LIFE
Afghanistan today
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The situation is far from perfect, says MANDIRA NAYAR.
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AP
After a day's work ... carpet sellers in central Kabul.
TWO years after the Taliban was evicted, Kabul is furiously trying to rebuild the "picture-perfect" face of a hopeful Afghanistan, seemingly ready for peace. Shopping malls (with glass flown in from America) are replacing the more graceful traditional buildings; mobile-phones are becoming almost as commonplace, as in India, as the only means of communication (there are no landlines yet); huge Toyota "Land Cruisers", the chosen car of the donor community, jostle for space on narrow pot-holed streets; and the seven-star luxury hotel, "Kabul Serena," will be ready to welcome visitors later this years.
It is almost difficult to imagine that Kabul is the capital of a country gripped by civil war. Apart from the constant drone of helicopters — the only reminder that all is not well yet — most people lead seemingly regular lives that are far from normal. Desperate for aman (peace) after more than a decade of violence, it is easier for most people to willingly believe that the reports of unrest in other parts of Afghanistan are fiction created by paranoid Western television channels.
Kabul even has a slick city guide that reviews the best places to eat for the 7,000-strong expatriate community and boasts of almost every cuisine in the world — from Croatia to Germany — available at high dollar prices, of course. Unfortunately, this prosperity often excludes ordinary Afghans, who have come back "home" after years of exile to live as refugees in their own watan (homeland).
Far from perfect
Battling poverty and unemployment, the Afghans are eager to stand on their own feet, only to find that idealism and hard work are not always enough. Afghanistan imports everything from mineral water to vegetables and Kabul is an expensive city where a loaf of bread costs roughly 30 Afghanis (Rs. 30), making it unaffordable for most people. There is neither water nor electricity in large parts of the city, or sanitation or a waste disposal system. Children struggle to carry water in jerry cans larger than themselves to houses built atop hills on illegally "grabbed" land.
"The situation is much worse than during the war. We are now faced with warloads, money-lords and position-lords. Corruption is rampant in the Government. It is now possible to buy justice with money in Afghanistan. Money is being spent on bridges that will get washed away in the next rain or widening roads that are already wide. We have spent $5.6 million on the draft of the constitution alone, which is $4,35,000 dollars on each article. Hope is missing, there is only confusion, I hope the elections bring in some charge," rues Siddiq Barmak, award-winning direction of the post-Taliban Afghan film "Osama". The guns are far from banished. Whether it is the "protective" gun of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), young soldiers or the AK-47s of the warlords (many of them powerful ministers, with their own private armies to protect them) every kind of weapon is easily available in Kabul.
Well-meaning non-government organisations from all over the world have descended on Kabul. From Croation de-mining companies to micro-credit organisations from Bangladesh. There are more than 350 registered NGOs and their signboards are visible on practically every building. And the Afghans are desperate to see the benefit of this aid-fast. Outsiders in their own country, Afghans are not allowed into shops like "Supreme", that cater only to home-sick expatriates. "People working in some of these NGOs lead a lavish lifestyle. A look at their offices and their houses, the way they are furnished, the air-conditioned cars they drive, all add to the resentment of the people, as it all comes out of the aid being pumped into the country," says a senior journalist posted in Kabul. Unfortunately, the international community does not always back up their generous promises of help with firm commitments. Nothing illustrates this more than the sudden "death" of the Malalai Magazine, named after a 17th Century heroine — the only voice of Afghan women. The reason: a lack of funds. Malalai might have been just a token in a country where illiteracy among women is almost 90 per cent, but at least it addressed problems of women from an Afghan point of view. "Every leader gets on to international platforms and talks about women. But nothing is being done for them. These warloads didn't like the magazine. They believe that it is leading women astray. Our magazine has no funds to publish at all this year," says the editor-in-chief, Jamila Mujahed.
She is, however, determined to fight to keep the magazine alive. "I will bring out Malalai even if I have to die doing it," she says.
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