hospitality

during a routine footpatrol a company of american troops reached an unknown Afghan village perceived hostile where they are taking position in preparation for possible attack. an Afghan man unaware of their frantic condition is bringing tea for a crouching troop while the other one in the background seems surprised.

Stop Human Rights Violators from becoming President

Hereby, we a number of victims of Daikundi province would like to draw your attention to the background and atrocities of a number of provincial council candidates in the province. The nomination of the people, who have committed and continue to commit heinous violations of human rights, to run for the provincial council elections is a matter of serious concern for the people of Daikundi, especially the victims of their crimes and atrocities.
Nomination of infamous and known human rights abusers, such as Arif Hussain Dawari and Anwar Moballigh is indeed a mockery of elections and democracy. This is equivalent to rewarding of criminals for their crimes. Just as examples, we would like to draw the attention of your respected Commission to the following:
1. Rape and forced marriage: Dawari has committed numerous rapes. The victims of his rape are known in every village. Some of them were killed or forced to leave the area. Victims have registered complaints with various authorities. Some of his rape cases have been documented by human rights organizations . He has forcibly married many wives, including Wolesi Jirga Member Sherin Moheseni who was wife of some body else.
2. Murder: Dawari has committed horrendous and brutal murders and assassinations. Currently there are around 30 murder cases against him filed with judicial and human rights agencies both in Daikundi province and in Kabul. The respectable IECC can request a copy of the cases from the department, should it deem necessary.
3. Drug business: Arif Dawari is the main person behind cultivation and trafficking of narcotics in Daikundi province. From 2001 to 2004 alone, he extorted three to four thousands ser (approximately 20,000 to 30,000 Kgs) of opium taxation from the people of Sharistan and Meramore. He used to force people to cultivate poppy and then levied tax more than the volume of their product.
4. Private jail: Scores of innocent people and his political rivals were kept and inhumanely tortured in Dawari’s private jails. Many died as a result of his cruel torture techniques. He is still running a private jail in a remote area between Sharistan and Gezan district.
5. Illegal armed group: Dawari does not only possess the largest arms depots in Daikundi but also runs the most organized and frightful illegal armed group . A number of his sub-commanders who are currently involved in intimidation of people are Gul Muhammad Azizi, Sayed Nazir, Reza Hekmatyar (Dawari’s nephew and a provincial council candidate), Ghulam Ali Mojahid, Habib Ghaf, Ahmadi (known as Ahmadi kar), Padshah Ghochan and Hussaini (known as balaaye kotut).
6. Kidnapping and torture: tens of people have so far been kidnapped and brutally tortured by Dawari and his men. Several cases and complaints have been filed and registered with relevant authorities since 2002.
7. Relationship with Taliban: before the collapse of Taliban, Dawari was a commander and agent of the group in the area. He continued to maintain his links with the group after their fall. Their interactions have included narco-traficking and transiting and arms smuggling. Dawari has personally met with Taliban commanders several times in 2007 and 2008. He also had met two famous and senior Taliban commanders, namely Mullah Dadullah and Mullah Fayzullah in November 2006. The meeting was facilitated and arranged by a person named Sayed Sufi Gardezi. Dawari has also repeatedly met Taliban commander Mullah Salaam over the last two years.
8. Money Laundering: the fortune that he has made through illegal means have largely been transferred through hawala system and invested in the U.A.E and Iran.
Anwar Muballigh is also implicated in the same crimes and violations and continues to do so. He has committed a number of horrific crimes such as murders, illegal taxation on lands, illegal taxation per head, kidnappings, forced recruitment of soldiers, running of illegal armed group, extortion and intimidation of people through his armed men, robbery, forced marriage and illegal detentions.
We are confident that United Nations, including Human Rights Unit of UNAMA, Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and other human rights organizations have enough data and information regarding violations committed by Dawari and Muballigh. Their participation in the political process will further disappoint people. It will give similar criminals and abusers further courage and assurance of impunity.
Arif Dawari and Anwar Muballigh are ringleaders of two human rights violator’s gangs in Daikundi. They want to misuse civil institutions and public offices as a safe ground for their criminal activities. Disqualifying these two criminals and their gang members are the minimum demand of their victims for the interest of peace and justice.
Dawari has also nominated his sister (Rashida Shahidi) and his nephew (Reza Hekmatyar) who has also served as one of his sub-commanders. Dawari intends to use them and their post as a shield for expansion and furtherance of his illegal activities. Reza Hekmatyar is an accomplice in all Dawari’s crimes. Rashida Shahidi is intended to be put in the provincial council position to serve as a cover for his inhumane and criminal actions, as he has skillfully done with his wife Sherin Mohseni as a member of Wolesi Jirga.
Regrettably, UNAMA allowed Dawari in the last Parliamentary Elections to get his wife (whom Dawari had forcefully married) to the Parliament through intimidation and vote-buying. The woman was later widely misused by Dawari as a political cover for his criminal and inhumane activities. Using his wife, Dawari even managed to secure himself an official government position as head of National Security Directorate in Sharistan district in January 2009. However, he was removed from the position in less than one month due to the objection and protest of people. Using his wife, he has however continued to interfere in the affair of the province and is even flying on MoD helicopters to and from Daikundi! By this action, he is further intimidating his victims by demonstrating the government as a protector of his criminal activities.
We demand the disqualification of Dawari, Muballigh, Reza Hekmatyar and Rashida Shahidi and removal of their names from the list of provincial council candidates. Re-empowerment of these criminal gangs will dash all hopes of victims for peace and democracy. We have lost many beloved ones and we have experienced various atrocities. We do not want to dwell on the bitter past; rather we look for the future. Re-empowerment of these individual will destroy our future also and will turn it into a sad and dark destiny. Our past has been destroyed, please do not let them destroy our future too. Please listen to our voice! We all cry:

difference between an ‘Afghan’ and a ‘Pessimist Afghan’

Meant to write lately but whatever I tell lately is about how things are not fun. sooo done telling pessimist stories; so I thought maybe I should tell you this. Here is a joke.
Can you tell the difference between an ‘Afghan’ and a ‘Pessimist Afghan’?
The later would respond to a joke by ‘damn it, so unfair. Can you believe that?’ The later would say; ‘that is funny. Tell me another one’.
I met a man earlier who is about to marry a relative of mine. The so called bride is usually nervous and wants to make a good impression on relatives of his future wife. Nervous I hate; mmm, Hate is rather strong but more like don’t keep on speed-dial. It put me at unease; I just can’t stand the view of somebody who is ruining his moment and not enjoying the company. i went to an easy mood and attempted to be not only funny but acrobatic funny. Something I had learned from a good friend; ‘people would like and feel at ease if you act as a clown’ she said. i suppose she is particularly right about nervous wankers and pessimists. Whatever I said he was damning it.
I said ‘man, sure is many dogs in this neighbourhood’.
Looking at the floor or out the window he responded ‘damn right. They are certainly a nuisance’.
That didn’t go well. I recognised if we talk about something he felt positive about then he would be less nervous. Searching among the limited topics you could talk about with a stranger.
‘the weather is certainly rainy these days’ I said.
‘can you believe that. Things are just not right’. He said.
I was getting desperate. I thought of jokes. So I told him one.
‘A man had two goldfish, he named one of them "One" and the other "Two". he did this because… if one died, he'd still have two’.
His mouth started to spread toward his ears but he held his grin ‘damn it, so unfair. Can you believe that’.
Later the relative asked me what I thought of him. I said:
‘he is a perpetual pessimist who will only tire you out.’
She asked ‘what do you mean?’
I said ‘well, he is a pessimist. He doesn’t see the bright side of things. Life is gloomy and doomy for him.’
She looked rather confused and shoke her head ‘but who doesn’t’. she is right because she is surrounded by pessimists.
‘Most of the people on the planet’. I said.
She didn’t seem sure. ‘Like who?’.
In an attempt to show my confidence ‘all the good writers’.
She exclaimed ‘really’.
I took her to my books and I showed her my favourites. She picked, the brothers Karamazov, dostoyevsky’s master piece. ‘But it’s brutal murder and violent love. Its gloomy; it portrays a potential of criminality in all of us.’ She said.
‘ok, maybe not this one’. I said. then I give her ‘The sound and the Fury’ by William Faulkner.
‘a story of self destruction seeded in love . how crap is that? …’ she said.
I soon give up. ‘This is not what I thought it should be. But there is a lot of good stuff within’ I said.
A bit disappointed ‘really’ she said.
‘How about a joke?’ I said.
‘go on’ she said. …….. ‘that is funny. Tell me another one’ she said.

Afghan reconstruction or Darwinian experiment

The spirit of Charles Darwin has been an inspiration for me; I hold maximum respect for his scientific achievements and social courage. How many people are going to come out today in any society and who could say something so radical as Darwin did; many, that is right. Many people would do that; because we as the human species, in Darwin words, have become so negative and pessimistic that we would challenge anything and everything. But here is the thing, who would stick to their word and fight for what they stand for. Very few people and they will back down when pressured.
Darwin was about experimenting and evolving and I think we need to learn from him at this critical point in Afghan history. I was just reading an audit on the over US$ 8 billion USAID has spent in Afghanistan and there is so much; this came to my attention after I tried to figure out what the fuss was about. Some were so angry as though the whole amount had come from their pocket. Even if they are taxpayers they put the trust in to a system and shouldn’t lose faith so quickly. For the sake of keeping ourselves and the society sane and in maintaining the Darwinian spirit of experimentalism. Afghanistan is an experiment. Six audits of the U.S. Agency for International Development's multibillion-dollar Afghanistan reconstruction effort found only one program working largely as it was supposed to. Nobody knew if it was going to work, it is mere chance. Afghanistan is uncertain and mysterious as human nature was during Darwin period; the only way to find out is through experiment. A US$ 219 contract to improve government institutions produced a lack of evidence of results after the agency and the contractor spend an inordinate amount of time attempting to define the program’s activities and priorities.
Another $102 million contract to promote agriculture led to defective buildings, the spraying of pesticides without studying their impact and the failure to implement a major commercial farm program. Isn’t that experiment?
i asked three different people what they thought about the outcomes of USAID audits; an Afghan, an American and a USAID employee. It might sound like a job but it is not. The Afghan said ‘USAID is just a front for the CIA and has been for 30 years in Afghanistan. So all that money went nowhere except in to the hands of people that don't have to account for it like Dick Cheney. The warlords, Taliban and other criminal allies of Americans.’
The American who lives in America said ‘Contractors get millions trying to convert a bunch of 12th century, poppy growing, mysoginists who don't want to have anything to do with Western culture except the money derived from its taste for Heroin addiction.’
And the aid worker was not certain and hesitantly said ‘money spent in Afghanistan since 2002 has produced "remarkably powerful impacts," in health, education, agriculture and other sectors.’
I am not worried at all about the money but rather the attitude it produces among peoples, ghettoising minds and communities.
I think people need to calm down and get on with their lives. So we can take all the suspicion, stubbornness and anger away from Afghan issues; which is the key for the evolution of Afghanistan in to a stable place.