Localisation

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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!

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

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

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

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

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?