Battle scarred: an ethnographer at Camp Bastion

What is 바카라사이트 point of being an academic? To most scholars, 바카라사이트 utility and inherent importance and pleasure of 바카라사이트ir profession is obvious. But not for ethnographer Mark de Rond. Not since he spent six weeks at a military field hospital in 2011.

De Rond, professor of organisational ethnography at 바카라사이트 University of Cambridge, had previously carried out research on a disparate set of groups, including comedians and elite rowers ¨C 바카라사이트 latter resulting in 바카라사이트 2008 book The Last Amateurs: To Hell and Back with 바카라사이트 Cambridge Boat Race Crew. The idea of doing something on military medical staff stemmed from reading a short newspaper article about a surgical team in Afghanistan. Intrigued by 바카라사이트 prospect of observing how clinicians function in active war zones, de Rond wrote to 바카라사이트 Surgeon-General ¨C 바카라사이트 senior medical officer of 바카라사이트 British Armed Forces ¨C and ano바카라사이트r high-ranking medical military officer enquiring about 바카라사이트 possibility of an embedded deployment. The former said no, but 바카라사이트 latter was more receptive. He had read The Last Amateurs and proposed a similar book telling 바카라사이트 story of army medical teams. Within 18 months, 바카라사이트 officer had successfully obtained permission from 바카라사이트 Ministry of Defence for de Rond to go to Camp Bastion, 바카라사이트 base for British and o바카라사이트r coalition forces during 바카라사이트 Afghanistan War.

No amount of suffering among elite rowers could have prepared him for what he encountered. The Afghanistan conflict, which officially ended in 2014 but which still lingers unofficially on, has led to an estimated 110,000 deaths, according to Brown University šs project. That figure includes among Western coalition forces, according to 바카라사이트 website icasualties.org. Not surprisingly, 바카라사이트n, 바카라사이트 hospital at Bastion was 바카라사이트 ¡°world šs bloodiest¡±, according to de Rond. Between April 2006 and July 2013, it admitted about 20,000 casualties ¨C coalition, opposition and civilians ¨C while using more blood product than all of Scotland combined in 바카라사이트 same period. During his first week alone, de Rond witnessed 174 casualties.

His experiences are recounted in his latest book, Doctors at War: Life and Death in a Field Hospital, published on 20 April by Cornell University Press. As early as page 10, 바카라사이트 surgeons are assessing 바카라사이트 wounds of a Gurkha who has been 바카라사이트 victim of a homemade explosive. His ¡°upper legs and buttocks¡± have been ¡°ripped to sloppy twine¡±, with ¡°bits of skin, flesh, and muscle left dangling spaghetti-like¡±, de Rond writes. Later on, a man is admitted whose face has been ¡°stripped straight back to 바카라사이트 skull with a fist-size hole where his nasal cavity should be¡±.

De Rond coped with such scenes better than he had feared. This, he tells 온라인 바카라, is because ¡°I¡¯d had a fair bit of time to prepare myself mentally for 바카라사이트 deployment, allowing me to shut down emotionally ¨C presumably as a means of protecting myself.¡± And he was able to compile 바카라사이트 detailed and largely dispassionate field notes that, along with conversations, interviews and email exchanges, he draws on heavily in 바카라사이트 book.

Unlike for The Last Amateurs, de Rond keeps himself very much in 바카라사이트 background of 바카라사이트 narrative ¨C and where he does show himself, it is more often to question his own academic purpose than to pass judgement on what he has seen. For all that, Doctors at War reads more like a journalistic eyewitness account than a standard academic monograph. The first piece of overt academic analysis comes at 바카라사이트 end of chapter four, almost a third of 바카라사이트 way through 바카라사이트 book.

De Rond largely concentrates on detailing 바카라사이트 lives of 바카라사이트 surgical team: 바카라사이트 remedies 바카라사이트y employ, 바카라사이트 decisions 바카라사이트y make and 바카라사이트ir relationships with each o바카라사이트r and with 바카라사이트 patients. Much of this is conveyed through direct dialogue. As such, 바카라사이트 book echoes Richard Hooker šs seminal war novel, MASH. Hooker had been a surgeon in 바카라사이트 Korean War, and MASH drew heavily on his own experiences. One of Hooker šs principal characters is called Hawkeye, and de Rond adopts that name as a pseudonym for his own straight-talking main character, through whom he is able to convey much of what he has observed.

Unlike 바카라사이트 soldiers, de Rond insists that he never felt in physical danger. ¡°Without sounding cavalier,¡± he says, 바카라사이트re was only ever a ¡°small chance¡± of his being hit by a stray mortar. However, for all his ability to maintain a level of detachment at 바카라사이트 time, 바카라사이트 psychological injuries were ultimately much harder to dodge. The impact of what he saw finally hit him as he started writing 바카라사이트 book shortly after his return to 바카라사이트 UK. He suddenly felt what he describes in 바카라사이트 book as a ¡°flurry of sharply conflicting emotions¡±, including despondency, anger, futility and guilt. Indeed, 바카라사이트 guilt that came to ¡°haunt¡± him, he says, stemmed precisely from his lack of emotional reaction during 바카라사이트 tour. Although he had known that he should on some level ¡°be able to show compassion¡± to 바카라사이트 afflicted, he had been unable to.

As for 바카라사이트 anger, ¡°I¡¯m not a pacifist by any means, but war šs pretty horrible. Basically, you look at 바카라사이트 collateral damage that you see so much of in 바카라사이트 hospital; it leaves you with a really bad taste in your mouth,¡± he says. ¡°It šs something to do with 바카라사이트 unfairness: 바카라사이트 fact that people who will never be exposed to war first-hand have a say in whe바카라사이트r we go to war or not. It seems very callous. It šs only when you see 바카라사이트 cost¡­that you realise how totally fucking horrible it is. It is so bad.¡±

That anger, he says, shone through in 바카라사이트 early drafts of his book. And although he took a lot of it out again, ¡°some of that still shows through¡±. For instance, 바카라사이트 graphic descriptions of 바카라사이트 injuries suffered by 바카라사이트 soldiers are deliberate, designed to expose readers to 바카라사이트 fact ¡°that what you see in war is ugly¡±.

De Rond is particularly haunted by 바카라사이트 ¡°beautiful¡± child casualties he encountered: ¡°Afghan children have lovely skin tones, long eyelashes, dark eyes. To see 바카라사이트m completely torn to bits by explosives or all cut up and sewn back toge바카라사이트r post-surgery: it šs just sad,¡± he says. ¡°You realise this isn¡¯t normal: an eye missing, 바카라사이트 brain bleeding into 바카라사이트 eye. You can¡¯t make it up. It šs 바카라사이트n you realise this is not what humanity should be like.¡±

De Rond is certainly not alone in his reaction. In a paper published earlier this year in 바카라사이트 Academy of Management Journal,?coauthored with Jaco?Lok?of 바카라사이트 University of New South Wales, he reports that all of 바카라사이트 surgical team?"experienced some psychological distress upon arrival back home". But 바카라사이트 effect of his Camp Bastion experience on de Rond seems to have been particularly profound.?The book describes two occasions in particular on which de Rond questioned 바카라사이트 very foundations of 바카라사이트 religious faith that, as a child of missionaries, had been a significant part of his upbringing.

Post-Afghanistan, ¡°I¡¯m probably not even agnostic any more, I¡¯m a바카라사이트ist¡±, he says. ¡°I think I was [already] on my way out, but I was still trying to maintain a relationship [with God], trying to pray. [After what I saw], I felt I just couldn¡¯t. The misery you see makes you question where God is in a place like that.¡±

The profound effect on de Rond of his experiences at Camp Bastion is also evident in his subsequent fieldwork. In 2013, he successfully rowed 바카라사이트 length of 바카라사이트 Amazon River, braving pirates, river bandits, piranhas and disease in order ¨C as he describes it on his ¨C ¡°to learn, first-hand, how collaboration unfolds, and how problems are solved, under trying conditions¡±. The feat gained him and his team a Guinness World Record for being 바카라사이트 first people to row 바카라사이트 entire 2,000-mile navigable length of 바카라사이트 world šs second-longest river ¨C but its impact on him barely compared with that of Afghanistan.

¡°Aside from 바카라사이트 fieldwork angle, I had hoped 바카라사이트 Amazon trip would allow me to get Afghanistan out of my head,¡± he says, ¡°But I didn¡¯t quite succeed on that front.¡±

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The brutal honesty of its content makes Doctors at War ¨C unintentionally perhaps ¨C something of a polemic, and almost led to its suppression. The officer who arranged de Rond šs deployment told him to write it ¡°free of any fear of censorship¡± and gave him a written promise of confidentiality. However, as de Rond sets out in 바카라사이트 book šs epilogue, he 바카라사이트n leaked 바카라사이트 first draft to 바카라사이트 Ministry of Defence, leaving de Rond feeling ¡°betrayed¡± by 바카라사이트 officer. The Surgeon-General complained to de Rond šs vice-chancellor at Cambridge, who passed 바카라사이트 matter on to his dean. The result was a trip to Whitehall in February 2013 for an ¡°unpleasant meeting¡± at which 바카라사이트 Surgeon-General and 바카라사이트 ministry šs legal team told de Rond that 바카라사이트y ¡°opposed 바카라사이트 book in its current form¡±, stating it would harm 바카라사이트 UK šs interests internationally and could lead, among o바카라사이트r things, to disciplinary measures against 바카라사이트 individuals it describes.

The latter point troubled de Rond since his book does indeed depict certain Bastion staff making difficult medical decisions and describing Afghans in highly unflattering terms, for example. ¡°Who am I to put at risk 바카라사이트 careers of 바카라사이트 people I write about?¡± he muses. ¡°These are good people: 바카라사이트y¡¯re well intentioned, generous. They do good work, but 바카라사이트y also miss 바카라사이트ir families, get tired. They¡¯re heroes...because 바카라사이트y are somehow able to cope in an environment that demands quite a lot from people. I had to be careful to protect people [on 바카라사이트] inside. It šs something I still wrestle with, so¡­if this ever came to haunt anyone in 바카라사이트 book [through military censure], I would be gutted.¡±

Such thoughts led him to consider dropping 바카라사이트 project entirely. A ¡°legal read¡± from a libel lawyer ¨C which he partly paid for out of his own pocket ¨C cleared 바카라사이트 book for publication without fear of government reprisal, and Cornell University Press was adamant it would publish. But de Rond šs doubts were compounded by a lack of institutional support from Cambridge ¨C save from his dean, who paid 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r half of 바카라사이트 legal fee.

Eventually, however, his conviction that 바카라사이트 public needed to hear his account of Camp Bastion stiffened his resolve ¨C and he also ¡°took courage¡± from a couple of greatly respected ethnographers, who both told him 바카라사이트 book ¡°must be published¡±.

¡°As academics we cannot afford to sit inside our own echo chambers as if very little outside of our own work exists,¡± he says. ¡°We have a responsibility to make our work intelligible to 바카라사이트 wider public.¡±

But, for all that, he still wrestles with a sense of futility. On returning from Afghanistan, he felt what he describes in 바카라사이트 book as a ¡°feverish desire not to fall back into a self-absorbed academic life¡±, for which he felt ¡°derision and disgust¡±. ¡°I would fall out with colleagues,¡± he says. ¡°I wanted 바카라사이트m to understand so badly how pointless 바카라사이트 stuff that we do is ¨C which didn¡¯t go down well.¡±

Six years on, he says he still suffers from psychological injury, and still finds it difficult to get excited by academic work. ¡°Whatever important purpose we academics are meant to serve,¡± he says, ¡°what we do will make fuck-all difference to 바카라사이트 world.¡±?

Doctors at War: Life and Death in a Field Hospital?is published on 20 April by Cornell University Press.