from waves of afghan women radio

[Jawad from Kolola Poshta] [Dari]: I have an apartment here in Kolola Poshta. The front side [pavement part] of my apartment is rugged. I wanted to asphalt the area, but the Kabul municipality doesn’t allow me. I have bribed the members of this department with at least US$2000. However, my problem has not been solved so far. I hope that you’ll be able to discuss this problem with the members of the department so that they will soon solve my problem.

[Host/speaker]: If you got a building permission, you would have not faced this problem. By the way, we will invite a member of the Kabul municipality in our programme, and we will give your contact number to him to ask you about the person you gave money to [bribed]. Will you be prepared to help us identify the corrupt official from this department? [The answer was yes].

[Abdul Ahad Tanha, a shopkeeper in Arzan Qimat area] [Pashto]: I scrutinise the clothing habits of the girls. Some days ago, a girl came in our area wearing a skimpy and semi-naked clothes just like the foreigners. We are Afghans and have special clothes to wear. I wish the girls would observe this rule and not copy the foreigners. I hope you’ll be able to invite a member of the Afghan ministry of women’s affairs to answer our questions.

[From Dihsabze area] [Pashto]: The government appropriated my property to construct the Kabul-Jalalabad road without paying us. I call on the government to treat us in a legal manner in this regard.

[no name was said] [Pashto]: I had some matters to take care of at the Afghanistan National Bank. They asked me to come in the afternoon, while they did the job for someone who paid them a bribe. Administrative corruption, from my perspective, speaks louder now than ever in the state administrations. I call on the government to draw further attention to solve this difficulty.

[Pashto]: The oil price has recently risen in Afghanistan. It is a massive problem for poor drivers. How can they provide for their lives if they spend all their money on fuel? We call on the government to take actions to solve this problem.

[a female] [Dari]: We have returned home from Pakistan and now are living in Qara Bagh district of Ghazni province, suffering a lack of school and other social facilities.[Answer from the host]: We have constantly tried our best to make an appointment with the education ministry staff, and have invited them to the programme. However, they refused. We don’t know why. We think that since they have no achievements to offer for our programme, maybe this is why they are not prepared to talk with us.

[From Kampany area of Kabul city] [Pashto]: Most youths are used to stand in the front of female schools throughout Kabul city, teasing the girls. I call on the media to provide feedback for the youths in this regard.

[Amanullah Zai from Bagrami] [Pashto]: The transport hub [bus and taxi station] for Torkham used to be situated in Pul-e Charkhi previously, but the Kabul municipality appropriated a centre in Bagrami area. However, the transportation hub has not moved there so far. This is a problem for drivers of the highway. Can you please discuss our difficulty with the Kabul municipality?

[Sardar Wali from Bot Khak village of Bagrami district of Kabul province] [Pashto]: We have heaps of transportation problems. We are poor people and unable to buy private cars. At the same time, there are no buses to take us to the city. I call on the government to send some buses in this city line as well.

[Dari]: We are four brothers. None of us has married so far, since girls’ families collect large amounts of money from boys. For this reason, we are unable to pay them. I wish the media could prepare some things convincing families not to force the boys to pay for their girls [money].

[Dari]: The commercial court of the Kabul justice system can easily be bribed. It is not possible to do anything without paying bribes in these courts. I hope the Afghan government can take decisive steps to solve this problem.

kabul diary

Little Las Vegas in the north of Kabul, but it’s not intended for gambling. The area is a huge complex of wedding halls, Afghanistan’s most favorite social event. The temptation of holding a luxurious wedding ceremony is one of the reasons which persuade polygamy. The most favorite wedding hall is called Shami Paris, translated as Paris night, an Eiffel tower is erected in the roundabout, decorated with playful lights. There are at least two smaller ones in the garden in front of the wedding hall. The Garden is decorated with a lot of lights. The main building consists of several halls so many ceremonies could take place simultaneously. Shami Paris has numerous stretch limousines for rent. But it’s only rented for center of town. The limousine can’t handle the narrow and bumpy streets outside Kabul center.

Plastic flowers and heavy curtains are hanging on the way to the wedding hall, the floor and stairs are covered with soft rugs. Loud music is shaking the stairways. The tradition is to volume the music so loud that the singer could not be identified. Strong body smell is coming out of the wedding hall. A group of young boys are in the center of hall, dancing and jumping. Others are sitting in circles around their tables, eyeing the boys, some motionless. A wooden partition is dividing the men section from the women, the singer is in the middle, viewable from both men and women part. I joined the dance circle, after hugging all the boys. Strong smell of alcohol, sweet and smoke has filled the air, boys are dancing in two. In most weddings, there is often ‘Attan’ the traditional afghan dance. I like Attan more than the couple dancing. We need to be engaged with others while we are dancing, it’s more pleasant. While you are engaged with a group it’s more fun. Also dancing in two, especially when it’s two boys, is kind of annoying me. I like homosexuals, but I can’t stand them when they are not getting enough sex. As a matter of fact they get annoying. These boys are not gay, they are just acting. Not being gay and just acting gay is not cool. Can’t imagine what is going on the other side of the curtain, women crossing legs and dancing, rubbing their gentles on each other legs, I guessJ From time to time you either get pulled or shoved to join the dance group.

After dinner, everybody went outside. The all was empty, the theory is to get a hike, supposedly it’s good for digestion. The waiters came to clear the tables; there is a lot of left over. The guy dropping plates into a large tray, dessert was getting mixed with stew and so on. I asked what he does with the left over, it’s a lot. He said, the staff takes it home only if it’s clean; clean means, if it’s not touch or mixed. I told him the way he is gathering, it won’t be clean. In a city where one out of four is not getting food and almost everybody is not having a good diet, it’s a bummer to waste. He gave me a suspicious look. we do things the way we do, ideas really don’t get through to people here.

Earlier I went to see the minister for information and culture. just by his behavior, he could be anything but the minister for information and culture. he is taking small but wide steps don’t know if it’s his culture of walking or he still suffer from his injuries. Last month he narrowly escaped a suicide attack which ripped through his armor car.
A group of people representative came to see him, around 50 people, the appointment was at 1130 but he came at 1230. a group of aggressive security is surrounding him. He changed the room for meeting. I was trying to hide from him, I have been very critical of him. I was told by his advisor that the way I am pursuing is not helping anyone. in the meeting there is also his deputy, the former deputy for ministry of commerce, he was involved in a corruption case, ten million dollar was stolen from public property. Few days ago he wrote to me, claiming I was slandering and had no proof. He shut up after I sent him a report by a special committee of national security prosecutor. the minister and his deputy were giving me bad looks.
The minister only spoke for five minutes and he left. He basically said, “the communists proved wrong, so did the Taliban. In the last few years, parallel to our government has been NGOs and they have proved to be corrupt. Now foreigners have introduced a new concept radio and TV stations. Freedom of expression is another tool to make us fight each other.” He said a few other sentences similar to this. I was shocked. Later in the evening the meeting was on state TV with the above clip of the minister. He doesn’t hate TV, he hates when other people express themselves. He likes state TV where people like him could say whatever they want and they never want state TV to be a public broadcasters.

Natalie and Morgan are two western girls working in the same office with me. but they work upstairs, I am downstairs with my 30 afghan staff. They only come down when there is an occasion e.g. when they joined Internews. We work together but we have nothing in common. We work from 0700 to 1700, six days a week, as journalists should do in a country like Afghanistan. ‘they’ work from 1000 to 1600, five days a week. They live in barb wired compounds and they have their own social gatherings. They think, they are not welcomed to Afghan society, that is what I have heard, if not why would they be here and not live the Afghan way. “I am ashamed to go with them anywhere and we get the blame for them” said hashimi, after the meeting with the minister. “the minister is right about the NGOs” said Ellahi. “we all work for NGOs” said Morgan. She can’t differentiate between NGO reporting officer and journalist. “Let’s go to a restaurant and see what we should do about the minister” said Natalie, this is a very typical NGO phrase. They want a pretext to go to a restaurant for ‘brainstorming’. “tell me what is the situation with Qarabagh radio station?” asked morgan. “spare me brother, this issue has been dragging for over a year and yet you don’t know what happened” I said in farsi. Mujeeb took a sigh.

“What is the minister like?” asked Natalie, “he is an ex western spy, he used to work for French intelligence in the south. He doesn’t like free expression, as you should have guessed from what he said today” I said. Natalie had her strawberry smoothie and then she said “we should come up with a strategy” I smiled and said in farsi “how dare you, you didn’t know who he was and you don’t know what the issue is and you want to make a plan” ellahi and tawhidi laughed. “Lets meet him next week and engage him” obviously these westerners has no idea. We have been campaigning for a year to replace him. By we I mean afghan media and civil society. They always have new plans. They think if we think positive we can do it. I hope so.
I was thinking to organize a session with westerners. My Afghan colleagues have a lot in their hearth and when westerners are not around, they bring it out. I think we should talk. People are afraid to lose their job. I think we should talk even if it takes that. Afghans should be polite, diplomatic but firm and express their grievances.

korean hostages

I have received a letter from a Korean journalist. I would like to share this with you and see what you think.

> Salam, Jouno friends!!! > > It's Lee, a Korean journalist missing you guys and hospitable afghans, > here in Beirut Lebanon. > What a shocking news it is that some 21 koreans, who belong to the > 'Hilal' hospital-runned NGO in Kandahar, were abducted yesterday.

Taliban threaten to kill 18 Koreans, including 15 women, unless Seoul pulls out its 200 troops from Afghanistan, underscoring the militia's use of soft targets to weaken President Hamid Karzai's government.
In the largest-scale abduction of foreigners since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, the South Koreans were kidnapped at gunpoint from a bus in Ghazni province's Qarabagh district on Thursday as they traveled on the main highway from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry confirmed the abduction of 21 Koreans, including 16 women, according to Yonhap
The discrepancy in figures could not be immediately clarified.

> As I do keep clear pictures of 'Hilal hospital' in Kandahar (in my mind), > where ive seen a lot afghan women patients and korean doctors, afghan > doctor, afghan nurses...in harmony, I myself feel very aweful and thinking > it could be a blast to those all. So sad in fact.

Outmatched by foreign troops, the Taliban often resorts to kidnapping civilians caught traveling on treacherous roads, particularly in the country's south, where the insurgency is raging.
The tactic hurts Karzai's government by discouraging foreigners involved in reconstruction projects from venturing outside big towns and into remote areas where their help is most needed.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that the hostages were members of the Saemmul Community Church in Bundang, just south of the South Korean capital, Seoul, who had entered Afghanistan on July 13 for volunteer work and were planning to return home on Monday.

> Although the hospital is sponsored by a very 'name valuable' korean > church, they never intended to preach religion thing, rather they do very > respect the local culture, religion, thoughts of people there and all > people. As we're all equal human beings, it's a must.

Some 1,200 Christians, including hundreds of South Korean children, reportedly traveled to Afghanistan last summer.
"They are young Korean Christians who were engaged in short-term evangelistic activity and service for children in Kandahar," said Joseph Park, mission director of the Christian Council of Korea.
Oh Soo-In, a senior church administer at Saemmul Community Church, said the captured church group are in their 20s and 30s, as reported by AFP

> Just this 'helpless woman' currently far distanced, appeal you > journalists that...> > Please, you do contact with Taliban movement, spokesperson to remind them > > > 1) "this brings absolutely negative effect to their movement and afghan > society as a whole" 2) "Majority of S.Koreans oppose those foreign troops' > agression as Talibs do" This is a FACT.> 3) And those abducted are purely of help for Afghan friends and want to be > friends and they are innocent.
the South Korean government has urged Christian groups and other Koreans to get out of the country and return home as it works to secure the release of the Christian hostages.
> I do remember our journalist friend, Mr.Ajmal, whose case was totally > unjustifiable to any of us. > Let's do out best to avoid this kind of series in our circle. > I believe many of you could do some effective role for this case with > your article, with your relations with Talibs, convincing them to release > those innocents.

I am wondering what we could exactly do here to help?

> Another blast from this case to me is that > S.Korea government seems to request all afghan embassy abroad > "NOT TO ISSUE VISA FOR KOREAN NATIONALS" as they did for Iraq entrance > (for even journalist). I was going to be back Afghanistan coming early sep. > So, this is a blast to me as well. I really miss there to do more stories > from there field. > I wish you all the best!!! > in Peace > Lee (+ 961 70 82 05 71 in Lebanon)

Dancing with the shadow

Dancing with the shadow
Complying companion
I here I come, I hear I jump
Harmonious mover quick shaker
good friend, not missing one gesture.
Never noticed you before
Lost you,
Clouds are blocking the moon
Only the dark ones
Signaling rain, party over
Shadow a companion which doesn’t sweat
Trying made me wet all over,
The dog is leaping
Hoping to catch up with the shadow
Poor dogs, have to imitate their shadows
The soulless, soundless but animated
Venus, Jupiter, mars blinking
Waiting for the moon back
The wind wipes the cloud off the moon face
Let be this the last line
The sky shatters,
Blue light shows the horizon
The roar followed
A slow companion
Not quite a shadow
The lightening danced out
The roar moaned to catch up
The clouds building shapes
Moon comes through a triangular window
Venus is in the key hole
Barking dog calls on the lightening