Afghanistan - Rebuilding in progress??

This generation must stop paying the price for the damages of the past!

2011-01-23T17:59:00.005Z

Which generation?
We may refer to them as the ‘young generation’, young not only because of their age but also because of their immature thinking and struggling. Let me try to define this generation:
Any Afghan who currently struggles and thinks about saving Afghanistan and the prosperity and harmony of Afghans, or at least has such hopes for them. Any Afghan (old or young), who has not killed a fellow Afghan, has not been involved in looting and predatory actions in this country. Any Afghan who has not fallen deep into the extreme left or right to the extent that he or she considers that killing innocent Afghans is justifiable or any Afghan who has not had any part in stealing the assets of the government of Afghanistan. Any Afghan who has not undermined the morals and values of this country in order to serve others’ ideologies or any Afghan who has not committed atrocities and caused the destructions of Afghanistan just so to make his/her foreign backers happy. Any Afghan who does not sacrifice the interests of Afghanistan for his/her own personal or sectarian’s interests.
This Afghan human being is included in ‘this generation’ which fortunately makes the majority in Afghanistan. My words refer to this ideal generation. I call it the ‘young generation’ and I repeat once again that by ‘young’, I do not mean young in age but innocent individuals with clean conscience.
This generation must not pay the price for the past mistakes which were the result of political games. Nowadays, if a young man/woman is killed, deprived of humane living conditions, without access to school, college or fair work conditions, withheld from leading a healthy business, kept back from a place to live and suffering from psychological disorders, these are all due to the consequences of the past and present unhealthy politics. Has this generation ever asked itself; “Why are the culprits of current atrocities still holding power and ruling over the ‘young generation’? Why are they still abusing this generation and stripping it its assets? One of the reasons is that we are unnecessarily lost in our past and we tend to forget about today and the future.

The Problem
We are still fighting over history; we are still wasting our valuable time defending or condemning those faces that are part of history and so unable to do anything useful for our present and future.
At gatherings, political discussions, press conferences, on Afghan websites and during meetings, I witness that instead of discussing our destiny and thinking the way forward, the ‘young generation’ engages in supporting or decrying those figures that cannot make a positive contribution for this generation. One considers a politician clean and respectable while others see him as a warlord, a criminal and a traitor. Similarly, some stand up in support of one side while others denounce them. This is how this generation wastes its energy and valuable time to the extent that quit often their arguments lead to hostilities. Some try hard to find evidence for their claims and force others to accept their counterarguments whereas they never question the benefits and advantages of problematic discussions which sometimes even turn violent. Will such unhealthy rivalry lead to a constructive change in their lives? One of the negative consequences of Afghanistan’s wars and crisis is that our ‘young generation’ has been coerced into getting involved in discussions of history. I do not encourage the ‘young generation’ to take revenge for the past generation but I just ask them to forget about the past. I do not deny the fact that we should learn from the past and historical experiences but I do not want anyone to lose himself or herself, getting lost and vanishing in history. The ‘young generation’ should study history in as far as it helps them learn from the wrongdoings of the past in order to prevent similar mistakes from occurring again and renew and develop the positive experiences of history.
When I mention history, I don not imply a history that is centuries old. Yesterday is a part of history, the last thirty years are also part of a history that apart from some exceptions does not have any significant value. One of the exceptions is that lessons from our near past should be taught to widen our understanding and experiences beyond this part of history which had made us neither independent nor rich. Millions of us were killed yet we are still poor and hungry, still under others’ influence, deprived and helpless.
If two young Afghans smash each other’s head in support or opposition to this or that Khan, Ustad, leader, commander or any other disputed figure while these powerful figures are not even aware of the “sacrifices” made by their “supporters”, how will this contribute to the betterment of the ‘young generation’?
The ‘young generation’ (the innocent generation) pays for the mistakes and the crimes of the past by taking part in problematic arguments. Unfortunately, paying this price is extremely expensive and has almost caused a vicious cycle. On the one hand, the loss has deprived this generation from everything and has resulted in their being abandoned in a dry desert with nothing in hand. On the other hand, this loss has caused the generation to become involved in a psychological war, a war from which this generation has not been able to rescue itself. This loss has not only stolen everything from this generation but has made this generation get lost in search for clearing or accusing controversial figures while losing its ability to work for a brighter future. This is indeed the biggest loss. Guilty politicians have turned the young generation into their defenders, clearing the politicians’ reputation. On the one hand, these politicians abuse the innocence of the ‘young generation’ to hide their crimes. On the other hand, they try to deter progress of the ‘young generation’ because if the ‘young generation’ tries to progress, the guilty politicians can no longer show their true faces to people. They want the people to thank them for being worse than worst.

Solution
Everything has ended!
We need a new beginning!
The incidences and events of the past are just lessons for us. We need to renew and develop the best lessons and bury the worst ones in the graveyard of history. Beyond this, we should separate our relationship with our near past. A new Afghanistan cannot be built by the elements that have already been tested. The Afghanistan of today and tomorrow will be built only by this young thinking, young acting and innocent generation. This generation should devote time to building this country.
The solution is that the ‘young generation’ must no longer pay the price of the crimes, mistakes, wars and betrayals of the past. The politics of the past were imposed on us so that some figures could come to power, becoming fat and rich. We no longer want to burn in the fires created by the perpetrators of old politics. We should no longer make ourselves tired and exhausted in praising or condemning them. This generation can only afford to spend its time, stamina and knowledge to build its today and future and forget its bitter past.
Today, if we are hungry, ignored, isolated, deprived, have nothing, far away from education and development, unfortunate, taken hostage, and have no leaders - doesn’t this mean that we have nothing from our near past to be proud of?
Shouldn’t we feel ashamed of our past, at least the nearer past? Aren’t the players of the past guilty of the current atrocities and problems? Therefore, if we do not forget the past and do not move forward and do not roll up our sleeves to get out of these crises, wont the generations of tomorrow blame us the same way we blame the previous generations? And god forbid, wont they consider us accountable for all deprivations caused?
A major part of national awareness is to turn the attention of the ‘young generation’ to the future. Do not look back, look forward for the present and the future or else our heads will eventually hit the stone.
The guilty political players of the past cannot help you. They just want to use you to present them as clean and innocent and that is it. They want to hide themselves behind your innocence and carry their stolen assets on your shoulders. Throw them away, wake up and brighten your fellow citizens up and search new ways for a prosperous Afghanistan.

Pay attention
Some names may appear big and important, but you are more powerful than them. You have a cleaner conscience than them and you are more trustworthy in society than them. You can do it. You can find solutions for the crisis of trust and believe that they have caused.
These words are not mere slogans. They are a call for awakening and for creating awareness of national movement. Start everything from the beginning and do not pay the price for the mistakes of the past any longer! It is not worth wasting our time in justifying or condemning crimes, sins and so-called prides of the past. Do not cause pain and agony to each other for the sake of the past because you are innocent. Do not get involved in sectarian differences; these cannot offer anything to you but will take everything away from you. Do not follow “colours”; make a white and clean future. This is the way for awakening and brightness.

English translation: Fazel Fazly

Malak-ul-Maluk, an alternative for the current MPs?

2011-01-16T09:02:00.002Z

If cardboard and paper were edible, the poor of Kabul city could live on the posters and billboards of the parliamentary candidates of 2010 for almost a month. Most of those who voted would agree with me that it wasn’t the posters that influenced their decision to vote. Then why such a huge waste of money? And the cluttering of our own cities? I would argue the fault lies in the system itself.

Democratic institutions have to happen naturally and evolve organically for them to be effective and representative, which is not the case with the Afghan parliamentary system. It has been forced from the beginning, and after a 9 year trial period, clearly isn’t working. In the last parliament, only a handful of the MP’s ever visited their constituencies. For the majority it wasn’t possible as they feared for their lives. This lead to the alienation of the public, especially those in the rural areas, because their voices could not be reached.

The recent parliamentary elections of 2010 were a prime example of the collective failures of the past 9 years of the experiment in Western-style democracy that this country has become. There were 17.5 million eligible voters though only 4 million showed up to vote, most of them the urban population in cities. That is only 23% percent of the eligible voters leaving 77% behind– meaning further alienating them from the current Afghan government. It clearly isn’t working as it is supposed to. It is too forced and doesn’t connect well with the fibres of rural Afghan society.

The alienation of rural Afghans could have been stopped the first time if the parliament was actually a representation of the people. Voting should lead to representation of the people, not just be undertaken as part of the democratic machine. If one part of the machine doesn’t work -- in this case, the voting process and fair representation of the people, then the entire machine is broken!

The 2010 elections saw a huge number of candidates – 2,500 for 249 seats. The extravagant amount of money spent on the campaigns by corrupt candidates made the honest ones disappear as if they never existed. In addition to the money spent by the candidates, it cost the government 150 million USD which the international community paid for. What did we get by the end of it? We got a non-representative parliament full of warlords and the facilitators of corruption. The country is not able to sustain this type of false representation, and for what? It doesn’t even work!

Perhaps a better alternative would be to limit the current elections system to the cities and instead adapt the local system of malaks (informally elected village chieftains) in the rural areas into a formalized process that would result in more actual popular representations. Here’s how it would work: Each village would elect their malak, and the village malaks would collectively form a district body. The malaks of the district would then elect a malak-ul-maluk (chief of the chieftains) from amongst themselves to represent the district as a whole in the parliament. This way the MPs would really be from amongst the people, and would be connected to their constituencies; thus, serving as a direct link back to their constituencies throughout the provinces. Some districts can be coupled together based on their population and geographic size to meet the target of 249 seats in the parliament. The mix of the two systems could produce the best form of representative parliament, one that is from amongst the people, affordable and sustainable for the country, and one that would ensure effective outreach for the government. A real, representative democratic machine, home-grown in Afghanistan.

The grave yard of empires...

2010-06-05T21:27:00.013+01:00

The last time I wrote something for this blog was November 2008 – almost two years ago. That was just a few months after I moved to Afghanistan. I always thought I had a writer’s block but a recent chat with a couple of my friends in Kabul made me realize it wasn’t.

Most of the people that write about Afghanistan are either not Afghans or those who live abroad. Even the professionals that do see what it is like here are only here for a few days or weeks at a time which is not enough to realize the truth before they can write about it. Their perception is what they import with them and then their experiences later exported back in the form of articles. Almost never do their opinions jotted down are separate from their imported thoughts.

Afghanistan – the empires’ graveyard – is a complex state or what today is called a country under that name. The multi-cultural state is not only diverse in terms of languages, religions and social dynamics but also varies in opinions and perceptions from one village to the other in each one of the ~398 districts of the country. Understanding them all and trying to do the right thing has always been a challenge for the Afghan puppet government no matter whose puppet it was or is.

Every puppet prime minister/president imports their own ideologies from their master state; thinking it is the best for the country. This is of course without conducting an intensive research or even a mere opinion research to understand what the locals want. It is always assumed that what the leaders or the master state thinks is right must be the right approach. Of course, they are the ones pouring money so it should be, shouldn’t it?

Afghanistan is not like anywhere else in the world. Understanding its differences may take decades if not centuries but are the key to peace and stability here. Money cannot buy anything other than the time of temporary pimps of the land. When the money is over those pimps will be the first to turn against their masters.

Anyway, I don’t want to talk about the government or policies of the invading nations. It is a series of topics for the future. All I wanted to point out was that the longer you spend in Afghanistan the more imprisoned you feel; and that feeling make you wonder about the future. However, that feeling is not enough to stop you from writing about the country but it is rather the challenge of trying to stay positive.

Negativity seems to be the trend here amongst the writers without a real analysis, which is just too easy to write about since the majority of the readers want that. However, there is much more to this country – things that are real. It doesn’t matter whether it is sad news or joyful, it needs to be reported as it is! That is all I am asking for – reporting without any biases. Understand the country and its culture first before you write or make comparisons. What may look like backward to you may be a step forward to many ordinary Afghans.

As I mentioned before most of the people writing about Afghanistan have never lived here for long enough (more than a few weeks/months). They write based on their short term livening experience, their comparison with their childhood experiences if they were born here, their ideology and/or their wishes and that can never be real.

As for the Afghan bloggers; most of the active ones either live abroad where they feel safe and it is most easy to write based on their comfort or are paid to do so by their foreign masters. They are far away from the reality and the sentiment on the ground. Bring them out in to the reality and I promise they will lose their minds (if they have one to start with of course) because all of a sudden they will not be living in the dreamy bubble they built for themselves. A majority of them (the Afghan writers/bloggers) are fascists and for some reason, perhaps for their ignorance, they are proud of that.

It is time we change that! And the way forward would be to write about the realities on the ground without any fear. If we lose our lives doing that then consider it our sacrifice in the effort to rebuild our nation. I am not a proud Afghan but rather ashamed of it! To me it is not important what we were a long time ago but what we are today. Pride will take us nowhere but shame will make us build our country so that one day our children can be proud of it.

Shame on those who destroyed our country! Shame on those who still are! And shame on the greedy pimps that are selling Afghanistan out for their own financial/personal gains!

Let’s build a future we, our children or grandchildren, can all be proud of for real one day!

Long live Afghanistan!

Stop the bombs and talk to the Taliban

2009-10-07T01:38:00.003+01:00

Stop the bombs and talk to the Taliban
On October 7 2009 it will have been eight years since the U.S led invasion of Afghanistan.
despite the presence of international security assistance force and international community the violence and instability has been increased.Why?

Keeping tabs on the events of the war in Afghanistan is not difficult. Press coverage includes daily reports of soldiers dying and killing, elections counts and recounts and even stories from the far flung tribal areas.But there is little about what the ordinary Afghan thinks.
What is his story? How does the war affect him? Does he want President Karzai to stay in power? Does he want more troops, be they from the US or France? Do they make him feel safe? When answered these questions weave the missing thread through the real story of the war. These answers tell a frustrating tale.Look back to May, for example, when US air strikes killed more than 100 civilians.This is when the Afghan people first began to lose faith in President Barack Obama.As protocol required Obama and US secretary of state Hillary Clinton expressed their deep sympathy with the victims, and said sorry for the civilian deaths.But a change occurred. Right at that moment that the ordinary people of Afghanistan lost faith in Obama’s commitments for peace and stability. After the death of yet more non-militants, they began to suspect that Obama could not keep his early promises to protect civilian live in Afghanistan.Karzai, meanwhile, in the US at the time, and travelled back to the devastated area. He sanctioned the award of 100,000 Afghanis (US$2,000) to each of the victim's families.This is the price of an Afghan life.Along with the government 'gift', families were forced to sign a document to say they were happy with the settlement. Happy that the $2,000 should clean up the human mess that bombs leave behind. For those families with little money, their options were limited.In the west, some countries have a law to protect animals. If anyone dares to harm an animal, he or she will face justice. In my country a human life can be taken very easily because there is little justice.Since the war began, mass killing has become part and parcel of everyday life. If any dare to challenge this notion or to call for justice, perhaps, they accused of being insurgents. This is the story of the ordinary Afghan.The ordinary Afghan, who testimonies I have spent years collecting, does not understand why the international forces have not found Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar. He does not understand his fellow countrymen and women are paying the price.Three decades of war takes its toll.Some of those ordinary Afghans killed in the bombs on two fuel tankers earlier last month, had survived Russian invasion. They would not be surprised by theirs deaths because of what they had seen once before.When a small group of Taliban hijacked two tankers which carried fuel for NATO forces in northern Kundoz, local people saw it as a chance to get free fuel for their lamps.They remembered a time back in 1980s, when Mujahideen gave out captured equipment seized from the Russian invaders. These included fuel, food, cloths and car spare parts.On pondering further on the Russian invasion, the ordinary Afghan remembers that, despite war, the USSR considered attacks on locals’ haphazard and foolhardy way to conduct their military campaign. Such attacks would only bring retaliation and in turn cause a long drawn out battle.The Russians strategy was to give to the Afghan government at the time. They didn't keep private jails and they tolerated petty looting.But the Americans and Germans decided to frightened local people when the Taliban stole their tanks, heavily bombing them. After World War II it was the first mass killing committed by German troops in the history.Isn't it strange, Afghans are saying to themselves, that while we did not expect peace from the Russian army because, well they were invaders and committed to no international treaty.Yet these Americans and Germans invaded Afghanistan under the cloak of an international treaty committed to peace. But so far, it poses a continuous threat to normal life.Lives in countless Afghan villages have been threatened since 2003, for the lives of perhaps one or two Taliban militants were hidden there. Sometimes they are killed in these deadly air strikes, other times they escape. But what is consistent is that hundreds of ordinary villagers have been killed by wild card strikes.Women rights, democracy, human rights and political stability are the constant battle cry of the invaders. But ordinary Afghans appreciation of such gifts is tampered by heavy bombs, which are damaging all hopes of democracy and justice.Meanwhile, the criminals and sadly comical farce of Karzai's government remains. After allegedly winning the elections last month, and a recount still not complete, hopes of competency governance is vanishing fast.It seems unlikely that my country will be free of its current government, full of drug lords and war criminals, who care little for social justice and democracy and more about lining their already bulging pockets.This is just a snapshot of what my fellow Afghan witnesses day by day. He also sees a resurgent Taliban, offering an alternative.And it is because of this that NATO must talk to the Taliban. There is no option but to negotiate. The Taliban alternative, while distasteful to some, is more palatable than the trekking across Europe sleep on the streets of Calais or to stay at home and hope the bombs do not fall.

حامد کرزی، حقوق بشر و انتخابات

2009-09-20T02:26:00.000+01:00

تامین و محافظت حقوق بشر و دموکراسی در افغانستان به عنوان یکی از دلایل مهم موجودیت قوای نظامی و موسسات غیر دولتی در این کشور شناخته شده است. برای ممالکی که سربازان شان در افغانستان استند شعار هایی مانند دفاع از حقوق زنان و برابری یگانه وسیله خاموش نمودن تظاهرات افراد ملکی و جلوگیری از فشار برای بیرون کردن قوا از کشور است. مطبوعات خارج از کشور هم به اشکال مختلف کوشیده اند روی دست آورد ها در افغانستان تاکید نمایند تا از نارضایتی مردم جلوگیری کنند اما با گذشت زمان در داخل و بیرون از کشور حمایه از نیرو های خارجی کاهش یافته و بر فشار بالای دولت امریکا و سران ناتو افزوده است طوریکه ایتالیا و آلمان احتمالا به جستجوی راه بیرون رفت استند. تخلف های پی در پی دولت حامد کرزی مسبب بخشی از این نارضایتی ها است. ناتوانی حکومت مرکزی در پیگیری ناقضین حقوق بشر و حمایت آشکارای دولتی از بعضی از این متخلفین باعث دلسردی مردم افغان و جامعه جهانی می شود و باعث می شود که امید اندکی که برای بوجود آمدن ثبات و عدالت به وجود آمده هم از بین برود خصوصا چون حقوق بشر و مردم سالاری برای دولت افغانستان به مثابه شعاری برای جذب حمایت ممالک کمک کننده و ملل متحد است و خود دولت تعهد چندانی نسبت به آن ندارد.

انتخاباتی که گذشت مثالی روشنی بود از راه دوری که افغانستان تا دموکراسی دارد. حدود 1.5 میلیون رای مشکوک که 1.1 میلیون آن به نفع حامد کرزی به صندوق ها افگنده شده بودند نمایانگر این است که دولت افغانستان، که برای محافظت از حق ملت به وجود آمده بود، یکی از بزرگترین ناقضان حقوق بشر در این مملکت نیز هست. بازار گرم تجارت کارت های رای دهی و صندوق ها پر شده قبل از انتخابات که در آن حامد کرزی و طرفدارانش بزرگترین سهم را داشتند نیز نشانه بی توجهی رئیس دولت به نظر و رای مردم و بسته کردن دریچه ها به سوی مردم سالاری است. تخلف های انتخاباتی توسط آقای کرزی و گروه کمپاین انتخباتی اش به صد ها و شاید هم هزاران قضیه می رسد. اما مهم تر از همه این تخلفات استفاده کرزی از سیاست های قومی برای بدست آوردن رای مردم است. انتخاب سران قومی و جنگ سالاران احزاب وحدت، جمعیت و شورای نظار که ناقضان کهنه کار حقوق بشر در افغانستان استند به عنوان معاونین و مشارکین دولت ضربه بزرگی به افغانستان است. این رهبران سالها به نام این قوم و آن قوم با زندگی و سرنوشت مردم بازی کرده اند و نصب دوباره آنها به مقامات بلند پایه دولتی تیغی است که از عقب به افغانان و حقوق بشر زده شده. سیاست های دوگانه و قومی توسط کرزی و بعضی کاندیدا های دیگر باعث به وجود آمدن خلایی بزرگتر میان اقوام مختلف در مملکت شده و باعث می شود مردم ما چند سال دیگر را صرف جنجال با همدیگر کنند تا با استفاده از هرج و مرج جنایتکاران و مافیا افغانی و بین المللی کنترل مملکت را به دست بگیرند و راه به وجود آمدن حکومت مردمی را برای چند دهه دیگر ببندند.

قوم یگانه اسلحه برای به دست آوردن رای در انتخابات نبود حقوق اقلیت ها، حق زنان و آزادی بیان نیز نقشی بزرگی را ایفا نمودند. امضا نمودن قانون شخصیه احوال اهل تشیع افغانستان توسط کرزی را به گونه یک مثال بررسی می کنیم. بعضی از مواد این قانون که چندی پیش از سوی پارلمان تصویب و از سوی حامد کرزی، رئیس جمهوری افغانستان، توشیح گردید به صورت گسترده‌ای مورد انتقاد نهاد‌ های حقوق بشری و روشنفکران در داخل و خارج از کشور قرار گرفت. نقد اصلی این بود که در ساختن مواد این قانون زنان اهل تشیع پارلمان هیچ نقشی نداشتند و قانون آیینه طرز فکر و باور های فیصدی کوچکی از شیعه مذهبان بود. دلیل دیگر مخالفت این بود که کرزی فقط برای به دست آوردن دل بعضی از رهبران مذهبی و رای این قانون را ناخوانده امضا نمود. در حالیکه این حق تمام مذاهب افغانستان است تا قوانین مشخص به خود را داشته باشند اما مواد این قوانین باید مورد قبول اقشار مختلف آن جامعه باشد و قانون اساسی افغانستان را که حقوق مساوی برای زنان و مردان را تضمین می کند زیر پا نگذارد. توشیح این قانون نه تنها توهینی به زنان اهل تشیع افغانستان بلکه به تمام پیروان این مذهب بود و ضربه دیگری بر حقوق بشر در افغانستان بود.

پیگیری نکردن قضایای تجاوز به کودکان در سرپل، هرات و بدخشان، سنگسار یک زن در بدخشان و قتل خبرنگاران متعدد و خاموشی دولت در مقابل از بین رفتن صد ها افغان ملکی توسط قوای ناتو و ایساف در حملات هوایی و دهها جنایت دیگر روز بروز باعث پایین رفتن اعتبار دولت و حمایه کنندگان خارجی آن و بیزاری مردم از آنها می شود. تمام این قضایای و ده ها مثال دیگر از بی توجهی دولت نسبت به حقوق بشر باعث می شود که نه تنها جامعه جهانی از کمک به افغانستان رو بگرداند بلکه مردم افغان نیز نسبت به ملت سازی بی باورتر شده و اگر تا حال چنین نکرده باشند کم کم دوباره به ممالک دیگر پناه ببرند.

War is a big monstor

2009-09-17T21:15:00.003+01:00

I always thought war is a big monster with spiky blue skin and a big left nostril that he nourishes with the smell of blood. When I was four, I imagined that every time I quarreled with my sister over the Barbie doll that we shared, War would drink a glass of Champaign with his other monster friends and laugh at how easily he tempts and conquers his human toys. Afraid of being confirmed on this frightening thought, I didn’t share it with anyone but my mother. My mom had smiled and kissed me on face saying “I will never let that monster touch you, honey.” Even though in school we were taught that all truth is worth knowing, my mother always said we should distinguish between the facts we need to know and the ones we do not. She said: “it doesn’t matter whether the monster exists or not, the important thing is how we let it control us even when it doesn’t exist.” I didn’t understand that until I was thirteen.

My mother had met War when she was a blooming rose and enjoyed over-the-wall talks with her friends. For the past 15 years I have watched the colors of this rose fade. I have seen some of the petals drop on the Bukhari* and burn as the winter wind blew harshly through the holes of our wooden door and brick cottage. Father had said we would cover the holes with wood and mud before next year’s first snow. “Until then”, he said, “You gals should hug each other tight and make sure all of you are covered and warm.” Despite the cold, the water dripping from the leak of the roof provided us, the four daughters, with entertainment as we competed on catching them before they fall into the bucket placed by mother. The rainy and snowy nights of winter were haunted with poverty, hunger and need for peace but the tales of elders in the family kept us distracted and warm until we fall asleep.

The elders would talk politics, gossip about the evils of the war and drink lots of tea to stay warm. They would warn us, the children, to avoid becoming toys in the hands of humans who were loyal servants to war. “War brings poverty and ignorance, which cause slavery of one’s body and mind” my grandma would say as she braided my hair. I knew the monster would shiver and scream with outrage when we heard these words of wisdom. I knew he would breathe heavily and his nostrils would expand. He would feel thirst for more celebrations, more blood, more hunger and more devastation.

The thorny fingers of war touched me in 1991 when I was 40 days old. 18 years I have lived with war and watched the bricks of our house fall. My mom hugged me and run out of our house to the street. Houses falling everywhere. Bricks breaking everywhere. I saw how everyone claimed and fought for one of the bricks without thinking of the house. Today, I watch people trying to build new houses with their one brick forgetting about the common house; the house where they come from. I don’t see any hands covering the holes and protecting the children against the cold breeze. I see blood streams flowing out each hole. There were children with fingers that froze searching for food and parents who sold their children to save them from starvation. The monster watched women with burqas who stayed nights out to survive poverty and save their children and mocked us. There were more Champaign glasses for the monster. I know if we don’t open the windows for sunlight to reach, many more roses will also lose color and die and many more will steal the bricks of our house to build their own palaces.

*Bukhari: Afghan traditional heater

G20 Summit and Afghanistan

2009-04-14T13:42:00.010+01:00

In my previous article, I have explained in detail the impacts of Global Financial crisis on Afghanistan. This article will analyse the importance of G-20 summit for Afghanistan.

As the World economy further gets victimised by the “economic monster” of modern capitalism and an increasing number of both developed and developing nations enter recession, it was obvious that G-20 summit in London will largely focus on tackling the economic slump. It has been over a week since the heads of state and governments of G-20 group gathered in London to seek solutions for the many economic challenges created by financial crises. Leaders of the world’s largest economies discussed plans to deal with the severe economic downturn, restore growth in the short term, reshape financial system, preserve global trading system, and laying foundations for a sustainable economic recovery.

Despite agreeing on some key points to restore confidence, growths, and jobs, strengthen financial supervision and regulation, fund and reform international financial institutions to overcome such crisis and prevent future ones, promote global trade and investment and reject protectionism, support sustainable recovery, the summit also agreed on providing $1.1 trillion in resources to the IMF and other international institutions to confront the economic crises. The figure includes an agreement to boost the IMF's lending resources from its current level of $250 billion to $750 billion while an additional $250 billion is allocated to boost World trade and $100 billion would be given in aid for developing countries.

Afghanistan would certainly be benefited directly and indirectly both in the long and short terms by the agreements made in the G-20 summit. Firstly, Afghanistan requires exactly the same parameters to economically grow and to have strong financial integrated markets. This may well be a long term goal but it would only be possible if the global economy is in good health. Secondly, there are now more funds available ($750bn) with international financial institutions and a small fraction of which can rescue Afghanistan in the time of need, in case the international community fails to finance Afghan government machinery, which is very unlikely, but that would be costly and tied with many unkind conditions. However, in the past six months many developing nations such as Ukraine, Hungary and Pakistan have turned to IMF for much needed funds despite many strict demands. Thirdly, the extra $100bn in aid for developing countries will help Afghanistan to continue with projects mostly financed by the International development and financial organisations such the World Bank, IMF, and Asian Development Bank. Fourthly and most importantly, Afghanistan is likely to benefit more from the promotion of global trade and investment than borrowing, charity or aid. The figure of $250 billion is set aside to boost World trade; however it is too early to comment on the share and nature of trade and investment promotion Afghanistan will receive.

In short, the G-20 summit would benefit the World’s economy and developing countries including Afghanistan to an extent but it would not find magic solutions within few months or perhaps few years. Nevertheless, the recovery of World’s economy will have two very important positive impacts on Afghanistan’s economy.

First – Private sector development, international trade and investment would grow again, and which is vital for a Self-sufficient Economy. In the initial euphoria after the fall of Taliban in 2001, private investment grew steadily to $1.2-billion in 2006. But it slid to $646-million in 2007 and has plummeted further to $316-million by September 2008. The figure for 2009 is also not very promising either according to the Afghan Investment Support Agency. Private sector development will only take when the World’s economy is in good shape. Historically, World economy has grown well after such crisis and developing nations are equally benefited.

Second - Aid from the international community and non-governmental organizations makes up about 40 percent of Afghanistan's legal GDP, which means, greater the financial crisis, deeper the negative impacts would be on Afghanistan. Thus, the recovery of global economy is in the best interest of Afghanistan, which would ensure the continuous inflow of funds in the form of international aid to finance government’s spending and funding other key projects.

G-20 summit may help to ease the global economic pain. However, Afghanistan needs a G-20 style summit to specifically assist in rebuilding financial system, fostering trade and investment and strengthening overall economy. The international community prioritizing economic reconstruction and infrastructural development is still lacking.

Afghanistan probably does not need more NGOs that come, start projects and leave when the funding runs out. We need the development of private sector which is something not largely prioritized and as a result reconstruction goals have not been met and strategic economic objectives are not achieved. Afghanistan needs investment, which would simply create more jobs, will generate more revenue for the government, would increase production and exports, and would lay down an economic platform for ordinary Afghans. Unless, the international community pave the way for a long-term sustainable economic recovery and growth, and help to establish an environment suitable for trade and investment, Afghanistan would fail to boost fiscal revenue, create the required amount of jobs, and alleviate mounting poverty. The Afghan government would also need to work hard with the international community to ensure good, transparent and accountable governance, correct enforcement of laws and regulations and the correct implementation and execution of trade and investment policies if they are truly serious to secure a viable economic future.

The impact of Global Financial crisis on Afghanistan

2009-04-06T00:58:00.000+01:00

The global financial crisis has already greatly damaged developed economies and the economic slowdown is yet to continue in most developing countries. Governments across the World injected huge amount of cash into financial markets and brought interest rates to record level low, but many economists believe that the worst is yet to come. The World seems to be trapped in deep financial crises with major Stock markets around the globe down by more than 40% from their recent high while several major Investment banks have collapsed and many other rescued by their national government’s bailout packages. Key indicators of the global economic activities such as shipping rates are dropping at shocking rates.

What does this all mean for Afghanistan and how Afghanistan would be affected by the global financial crisis?

The impact of financial crisis may have not yet heavily felt in Afghanistan primarily because our economy is not fully integrated with the modern global economy and global financial markets. This financial isolation may be to Afghanistan’s benefit, keeping the economy away from the immediate effects of the economic meltdown across the world. The World Bank's country manager for Afghanistan Mariam Sherman is also positive about the economic outlook of Afghanistan and feels that “the global financial crisis is unlikely to have great damaging implications for Afghanistan primarily because the financial sector of Afghanistan is relatively small and has no major role in financing economic activities, and has also very limited international exposure".

However, the analysis of Sherman does not mean that we may completely escape the shocks of “once-in-a-century credit tsunami” as termed by Alan Greenspan. Like many other developing countries, Afghanistan may possibly face new challenges and there could be long-term direct and indirect consequences of the global financial crisis.

The single major and immediate direct risk is Foreign aid. Afghanistan is a highly aid dependent country and relies heavily on foreign aid for 90 percent of government budget. As also pointed by Sherman that any cuts on aid by donor countries, which themselves are in deep financial crisis can adversely affect the inflows of aid and that would be challenging for Afghanistan.

Canada and some European countries are facing increasing economic problems at home and many question, whether they will pour billions of dollars at a time when they are strapped for cash with increasing criticism from their public that there are few signs of success in Afghanistan. It is however, the US that provides more than half of foreign aid and if this crisis worsens further in America, where President Obama is struggling to cut back on an ever increasing budget deficit, then many experts believe that foreign aid might be slashed down and Afghanistan would have to bear the brunt of a global crisis.

Another area that can possibly be affected is the foreign investment in Afghanistan. Foreign direct investment in Afghanistan has been increased year-on-year and has been enjoying steadily growth since 2002. Foreign investment in Afghanistan may fall as many companies and investors face huge cash shortages and there may also be the possibility of slashing funds from ongoing projects. The worsening security situation in the country may further create challenges for the Afghan government.

The indirect consequences will be that Afghanistan’s exports may decline as imports of the recession hit economies would fall. Export growth is already slowing markedly in several developing countries.

Remittances from Afghan expatriates, communities and workers abroad may also decline mostly in recession affected rich countries. Afghanistan has received over $3.3 billion from its expatriate community in 2006 alone while $500 million come from Iran annually. If countries like Iran, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Turkey and India with sizeable Afghan population plunge into extend financial crisis, the affect would surely be felt at home in the form of less remittances being sent to Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is not exposed to other potential risks faced by many other developing countries such the sudden withdrawal of foreign capital from several developing countries which has caused dramatic falls in their exchange rate. While other developing currencies rise and fall, the Afghani remains stable at around 52 to the dollar which is about the same since the start of financial crisis which is again partly due to US support of the Da Afgahistan Bank / Central Bank.

There is also the risk of unemployment in the case of prolong financial crisis and cuts in foreign aid which could also have social effects such lower growth translating into higher poverty, more crime, corruption, less spending in the public services and even more difficulties meeting the strategic Development challenges of Afghanistan.

As the global financial crisis are becoming viral and the goal to increase more troops and financial funding may become even tougher for Afghanistan. The Afghan government and International Community now more than ever, need a clear financial strategy as well as military strategy if it is to “win” this struggle in Afghanistan.

Preparing for Tomorrow

2008-11-08T18:51:00.008Z

Is it coincidental that Islam is going through a reformation 1400 years after its birth just like Christianity whose reformation started in the early 1500A.D? Different Christian sects such as the Protestants and Catholics fought with themselves until they learnt to live with their differences (relatively).

Afghanistan, the battlefield of world's most conflicts – first a buffer state between the British Empire and USSR, then the Russian Invasion and US supported war against them, then Al-Qaida’s training camp - is once again being used, not to decide on a new super-power but to decide on which sect is the true recreation of the values that were once in place during the reign of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). Wahabi, a Saudi backed sect has been penetrating the South and East of Afghanistan for quite a while now. Shia, an Iranian backed sect has now joined in the race from the North. It is a war of ideology that is working on a grass roots level to gain strength and support in the country. It hasn't resorted to violence yet, but one that will create chaos in the next decade to come. Educational institutes, a place for unbiased and progressive education to flourish, are now at the centre of this divide.

It won’t be the first time religion is used as a reason to make Afghans go to war. The only difference this round will be that the enemy will not be a foreign invader, at least not physically. Both opponents will be Muslims, both believing their chosen sect is the right one and their key to heaven.

Those who have a religion carry a great amount of love and respect for it – some consider it personal while others believe it is their duty to spread it far and wide. There are different methods used by religious preachers to spread their selected religion and the one they believe is the right one. A religious missionary in his or her truest form will never harm, but only try to raise awareness about the path he/she believes is the right one and will make the world a better place. Fundamentalism, on the other hand is largely politically motivated – using the less informed to turn them in to extremists.

When thinking about religious fundamentalism the first thing that comes to mind implied is Islam - a misleading idea promoted by the Western media to justify the shameful war in Afghanistan and Iraq. There are Christian and Jewish fundamentalists, certainly more (some are) discrete in their operations and with more control of the situation to keep their work low profile. The dispute on ID and evolution is a good example of the existence of fundamentalism in the American politics.

Fundamentalism doesn’t have quick fixes; it cannot be resolved by war. Those who are fighting the war know this – a clear indication that the current war has other political/financial reasons than abolishing fundamentalism. It is a widely known fact that prevention is better than cure. It is too late for prevention in some cases. To undo that damage will require strategic work and time. Where it is not too late, staying vigilant and protecting the society from the things that would cause harm is important, such as in the case of preventing a future sectarian war.

Looking back at history, when the Christians were busy fighting the inter-religious war and while there was still religious persecution in place from the 1300AD to 1600AD they stayed confined to Europe and made no significant scientific progress. The current state of the Muslim world explains why that was the case. On the contrary, this (between 8th and 16th century) was a peaceful time for the Muslims; they made significant scientific discoveries and were at the peak of their cultural and intellectual progress – known as the Islamic Golden Age. Ibne-Sina (Avicenna), Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (Rumi), Alzheimer, Algebra, chemistry (then Alchemy) are well known contributors and contributions to scientific and intellectual progress. (Wikipedia article - Science in medieval Islam is a good starting point to find out more for those interested)

Moreover, the Muslim empire was spread over three continents, Africa, Asia and Europe. (See Map of the Islamic Empire) Its downfall started when Muslims diverted their focus to nationalism, power and greed. It coincides with the rise of the Christian's progress in both scientific and intellectual fields.

Afghanistan is not the only country in the region with a Muslim population of different religious groups (sects). However, what makes this country more vulnerable to its devastating effect is the high level illiteracy and religious ignorance. In addition to this it is an already divided nation on many fronts widely known such as ethnicity, language, and now religion. The attitude of divide has grown so much that it is in everything we do. If there is no reason for a divide, we create one. The latest one that came with the American invasion was the gender divide. Every Afghan woman I meet with the potential of making a real difference in the life of all Afghans work for the progress of women alone and every man is against it. What about the nation? What about integration? Without noticing it, we have formed an imbalanced society which is vulnerable and incomplete. Afghans’ good majority, who will soon be on the front line of this sectarian war, cannot differentiate religious obligations to cultural. Some widely known examples are:

• Divorce is an acceptable but not favoured practice in Islam; however it is over ruled by the Afghan culture. In most cases, no matter how unhappy the couples are in a marriage, they are not allowed to divorce.

• Racism and slavery were forbidden by Islam 1400 years ago. In the famous farewell pilgrimage speech by the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), he said ‘There is only one God, and no Arab is superior to a Non-Arab; nor is a Non-Arab superior to an Arab; a White is not superior to a Black, nor a Black over the White. The only criterion for superiority is Taqwa – i.e. righteousness, piety, and God-consciousness'. Yet the first question an Afghan asks you will pertain to if you are an Afghan: “Where in Afghanistan are you from?” The answer to this question decides whether you qualify to be human or not, in his/her eyes. Most Afghans seem to think every other ethnicity should be wiped off the face of the earth or at least suppressed because their own tribe/ethnicity is the best. All the other ethnicities are a curse God sent upon them. This is fascism in its clearest form obviously banned by Islam.

• Islam has mentioned men and women exactly the same number of times in the Quran (24 times each), explicitly gave them an equal status, and made education a must on both of them. The culture only favours men. Culture over rules Islam yet again.

It is probably weaknesses in religious practices, as above, and the lack of understanding of the religion Islam itself amongst the general public that is fuelling religious conflicts. Whatever the reason is, it is going to set Afghanistan and possibly the region back in to chaos for many decades. The flames of this conflict will most certainly burn whatever is left of Afghanistan if preventative measures are not taken immediately.

Recent Afghanistan – Summer 2008

2008-08-25T05:47:00.004+01:00

When travelling to Afghanistan every visitor optimistically looks for signs of positive change. Hearing about fuel tankers and other vital supplies being shot and burnt by the Taliban on the main transit route (Jalalabad-Kabul) puts things right back into perspective. The daily bombings, kidnappings and killings raise major concerns about the lack of security even inside the capital of Kabul which was fairly safer just a year ago.

Reconstruction is just as painfully slow as ever and the frustration of the locals over the presence of the International Forces is growing very rapidly. The job of the donor community is perceived as being inadequate in its manner of unfair distribution of moneys, paying extremely high salaries to International staff, who do less to nothing but offend people with their expensive cars, etc. Even the donor community and the NGOs themselves are not investing in Afghanistan so how can they encourage others to do just that. The rent they pay for a year could easily build them an extravagant building. Because of their occupation of all the houses and the high rent they can afford, no one other than them can even think of living in a reasonable house.

CDP, a project of USAID, which received a fund of $218million supposedly works on capacity building but what does CDP do? I have yet to figure that out exactly. The feeling here amongst professionals is that they don’t even know what to do with the money they have – what a way to build capacity! I sat in one of their “Strategic Planning” training sessions which was no more than a complete waste of time and of course a lot of money. The money that donors pledge for the poor, the hungry, the orphans, the widows, and the less fortunate – all go to those already with deep pockets. If the donations stop, only the rich will suffer, not the poor because quite frankly they never stopped suffering. If they are not suffering more now then they are definitely not suffering any less than before.

Civil Servants from other countries take a leave from their job, so they can be rich overnight in Afghanistan by getting extremely high salaries for – once again doing nothing and the skills they bring with them “to benefit Afghans” are greed and corruption. All the hiring posts are occupied by them and the only people they hire are their own except for the posts allocated directly from donor countries such as the US. International “talents” are hired just so they can complain about the poor state of Afghanistan, its culture, security, lack of infrastructure, unemployment, pollution, dust and make fun of people. They do all that “work” while earning more in a month here than they could possibly earn in a year back home. This is without their security, housing and partying costs to make them feel at home. All this could be done by a local employee too plus it would mean one less unemployed Afghan.
It is not just about how money is spent. Donors pledge money but they never deliver as much as they promise. The only exception was Britain, last time a survey was undertaken it showed Britain spent more than it pledged.

Just a few days in Afghanistan is enough to make you heart break with disappointment and injustice. Yet you still see smiling faces everywhere; you see optimism in everyone and hope in the eyes of every child. Real progress is not in buildings or wealth but in the happiness of people. If people are happy than that is all that matters. Its not that the people here are used to the injustice so they have stopped caring or their smiles are fake because eyes never lie. So what is keeping the Afghans in high spirit and proud after 30 years of war, destruction, misery and injustice?

The only thing I find common amongst all Afghans is their strong faith. Could it be that? Faith as many scholars say is a power and a source of energy. It might be that energy, which keeps them going. The power of faith is described in every religion from Islam to Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism. In the Gospel Jesus says that people with faith could move mountains. Islam says that those who have faith “They have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve”. Its not just religions that preach the power of faith, Napoleon Hill said, "Whatsoever the mind of man can conceive and BELIEVE he can achieve."

Soul as believed by Muslims (most Afghans are Muslims) is immortal and the strength that belief of immortality in itself must give people an enormous amount of hope. Knowing that, this life is not everything and that there will be an end to the misery may make it easier to live with. Any temporary torture may be bearable as the belief is that it will only be for a short time. More suffering in life means more rewards in heaven. This is what the feeling must be amongst the people in Afghanistan which gives them hope and the energy to remain happy in the never ending anguish that is brought upon them.

Localisation

2008-08-24T12:03:00.003+01:00

Localisation is usually associated with mere translation of technology in to local languages; however it actually means adapting to local needs. A technology that may work in one country does not necessarily work in another even if their languages are the same, due to geographical and environmental differences. Adapting to local needs may include language translation to make it understandable to the local population.

Various Afghan institutions have been heavily involved in Localisation, including private/public sectors and the non-governmental organisations (NGO). While their work is worth admiring, it is subject to many flaws that are yet to be filled.

Bandwidth is an expensive commodity worldwide but especially in

Afghanistan

. A mere double (128Kbps) of a dial-up (56Kbps) speed costs 300 US Dollars (~ £160) per month. It is therefore important to be optimised to accommodate more users and to bring costs down. Over one billion users are connected to the Internet worldwide. Making access to the internet accessible to all those who can in Afghanistan would mean giving those Afghans over one billion opportunities to explore, learn from, do business with, socialise with, make friends with, etc.

Optimisation is far from being achieved here (in

Afghanistan

), it is actually being wasted. The ISPs (Internet Service Providers) seem to be more concerned with making money rather than making the internet market grow. I say this because the current internet users in the country mostly use windows and a killer for bandwidth that is associated with windows is its updates. Currently every windows user downloads updates directly through the backbone (via satellite) [See Figure 1 as an example]. The load on the backbone makes less available bandwidth and hence not only prevents the ISP from giving new connections out to new users but also affects the speed for the current users. Investing in a local cache server would avoid the repetitive download of the updates by each user separately [see Figure 2 for an example]. If a user wants to install the updates 10 times, it would not affect other users but only his own.

The other issue concerned with the localisation at the moment is the lack of awareness about the software and its costs. The average income of an Afghan is between $200 and $350 per year. A legal copy of Windows XP costs about $560 locally. For

Afghanistan

to be able to sell its software in the international market it would first need to comply with Intellectual Property and Copy Right laws. However, if most people cannot afford to buy the software, then enforcing the law becomes a problem. Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and its localisation is therefore important to provide Afghans with something they can afford. Although there is no lack of support for FOSS in the ICT sector itself but it is struggling to gain the support it needs from the government and financial support institutes (donor community). The awareness amongst the public as to why they should change to open source is also lacking.

For a system to have flaws, it will have to exist first. In a place like Afghanistan it is difficult to foresee the future clearly; hence the work is usually carried out to fulfil the immediate needs without full analysis. It might be due to those reasons, that everything was/is done superficially. However, the good thing is the ICT industry is growing rapidly and the necessary improvements may clearly be seen as the number of professionals increase in the country. Despite its flaws, if there is a success story in Afghanistan, it would have to be the growth of its ICT sector. It has come a long way in the past five years but still has a long way to go. A well developed ICT sector will boost the economy and serve as an enabler tool for development and education. It will also address the divide between those who have access to information and those that do not.

Some ministries are working on e-governance. It wouldn’t be effective if the population has no access/limited access to the internet. The importance of internet can be summarised in the words of Stuart Lynn, President of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names) in a presentation to the United Nations ICT Taskforce (October 2002), “If you can’t be found on the Internet, you don’t exist.”

Making local adaptation of ICT available and affordable is critical for the progress of Afghanistan. Let’s hope it will be very soon! There is a dedicated organisation just for the ICT sector – National ICT Alliance of Afghanistan (NICTAA) – an umbrella association of the ICT related private sector, academia and civil society. Its work has already made a huge difference and I hope it will continue its contribution to the progress of the Afghan ICT sector.

Karzai’s Declaration of War on Pakistan

2008-06-16T12:40:00.007+01:00

Much of Pakistan’s destruction in Afghanistan has already been exposed and it is estimated that further damage is yet to be revealed. Pakistan has never let an opportunity slip to terrorise Afghanistan. However, unlike the Afghans they never speak of their intentions. Instead, they carry out the damaging work and it is revealed years later.

I have always been supportive of Karzai’s administration. He came in to power when Afghanistan was at its weakest point; almost nothing man-made remained in the country. There was a distinct lack of administration, infrastructure, peace keeping establishments and the economy was equal to nothing. Despite the obvious criticisms that his government has been facing such as administrative corruption, lack of security, the presence of war-lords and human rights violators in key positions of the government, he has done a terrific job of gradually establishing a system. Afghanistan now has a national army, police, judiciary system, exponential rise in economy has been seen, freedom of speech and practice is now in place, an enormous amount of reconstruction efforts have been completed, the education system has seen major improvements. Overall living standards have improved for a majority of Afghans.

However, watching his comments of what seemed to be a rational speech has made me consider a U-turn on my beliefs of the current government. Although some Afghans always considered Karzai’s government as a puppet administration of the US, his public announcements of raging a war inside Pakistan made his position that more clear. His efforts to cover up for the American bombings inside Pakistan last week gave away the roots of his decision. If he is going in to war on behalf/order of the US (his bosses) then at least not pronounce it in the open or was that what he was instructed to do?

While a war against insurgents across the borders may bring the moral of some Afghans up and may bring about a temporary unity within the country as it always happens, however, it will go downhill from there and very quickly. War against the insurgents does not have to be through bullets, it could be done through tightening security on the border. Dialogue and negotiations will prove far more effective. Looking in to the causes of why the nation is providing sanctuary to insurgents and what motivates the insurgents should be the point of focus NOT ANOTHER WAR.

Afghanistan has suffered enough. Decades of war has shuttered it in to pieces. We need peace and stability now so that we can collect the pieces back together. Ordinary Afghans will have to pay the price for this war with their blood, health and wealth. Food prices are already sky high, millions of Afghans are already misplaced from their homes, hundreds of thousands of innocent lives have already been lost; how many more sufferings will Afghanistan have to endure???

I pray for Afghanistan’s durable security and peace, that is what it needs now! Afghanistan has already sacrificed much of its assets for the proxy wars of others on its soil. We haven’t even recovered from that yet and already signs of another war!?

What is the war in Afghanistan really about?

2008-03-21T17:04:00.002Z

Please click on the topic to watch this video. If the link doesn't work, try this url: http://www.presstv.ir/pop/wmp.aspx?id=48992

CeBIT Ends With Success For Afghanistan

2008-03-11T16:21:00.003Z

On Sunday 9 March at 12pm, Afghanistan’s first ever participation in the largest technology exhibition CeBIT came to an end after six days. Afghanistan achieved tremendous amount of encouragement and appreciation for its rapid advancement in the ICT sector from the world wide media. The exhibition however served more of a purpose than just media attention. Under the umbrella of the National ICT Association of Afghanistan (NICTAA), Afghan companies managed to negotiate major investment deals with multi-national companies. With NICTAA’s positive news being so well received it managed to build the confidence in Afghanistan and Afghans.

The success of NICTAA in CeBIT may have come as a surprise to the world, but it also created an atmosphere of unity amongst Afghans. The German based Afghan community participated in vast numbers. Which indicated that had there been more success stories, the attitude of the average Afghan would be much positive and therefore tolerance will increase.
CeBIT also highlighted the strong Afghan-German relations. A deal of co-operation and partnership between NICTAA and Art of Technology (AOT), an association of 7 German IT companies, has been reached for further improvement of relations and technology progress. Dirk Ortmann, president of AOT: “We hope that this deal will encourage the German ICT companies to make business in Afghanistan”.

The progress of the ICT sector is as much dependent on investment as education. This exhibition not only proved to promote the ICT sector but also discovered an alternative means of education which is accessible to all Afghans. The initiative of Afghan German Management College was indicated to NICTAA by the ‘Afghan German Online’. This it-self was a great achievement for the promotion and progress of education in Afghanistan as it is an online college which works as an open university accessible and affordable by the majority. Eventually there will be a co-operation and partnership between NICTAA and AGMC to promote education and empowerment of the general public of Afghanistan.

Omar Mansoor Ansari, NICTAA’s President says, “Our visit also provided motivation to other Afghans in other sectors as well as the ICT sector. Finalising the deals negotiated here is the next step for us. The CeBIT participation was a milestone in the rapid development of our country, and will boost the ICT sector in Afghanistan and in consequence improve the education, private sector and stability. We thank the donor USAID/ASMED and the many private supporters for this. I also want to thank my team for their hard work and congratulate them on their accomplishments.”

CeBIT has introduced a different prospective to Afghanistan. For once the news was about success stories and not Afghanistan’s failure. Afghanistan being able to compete in the world market in ICT in a short span of time exposed what Afghanistan is capable of, if given the platform to do so. The message gave the green light for foreign and domestic investment. Moreover, a strong message was sent to national and international investors that the IT infrastructure in Afghanistan is not only a profitable market but also investors can benefit from the support of an established IT sector. NICTAA hopes that the negotiations conducted at CeBIT for local contracts will eventually attract direct investment in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is Making History at CeBIT 2008

2008-03-08T13:01:00.003Z

The war-torn country of Afghanistan is once again under focus but at this instance it is for the rapid growth of its information communication technology (ICT) sector instead of turbulence. Afghanistan made its first ever appearance this year in the largest technology exhibition CeBIT, held in Hanover, Germany, from March 4-9.

Heaving Afghanistan’s ICT profile will create many positive impacts such as contributing towards a sustainable economy, social rest, and educational progress.

The Afghan businesses participating in the event are receiving an awe-inspiring amount of encouragement from the global market with its interest. The National ICT Association of Afghanistan (NICTAA) was welcomed by investors in Germany and other countries, including Poland, Iran, India, Sri Lanka, UK, America, Greece and even Sudan. Companies such as Siemens, DBB, Docuware, AOT’s partner TST Biometrics, Microsoft Partner and IBM Business Partners have shown a keen interest in investing in the Afghan market. Afghan companies exhibiting at CeBIT 2008 under the umbrella of NICTAA are swept off their feet by the number of new deal negotiations and contracts they have to process each day since the beginning of the exhibition.

Afghanistan’s progress in the ICT sector in such a short time has stunned the world. Said Tayeb Jawad, Afghan Ambassador to the US said, “I remember a time when we couldn’t even connect a printer and today’s progress in such a short time proves how talented our people are. I was thrilled to hear the news and sent my congratulations and encouragement immediately to the team who made all this happen.”

It is as if CeBIT Germany was not enough, NICTAA has already started negotiations with Hanover Fairs International Turkey Office to become its official partner in Afghanistan for CeBIT Eurasia 2008. Omar Mansoor Ansari, President of NICTAA says, “The progress we made in these few days of our participation at the CeBIT 2008 is exciting. I am thrilled by my team’s performance and the hard work of our talented business leaders and entrepreneurs. Their speed of establishing business relationships with the overseas industry players is remarkable. This simply makes me proud!” Afghanistan’s participation in CeBIT 2008 was made possible by the National ICT Association of Afghanistan (NICTAA) and USAID’s Afghanistan Small and Medium Enterprise Development (ASMED) project for its sponsorship.

International Women's Day

2008-03-06T10:11:00.001Z

International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900's, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialised world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.

Annually on 8 March, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate their achievements. ASAUK will also be holding an event to celebrate this great day.

When it comes to the topic of women in Afghanistan, the focus is always about the different interpretations of one thing – suppression. This in essence has always been miss-directing the efforts for modernisation to westernisation. The two words for many Westerners are synonymous, but there is a big difference and the effects of the two would hence be different too.

ASAUK’s event on International Women’s Day is organised to be different from the norm. There will be speakers from different backgrounds with different opinions. We want to deliver the full picture, including achievements, modernisation, struggles, opportunities and the role of women in the Afghan society.

Come along to the conference if you are in London on the 12th of March. It will surely be an enlightening and a fun evening with speakers, a documentary about Afghan women, classical Afghan music and much more. Other details are on http://www.asa4uk.com/InternationalWomensDay.aspx

Overwhelmed at CeBIT says NICTAA

2008-03-04T19:33:00.005Z

Afghanistan was set to a great start on its first day at the CeBIT 2008 exhibition. Visitors queued outside the comparatively small Afghan cubical as soon as the exhibition doors were open. CeBIT, is regarded throughout the world as the largest and most influential marketplace for ICT, the exhibition attracts participants, buyers and sellers from 100 countries who gather in Hanover, Germany each spring to discover and promote the latest trends of the digital age.
Four leading software development and IT companies from Afghanistan are attending the trade fair from March 4-9: XALA Technologies, NETLINKS, Paiwastoon Networking Services and Trend Com. Their participation is organized by the National ICT Association of Afghanistan (NICTAA) and sponsored by USAID’s Afghanistan Small and Medium Enterprise Development (ASMED) project.

A visitor who traveled from South America to the exhibition said, “It is really interesting that Afghanistan is able to compete with the world market in software outsourcing so quickly, especially with what we hear and see on TV about Afghanistan, this comes as a complete surprise to me. I would be very interested to take the information back to my company directors to hear their opinion on outsourcing our software development to Afghanistan.”

The four companies managed to secure business contacts and established grounds for possible contracts with major players in the IT sector from across the world. One of such companies was DataBase-Bank (DBB) who offers the first Data backup appliance secured against all major risks such as fire, flood, theft, human errors, and breakdown of the information system. Asmat Ullah, CEO of XALA Technologies said, “This kind of data protection boxes are of great use in a place such as Afghanistan where disaster occurrences are almost regular and the security of data through such a secure system can be vital.” DBB is currently negotiating an exclusive deal with the Afghan companies at CeBIT to establish a base for the Central and South Asian market in Afghanistan.

Omar Mansoor Ansari, president of NICTAA said, “We are overwhelmed by the keen interest shown by visitors and the hard work put in by the exhibiting team. We still have five more days to go way to go and I hope they will be as fruitful as today if not more.”

First Ever Afghan Participation in Largest ICT Exhibition

2008-02-29T12:12:00.002Z

Hearing the news that Afghanistan will be participating in CeBIT, regarded throughout the world as the largest and most influential marketplace for ICT, is probably the best thing I have heard about Afghanistan in the past few months.

Afghanistan’s political situation is making so much news that it sometimes overshadows all the other progress the post-conflict nation makes. Progress in the technology sector is directly proportional to the progress of the nation. It plays a vital role in gaining prosperity, creating job opportunities and will enable Afghanistan to become a more self-reliant state.

According to Omar Mansoor Ansari, President of National ICT Association of Afghanistan (NICTAA), “Afghanistan is one of the least developed countries; however, its growth in the ICT sector is remarkable. We have had the highest ICT growth level in the region, just with the few years of tapping into the information communications technology; this, indeed, is fabulous, and we need to tell these good stories to the world.”

The CeBIT exhibition attracts participants, buyers and sellers from 100 countries who gather in Hanover, Germany each spring to discover and promote the latest trends of the digital age.NICTAA believes the event will provide Afghan participants the opportunity to reach a large international audience of qualified professionals and that they will make valuable new contacts and pave the way for lasting business relationships in the future. CeBIT will also be a good place to identify new market trends, offering the attendees exposure to valuable new ideas that will inspire future work.

Four leading software development and IT companies from Afghanistan will attend the trade fair scheduled for March 4-9: Xala Technologies, NETLINKS, Paiwastoon Networking Services and Trend Com. Their participation is organized by the National ICT Association of Afghanistan (NICTAA) and sponsored by USAID’s Afghanistan Small and Medium Enterprise Development (ASMED) project.

Bryan Rhodes, Chief of Party for USAID/ASMED, says the project is pleased to support the development of Afghanistan’s ICT sector. He went on to say that “ASMED is sponsoring the participation of NICTAA, one of our key Afghan business associations and a USAID partner, because we believe the event will offer a great business opportunity for Afghan businesses.”

NICTAA is an umbrella association of the ICT sector and a key visionary in the country. It promotes ICT as a sector, a tool and an enabler to support economic growth, trade, e-commerce, education, civic education, democracy, human rights, business ethics and free market principles in Afghanistan.

Let us hope the potential of Afghanistan to become as a trade center for Asia will be noticed by the international investors.

Civilisation of Fashion

2008-01-16T13:48:00.000Z

Many concerns have been raised over the Afghan youth paying more attention to fashion then towards the reconstruction of their country. The growing materialism amongst the citizens of the war torn country is constantly pointed at. Its validity, on the other hand is debatable.

It is true that mankind has spent much time building houses and making them warm and comfortable, still every child love to stay out doors even if it is wet and cold. This is despite the revolution of games consoles and other such entertainment gadgets. However, children are becoming materialistic at a younger age in the current generation.

I asked a friend, if he would rather go out with a broken arm or a ripped shirt? He answered, “Broken arm, because people will give me weird looks if I went out with a ripped shirt and may even laugh at me”. He cared more about what people thought of how his clothes looked like than having a defect in his body.

Recalling a personal experience, I was able to understand where he was coming from. Just over a year ago, I attended a meeting at the Afghan Embassy in London. As I pulled in front of the embassy in my car - which I thought was a good enough student car and fit for its purpose I was greeted by a family friend standing outside. He looked at me with disappointment and quickly greeted me with the question, “damn Hamdullah!! Is that what you drive?” instead of Salaam, hello or how are you.

It made me realise it is more due to the pressure of the external world than it is human nature! The better you are dressed the more civilised you are considered to be. People don’t see your character unless they know you so the first thing to judge you by is your appearance.

The words civilised and fashionable are now synonymous. Every generation laughs at the older fashions but follows the new fashion like a religion forgetting that later generations will only laugh at it. Even so, fashion is becoming the identifier of our civilisation.

Nonetheless, I personally am guilty of materialism. It makes me feel comfortable if what I am wearing is branded despite knowing that a similar piece of clothing will cost me about 90% less without a brand name. With loans piling up and the student loan being the only income I have, it would be wise to go for the non-branded clothes but I can never convince myself to make the wise decision when buying clothes.

I once read that what a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates his fate. Therefore, I think as long as it is helping us feel better about ourselves then materialism is not such a bad thing or is it??

Democracy and Unity

2007-12-27T20:25:00.000Z

Many of my non Afghan acquaintances usually ask me whether democracy will work for Afghanistan as they see Afghanistan as being so divided and a novice to the concept. I don’t think Afghanistan is divided or new to democracy. We are let to believe this by the media. In actual fact our first democratic government was established in 1747. It took numerous Jirgas (grand assemblies) to elect the new King after the assassination of Nadir Shah.

Ahmad Shah Abdali (also known as Ahmad Shah Durrani and Ahmad Shah Baba) was elected King of the Durrani Empire. He was not a royal but viewed as someone who had the ability to lead the empire by those who elected him. It was a democratic kingdom, which had the support of almost all tribes. During this period, Afghanistan saw a time of prosperity, peace and power. Although one cannot say there was no opposition of the Kingdom, there wasn’t any significant uprising. While the rest of the world was diseased with slavery, the Durrani Empire could take credit for being a slave free Kingdom. There is no doubt that Ahmad Shah Abdali was a capable and charismatic King, however, his success was enhanced with the support of those that elected him.

Unfortunately the tradition of the Jirga electing the King was not continued. The Kingdom was passed to Abdali’s son Taimur Shah, who didn’t have the capability of retaining the Empire. Had the tradition of democratically electing a King continued, Afghanistan may have had a completely different history. If it worked for Afghanistan then it can work now!

As far as division is concerned, a true democratic government represents all with no threats to any ethnicity or religious groups. There maybe disagreement between political parties in Afghanistan but then what country doesn’t have that? A political party represents the view of its constituents so it cannot be interpreted as division. Afghanistan is more united today than ever. Everyone is working towards the country so how can it be divided??

It is remarkable that even after decades of war Afghanistan rapidly got itself back on the road to recovery. Some believe that it is the aid of the international community that has enabled Afghanistan but I think with all the help in the world Afghanistan would not have recovered, had it not been for the deep love of the Afghan nation for their country.

Every Afghan carries a great amount of love for the country regardless of their political opinions. To many non-Afghans that I have met, Afghanistan is an inspiration. Those that had the privilege of visiting the country or are in touch with Afghans in the Diaspora are all admirers of the enthusiasm of the Afghan people who are all working so hard to rebuild the country.

In a generation where most young people can only think about having fun, the Afghan youth across the world are taking ownership of the problems faced by our country and are continuously striving to do something constructive. Our country may have been destroyed by a long war but seeing the enthusiasm Afghans are channelling into rebuild Afghanistan it predicts a bright future for Afghanistan. A collective action by such a big mass of Afghans shows unity to me. If this is not unity then what is?

The Kite Runner

2007-12-25T20:09:00.000Z

A week after watching the Kite Runner at a premier screening held by Relief International on the 17^th of December, I still don’t know what I should think of the film.

Almost all Afghans are looking forward to the film’s world wide screening because lets face it, nothing good has happened to Afghans for a few decades now. This film is sort of our hope for something of world-class quality.

From a production point of view the film was great. The cast was excellent. The film quality was fantastic; all in all everything was impressive. It was also something new. In the past few months, I have never seen a film made by Hollywood that didn’t resemble a previous one, so the Kite Runner was entirely a fresh idea. Knowing Hollywood, one can predict the Kite Runner II, depending on the success of the first one.

What concerns me is the message presented to a widely conservative nation. The reason for Afghanistan being so backward is due to the fact that our hot blood always kicks in before our brain does.

Like most young Afghans, all I have seen in life is the degraded status of Afghanistan. There was war from before I was born and it still continues. The nightmares of it staying the same or getting even worst keeps me awake at night like many others. So while everyone is anxiously waiting for the films to come out in cinemas, I am anxiously waiting for the reaction of our people after the film.

Will it be the first and last good thing that happened or will we be able to see it with a more open mind?

When I first heard the saying, “Desperate times call for desperate measures”, I thought it was the wisest thing I ever heard but seeing what desperate actions have done to Afghanistan, I am now wondering if taking desperate measures is even a characteristic of wisdom? The more I think about it the more I get sure that it is not.

Maybe I am just paranoid but once you have tasted degradation, it is hard not to be.

My hope is that the film opens a new positive horizon in the progress of Afghanistan towards a just and open-minded society.

Bad-mouthing – an Afghan culture?

2007-12-02T21:50:00.001Z

I have heard many people say they don’t want to hang around Afghans and I have always wondered why.

There was a time when I hardly had any Afghan friends and I thought there was one thing missing in my life and that was a lack of Afghan friends.

Almost all my friends today are Afghans. I don’t have major problems but I have realised why Afghans don’t like to be around other Afghans.

We all do what we want do but then we criticise and judge others for the choices they make.

The thing I don’t understand though is why we do that? The only person that is going to be affected by their choices good or bad is themselves. Why do we judge others? How much do we know about their life?

It is hard enough to maintain our cultural identity whilst living in a western country. Then we have to face persecution from our peers who we think understand us and are doing exactly the same thing. Therefore they are in no position to judge but that does not seem to stop them.

We always have to pretend around other Afghans, so can never be ourselves. Who would like to be in a situation where they can’t be themselves? I know I wouldn’t.

We are distancing our own people from ourselves by doing this. With each generation that passes there is a shift away from the path our parents want us to follow. Hence you would think that there is a change in the narrow mindedness that we seem to possess but this does not seem to be the case. This will not change until people look at their own actions before judging others.

We should be making people comfortable amongst us and that cannot be achieved until we lose the habit of bad mouthing others.

On the bright side, this habit is something we all have in common. We always fight over our differences so if we can’t change the habit at least put it to a good cause. Let’s unite over this bad habit and respect each other because we are all the same in one way or another!

Self-centred but romantic Afghans!

2007-11-29T14:49:00.000Z

I have stopped asking fellow Afghans what their main hobby is because I can predict what the answer is: ‘poetry or reading it’. It is the same in Afghanistan, everyone I met was a poet. Not all their poems are about love but the majority of them tend to be.

It’s not just that, the choice of movies is also soppy. It’s either Bollywood love stories or Hollywood romantic comedies.

The pattern is followed by music as well. The majority of Afghan music is about “love”. The other music most Afghans listen to is again either Indian romantic songs or RnB which is more or less the same except for the language.

If you are a techno music lover like me then you always feel that you are a bit of an outcast. I was so happy to find out that ASAUK’s next event is not just a keyboard singer with cheesy songs that we have all heard millions of times but something different ‘a rapper’. It was a relief that there will be a change from the norm.

A friend once commented on Afghan’s saying: “All Afghans are in love but they just don’t know who they are in love with”. With time I found that statement to be so true.

Don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with being romantic but the self centeredness that comes with it is not good. I think the reason that we (Afghans) are so self centred is because we all love ourselves far too much. We don’t know it but deep down the only person we love is ourselves. There maybe some psychological reasons behind it but I really don’t to get in to that.

It is that feeling that always stops us from appreciating others, their talent, good deeds and so forth. We have developed a sense of jealousy and we think everything should be about us. The world is bigger than one individual. There are billions of people on earth and they are all human and hence equal. No one is complete on their own.

Other people always have qualities that we don’t so we should accept this instead of getting defensive and disagreeing with all they say or do. We only do this to make us feel better about ourselves. We know they are right but we have to dispute everything they say. Accepting the achievements of others is important.

I maybe wrong so feel free to correct me if you think I am. I really want to know why this is.

If I am not wrong, then listen to some techno and you might find that you like it!!

Spring of Hope

2007-11-21T14:30:00.000Z

I went to the premier screening at the American Embassy of Hashmat Khan’s new movie ‘Spring of Hope’ last night.

The event started with a few welcome words from the American Embassy's cultural attaché and a welcome speech from the Afghan Ambassador, Dr. Rahim Shirzoy, showing his support for the film and the film maker's efforts. After the ambassador’s speech the film was shown which was followed by a question and answer session with the film maker.

The name of the film contained the word HOPE in it and it was being screened at the American embassy so I went with my hopes up. I had Hollywood standards in mind but the film started with a typical Bollywood style of a guy and a girl who see each other and lo and behold they fall in love at first sight.

It was a love story as you probably gathered but it also covered the Afghan war, ethnicity and language issues faced by Afghans in Afghanistan. The aim of the film is to restore national unity.

I felt that there were many flaws in the film, like repetitive shots, cheesy lines and not all but some bad acting. A friend of mine who is not Afghan felt it was a bit of a self-indulgent, stereotyped 3 hour long epic for the director and that it was again not a great film to be seen by the international community as "the first commercial film to have been made in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban".

Initially I left the cinema room disappointed but on reflection I realised that the film portrays the reality of Afghanistan.

It is to be expected that the first film won’t be of great standards. Everyone has to make a start somewhere. I am sure Hollywood didn’t begin with making extra-ordinary movies. The film actually got better towards the end which to me meant: the future is bright.

Hashmat Khan put a lot of work in to the film and we should be appreciative of that. He did something for our country and if we (Afghans) are not going to support him then how will he or any other film maker be able to make an improvement.

I am sure he wanted to screen an amazing film but reality is far from that. Financial, technical and many other obstacles that he explained in the question and answer session came in the way of that.

The film made me realise that we live in a dreamland and only want to see things beyond our expectations when it comes to Afghanistan. It is not our fault, we only want the best for Afghanistan and feel proud when there is something nice to show off with, however to achieve the best we have to work hard for it and need to understand that every small step take us closer to what we really want to see.

This film may not have met our expectations, but it still had some very interesting and informative bits. More importantly it showed that there are people working for the betterment of our country in all aspects of life. Their hard work and our support will one day give us the chance to see Afghan movies that are beyond our expectations.

The best part of the film for me was that it covered the effect of the war over the Afghan culture in such a beautiful manner. How war transformed the Afghan culture may not be an easy thing to explain to people but from now on I don’t have to, I can just show them the film but first, I need to buy a DVD copy of it!

Last but not least, I enjoyed the film and would like to say bravo to Hashmat Khan. I look forward to watching his next film which is about education.

Also many thanks to Farid Khan Popal (First Secretary, Political Affairs – Afghan Embassy UK) for his efforts of making the embassy accessible to all and for keeping the Afghan youth in mind at all times.

Obsession with Doctors

2007-11-14T21:33:00.000Z

Since I was a child my parents kept telling me that I will one day become a doctor. Without a second thought I would always agree with them. As I grew older and graduated from school, I discovered I had more of an interest towards engineering subjects. However my parents were still adamant that I would become a doctor.

When I started applying for University, I was forced to keep the subject of my degree a secret but eventually my parents found out and there was a huge quarrel about it. It took a lot of persuasion and many arguments later I managed to convince them. Seeing my passion for engineering they vowed their support.

I felt like I have changed my family’s mind about enforcing what they want on us. I was mistaken. In the recent months, my nephew had to go through exactly what I did. If it was just an issue in my own family perhaps I wouldn’t be so worried but this obsession exists in most Afghan families.

I can’t speak for other professions but if you are an engineering enthusiast and having similar problems with your family here are some of the arguments that will help you fight for your right.

One of the arguments my parents gave me was that doctors are the healers and saviours of human being, which is true. However, engineers are the not only the saviours of human beings but also the providers of the convenience. Everything we see around us that wasn’t made by God is the creation of Engineers.

Without engineers there would be no ambulances to get the critically ill people to hospitals, doctors and surgeons would have no tools to operate on patients, there would be no x-rays or other technology to diagnose illnesses, all in all there would be no hospitals with out engineers.

There would be no roads without engineers, no electricity, no aeroplanes, no cars, no ipods, no laptops, no toys, no dolls, no bridges, no boats, no buildings, well basically nothing. Look around you, well there would be none of that without engineers.

From the early days of the world, the engineers have made the lives of other humans easy. Those with engineering minds dug caves for shelter. It is the blessing of engineers, who invented the printing machine, which made education accessible to all. Without this invention, most people won’t be able to afford books.

With computers, engineers made life even easier for every one on this earth. Communication is almost free these days but more than that learning about any subject is only a click away.

Engineers didn’t stop with providing all the needs but continued with entertainment for everyone. Radios, televisions, DVD’s, ipods, etc are all gifts of the engineers.

You would think that would be it but fortunately it doesn’t stop there. It took an engineer to work out the causes of the deadly Malaria, which claimed many innocent lives, just like cancer before an engineer working in a mine found a cure for it. Cancer is another example of engineering research. The amount of contribution engineers make towards medical advancement is immense. You could call engineers the real healers :)

This is just an example but if you do show you are so passionate about what you want to do then there would be no problems. It is also advisable to do a detailed research about your choice because nothing is worth doing without absolute passion.

Billions of Afghani

2007-11-08T22:48:00.000Z

The number of times I have been called an Afghani is countless. Afghani is the currency of Afghanistan & its nationals are called AFGHAN. It is like calling an American a dollar or a British a pound. However I can see how it may happen, as people from Iraq are called Iraqi. The same rule does not apply everywhere though!!

The next time you see an American, ask him if he is known as a dollar and gage his reaction! I’m sure he will not be too pleased!

Being called Afghani is insulting as the value of Afghani is so low. Therefore insinuating that Afghans are not worth much. So let’s try and remember the term is Afghan not Afghani.

Afghanistan summer 2007

2007-11-04T17:05:00.000Z

I have recently returned from

Afghanistan

. The pictures on the right are also from my trip.

The pictures portray lots of development work that has been carried out. Seeing this progress made me a happy person but unfortunately the feeling didn’t last long.

While there were new roads, tall buildings and fancy cars on the roads, there was also the lack of equivalent intellectual progress. Education was still at its lowest, and the behaviour of people was still very much ignorant. Although there was no danger of bombs on the road, one still did not feel safe walking on the streets. The attitude of the average person on the streets of Kabul was far from friendly.

TV channels were promoting a culture that is not true to Afghanistan and again education had no part of the scheduled programs. After watching a week of TV, I came to the conclusion that if Indian drama serials and foreign music was taken out of the schedule the only thing left would be propaganda news and advertisements.

To me it seems that Afghans are being blocked out from the external world. Maybe this a deliberate attempt to keep everyone in the country blind to what is happening around the world so that they can not compare their position with the rest of the world. If it is not done deliberately then lies the question of why these television stations sensor the progress of the world??

I was however inspired and encouraged to see the interest in education from the Afghan youth. Although the system is working against their needs, they were still searching for ways to quench their thirst for education. How far they may reach with their quest was not known but everyone was still trying...

During my time in Afghanistan, there were university entry exams for evening classes. The amount of people that turned out to take the entrance exam one morning was immense but unfortunately it would prove to be a futile exercise. Even if they passed they would still have to pay a bribe to get on a university course. The odd of getting in to university without being able to pay a hefty bribe was like that of winning the lottery. It seems that money is the new religion and without money you are helpless.

I met with so many students that have taken these entry exams in the past 3 consecutive years and their results were “unknown”. Everyone had the same question, what is unknown? Is it a pass or a fail? But they didn’t have the money to get the question answered.

Corruption at the level of police, the army, government, banks, hospitals, schools, universities... I could go on forever and the list won’t end. However, having the culture of corruption as part of the education system is the one that is worrying me the most.

I returned with pretty images in my camera but with ugly images in my mind. Is hope everything we have now or should we try to change this? Change is possible if we want it but impossible without anyone working for it. … Maybe a miracle will happen and it will all be fixed… or is time for Afghans to unite and face this challenge as a nation?

TULU Vs the Attorney General (The war for rights)

2007-10-15T11:22:00.000+01:00

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?

2007-10-15T11:21:00.001+01:00

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

2007-10-15T11:20:00.001+01:00

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?

2007-10-15T11:15:00.000+01:00

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?

2007-10-15T11:10:00.000+01:00

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

2007-10-15T11:08:00.000+01:00

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

2007-10-15T11:07:00.001+01:00

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

2007-10-15T11:04:00.000+01:00

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

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?

2007-10-15T11:03:00.000+01:00

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

2007-10-15T11:00:00.000+01:00

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?

2007-10-15T10:56:00.000+01:00

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.

Counterfeit medicines killing Afghans

2007-07-27T14:09:00.000+01:00

Every time I call relatives or friends in Afghanistan, they are usually in another country seeing a doctor। I felt a bit jealous at times, knowing that they all find reasons to travel even if it is just going to see a doctor and here I am stuck in the same old place. However, it did intrigue me to find out why is it always the same excuse. If they want to travel there is no need to disguise with the excuse of seeing a doctor. Travelling is not a sin or a crime. If people can afford it then why shouldn’t they travel?

As I dug deeper in to this issue I discovered the blame is placed on Afghan doctors not being good enough, allegedly their prescriptions never work even for the simplest illnesses like a cold.
To start with, I blamed the Afghan education system for not providing doctors of a high standard. In retrospect, I realised that seven years of training should be more than sufficient to provide doctors with the skills to diagnose a cold appropriately. On the other hand, many of the doctors working in Afghanistan today are not graduates of Afghan universities so it could not be entirely the fault in education system.

Indeed the lack of up to date and reliable equipment to perform complex tests is understandable. Moreover, the finger of blame could be pointed at the standard of training provided. However, are these the only factors that should be considered?
One of the other crucial problems that I become aware of lies within the medicine sold at pharmacies। At present, there is no control over medicine being dispensed in Afghanistan and if there is, it most definitely is not effective. Counterfeit medicines are sold in packaging of well-known brands.

Most of these counterfeit medicines come from or through neighbouring countries and even the ones that are not counterfeit are also lacking in quality।

I am not saying that pharmacists in Afghanistan are naïve but they are not qualified so in many cases they may not even know how much damage they are causing for earning a little extra profit.

People who make and supply these medicines make the actual money। It is one of the most profitable businesses in Afghanistan today and the one that has attracted many foreign investors. It is as if guns are not doing enough to kill Afghans that they needed a new way to kill innocent people.

With all the attention on drugs and war, this trade continues to grow undetectable।

Why do these people always see profit in destructive things? Afghanistan needs everything from toiletries to technology and has so many opportunities for business। So why do people only see the negative things for making money? A question I may never hear an answer for but one that will haunt me forever.

However, we can expect that from negative minded, selfish individuals who would do anything, even if it they have to kill for it, to make as much money as possible। However, the government should be more proactive against such issues or even the aid agencies that are claiming to be spending so much money in Afghanistan.

This vicious trade is not affecting the wealthy and middle class so much or maybe not at all. It affects those poor people who cannot afford to go abroad and get expensive medical treatments.
In times when Afghanistan needs all of it population to rebuild the war torn country, there could be nothing more damaging.

I call upon all those who can do something about this to take action now while it is still fresh or it will get uncontrollable. If the money from drugs is fuelling terrorism then surely this is too. Everyone including the public, government, aid agencies and religious leaders need to take actions to put a stop to this. It is destroying Afghanistan.

Shrinking world yet expanding Afghanistan

2007-07-23T13:16:00.000+01:00

The continual advancements in technology have enabled communication and travelling straightforward and effortless. Everyday the world seems to be a smaller place.

The distance amongst Afghans, however, has increased rapidly. The communication channels for Afghans have declined to the extent that it is becoming almost impossible to convey the real problems our people are facing.

A country where the news used to spread so quickly with no technology is now facing a communication halt despite all the new developments in the communication technology sector.
We have established small groups of like-minded people who are able to communicate effectively between themselves but fail to communicate with other groups whose ideas and views differ. Each group believes they have the solution to the problem and the others are the issue. Misconceptions lead to assumptions and disable us from finding the cause to the problems we face.

It is about time that we realise that we are only part of the big puzzle, not the puzzle itself. All the parts of the puzzle need to fit together to complete it.

Working with like-minded people and avoiding those who challenge us may be the comfortable option but we will only be hindering ourselves from moving on and making any real progress.

Improving our communication with all groups can only benefit our country and people. We may not necessarily agree with everyone else but it will enable us to keep ourselves and others informed of the negative and positive developments.

We may not even like each other but this should not hold us back from being united and strong. Consider a hypothetical situation where a country in Europe is attacked. It would be considered as an attack on Europe and the whole of the European Union will respond but do all European countries like each other?

Different countries in the European Union have fought wars against each other and the sensitivity still exists. However, they know that if they do not stay united due to those internal problems, they will be vulnerable to attacks and exploitation from other countries in the world. Moreover, the economical growth and stability will also be on the fall.

We (Afghans) may have our differences but the only way to strengthen ourselves against terrorism, economic and social instability is to stay united, improve our inter group communication and try not to be too judgemental.

Co-dependence is not a threat to independence but a key to success.

Let us make our country smaller and our people closer to each other while keeping the same geography and geographical distances. If everyone else can then so can we!