We crossed the Tigris and headed south towards the hotel.

The people were out on the streets and all looked rather shell shocked. They looked as if they were unsure about whether to be happy, relieved or concerned. Most managed to combine all three. Before we knew it we were stuck in a throng of people who looked like they were marching towards the Palestine Hotel. They seemed very interested in us and our Land Rover Discovery. Not the most inconspicuous vehicle to be driving around in, but it was marginally better than a bright yellow van. We drove with the flow of the people, concerned that the good nature of the crowd could change at any moment and indeed the tension seemed to rise as they approached the hotel. The Palestine Hotel overlooked the remains of the statue of Saddam that we all saw being pulled down by the Iraqis at the end of the war.

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Before long we had employed a couple of adventurous New Zealanders. The first one out had the pleasure of DHL airways care of my Bulgarian friends. He looked suitably shocked when he climbed off the Antonov and explained that the stress of the flight had been enhanced when the Bulgarians stripped off to their grubby Y fronts and the hairiest gave him a wink before settling down to smoke his 20 cigarettes. John made sure his back was to the wall and stayed awake all the way out to Baghdad, this is in spite of it being a 3am flight. I confess that I had ‘forgotten’ to explain that they always do this because they liked to keep their uniforms clean and because it was so hot on the plane.

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There are lots of factors that mould the way in which companies do business and one of the most important is the competition. Our competition in Iraq was limited due to the perception the competitors had of Iraq. There were some half-hearted attempts with local companies being given agency rights but these never really developed into too much of a threat. Instead the main threat came in a totally different form. It manifested itself in the general security situation and it was this that presented the greatest threat to our operations.