Zahed Missed His Garden All These Years
Zahed is a forty something years old Afghan-German who lives in Germany with his family. He’s lived there for over two decades now. About two and a half weeks ago, he came back to Afghanistan to visit his hometown in Surkhrod area of Nangarhar Province. He missed his relatives and friends and his garden. He had a beautiful garden near his Qalla or village house where he used to sleep under the shade of its trees in some peace and…
read more »Are You from This Country
Not a lot of people in Afghanistan know where Cambodia is as many people in Cambodia don’t know where Afghanistan is located. I was in Cambodia for a month and people would ask me where I was from. I would answer “Afghanistan”. Most of the people would ask “No, what is the name of your country?” Well, that is the name of my country. They thought it was a small village in some country. I was riding in a tuk…
read more »Afghan Security Forces to Be Reduced after 2014
Afghan Defense Minister, Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak said on Tuesday that the Afghan security forces (ANSF) will likely be reduced from its peak strength of 352000 to 230000 after the NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014. This will be a significant reduction in the Afghan National Security Forces. Now, some might argue that these 122000 personnel will be unemployed. No, they will not. The question is who will continue employing them beyond 2014? The Taliban is longing for an opportunity…
read more »Special Announcement for Afghans
I was flying from Delhi back to Kabul after having been on a few flights in Southeast Asia. Normally, in-flight safety announcements for passengers in airplanes were all similar. Since the flight from Delhi to Kabul was mostly Afghans so the announcement was a bit more tailored to us. The announcement said, smoking in the airplane is strictly prohibited. Then it added, “not even in the toilets”. They’d obviously found cigarette butts in the toilets before that and decided to…
read more »From Missouri to Nangarhar
Video credit: AFAfghan Missouri Agriculture Development Team has helped farmers in Kama districts and equipped some of them with advanced tools of farming. They’ve also taught new approaches of farming and how to harvest more healthy crops.
read more »Pul-e-Jawan: A Regional Peace-building Team
Pul-e-Jawan, which literally means “bridges of youth” in Dari, Urdu and Hindi, is a group of regional peace building and active youth from Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. In September 2011, Internews, Afghanistan took initiative and invited five citizen journalists with an interest in peace and reconciliation issues from each of the above countries (a total of fifteen people) to meet in Kabul. The aim of Pul-e-Jawan is to provide an exchange for the youth and to bridge any gaps and…
read more »Job Creation Ideas for South Asian Youth
For the exploding population of South Asian youth, a close friend, Usama Khilji proposes the following five ways for securing their livelihoods and future and peace and stability in the region: 1. Improved education and vocational training 2. Big infrastructural and development projects like the Tennessee Valley Association (TVA) in the U.S. in 1930 3. Increased investment in the energy sector to create more jobs and supply more energy 4. Encouraging investment in information technology and innovation with increased cooperation…
read more »Support Afghan Female Boxers Fighting their Way to London Olympics
In the basement of once notorious Ghazi National Olympic Stadium of Afghanistan is where the Afghan national team of female boxers train tirelessly hard for the Olympics 2012 in London. Once known as the stadium of death the venue was used for holding public executions and stoning under the brutal Taliban rule, 1996 to 2001. Under the Taliban women were completely forbidden from participating in any sports, not even as spectators. Refurbished by the US government, Ghazi Olympic Stadium reopened…
read more »That’s what I do
I was in Dara-e-Noor, a district far to the north of Jalalabad city. My team members and I were there for a mapping survey for which talking with a local resident helped us make better and more accurate maps for any given area. Here, we ran into Baghcha Gul. We were talking about the village and names of the roads, public buildings, etc. and my colleague, Akbar asked this random question: “How many children do you have?” “I have only one…
read more »No, There Is only One God!
When I was taking this picture I raised my index and middle finger and parted them asking the gentlemen to make peace gesture. The senior man in the back shouted, “No, there is only ONE God!” “There are not two Gods”, he added. I almost got into a big trouble. They probably thought I was trying to convert them or something. It was in my own city of Jalalabad but these folks seemed alien. Some people in Jalalabad know what…
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