media power - kabul diary

i was just in the ministry of interior affairs, living a day of my life with Afghan bureaucracy.

afghan armed forces and afghan police is a great place to see how power is shared in afghanistan.

Billions of dollars have been invested in armed forces to make them an emblem of national unity and a power to keep the country national but they don't have the slightest character of nationalhood. power is shared along the undemocratic lines. the most powerful is the generals and commanders who are friends with Americans and ally with westerners. The second level of power is connection with the so called leaders, both tribal and mujahideen.

 

five years has passed since the so-called democratic intervention in Afghanistan but the country is undemocratic more than ever and politically corrupt than ever.

its very important to support social causes like radio watandar and other media and civil society representatives, as another power pillar. otherwise old same stuff would happen few people suppressing the rest of the soceity.

 

media hasn't proven yet as another power pillar and there is not yet that direct connection with people.

warlords and political groups have realsed the importance of media and today they have dozens of outlets. this is why internatioanl community has stopped their support for free media.

i think we can pretty much see where this country is going. down the same line it was ten years ago anarchy and warlordism. it's just a matter of time. 

 

 

HIV positive ban

There are sixteen countries with formal ban on HIV positive travelers, but in formally there are many more. A Senegal woman was test by polish authorities for HIV, according to an immigrant support organization. Below is the list of countries with formal ban:

Armenia

Bangladesh

Brunei

China

Iraq

Libya

Moldavia

Oman

Qatar

Russian Federation

Solomon Islands

Saudi Arabia

Sri Lanka

South Korea

Sudan

USA

When traveling to Russia I was made to get an HIV license. I didn’t want anyone to take my blood sample, but it’s a very persuasive document. See my HIV negative certificate ;-) i have delivered this certificate to many other countries and none said NO. this certificate helps anywhere.

HIV-related stigma refers to all unfavorable attitudes, beliefs, and policies directed toward people perceived to have HIV/AIDS as well as toward their significant others and loved ones, close associates, social groups, and communities. Patterns of prejudice, which include devaluing, discounting, discrediting, and discriminating against these groups of people, play into and strengthen existing social inequalities--especially those of gender, sexuality, and race--that are at the root of HIV-related stigma.

The UN decided to have a declaration on this too. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has developed a protocol for the identification of discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS. I don’t know why the UN doesn’t condemn the above mentioned 16 countries; discrimination is now the official policy of these governments.

paghman

cold shower for boys in paghman, north west of kabul

DESPITE RESERVED

More than one quarter of the 249 seats in Afghanistan’s National Assembly are reserved for women, placing it among the world’s top 20 most gender-balanced legislatures. According to a new report from the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, however, this creation of political space for women has not resulted in the substantive representation of their collective gender interests.

The report, titled “A Matter of Interests: Gender and the Politics of Presence in the Wolesi Jirga”, argues that the representation of women’s gender interests in the National Assembly remains minimal. The system of reserving seats for women in Afghanistan’s 2005 legislative elections was widely considered progressive.

Proponents of reserved seats and other quota systems contend that these means of affirmative action are steps to compensate for previously institutionalised inequality and under-representation of certain social groups. Indeed, for Afghanistan’s women, the reserved seat system marked a considerable milestone in the struggle for equal opportunities.

Women parliamentarians, however, have voiced concerns about their status as democratically elected legislators. As a result of the reserved seat system, their presence in parliament is considered by some to be unmerited. As the report’s author Anna Wordsworth observes, “the practice of fast-tracking women into the legislature through affirmative action has affected their perceived legitimacy in office”. General seats, she argues, which are supposedly open to any candidate to contest, have become men’s seats in public perception.

The report identifies the risk that the 68 reserved seats may in fact become a glass ceiling — preventing women from attaining seats above and beyond those reserved for them. Beyond these negative perceptions of reserved seats for women, Wordsworth argues, other factors have contributed significantly to the lack of representation of women’s gender interests in parliament to date. These include the lack of issues-based blocks in the Wolesi Jirga, executive indifference to women’s gender interests, and the nature of international assistance to parliamentarians. “A Matter of Interests” is critical of the current legislative environment and its inability to provide space for women’s gender interests to be raised.

According to Wordsworth, “the substantive representation of women’s gender interests will require the institutional frameworks of solid issues-based groups or parties whose commitment to the representation of these interests is a key element of their policy platforms”.

There are also other measures that can be taken to encourage such representation in the short term. These include the public clarification of the reserved seats system, the harmonisation of legislation on women’s rights, the mainstreaming of gender issues into international training programmes and an increased executive commitment to women’s participation in government.