why i don't see future for afghanistan?

Private contractors are running Afghanistan show, NGOs, once the main player, have either left the country or subcountracted by Luis Berger or Bearing point. Private contractors manage security risks while they are trying to do most of the job. Luis berger and bearing point are great business ideas, bearing point currently has a contract of 237 million dollars with USAID, their Afghanistan operation is run by former managers and directors of development NGOs. NGOs which once had a dominant role in afghan reconstruction had to vacate the stage for large contractors under sever criticism from government (and public), allegation of corruption and security boundaries.  

 

I see this as a big phenomena, I am surprised that non-profit community didn’t predict this. I haven’t seen a single study on this, I remember meeting all these NGO managers in conferences and they were talking about what ways to increase efficiency and, But nobody saw contractors coming in and an organizational strategy to deal with it.

 

Well, I think this is typical to organizations, they are so trapped with competition and routines that they can’t see the horizon, or they have one lens on when they are scanning the environment. my favorite is the competition between Kodak and Fuji, the official logo of Fuji was ‘Kill Kodak’ and they failed to see digital photography coming and now photography is almost a dead industry with the emergence of digital.

Or another one of my favorite is, Britain assigned a watchman at the south coast to look at the see and alarm London if he sees Napoleon, the guy was looking at the sea with his telescope hoping every minute that he would see napoleon and run to the big bell and alarm London. But it never happened. This job was officially terminated in 1948 and the funny thing is the guy even didn’t notice Hitler bombers J he was just looking at the sea.

 

NGOs perception of the three issues affected their strategy 1) the problems of NGO security, 2) concerns about the militarization of aid, and 3) the public scapegoating of NGOs for the failures of the overall aid effort.

Security of staff is the number one issue for all NGOs working in Afghanistan today. Afghanistan has become the most dangerous country in the world for aid agencies. The Global Civil Society yearbook shows that “terrorist incidents” targeting NGOs have gone up 1300% from the early 1990s to 2005. Today, international staff of most NGOs remain bunkered down in Kabul, flying in and out for R&R, they have no contact with the people they aim to help. PRTs were the good NGOs created four years ago, NGO views on PRTs run the spectrum from blanket refusal to engage with the military to what some see as “principled pragmatism” on the other – that is that NGOs should engage with the PRTs in order to minimize negative impacts on their work. It would be a mistake to see PRTs as threatening competitors, they are not for development purposes.  

 

Popular anger, at the overall slow pace of the reconstruction effort so far and the lifestyle and behavior of some foreigners, has unfairly blamed the NGO sector. Afghans believe little has been done to date, despite the billions of dollars of international funds pledged. Because they work directly with communities, NGOs have become the most highly visible symbols of the international aid effort. Many in the aid community understand the resentment. While the distinction between international NGO staff, foreign contractors working for government donors and foreign private security companies seems straightforward to those in the aid business, for much of the Afghan public, there seems little difference between these groups.

NGOs have lost the fight for humanitarian space for businesses, private contractor are also facing the same problem NGOs did. Contractors might be able to deal with the situation NGOs are facing but in no way they are improving the situation, as a matter of fact the situation is getting worst since contractor take over. The ghetto lifestyle of hundred foreign workers has created further public anger. Contractors are implementing projects ranging from health to handcraft, areas they have to competences. Day by day people see less and less result for the amount of money spent and cynicism is growing. What is actually destroying my morning is people who work for contractors. They are only there for money, stealing from the 7^th poorest country in the world.

 

جنگجويان طالب بالاي يك پوسته امنيتي بندرتورغندي هرات شب پنجشنبه حمله نموده كه تلفاتي را درپي نداشته است .

بندرتورغندي هرات كه در120 كيلومتري شمال شهرهرات ومرز مواصلاتي هرات وتركمنستان ميباشد واقع شده است .

اين حمله درمسيرشاهراه هرات تورغندي بالاي يك پوسته امنيتي صورت گرفته كه تلفات جاني براي پوليس وارد نگرديده است اما با مشاهده شدن اثارخون گمان ميرود طالبان تلفات جاني داشته باشند.

اما قاري يوسف كه خودش را سخنگوي طالبان ميداند درتماس تلفوني به رسانه هاادعانموده است، درنتيجه حمله شان بالاي پوسته امنيتي درمسيرشاهراه هرات تورغندي سه تن ازپوليس را بقتل رسانده ويك تن ديگررا نيز باخود به اسارت برده اند .

اين درحالي است كه امنيت داخلي شهرهرات شديدا ازسوي مقامات امنيتي وپي ارتي تامين بوده وهيچ گونه نا امني درحومه اين شهربچشم نميخورد وهم اكنون اجلاس سازمان اقتصادي اكو وارد روز دومش شده كه قراراست روزجمعه وزراي خارجه ده كشورعضوسازمان متذكره روزجمعه 27 ميزان وارد اين شهرشده وحامد كرزي رئيس جمهوري كشوردرجلسه روزشنبه نيزحضورداشته باشد.

latest

Fourteen troops from the NATO-led force in Afghanistan were wounded in a Taliban ambush southwest of the capital Kabul, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said on Monday.
The troops came under fire during a patrol in the province of Wardak, immediately southwest of Kabul, on Sunday. The troops called in air support, but there was no word on Taliban casualties and no reports that any civilians had been hurt in the fighting, the spokesman said.

in a separate incident, Three Afghan civilians were killed when international war planes bombed an area outside Kabul during a fierce battle with Taliban rebels, provincial police said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel plans to visit Afghanistan to get a first-hand picture on the situation in the country; however no date has been set for the trip.
The chancellor faced harsh criticism by the opposition Greens for her failure to visit German NATO-led troops in Afghanistan Green party leader Renate Kuenast said a Merkel trip to the war-ravaged country was "overdue".
As expected, German lawmakers voted last week in favor of extending the controversial Afghan military mandate for another year.
Some 453 legislators approved renewing the mission, while 79 opposed it and 48 abstained.
The new mandate allows the deployment of up to 3,500 soldiers in Afghanistan and will primarily focus on northern Afghanistan and the Kabul region.

British officials are concerned an influx of U.S. military contractors in Afghanistan's Helmand Province could disrupt their plans there.
With British officials focusing on gaining the support of regional citizens, they have suggested the planned arrival of additional U.S. military contractors could serve as a bitter reminder of the Blackwater scandal in Iraq, The Independent reported Sunday.

"The worry is that there will be a blast, and some contractors will panic and open fire, as happened with Blackwater in Baghdad. That is the very last thing that Helmand needs at the moment," one unidentified diplomat said of the plan.

The U.S. personnel are coming to Helmand Province as part of a reconstruction project in the war-torn region, but at least one of the military companies has already earned a bad reputation there.
The British newspaper said resentment against DynCorp is already in place throughout the province due to the contractor's involvement in an earlier eradication campaign against the region's opium poppy crop.

RSF report

RSF new report is concerning about Afghanistan than ever before. The report outlines some major threats to free expression. The government’s adoption of a third press law gives a relatively liberal framework for media development, in a country governed by Sharia. But parliament, in particular the Wolesi Jirga (lower house) which is dominated by the conservatives, has drawn up a list of reactionary amendments. The Religious and Cultural Affairs Commission has increased references to Islamic principles and banned publication of news contrary to stability, national security and territorial integrity. The draft law which could go before parliament at the beginning of 2007 includes a ban on promotion via the press on any religion other than Islam.

 

The top of the list was dominated by European countries, which made up 18 of the top 20, the others being New Zealand (15th) and Trinidad and Tobago (19th). Iceland and Norway were voted joint top, with Estonia and Slovakia sharing third place. But last year's joint leader, the Netherlands, fell to 12th place after two journalists were held in custody for two days for refusing to reveal their sources to the judicial authorities. In another black mark for Europe, Bulgaria (51st) and Poland (56th) were identified as the continent's "bad boys", the only EU countries outside the top 50. RSF compiled the index by sending a questionnaire to 15 freedom of expression organisations, its network of 130 correspondents, and to journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists. The survey contained 50 questions about press freedom.