The US Army recently held a briefing at the Djibouti Chamber of Commerce to inform local contractors about opportunities and processes relating to the provisioning of goods and services to the US Army’s Camp Lemonier, in the Djiboutian capital (La Nation, December 23, 2009). Camp Lemonier’s Commanding Officer is quoted as saying the event was meant to encourage local operators to “avail themselves of the best of the market opportunities offered by the U.S. Army presence in Djibouti.” BBC recently aired a documentary calling attention to a lack of transparency in US military contracting procedures, which tended to favor the importation of low-skill labor from other countries, esp. the Philippines. A previous report, aired in the context of a US reality TV show “Dr. Danger”, portrays the US Army as having extremely good relations with the local population, while the latter BBC report (Fran Abrams, BBC Documentaries, August 2009) claims local impressions of the US military are heavily colored by perceived discrimination for jobs, and lack of respect on the part of the US military for local mores. –EDC
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