TULU Vs the Attorney General (The war for rights)

Article written on 30/04/2007
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War torn Afghanistan is struck by yet another war but this is war of an entirely different nature. No weapons are being used but it is as damaging to young democratic Afghanistan as the war of guns. It is causing a division between the various prominent organisations and figures within the country.

I received a number of emails urging support for the free media, which I am sure many other people received as well. I was also invited to a meeting held in London by Afghan businessmen and political figures in an effort to resolve this issue, which gave me the opportunity to observe the opinions and feelings that the community have.

There are varied opinions as I perceive it. Those in support of the Attorney General are reasoning that insulting and manipulating the words of someone is not free media in any form or shape. While the ones in support of free media are reasoning that the attack on TULU television and the arrest of its staff is an attempt to control the free media, which is against democratic values.

The case is already in court and it is the court's job to decide on who is wrong and who is right.

We only hear one side of the story and get our backs up by hearing how unjustly the other party behaved. By the time we get round to hearing the other party's opinion we are not in a position to even contemplate what they have to say no matter how right they maybe as we are already in defensive mode.

Instead of creating parties, which cause a further divide in the currently divided Afghanistan, why can’t we act as sensible citizens and support the Afghan government by trusting in its judicial system.

For how long are we going to squander our time trying to resolve issues between two individuals or parties? We could be doing something more productive and beneficial for our country instead.

As harsh as it may sound, it is not our job to interfere in the job the court should be doing, we are only creating further problems. Supporting the cause we believe in is one thing but taking matters in to our own hands is just not the way forward.

If we are friends of Afghanistan and want its newly established democratic government to flourish then we should show our support to its legal system.

The Afghan constitution has clauses that define the rights of the Attorney General and also the media.

Let it be a learning lesson to all that if you do something wrong there is a judicial that will bring you to justice or grant you justice if someone else is attempting to take your rights from you, instead of relying on how much support you can get from individuals or organisations to fight for your rights.

If we let the court decide on this matter, then the next time someone has a problem, they will not pick guns or any other destructive mechanism to resolve the issue in their favour. They will turn to the legal system and ask for justice, which is impartial and most importantly JUST.

If we retaliate, against those who have upset us or has a disagreement with us every time then what is the role of the government? Instead we create our own government, our own law and our own punishment for those that go against us. What is the law for then? Should we just get rid of it to make our job of destroying our opponent easier or should we support it in order for it to protect and defend our rights in a legal way. There is bound to be a difference of opinions and as soon as we accept that the better it will be for us.

Supporting Tulu TV or the Attorney General on our own initiative and without knowing the full picture, we would be giving heat to a new war and a new division. Dividing Afghans like this does not sound like a good idea to me but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

We will be empowering the government if stop taking sides and trust its law to bring us justice. The Afghan government needs our support to bring about and maintain peace. Trust it or lose it and give way to terrorists. Just imagine how your rights would be affected under a terrorist regime after we successfully destroy the little bit of democracy we have achieved in decades.

As we are all well aware there is the right way of going about things and there is the wrong way. It is our chance to strengthen the right way. The right way can be difficult and lengthy but it is the only way that is going to guarantee a stable Afghanistan.

Why can't Afghans find a leader to take us out of trouble like every other country?

Article written on 14/04/2007
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Afghanistan has faced some turbulent times over the past decades and we have managed to begin to claw ourselves out of the devastation, however there is still a vast amount of work remaining to rebuild our country.

When reading through Afghan history, it seems that there is a tendency to leave things uncompleted. Whenever, we are in trouble we get ourselves out but never completely. We stop before we make real progress and the struggle continues.

This issue has left me rather confused for some time, because Afghans are no less talented, sharp, clever, determined and focused than any other nation. To top it off, Afghans carry hearts of rocks, which give us the strength to fight any trouble in our way. However, there is something preventing us from digging ourselves out of the disarray that our country is in.

So what do you think the reason is? I think it is because we don't have a leader to takes us all the way. It is always the joint effort of the civilians who manage to pull the nation out of the situation to some extent but then there is no one to guide them the rest of the way.

So why is that then? If we are so good then we should have good leaders? Shouldn't we?

Well we do have good leaders but the problem is we just have too many.

In a previous piece of writing, I have mentioned the three types of education systems that Afghans in Afghanistan or in exile use to educate themselves and their dependents with.

One major defect with all three of these systems, which is inherited from our way of thinking, is that all of our education systems some how links to an elite educational system.

The difference between an elite education system and a conventional education system is that a conventional education system would concentrate on producing good and skilled citizens while an elite education system concentrates on creating good leaders.

Do you see the problem, no matter what type of education we have, whether it is conventional, religious or unconventional; they all insist on making us educational elites. We all want to govern and no one is mentally ready to be governed. Leaders alone cannot run the system if there is no one to follow, no matter how good of a leader he/she maybe.

I am not saying we should put a stop on creating education elites but we do need to concentrate on the good and skilled citizens too. For now we have enough leaders, we need to workout a way on how to train the rest of us to be followers.

So my conclusion is that the fault lies within us. When we become good followers and good citizens, we will have good leaders that will take us all the way when fighting a trouble and leave nothing behind.

Play your part, to help this situation. Everyone can make a difference, starting from me and you.

The Fear of failing

Article written on 10/03/2007

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Does it excite you when you know that what you have achieved is better than any Afghan ever has? Or do you dream of such a position?

Before I begin, I would like to say that if you have achieved something so good then, you are not alone in feeling the pride, every Afghan is proud of you and if you are aiming to achieve such a position then we will be proud of when you get there and are proud of you now for trying.
Ok here we go:

When I was in my second year of University, we were required to apply for jobs as our part of our degree program. It wasn’t compulsory but it was recommended that we did so.

I was hesitant like many other students. If I went for an industrial work placement then that would mean I get a years worth of valuable experience. Which inevitably will stand me in good stead when I apply for permanent jobs.

However, if I didn’t go for the year placement then I would graduate a year early, which could also be a bonus.

Being confused, I still applied for jobs, just to fool myself that I tried and I didn’t get one. There was also a confidence issue, I thought no one would give me a job so I had admitted defeat before even trying.

I went for a couple of interviews but was unsuccessful as I alreadypredicted. Then I got a call from Intel Corporation for an interview. It was in the middle of my exams and as I was already disappointed by getting rejected by small companies and hereis a company that dominates the computer industry by an enormous share of 80% in the PC processors. I thought I didn’t stand a chance.
I then heard one of my Greek classmates who had already been accepted by them that there are no Afghans in the company. He also said it with sarcasm that he is not surprised, all Afghans know is how to blow themselves up, nothing more.

It may have been intended to be sarcasm by him but it hurt me like being hit by a bullet. I decided I was going to prove him wrong by not just going to the interview but getting the position as well.

It was that determination that helped me find time to prepare so well for the interview despite being in the middle of my exams that I got a job offer a day after the interview. It took nearly two months for the funny guy to hear back after his interview.

As you can guess, I was pretty excited to be starting a job at such a prestigious company but it didn’t last more than a week. I started to realise how low my aims were but that was not what bugged me. The fact that when I was scared of failing, I failed and as soon as soon as I overcome that fear, the failure just saw itself out of the door.

Fear of failing can be the biggest obstacle in the way of your success. Get over it and the rest will just follow. No failure is a failure, until you accept it. Every time you think you have failed has actually been a blessing with a wealth of life experience. It makes you see things you wouldn’t have even noticed had you passed the first time. Try again and again, until you achieve what you want to achieve and in the process you will learn so many more things and achieve so much more than you expected.

All of us use post it notes because they are so good, they stick but you can remove them easily and they don’t leave a mark. You can stick them on anything, paper, glass, plastic, wall, etc. A genius invention and you know where it came from.. you guessed it.. from a failure that was turned into success. The company was actually trying to create a super glue and got the weakest glue in return but they didn’t call it a failure. They turned the story around and made it a bigger success than that supper glue they were trying to make could ever take them.

So, if you want to do some thing, just do it. Don’t think about the consequences or the end result because what ever, it is going to be will be for the better. Just don’t do silly things like slapping a stranger because the consequences may not be in your favour :)

All the best!

Afghans are more educated than I thought - 100% can you believe it?

Article written on 15/03/2007

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There are three types of education systems available to Afghans
1. Conventional Education system (Schools/colleges/universities)
2. Religious education system (Madrasas)
3. Unconventional Education system (explained below)

Every Afghan has been educated with at least one of the above, which makes it 100%. We can use each of these skills to rebuild a self-sufficient state as it requires an aspect of each of them.

I don’t need to explain the conventional and religious education system but the third type is the one that almost every Afghan is educated with and kind of makes us unique from other nations.

It is the system of education that has been thought to us by our parents, relatives, school teachers, religious teachers, etc.

Did you guess it? This system involves the fictional stories and sayings passed down from generation to generation. We are all being taught so much of this without us even realising. We can almost relate every thing that happens in life to one of the stories or at least a saying.

It is the most effective method of education, because it teaches us how to live our lives. We are taught to learn from everything and anything. We just don’t give it enough credit. It teaches us to learn, so even if you haven’t been told a story about something, you can still relate every thing that occurs to a story from your life to learn or teach from it.

Talking about relating a story to everything, here is an example of learning. This was not my first lesson of the unconventional education but one that kicked started the process of benefiting from it for me.

It was the best present my grand mother ever gave me or could give me. It was on the day I failed my maths test in grad 4 and I was very upset. She repeated it to me almost every day before going to school for almost a year so it is stuck in my head and I remember it at every moment of my life.

"Two little boys worked with a tailor. One day they both request their master (tailor) to let them go to the movie. As they were both hard working and nicely behaved boys, the tailor wanted to treat them anyway so he allowed them to go and gave them some money for the tickets and snacks at the cinema.

When they returned, the master asked them how the movie was... One of them started praising how good the movies was and how much he enjoyed himself... The other one said.. the movie was good and we did enjoy ourselves a lot.. but the cloths that the film stars were wearing looked really good... If we sew few pairs we may make some good money... He added, I have pictures of it in my mind and can draw them up if you like... The master got so happy hearing this that he granted the second boy permission to go to the movies every week... "

At the end she would tell me the moral of this story, which according to her was: Education is not in books, it is in your way of thinking and your way of leaning. Think out of the box, you can learn something from everything. Look at everything as a learning opportunity. Success blinds you and failure opens your eyes...

The moral was long and varied every time but the summary is above. You know what? I have never failed since that last time because I never give up. Every day I think about this story and every time I read it to myself I learn something new from it. There is just one bad thing though.. She said that learning is not just in books but I feel like I have been ignoring her "just" all my life and modified it to, "learning is not in books", I concentrate on learning from practical things more than the books but I am working on it.. I want to fix that balance.

This is the story that drives me to this day and gives me that push to get the message of real education to everyone. Share what I learn every day and learn from what I share..

Well anyhow, it proves my point that every Afghan is educated in at least one way, some more than one.

We think Afghans are not educated enough but we are, which should make us better and more successful than anyone else but sadly we don’t realise this. When we do, there will be no stopping us, we will achieve what no one has achieved so far.

All we need to do is realise what we know and use it for the better. With education, sky is the limit. You learn everyday from everything that happens around us. If we pay attention to it, we can use it to polish up our steps to success.

Sharing is also learning so share what you know with others and you will learn more from what you just taught to another person just by sharing it.

If you still think Afghans are not 100% educated, then share those thoughts with me.

Are we culturally confused?

Article written on 16/04/2007

Have you ever returned from a long holiday and find out that you have so much to catch-up? You were used to a routine and now everything has changed, meaning you have to start all over again and it is going to be even more difficult this time because of the bad hobbits you picked up all those years and the relaxed environment that you got used to during you holiday.

Well with Afghans it is exactly that, except that they didn't go on a holiday to a nice sunny beach but were the victims of war for over three decades. It was a series of war storms that destroyed everything, left millions dead
and disrupted the lives of everyone else.

Afghanistan was a playground for the powerful to play their dirty war game. The game played by the home and away teams. Oh wait a minute there was no home team, it was always the away teams that used Afghanistan as a play ground for the war and the Afghans as footballs to kick them around in order to decide which team wins.

The Russian war destroyed almost everything in the rural areas of the country, then the civil war between the Mujahideen played its part in the honorary work of destruction by destroying the cities, Taliban and Al-Qaeda came and chipped in the destruction and called themselves Muslims.

I always wonder which Islamic book they read. I don't think I will ever get an answer but an educated guess is that they may have been following the book of greed for power and money. I don't know who the writer of that book is but I am guessing the name starts with the letter A and is followed by S and S and that can't be an Islamic book.

So the question still is: What do they mean when they say they are fighting for Islam? Maybe to them the word "Islam" stands for something else and we got the wrong impression of calling the followers of the religion Islam. To my understanding, Islam prevents us from violence and actually stresses a lot on peace and on the understanding of co-existence. I guess it will always be a mystery.

The little that was left was flattened for us by the great Americans.

I hear these things of human rights violation for the prisoners in jail. Forget about the prisoners, at least they are safe in there. If you are free and you are not in America or Europe, you will die of freedom not detention! The prisoners are lucky. Not only are they safe but people actually care about their human rights or so they say.

Why is it that Saddam Hussein got hanged for doing the in-human thing of killing thousands of Kurds while Bush Hussein is still walking around very much alive after killing at least a 100 times more? Who is to answer for that? No one, because if you do, you will be called an Al-Qaeda ally, and you will be punished according to the rules of the War on Terror.

NO, it is actually war on the tearful orphans, widows and the reason again. GREED.
That word seems to haunt me wherever I go.

Anyway back to the sunny beach holiday for Afghans. When the Americans "freed" Afghans from their own started war and their creation "Taliban and Al-Qaeda" the Afghans looked back at the world and saw what has changed. EVERYTHING! The way they used to live is not possible anymore and the way the rest of the world lives… well they don't know how to. The advancement in technology is not so much of a problem; it is the difference in cultural values.

The Afghan culture was fine before and was adapting to the changing world as needed with time, before the war started. There was no time to think about those advancements in the fire of war so people carried on what they did and slowly forgot the real thing. They got used to the culture that is needed in the war. Those who left and went to other countries integrated their hosting county's culture into their own.

The war stopped and, all those Afghans that used to live as if a family together suddenly do not know each other anymore because of their different life styles and cultural values. Everyone wants to believe it is the culture, they adopted is the right one and everyone else is on the wrong.

It is the fight for everyone to try to be normal but there is nothing normal about it. Instead of competing in a normal way, one brother would try to put the other down, just so he could feel higher up at where he is standing
now.

Every family tries to be "the respected family", who has kept its cultural values and are still exactly the same as they were in Afghanistan, decades ago. That is not just it! There is also the competition between families
and individuals for "the best".

To be the best you have to keep up with the world and to do that you may not be able to win the other competition to be the respected family because you wont be able to keep your ancestors' culture because that culture was build much simpler things and not around the fast growing technology..

So to keep up with the current world, you may have to let your wife go to work or your daughter to go to school. Now that wasn't very well defined in the original culture. Some people have adopted it to be ok while others still think it is not and that women should stay at home. It is this difference that has widened the gap between the previously close friends.

This struggle between keeping our originality and keeping up with the world has disturbed the minds of almost every Afghan. Good for the psychology business but very damaging to the development of a new Afghanistan.

That is where the real problem lies, re-building the roads, buildings, technology, army, etc is all minor problems compared to this issue of this cultural depression. It is a problem everyone has to fix within themselves. No one else can do anything about it.

How do we do this? We just need to open your minds up and accept the changes. Let everyone choose for themselves. If someone chooses to live in a certain way then we should let them and our friendship should not be affected by that change.

I am not saying we should give up our stubbornness because there are always two sides to the coin. Afghans are proving to be one the toughest nation and you know why? Because despite all of the damage to our mental health and our mental wellbeing and the cultural confusions we now suffer, we have not lost hope.

The external involvement is still not letting go of Afghanistan and still working very hard to keep us in this mud of ignorance. Afghans are still working towards bringing social and financial stability to the country, which put together means "peace".

Although we are lacking the latest education and do not have the base to build on, but we are still making the best effort possible to get back on our feet and to compete with the rest of the world - a world that has become more advanced in innovative technology than we do, while we were busy getting ourselves out of the so-called war.

It is this stubbornness of, not giving-up attitude that keeps us going; otherwise, three decades of war on any country would be more than enough to completely paralyse the minds of its inhabitants.

What is holding us back is that we apply the same stubbornness when it comes to cultural advancement. If we could be a little bit more flexible in this matter, we will be able to overcome our problems far quicker. Every individual's efforts count. What we need to do is to start with ourselves and work our way up.

It is also important for those who are working alongside Afghans to help with re-construction and bringing back the stability to understand these issues… keeping in mind not to forget these issues in the rush of bringing a quick stability to the country.

A PICTURE OF AFGHANISTAN IN WORDS

Article written on 03/01/2007

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I returned to Afghanistan as a visitor after spending over six years in England.
I had a picture of the new Afghanistan in my mind before setting foot on Afghan soil.

I spent nearly a month with my Afghan people in Afghanistan and in Pakistan.
The picture I had in my mind before I went and the reality I found seemed so far from each other that my original picture now seems like a fairy tale.

Maybe my expectations were too great or maybe the reconstruction is too slow.
Considering the different factors, I’m now leaving Afghanistan with two different pictures in my mind, the sad picture and the happy picture.

I have tried to shed light on both. These are just the outlines of the pictures I have. Detailed pictures may take me years to complete…

THE SAD PICTURE:

Afghanistan, once taking big steps towards becoming a developed country, is now one of the world’s poorest countries. More than three decades of war have destroyed almost every thing including roads, parks, government buildings, houses, army bases, airports, museums , national heritage sites and much, much more.

The list includes everything that was man-made but the loss is not just limited to man-made things.

The natural habitat including forests and large tracks of once beautiful countryside have been decimated by the American bombing and rich agricultural lands used to cultivate crops, fruit and vegetables has been poisoned and useless for any kind of farming in the foreseeable future.

Three generations of Afghan youth have grown up in complete ignorance through a lack of education. The only skill or knowledge most young men have today is how to fight. For young women it is how to cook the recipes their mothers taught them.

Most women have spent their lives like prisoners in their own homes, cooking and cleaning, and the biggest achievement a typical Afghan man can claim to have mastered in his life is to serve food for their families.

Everyone, men and women, spend most of their time talking about things that they do not have control over. It has now become a habit, and can even be classed as culture. Gossiping, answering people back, and wishing people ill-will run through the veins of many Afghans now.

Talking has taken the place of action. Everyone wants to be in charge of bringing about changes and making everything better, but once they are in a position to do this and are given the opportunity to make a difference, they become blinded by selfishness.

Instead of working for their country and its people, they start lining their own pockets. It wouldn't be so bad if they didn’t use money stolen from Afghanistan. The first attempt for anyone with such opportunities is to try and guarantee that their money is in a safe place by transferring it to foreign banks in foreign countries.

Only some get out of their prestigious positions alive. The attempt at making more and more money eventually takes over their lives. Those who are lucky enough to live, leave the country once the government has changed and never hope to return.

However, such “refugee” ex-patriots retain the right to complain about the current government and the current collection of officials not doing anything for the country while forgetting that when they were in a similar position of power, they did exactly the same thing, if not worse.

Our country today lacks almost all those things that even some of the poorest countries in world have. A lonely, fully constructed building is sometimes seen amongst the vast majority of ruins. It still gives a patriot happiness and hope for a better Afghanistan but the culture of praising the last government that was hated by the majority of the population when it was in power, is sadly still at large.

The current government maybe using some of the aid money to rebuild but most people in power are too busy building their own personal profiles and improving their own finances to pay any attention to the needs of the country.

Intellectuals and those who really want to help the country are disappointed by this attitude so they never even consider returning to the country from years of exile. Most people discourage those who want to do something just out of habit or jealousy.

Just because they cannot do what others can, they refuse to support those who do what they can. Considering all of these shortcomings, it is easy to be discouraged, hence we are what we are, and where we are, today.

THE HAPPY PICTURE:

Amongst all these disadvantages and all the things Afghans have gone through during the past three decades of war, there are still many people who are working round-the-clock, day in, day out for the betterment of our homeland.

They are sacrificing everything they have by risking their lives and any financial resources they may still have to repair and restore the country.

I met so many young and old Afghans that are working so hard just so they can rebuild the country and achieve progress in the current world that they have forgotten they also have personal lives to live.

All of this is done, knowing there is no guarantee that tomorrow will be not be the same, possibly even worst, meaning that all their efforts have gone to waste.

But they have so much courage and love for their motherland that they are willing to risk all and refuse to be discouraged by anything. This is a remarkable view of bravery and courage and if there is truly a jihad to be fought, then this is it.

These people are truly fighting a morally acceptable fight to get Afghanistan to a place where it can compete with other developing , or, even better, developed countries in the fields of education, technology and brotherhood.

Seeing the current generation working so hard and with so much courage and bravery makes every Afghan proud and provides them with the encouragement they need to solider on and keep up the good fight.

Among such great individuals, is a young man named Siddique Mansour Ansari. Ansari holds a degree in journalism and a master’s degree in political science. I have never seen a man so active and determined.

He has been offered ministries in Afghanistan but he has never taken them because he thinks they would tie him down and prevent him from what he is already doing in for his country, which is spreading the light of education in Afghanistan.

He is working on an institute to produce quality professionals that are so desperately needed. He is also working on a school system that has no equal on an international level. His aims are so high and his actions are even better.

I can give hundreds of examples of such honourable, brave, motivated and determined people - people who in simple words are ingenious and know how to put their thoughts in to action.

Every investor thinks twice before investing all of their capital into a project that does not have some kind of certainty but I met people who are risking this, not because they are stupid and don't know that they could lose everything they have but just because they don't care if they lose it because they feel so passionately about doing everything they can to improve their beloved country’s economy.

Again, this is not where it stops. I met professionals who, despite all of the discouragements and dangers are returning to Afghanistan to do whatever they can to help their country.

An example of this would be one of BBC's top journalist Ismail Fatimi who used to live comfortably in London with his family but who has returned to Afghanistan permanently after years of exile. He hasn't returned to claim a ministry like many others but to do everyday things which could benefit his country in greater ways.

Seeing a country so shattered and torn by war, still working so hard towards success is like looking at a miracle in action. Afghanistan and its people have gone through so much that few other countries have experienced in recent times.

One would think that all its people would be discouraged and ready to give in to all the misfortunes that they have faced but that is not the case. People are still fighting in the face of all the misfortunes, standing like rocks against all the discouragement, working round-the-clock to take Afghanistan to a level that every Afghan dreams of, carrying within them so much love for their country all the time that it is hard to find the words to fully explain this phenomena.

Their morals are so high that they can not be shaken, even after three decades of war and they are ready and willing to face another three decades if they have to in order to retain and activate their passion for rebuilding Afghanistan.

Seeing how there are people who are not afraid of any kind of failures and disappointments, who are willing to try as many times as they have to, to win through, it gives all Afghans everywhere around the world hope for a brighter future.

Visit to the ISAF (INTERNATIONAL SECURITY ASSISTANCE FORCE) Head Quarters in Kabul

Article written on 28/12/2006

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I visited the ISAF Headquarters at the invitation of Dominic Medley from ISAF’s commander division.

He was a great host and a helpful person and introduced me to Major Luke Knitting who gave me an overview of ISAF’s work in Afghanistan and its plans for the future.

Dominic also introduced me to Mark Laity, a civilian spokesman and media advisor for ISAF’s commander division. We spoke at length about the situation in Afghanistan. Everyone I met was very friendly and helpful. The visit was an eye-opener. The following are some of my observations from this visit. I also consider it worth mentioning what people in Afghanistan think of ISAF.

ISAF is currently comprised of more than 31,000 troops from 37 countries who support and assist the government of Afghanistan to provide and maintain security. ISAF is in Afghanistan at the request of the government and will remain in Afghanistan until such time as the government of Afghanistan no longer requires their support.

Before my visit, ISAF to me meant military action to bring security to Afghanistan. However, it does not stop there. ISAF is working on helping to ensure the security of mineral resources, border crossing points, and the transport network and water supplies. ISAF is also supporting the Afghan government in its counter narcotics campaign and also supporting development strategies to help Afghanistan become self-sufficient.

ISAF publishes many publications including a newspaper and monthly magazines such as ISAF Mirror and Afghan Scene as well as operating a radio station under the name of Sadai Azadi meaning the voice of freedom.

The question as to whether or not ISAF’s role is really working in Afghanistan and how people feel about its military force presence is not simple to answer.

The ISAF intentions are not always interpreted in a fair-minded way. Nor are any expectations of them any higher that what they have so far delivered. The Afghan population is not impressed with the delivery or the level of security or with reconstruction or other developments.

It is common practice for people to compare the security at present and the security at the time of the Taliban. Although people did not agree with the policies of Taliban but they cannot help but praise the security at the time of Taliban.

Regardless of the money poured into the counter narcotics campaign, farmers are determined to plant poppy again this year. They know there are plans to spray the poppy fields to kill the plants but farmers are willing to risk it anyway.

Before traveling to Afghanistan, I believed the Afghan population would be against the presence of foreign troops but it seems like ISAF have got that under control for the time being in most places.

People are not too bothered as long as there is peace and prosperity. There is a degree of negativity in the way ISAF is interpreted to the Afghan population. On my visit to the ISAF HQ I was told that ISAF have long term development plans in Afghanistan and do not plan to leave Afghanistan until there is reliable peace and stability.

These plans are interpreted as an American and British invasion of the country even though the ISAF forces are made up with troops from 37 countries and their goals are to bring stability and prosperity to Afghanistan.

Both ISAF forces and the Afghan army work together under one command throughout the entire country at present as opposed to previous agreements in which separate nations controlled smaller geographic areas. This unity of work means more strength with a bigger army that can cover the whole of the country.

ISAF is also working to soothe Pakistan-Afghan friction and is working with both governments to strengthen cooperation and to work towards stability on the border.

The impression I got was that ISAF believes in rebuilding Afghanistan and its infrastructure and has a concrete plan they are determined to implement. The process may be slow but long-term vision is considered in everything that is being done which means once it is in place, it would stay.

The concern I have is about the difference between what ISAF's vision is and what the wider population believes its vision is. The reason the presence of ISAF forces is considered as invasion is because of the American attack on Afghanistan in 2001 to remove the Taliban regime from power.

People still believe it is that mission that is being carried to completion by ISAF. ISAF may need to work on delivering the message to the Afghan nation that they are in Afghanistan to support the democratic government of Afghanistan and not to invade this country. This is my clear understanding of ISAF’s aims but Afghans’ perceptions of it is that it is purely an invasion presence.

If we want a peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan, we all need to work with and support the Afghan government. If the Afghan government thinks it needs the support of international forces to bring and maintain stability then we need to accept that because after all it is an Afghan elected government.

All Afghans are tired of the war. Let's stop focusing torches on this government’s faults alone. Let’s also shed light on the positive things it has given and continues to give the Afghan nation.

The reconstruction maybe slow but at least there is a process of reconstruction and not destruction, for once. The Afghan government is developing a proper structure. It is looking at diplomatically resolving issues instead of using force.

Those who committed serious war crimes are for the first time being prosecuted though human rights processes. Women have been given the chance to raise their voices in defense of their rights. There may not be a complete freedom of speech but at least it is going in that direction.

Reconstruction in AFGHANISTAN

This article was written on 17/12/2006. It was moved from my previous blog to this one.

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Major changes can be seen as early as entering Afghanistan on the border.

New roads are under construction all over the country. Old roads are being repaired and extended. New markets and buildings are seen everywhere. Houses and parks are also being built, repaired or modernised.

Some places are unrecognisable and not because of destruction for the first time, but because new construction work is being done.

For a person like me, visiting Afghanistan for the first time in three years, these are major changes but the people who live here are finding the re-construction process very slow and exhaustive.

To look at it from their point of view, they are right. Not enough is being done. The process is not just slow but key things like electricity, schools, and hospitals are almost taken out of the equation.

The police force is new but it seems as if corruption has been running the system for generations. Only a small number of individuals are getting richer and richer but the nation stays poor.

The majority of people are still unemployed. The assessment process for employment is "who you know" and not "what you know". Peace is not properly in place. There is a constant fear of death.

However, looked at from the perspective that the infrastructure of Afghanistan was completely destroyed, to reconstruct a country with no infrastructure is a very difficult task.
It means there is a vital need for infrastructure in order for reconstruction to work properly – and bringing an infrastructure into place is a harder task than reconstruction.

The authorities are also struck with another big problem - education. There are not enough educated people to carry out all the required jobs and even if there are the right people for the jobs they most probably won’t achieve the employment they need because they don't know the right people and - as I have already mentioned - knowing what is important is not necessarily going to get you a job if you don't know the right people in power who can get you the job or who have the money to bribe an employer on your behalf.

I spoke to one Afghan who was asked to pay 20,000 Afghani - about £200 or $400 - to get a job that only pays 2,000 Afghani - £20 or $40 - a month and the contract for the job was only for a year. Now, with his salary, that person can only earn 4,000 Afghani more in a year than he paid in a bribe to get the job.

It also costs him more to commute to and from work each day - so why would anyone bother to take a job on that basis? There is no honour in being employed on this basis.
It didn’t look as if the man I spoke to took the job. He wore a gold-plated Rado watch, a half-inch thick gold chain around his neck and two fat gold rings, one on a finger of each hand - not the kind of accessories that someone engaged in a “legitimate” job that yielded less than 4,000 Afghani - £40 or $80 - a per year after bribes had been deducted.

In a country where there is hardly any infrastructure in place, corruption is paralysing the nation and there is a constant threat of bombs exploding where ever you go, how can the pace of re-construction be speeded up? There are four TV channels but no electricity to watch them with. The population still largely depends on radios for news and entertainment.

Although the first look of what I saw gave me good feelings, with time it changed. As I found out more about life and living standards, the sadness grew and the anger towards those who destroyed our beloved country and those who won’t let it get back on its feet, grew more and more.

Thinking about why our country is in this state made me realise it is our own fault.
Far too many educated Afghans living abroad, who could make a difference in Afghanistan, do not want to return until they are dead, so that their bodies are buried in Afghan soil.

The result - we have lots of scholars and educated people who unfortunately don’t do anything for the mother country until they are all dead – which is great for fertilizing the soil but no help at all when it comes to rebuilding and reconstruction.

If only more educated people were willing to return and contributed, things could be very different.

We cannot change history but we can change the future so let’s do all we can to work towards the stability and prosperity of the country we all love so much.

Let's get united and put a stop to being the enemies of Afghanistan. A united and happy Afghanistan is the greatest wealth Afghans could ever have. Tall buildings are not signs of happiness. Satisfaction however, is.

Accepting what we’ve got and treating fellow Afghans with love, compassion and wisdom could become infectious and lead to clearer minds. With a new year ahead of us it is time to throw away the hate rate and embrace love.

WHY DON'T AFGHANS WANT TO RETURN TO AFGHANISTAN?

Article originally written on 15/12/2006. Moved from my previous blog to here.

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Millions of Afghan refugees live in Pakistan.

Their living standards vary by where they live. The better off Afghans live in built up areas where all living facilities such as electricity, telephone, gas and water are available in each house.

Those who cannot afford such comfort live in camps or areas that do not have the advantage of having these facilities. As a whole the lives of Afghans in Pakistan, especially in Peshawar and rural areas, are miserable.

They are made aware that their stay in Pakistan is not welcomed. The Afghans that have been living in Pakistan for over 30 years now are still called "mahajar" meaning refugee.
Their treatment by the Pakistani police and other governmental department officials is inhuman. Reasons are found to cause Afghans trouble. If a police officer stops an Afghan for no reason whatsoever, the Afghan won’t be allowed to go free even when no fault is found, unless he pays a heavy bribe.

Afghans, who now have to be registered with the authorities after living in Pakistan without being registered for more than 25 years, are victimized in other ways.
They are frequently forced to queue for a whole day to register, only to find out that they have to return another day, or that the card issuing place is not where they should have gone to.

This is not where the abuse stops. There are guards with bamboo sticks that are used to beat anyone that moves out of the line to stretch their legs after standing for hours in the queue. Imagine waiting in the queue for five hours and then realising you need to use the toilet.
It instantly means you have lost your place and would have to come back another day. Speaking to one of the refugees who was going to get registered the next day, I was told he was refraining from eating or drinking from the night before to avoid having to go to the toilet and losing his place in the queue.

The reason Afghan refugees in Pakistan are going through all these ordeals is because they know if they don't register and receive a registration card, it will give the Pakistani police another reason to trouble them and encourage them to seek another bribe to supplement their poor government salaries.

There are three groups of people in Pakistan: The Pakistanis, The Afghans and Other Foreigners.

Afghans have not been given the same status as other foreigners, although this was seen as a good option 30 years ago when they were given special guest treatment.
Sadly time proved that this policy was not intended to give an honorary status to Afghan refugees in Pakistan but was administered to discourage Afghans from obtaining citizenship in Pakistan.

I’ve met people who were born in Pakistan, who went to Pakistani schools, and who have worked and settled in Pakistan, who are still abused by Pakistanis by different means and are now forced to get registered as refugees.

This makes one wonder, how can these people be classified as refugees, when what they should really have is the same rights as any other Pakistani citizen.
They are not allowed to work in any Pakistani institute, organisation or governmental department. The only employment they are allowed is self-employment but this option is also restricted because Afghans are not allowed to buy a place from which to run their businesses.

Being classified as guests - instead of refugees entitled over time to citizenship – has caused all of the hardship.

An example of the nonsense this makes, consider what would happen if your brother was a guest in your house and treated the same way as Afghans in Pakistan.

Even though he is your brother, he is treated only as a guest and therefore has no say in the running of the house while he is your guest.

This, of course, is nonsense. If he contributed towards the maintenance and upkeep of your home while he was staying there, and had a view or opinion about the house he’d like to share with you, he could do so without fearing that he risked being kicked out of the house by you at any time you wished.

He would probably be encouraged to participate in the running of the house as oppose to you making all the rules for him.

Life in Afghanistan is much freer than in Pakistan. Reconstruction is in progress and the international military forces and the national Afghan army have brought more peace than they are given credit for.

Life is more steady and respectful. Lots of Afghans who live as refugees in Pakistan work in Afghanistan, mainly in Kabul and other cities. So why don't Afghan refugees want to return to Afghanistan?

The reason I discovered by asking refugees was education, living comfort and access to health care.

Those refugees that are better off and live in areas where all living comforts are provided do not want to return because they don’t think they can get the same level of comfort and comfort in Afghanistan.

Energy shortage is at a high level. Most houses do not have electricity for days and when they do get electricity, it is only for a short period. In Kabul houses only get electricity for an average of four hours in every 24 hours. There is no gas and water supply is limited.

There is no proper health care problem in place. Those who get ill have to travel to Pakistan to get medical treatment. It is understandable why these people do not want to move back to Afghanistan. However, those Afghans that live in camps would be better off to live in Afghanistan as their living standards are lower than what they would get in Afghanistan.

So education is their issue for not moving back to Afghanistan. Camp refugees told me the education system in Afghanistan is not as good as it is in Pakistan. They have to put up with the miserable lives in Pakistan ,just so their children can get a good education.

Education is the one common reason all Afghans in Pakistan do not want to return to Afghanistan, whatever their financial status. This is a great sacrifice for them to make for the sake of their children’s upbringing - and a great contribution towards the future levels and standards of education for young Afghans brought up in Pakistan.

However, the fact that makes me sad is that their purpose for getting a good education stops with their graduation from school in Pakistan. No further education is acquired because the boys are expected to start earning for their families and girls are married off to spend the rest of their lives doing house work.

ASAUK

I am trying to move my blog from the Afghan students Association's website to here so some of the articles maybe old, like this one.

Education Project for Afghan Students (First effort to establish ASAUK)

An Article for the Afghan Links News Letter, published in issue 42 on 15/11/2006

Almost three decades of war have not just destroyed the infrastructure and almost all man made things in Afghanistan, but have also paralysed the education system that is so important for the stability and prosperity of the Afghans’ beloved country.
Schools are burnt because it is believed that it is an attempt by the West to teach immorality and take people away from Islam. People who have had little or no formal education are often not fully aware of current affairs in Afghanistan and the rest of the world.
The presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan is viewed differently by each Afghan; some think they are there to help, others think they are invading their independence, which is their right by birth. The lack of skills, to express diplomatically their views, is a weakness exploited by the enemies of Afghanistan for their own purposes.

To help other Afghans and those foreign individuals and agencies involved in the reconstruction understand the problem and act together towards the solution, I have established the Afghan Students Association.

The Afghan Students Association aims to:

• promote the importance of education for both men and women
• understand the impact education can have towards the financial, cultural and social stability in Afghanistan
• improve and standardise the quality of education in schools, Universities, religious schools and private institutions
• set up an Education project in Afghanistan, which will help to teach the teachers and increase their knowledge and skills.

I have previously established a society for Afghans at Brunel University; I currently serve as the president of this society. It has helped me provide a platform for Afghan students to get together and share their views, learn and develop skills other than their selected course of study and to celebrate cultural events. We have many members from Universities across the UK. I am trying to attract students to help me with this project but I am also looking for other volunteers from different backgrounds to spread this message across and help me formalize our organization. I want to establish the Afghan Students Association as a charity in the UK to do fundraising for this project.

The Afghan government and aid agencies are working hard to bring stability and peace in Afghanistan. I want to stress that any such stability will be temporary and not for the long term without education. Educating the nation is the only way to achieve peace and prosperity in the country. All development and reconstruction plans are important to follow but education needs to be given a higher priority as it is a necessity for ensuring a long-term solution.

Email me your views on hm.mohib@gmail.com

Afghanistan – Energy deprived country or is it?

It goes without saying that today the one thing preventing Afghanistan from gaining economic stability after war is the lack of energy. It is hard enough to convince investors to invest in Afghanistan for all the obvious reasons. Those that are willing to take a risk and want to go ahead with investments to help rebuild Afghanistan become hesitant when they find out that there is no energy available to meet their needs. This mean that they will have to invest in energy production equipment on top of their original investment.

Afghanistan currently does not have enough electricity to even supply big cities. Let alone big cities, not even the capital Kabul. The residents of Kabul get four hours electricity in 24 hours. What happens for the rest of the hours? Those who can afford it use electric generators, which run on petroleum fuel of one type or another, which costs a lot of money to buy and run.

But is there really no energy available in Afghanistan? Well as we have already been discussing electricity let’s concentrate on electricity, just one type of energy that Afghanistan is deprived of. The answer to the question is no. Afghanistan has possibilities of generating electricity in abundance. We can generate 3.6 giga watts of electricity from our geo-thermal resources alone, which is enough to supply all of Afghanistan’s residence and industry to some extent.

The mountains provide us with the perfect spots for putting up wind power generators. The waterfalls for hydro-electric generators are perfect locations for dams and not to forget the abundance of sun shine that we are blessed with for solar power.

If we can fit the roofs of houses with solar electricity generators then the residential electricity problem is solved. The UK government pays a grant for 30% of the cost to install such roofs and that is where you hardly see any sunshine. If they can make it with so little sunshine then we can do it with sunshine in abundance. The rest of the energy can then be available to supply to industry and even to export.

Can you imagine just how much of an impact it would have on our economy by just utilising this one type of energy resource!

So what is preventing this? Well many things, the war for a start, the money and the manpower. However the biggest factor hindering us is the lack of manpower. We just don’t have enough educated/trained people to carry out the task. Money problems could easily be solved, as many investors would happily invest in something promising like this.

Keeping in mind that it will cost us in multiples of the original cost by bringing in people from abroad to carry out these tasks for us. To install such power plants is not going to be a new invention but we do not have the equipment and the material to build it with. So we will need to import them to start with anyway, which raises costs again.

So what do we do now? Educate ourselves.. Yes, as simple as that. If we can’t build these power plants now, we should at least be able to do so in 10 years time.

It will be possible but we have to get our priorities right. Put education first, do it yourself, promote it amongst your family and friends and ask them to do the same. It is never too late for getting more education. In fact, the education process never ends. If you know something, then teach others. It will help you polish up your skills along the way.

We would not be in this state, if our parents were half as convinced that education is good for us as they are about getting married.

Our country is blessed with natural resources and our people are blessed with sharp minds. All we need to do is put our minds in to work and utilise the natural resources. We will never hear again that we are short of energy.

The foundations and resources to restore Afghanistan are there, but they need to be build upon and utilised appropriately to achieve sustainable progress.