clevenger

I can say a lot about Craig but suffice to say, one of his three novels was a direct inspiration for me to write my own. His first two novels are examples of how the distinction between literary and commercial is artificial and how if you are a really talented writer, like Craig, you can combine voice, theme and plot with equal measures for the magic recipe.

With Craig Clevenger every word counts. He treats the reader like an adult. That said, the more you concentrate, the more you'll be rewarded with more layers of meaning.

You can listen to this short story for free, narrated by the author's husky voice here.

7. Animal Rescue, Dennis Lehane

Sometimes, many mediocre novels are excellent short stories. This is a case in point. Don't get me wrong, Dennis Lehane is one of my all-time favourites. But to be honest, The Drop is not at the top of his writing for me, despite being an excellent short story. There was a movie of course, The Drop.

What happens when a puppy leads the big bully to cross paths with the perfect victim. Only to realize that such victim could, or could not be, the bully's kryptonite. Another plus for this short story is that I always have a soft spot for protagonists who are socially awkward.

You can find this highly entertaining short story in USA Noir: Best of the Akashic Noir Series or in Boston Noir collection.

8. The Clown and Bard, Karen Karbo

Another entry from USA Noir: Best of the Akashic Noir Series . The story is about the cultural divide between a man and a woman who fall in and off love. A unique voice that teaches us the Socratic way of showing the mistakes of the other by extremely agreeing with them until they see for themselves the absurdities of their actions.

Style is the master element here. I had to look Karen Karbo up not believing that someone with this talent is not a best selling household name. She turned to famous alright but not as much as she should be in my opinion. Another reason is that most of her writings are non fiction. Chuck Palahniuk mentioned once that Karen Karbo came to his writing class before he published Fight Club and she was the one who advised him to give a personality to the gun that his alter ego threatens him with in the famous stand off scene in the story. 'A gun is never a gun.'

9. Busto is a Ghost, Gerlad Kersh

Gerald Kersh is almost unknown now. He is a very different. Both high appraisers and high critics can agree on this.

He focuses on the lives of people in the fringe of the society. He makes you face the two types of choices we have towards miseries of life, either to laugh or cry. Gerald Kersh is was not only the one to laugh but to make all of us does. That's how genius he is.

I will leave you with this sentence of this short story which you can find in The Best of Gerald Kersh collection: "Pio Busto used to cross himself before a lithograph of the Mona Lisa. He thought it represented the Virgin Mary. But in any case it was generally believed that Busto had no soul to save."

10. Lebenstraum by Christopher Fowler

Lebenstraum is additional territory deemed necessary to a nation, especially Nazi Germany, for its continued existence or economic well-being.

This short story is a microcosm of societies in turbulent times. An old woman who takes pity and a young man and woman who is pregnant. They end up, along with their elk, taking control of her life and house. Sounds familiar? Whether you're talking about occupation or parasitic lovers, Christopher Fowler puts his hand on the pulse with this beautiful piece.

You can find it in Exit Wounds anthology.

Mustafa Marwan 3/12/23 Mustafa Marwan 3/12/23

تراب المقابر

كيفية صنع نترات البوتاسيوم فى المنزل هو أن تبدأ بمادة غنية بالمواد العضوية المتحللة مثل تراب المقابر، امزجها مع رماد الخشب المحترق. أضف الماء، بعد ذلك قم بالتقطير والغليان ثم أضف الكحول لفصل بلورات نترات البوتاسيوم. أضف المواد بنسب أكثر أو أقل وستذوب البلورات قبل أن تتكون. الشيطان فى التفاصيل. لهذا انجذب للكيمياء منذ صغره؛ التوازن هو كلمة السر. من نترات البوتاسيوم يمكنك الحصول على حامض النيتريك أو البارود. لا توجد معجزات فى الكيمياء، ولكن عندما تخبر هؤلاء المقاتلين المتحمسين؛ الذين يريدون التمسك بأي شيء يعطي معنى أعمق لأعمالهم؛ أن أجدادهم سيبعثون من الموت ليقاتلوا معهم التتار الجدد. عندها يصبح الأمر مثيراً للاهتمام.

في وقتٍ أسرع من الوقت الذي يستغرقه ازدحام الأطفال حول بائع مرطبات فى يوم صيفى حار؛ كان قبو خالد قد امتلأ عن آخره بأكوامٍ من التراب الذي جمعه المقاتلون من مقبرة المدينة ورفات أسلافهم. "ربما كان عليّ أن أغلق فمي". قالها خالد لنفسه وهو ينظر إلى الفوضى المتعفنة الملقاة في ما كان في يومٍ من الأيام معملاً منظمًا. كل كومة عليها أسماء البشر الذين تحولت أجسادهم إلى غبار. عشرات البشر الذي كان لديهم في يومٍ من الأيام أحلام وتحيزات ومخاوف. كلهم يرقدون الآن أمامه في أبسط صور الحياة، ينتظرون دورهم لكي يتم إعادة تدويرهم. من التراب وإلى التراب ومن الرماد وإلى الرماد.

يأتي أبو حارث لمشاهدة تجربة البعث من الموت. إنه يريد عبوته الناسفة الجديدة بنكهة جده. يجلس على كرسي في الجانب المظلم من المختبر ويشعل سيجاره متجاهلاً نظرات وجه خالد التى تحمل ترجمة معنى “ممنوع التدخين هنا". أخبره أبوحارث أن يسترخى وأن يكون لديه إيمان. كل شخص لديه ميعاد للموت.

بينما كان يقوم بإضافة مقادير متساوية من تراب البشر ورماد الشجر إلى الفلتر، ردَ خالد دون النظر إليه قائلا:

- هذا صحيح. من السهل أن تعيش بحرية بعيدا عن تحمل المسؤولية عندما تعلق جميع أفعالك على أكتاف الله المتكدسة. لم يكن ذلك فعلي، بل كانت إرادة الله. نحن خارج المعادلة.

يضيف خالد الماء تدريجياً لتقطير المكونات ويقول:

- لنفترض فقط أن جدك الكبيرلا يريد أن يُزعج. ألست تخضعه لاختيارك هكذا وتجبره على القيام بما تريد؟

يأخذ خالد المحلول المقطر ويبدأ بغليه تدريجياً على الماء قائلاً:

- هل تعتقد أن الله سيكافئه بالحسنات على هذا العمل رغم عدم اتخاذه قرار فيه؟

أبوحارث ما زال جالسا على كرسيه، يبتسم ويستمتع بما تبقى من سيجارته.

يقوم خالد بكشط حبيبات الملح والشوائب التي تظهر مع الرغوة ويقول:

- كيف ندعي أننا قررنا القيام بأي شيء إذا كانت إرادة الله نافذة في المقام الأول فى كل مانفعله؟

تنتشر في القبو رائحة دخان لاذع كما لو أن جيشًا بأكمله قد أخرج ريحًا. يضيء خالد شمعة منزلية الصنع ذات دخان أصفر اللون لا تحسن الرائحة كثيرا.

يأخذ خالد السائل المتبقي ويضيف إليه الكحول ويشاهد البلورات البيضاء تولد في السائل مثل النجوم الصغيرة. ثم يقول:

- من الغريب أن البشر يضيعون أهم هدية منحها الله لهم. أليست حرية الاختيار ما يجعلنا بشرًا؟

ينظر خالد أخيرا إلى أبوحارث بينما الدخان الأصفر يصل إليه وفي لحظة يشتعل خط من النار بين سيجارة عدنان وبين الشمعة فى شكل ابتسامة كبيرة. يقع أبوحارث إلى الوراء من على كرسيه وهو يرمي السيجارة في ذعر ويسعل بشدة. رائحة الكبريت تملأ المكان. خالد يقول:

- فقط جعلت الأمور أسهل بالنسبة لك؛ بما أنك لا تستطيع اتخاذ القرار.

أخيرا يقوم بتقطير البلورات البيضاء من خلال ورقة ترشيح، ويعطيها إلى أبوحارث الذي بدا من منظر شعره المنكوش لأعلى كمن صعقه البرق. يسلم له خالد البلورات وهو يقول بنفس الصوت الهادئ وبوجه بدون تعبيرات:

- إليك جدك. فقط لا تشعل السجائر مرة أخرى في مختبرى.

Mustafa Marwan 8/6/22 Mustafa Marwan 8/6/22

Desert Ambush

There I was one spring night in 2011. Behind a rock in the black night of the Libyan desert. The only visible lights were the muzzle flashes of machine guns around me from all directions.

There I was one spring night in 2011. Behind a rock in the black night of the Libyan desert. The only visible lights were the muzzle flashes of machine guns around me from all directions. Despite that roaring gun battle around me, or maybe because of it, I wondered what brought me there at that point in time in the midst of an ambush between Ghaddaffi forces and advancing rebels trying to take over the oil rich strategic city of Ras Lanuf.

"Because you are damn stupid! That's why." That was the first answer generously provided by my brain. Then another rational answer came along. It was the hero mentality. Ten minutes ago, I was a medic in an ambulance scouring the battle field with my team looking for the injured to bring them back to our basic field hospital a couple of hundred kilometres west of Benghazi.

During the day, we brought back many casualties and we should have called a day before sunset and definitely before crossing any frontline. Neither things we did which led to our current predicament.

We kept going in search of casualties until we almost became one. At that time, any rebel, or even ambulance movements, were done in total darkness through the desert. You were not allowed to turn on any lights of fear of aerial bombardment which I tasted closely its devastating effects first hand one week earlier. So it was easy not to realise that we crossed the already very fluid front line and fell in an ambush aimed at a rebel convey which, we realised latter, was only few metres ahead of us in the darkness.

Back behind the black rock, I remembered all the signs that I had not heeded. My Egyptian aid worker colleague who was caught by Ghaddaffi forces and went on national TV all battered and bloodied to confess that he was a spy. The time I went back in unusual hour to the residence to find myself face to face with a stray government soldier who made me kneel and put the muzzle of his Klash, affectionate for Kalashnikov in Libya, on my forehead and spared my life only of fear of others hearing the shot.

Apart from losing your psychological or physical wellbeing, the agony you cause to your family and friends, you also have the impact any security incident would have on the whole operation of your organisation and how that would affect all the people in need that you were supposed to help.

Many aid workers take security procedures lightly. Remember that guy with a gun to my head early on? There were no lessons learnt exercises or security incident reports filed, not to mention any psychological support after I faced him. That's the danger with instructions related to secuirty and safety in the field; it might seem mundane until it saves your life, or don't.

Back to the black rock, through the intermittent lights from the muzzle flashes raging around me, I saw a colleague of mine who was at the same ambulance, running passed my spot towards the heart of the desert as if trying to outrun bullets. I shouted at him to join my shelter before he gets himself killed.

*14.5 mm anti-aircraft bullets. A type commonly used in post-Gaddafi Libya.*
*Photo Copyright: Mustafa Marwan*

That's another common sign of lack of preparedness in trips in the field were we need to play the game of probabilities. In the comfort of your office, we need to come up with scenarios of all what could go wrong, Risk Identification, then see what measures we have in place to avoid or neutralise such threats, Risk Analysis, and finally make up our decision based on the level of risk versus the humanitarian impact, Risk Evaluation. Unlike my colleague who was paralysed running through the desert instead of seeking shelter, this risk assessment process will allow one to quickly identify which scenario they were in and what were the actions or decisions associated with it that should be taken. More information on how Situational Awareness can help in such preparations, you can consult this two minute video I made a while ago.

Fifteen minutes before the ambush, and unlike us who were chatting mindlessly inside the ambulance, the Relaxed Alertness of our driver was what saved us when he noticed the first signs of the attack which led him to maneuverer the ambulance into the sand. The action that made us more fortunate than the ambulance in front of us which took the grunt of the first volley of fire.

I was lucky to get out alive of that situation, and some others, and tell the story. Latter, I joined another humanitarian organisation were I was introduced to the basis of safety and secuirty in aid work and were I work as a trainer now.

Finally, it seems that the danger facing people working, or planning to work in aid work, or other line of work, liable of making one an adrenaline junkie, is that you learn when you test your luck too far is that regret can't transport you back in time.

Guns and Almond Milk is out now. Buy on Amazon.

Mustafa Marwan 8/1/22 Mustafa Marwan 8/1/22

A Cup of Clean Water

I am writing these words coming back from Ramadan food distributing in a small village in Nafousa Mountain, Western Libya. Inside a ramshackle small shop on the side of the road on the way back on the abandoned highway, I found top prize! Three bottles of mineral water. Something I have not seen for a couple of months since I arrived in this troubled, undersigned area which is battling a fierce who-screams-first fight with Ghaddafi forces at this crucial time of the Libya uprising in the summer of 2011.

I am writing these words coming back from Ramadan food distributing in a small village in Nafousa Mountain, Western Libya.

Inside a ramshackle small shop on the side of the road on the way back on the abandoned highway, I found top prize! Three bottles of mineral water. Something I have not seen for a couple of months since I arrived in this troubled, undersigned area which is battling a fierce who-screams-first fight with Ghaddafi forces at this crucial time of the Libya uprising in the summer of 2011.

I have been drinking water that tasted of heavy metals and humility. For weeks, scarce ground water has been distributed, if you are lucky to have any, in sewage trucks. Even in dim light with lack of electricity most of the day, studying such water would give you an insight of how we are all connected as you see all these swimming animate and inanimate objects that will soon be part of your body.

No wonder then how elated I am with these water bottles. I imagine myself lying in my bed at night with a cup of clean water in my hand. What else could I ask for? You learn in circumstances like these to finally connect with clichés like appreciating life basics and not taking things like electricity, water, bread, and safety for granted.

Some people, like me, need to go to war zones to be reminded of these basic facts. Some people might thank me for ‘my service’ but I actually feel privileged to be here. What I learn about myself, and life outweighs by far anything I give to the suffering civilians in such difficult circumstances that bring the best and worse in humanity.

I hope you don’t need to go far away like me to appreciate a clean cup of water. And I hope I still remember these words back in “civilization”, where humanity is entitled and arrogant towards nature and its limited, non-complaining, resources.

Mustafa Marwan

Western Mountain, Libya in 25 August 2011

Mustafa Marwan 5/12/20 Mustafa Marwan 5/12/20

Which Leadership Styles Best Address Complex Problems?

In response to COVID–19, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro used power and enforced new rules, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven gave the freedom to citizens to act responsibly, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel embraced science.

These solutions are based on cultural references that lack the bigger picture needed to deal with a complex problem like COVID–19. Complexity practitioners should be able to mitigate the weaknesses and exploit the strengths of these leadership approaches, in order to encourage emergence.

Identifying cultural leadership styles

The following graph shows four categories of social organisation, according to people’s group orientation and thirst for rules:

According to this cultural identity model, Hierarchists will aim for more rigid rules that might impede initiative (i.e. emergence), such as Brazil’s lock-down rules. Egalitarians will put their faith in death by meetings and consensus, like Sweden’s example of physical distancing and improving awareness of the communities. Individualists will attest that the only rational thing to do is develop vaccines and antibody tests, as Germany has with its focus on science and innovation. As for Fatalists, they have already started writing their wills.

Tapping into the strength of each style of leadership

Hierarchists – Questions and Support

Hierarchists can create enabling constraints, provide assurances in times of crisis and give permission for constructive dissent. Instead of limiting their response to providing answers and vision, leaders should also incorporate questions and support.

In this age of demagogues and populism, many leaders resort to providing simple answers to complex problems. Yet they are the only ones with the authority to reverse their own role, from providing the answers to asking questions, which will allow for emergence. The different levels of comfort to asking questions are epitomised in the following COVID-19 responses:

In addition, leaders often do not realise that their followers are not necessarily looking for heroes, but for people who are empathetic and relatable. Such empathy can be achieved through ‘Extra-Ordinarization of the mundane’ (The Tavistock Institute, 2003). For instance, according to The Atlantic, ‘One of Ardern’s innovations has been frequent Facebook Live chats that manage to be both informal and informative. [...] She appears in a well-worn sweatshirt at her home [...] to offer guidance.’ It did not take much from Ardern to do these informal ‘mundane’ chats, yet her followers heralded them as ‘extraordinary’ efforts to reach out.

Egalitarians- Synergy of the Collective

Egalitarians understand the importance of collective responsibility, can walk a mile in others’ shoes and have the ability to generate synergies.

In IKEA, representatives from all levels of the organisation gather to take decisions. This IKEA vertical slice contrasts with other organisations’ executive practices, where decisions are made by top management while the rest of the organisation is not present and does not feel involved in shaping it.

The most important thing here, however, is not to give way to the Bystander Effect (Latane et al, 1969) where people in large groups are less likely to intervene, possibly because they believe someone else will.

Individualists – Freedom of Innovation

Individualists experiment with new ideas, are comfortable with uncertainty, and are excellent whistle blowers when things go wrong.

A famous example of positive deviance took place during a severe famine in Vietnam, when Jerry and Monique Sternin from Save the Children noticed positive deviants in the community: some families managed to avoid malnutrition simply by feeding their children differently, using ‘low-class food’ like shrimps and crabs which, although denigrated by the community, are highly nutritious. They also fed their children many times in the day even when they had diarrhoea. By helping the rest of the villagers discover this unusual behaviour and its effects, change was implemented.

On the other hand, without the system support that egalitarians and hierarchies give, there will be little room for promoting exchange and implementing change.

In conclusion, Aristotle once said that virtue is the balance between two extremes. Courage, for example, is in the middle between cowardice and rashness, while modesty is the mean between shyness and shamelessness. Likewise, by striking a balance between the virtues and vices of each of the leadership styles, we can help others to deal with the complexities of the individual and the collective.

Mustafa Marwan 8/7/18 Mustafa Marwan 8/7/18

What Every Field Delegate Needs to Know about Humanitarian Negotiation - CCHN interview with Mustafa Marwan

During my last visit to Jordan, I had the pleasure of meeting Mustafa Marwan who works as a Regional Protection Trainer for the ICRC. Thinking about our discussions, I asked him what each new field delegate needed to know about humanitarian negotiation.

This interview was made with Centre of Competence on Humanitarian Negotiation (CCHN) in 2018.

Mustafa has 8 years of experience in the humanitarian field working in more than 9 contexts related to armed conflicts. He has also some years of experience working as lecturer in academia, trainer / consultant for INGOs and facilitator for intercultural dialogue programmes.

What inspired you to embark on your professional path at ICRC?

I have a medical degree and I was in the field hospital of Tahrir square in Egypt in 2011. I got hooked since these days. I knew that working with a protection-focused organization is what I have always aspired to do without consciously knowing it.

Also, this line of career helps me put everything in my personal life in perspective. Over there, everything matters again and you suddenly realize that a clean glass of water or being safe in your bed at night is something that should not be taken for granted.

What are the most important soft skills for a humanitarian negotiator? Can they be learned through training?

To walk the straight line! Someone once said that we start any negotiation opposite to each other on a straight line. The first thing you need to do it take people next to you on the line, by agreeing on very general objective criteria. Then you try to walk the line with them. They will always try to derail going their own way. You need to deal with their objections with appropriate rebuttals and loop them back to your straight line. In order to skillfully do this, you have to know their interests which lie beneath their stated positions and use the right levers to deal with them.

I spent decent amount of time training and teaching humanitarian negotiation among other subjects and my short answer is that it could be learned through training IF you are ready to persevere in your learning process. On the other hand, it is true that some people are more natural and ‘skilled’ in it than others. This is life!

Has there been a specific negotiation in your career that you will always remember? Can you elaborate on it?

In late 2011 I was in Libya with a different humanitarian organization (not ICRC) and while going back to the residence in armed opposition held territory, I was stopped by an armed man, most likely belonging to the government forces, who ordered me on my knees and put the muzzle of his automatic weapon to my forehead. The only thing I remember saying at that moment was "I see that you are on the run. If you shoot me, people will hear it and it will make your escape more difficult." He hesitated for a second and then let me go unharmed. Since then, I never underestimated the notion of understanding the interest of my interlocutor in any negotiation I have.

What’s the one thing you wish every new field delegate knew about humanitarian negotiation?

Key concepts that I see a lot of humanitarian workers miss in their negotiations are realistic recommendations and persistent follow-ups. Some issues could be negotiated on the spot but others, especially protection-related issues, need to be taken up more strategically. Think of it as running a marathon, not a 100 meter dash.

Were peer exchanges on humanitarian negotiations useful to your learning?

Most definitely. There is always something to learn from peers. It is a form of learning that is as crucial as training, if not more!

You’ve recently joined the CCHN Training of Facilitators Program. What do you hope to get out of the Program?

New insights and experience from peers and participants.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of CCHN nor any of its Strategic Partners.