# The war on the walls



## GAP (29 Nov 2007)

The war on the walls
From Thursday's Globe and Mail November 29, 2007 at 8:52 AM EST GRAEME SMITH 
Article Link

The featureless landscape of Kandahar Air Field has few creative outlets. So when janitors stopped painting over bathroom graffiti, the stalls became a free-for-all forum for the feuds, frustrations, misgivings and longings of soldiers in Afghanistan 

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Kandahar Air Field can be terribly colourless. Sometimes there just isn't any chromatic variation: When a dust storm rolls in from the flatlands and coats every surface, people blend like dun chameleons into the background of beige tents, beige fences and beige razor-wire.

The colourlessness can be figurative, too. Some soldiers say they prefer to live a rougher life in forward bases rather than endure KAF's blandness and strict adherence to many rules.

Maybe that's why the troops reacted enthusiastically to a small change in janitorial policy this summer, when NATO contractors took the maintenance job from a U.S. company. The previous janitors had regularly painted over the graffiti in the bathroom stalls, leaving them as blank as everything else in this featureless landscape.

The new cleaners have shown more tolerance, allowing months' worth of scribbles to accumulate on the walls. This resulted in a kind of raucous creativity never witnessed since Canadian troops arrived at KAF. Some of the graffiti is the kind of crude stuff you might expect from thousands of young men who spend months inside a dirty ring of fences, but other bits of commentary and artwork go far beyond the usual bathroom humour.
More on link


----------



## kincanucks (29 Nov 2007)

Link is incomplete.


----------



## Greymatters (29 Nov 2007)

Link here...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071129.wlgraffiti29/BNStory/lifeMain

Plus the best part, 10 pictures to enjoy...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071129.wgraffitigallery/PhotoGallery01?slot=1

There's nothing like a bathroom wall to find out what the troops are really thinking, personal biases, who is the least liked, etc...


----------



## GAP (29 Nov 2007)

link fixed...thanks


----------



## Scoobs (29 Nov 2007)

The article does not mention that these washrooms are open to everybody on the base and anybody could be writing this stuff, including the Dutch, Americans, Canadians, civys, contractors, etc.  Plus, is there nothing better to report on?  Next we'll hear about the 5 seconds of rain that we received the other day!


----------



## Jarnhamar (29 Nov 2007)

So someone is bringing a camera into the bathroom?

Creepy..


----------



## Merew22 (29 Nov 2007)

Flawed Design said:
			
		

> So someone is bringing a camera into the bathroom?
> 
> Creepy..



Yes this is definitely creepy, but I'm so glad they are.  This "war on the walls" business is quite humorous for viewers like us.  On a more serious note, Greymatters is right.  It does give us some sort of insight to the biases and personal thoughts of the soldiers no matter how crude.  Some I'm sure some are only meant to be humorous, but there are a few that are quite interesting.  I thoroughly enjoyed looking at the 10 pictures.

Military Girl  
http://www.usamilitarymedals.com/ fan.
"We shall meanly lose or nobly save the last hope of earth." - Abraham Lincoln


----------



## JesseWZ (29 Nov 2007)

I always read what is on the walls of bathroom stalls. I don't condone defacement of public property, however as a sociology student I have more then once been sent off to various toilet laden facilities to record data from the walls. In fact, that is 20% of my upcoming midterm, record and code bathroom stall graffiti. It provides some fascinating conclusions sometimes.


----------



## Jarnhamar (29 Nov 2007)

I think you picked the wrong major dude.


----------



## JesseWZ (29 Nov 2007)

Actually it isn't so bad. It's a sociology/criminology major. I get to sit in bathroom stalls (which I do anyways) and get valuable work done.


----------



## Shamrock (29 Nov 2007)

JesseWZ said:
			
		

> I always read what is on the walls of bathroom stalls. I don't condone defacement of public property, however as a sociology student I have more then once been sent off to various toilet laden facilities to record data from the walls. In fact, that is 20% of my upcoming midterm, record and code bathroom stall graffiti. It provides some fascinating conclusions sometimes.



All the good stuff is written on the floor behind the toilet, make sure you record that, too.


----------



## JesseWZ (29 Nov 2007)

JesseWZ said:
			
		

> It provides some fascinating conclusions sometimes.





			
				Shamrock said:
			
		

> All the good stuff is written on the floor behind the toilet, make sure you record that, too.


There are other times when it doesn't though...


----------



## CrazyCanuck (29 Nov 2007)

One of the more amusing bits of bathroom graffiti I've seen was between a reg force guy and a res guy. Can't remember exactly what the reg guy had written something along the lines of "You reservists are worthless" and the reply read "your career is my hobby"


----------



## Thompson_JM (30 Nov 2007)

Boater said:
			
		

> One of the more amusing bits of bathroom graffiti I've seen was between a reg force guy and a res guy. Can't remember exactly what the reg guy had written something along the lines of "You reservists are worthless" and the reply read "your career is my hobby"



Oooohhh Zing!  

overseas our beef wasnt so much Reg vs Res... more like Hesco Hobbits vs. Out the wire types.. (by hesco hobbits I mean people who weasel out of having to go outside the wire.. not people whos job just never required them to leave...)

or bashing the NSE or NCE..... 

a few nameless individuals had some brilliant artwork up in the crappers down by I-4 I-5 near old canada house.

pity KBR always got rid of it.....  
i know it made me laugh.


----------



## aesop081 (30 Nov 2007)

Boater said:
			
		

> of "You reservists are worthless" and the reply read "your career is my hobby"



Both these guys are idiots 

One for making a generalization and maginalizing important members of the defence team

The other for wondering why he only gets 85% for doing his "hobby"


----------



## PuckChaser (30 Nov 2007)

Sadly, I know where most of those pictures are from, and I only spend a few days in KAF at a time.

Sucks they don't have a picture of the bathroom tennis games! I mean, you can literally be stuck in a stall for hours, in that never ending game.


----------



## The_Falcon (30 Nov 2007)

SuperSlug said:
			
		

> Sadly, I know where most of those pictures are from, and I only spend a few days in KAF at a time.
> 
> Sucks they don't have a picture of the bathroom tennis games! I mean, you can literally be stuck in a stall for hours, in that never ending game.



 please spare us the details.


----------



## vonGarvin (30 Nov 2007)

Tommy said:
			
		

> or bashing the NSE or *NCE*.....


There's only one problem with the NCE...it doesn't exist (anymore).


----------



## Jorkapp (30 Nov 2007)

Hatchet Man said:
			
		

> please spare us the details.



(Inscribed on left side of stall):
Bathroom tennis - look right

(Inscribed on right side of stall):
Bathroom tennis - look left

...who needs Wimbledon?


----------



## Thompson_JM (30 Nov 2007)

Mortarman Rockpainter said:
			
		

> There's only one problem with the NCE...it doesn't exist (anymore).



I fail to see a problem with that!  ;D


----------



## Jarnhamar (30 Nov 2007)

JesseWZ said:
			
		

> Actually it isn't so bad. It's a sociology/criminology major. I get to sit in bathroom stalls (which I do anyways) and get valuable work done.



Why do some stalls have tennis ball sized holes drilled into the side?
I think they were near the dutch lines..


----------



## JesseWZ (30 Nov 2007)

Flawed Design said:
			
		

> Why do some stalls have tennis ball sized holes drilled into the side?
> I think they were near the dutch lines..


Not to be a party pooper, but I think I missed the joke. 
(Get it, party... pooper...) 
 ;D


----------



## JBoyd (1 Dec 2007)

Flawed Design said:
			
		

> Why do some stalls have tennis ball sized holes drilled into the side?
> I think they were near the dutch lines..



I sure hope what you are describing is not a Glory Hole......


----------



## Thompson_JM (1 Dec 2007)

JBoyd said:
			
		

> I sure hope what you are describing is not a Glory Hole......



I'll Take "things that would make you nervous on a thursday" for 200 Alex.....  ;D


----------



## Shamrock (1 Dec 2007)

Tommy said:
			
		

> I'll Take "things that would make you nervous on a thursday" for 200 Alex.....  ;D



Why?  Thursday your day in the barrel?


----------



## Jarnhamar (1 Dec 2007)

I know a guy, no names, who studies Aikido and was about to get a circle tattooed on his palm before going overseas.

He's fairly glad he didn't.


----------



## Thompson_JM (1 Dec 2007)

Shamrock said:
			
		

> Why?  Thursday your day in the barrel?



Are you familiar with the term "Man Love Thursday"?

It seemed to be all the Rage for the locals over there...


----------



## Greymatters (2 Dec 2007)

Tommy said:
			
		

> Are you familiar with the term "Man Love Thursday"? It seemed to be all the Rage for the locals over there...



I know I will regret sayin this but... what exactly does that refer to? And does it refer to allied troops or just local non-military residents?


----------



## JBoyd (2 Dec 2007)

Greymatters said:
			
		

> I know I will regret sayin this but... what exactly does that refer to? And does it refer to allied troops or just local non-military residents?



I also did not know, so i googled it... This is what Urban Dictionary has to say about it.



> 1. man love thursday
> 
> A weekly outbreak of homosexuality taken place by Afghan boys and men right before their one day weekend. Used to describe a homosexual act with friends, co-workers, family, etc. that you normally wouldn't do, except on thursdays.


----------



## PteGDD (2 Dec 2007)

Greymatters said:
			
		

> I know I will regret sayin this but... what exactly does that refer to? And does it refer to allied troops or just local non-military residents?



It's pretty stuff explained.


----------



## TCBF (2 Dec 2007)

Boater said:
			
		

> ..."your career is my hobby"



- My reply would have been "Why not get a hobby your good at?"

 ;D

- But, enough of that - When do we read about graffiti in the Ladies room?


----------



## Thompson_JM (2 Dec 2007)

Yup. JBoyd got it right...

man love thursday..

the day where afghanistan goes gay.

it became an in-joke with alot of us over there, making references to it etc....


----------

