My second trip to Afghanistan I spent three and a half months in Kabul and other parts of the country. For those who have never been, Kabul is what it must have been like in a boom-town in the American wild west, equipped with its own modern day gun-slingers, brothels, and enemy combatants. Much of my time back in the United States has been spent thinking about the bizarre nature of what I experienced and of a country caught in a catch 22.
Afghanistan needs and wants the support of Western nations in the rebuilding of its tattered structures, but it is this very support that brings a clash of lifestyles and beliefs.
It was the last sentence in a Time Magazine article about Afghanistan titled, “Behind the Riots in Kabul,” that made me think. It read, “Many Afghans feel that the foreign forces are having a well-funded party with booze and hookers laid on at the country's expense, using money slated for rebuilding their shattered nation.”
As most already know, Afghanistan is a very conservative Muslim country where both booze and hookers are illegal—under the Taliban prostitutes would have been lashed and even stoned to death.
I was as much a part as the next Westerner in the Kabul scene, a surreal world of DJ disco house parties with camels and bars of free flowing drinks, beautiful international women, night clubs, Chinese tea houses (you’re not going for the tea) and stacks of Ak-47s. In retrospect my second trip making documentary films on Afghanistan’s reconstruction, played like a phantasmagorical scene from the movie, Apocalypse Now.
The Honeymoon is over
After my first trip to Afghanistan covering the country’s first-ever democratic election with a documentary film team, I couldn’t help but be moved by what I saw. I could see the excitement and hope in the people’s eyes as lines wrapped around mud brick buildings for an opportunity to vote. This was the image etched into my mind, perhaps slightly idealistic…Afghanistan on the road to recovery.
As I now read the headlines telling of a strong resurgence of Taliban forces, and riots by angry Afghans chanting “Death to America” as they burn down offices of foreign aide organizations’, I wonder where it’s all going?… the war on terror?… Afghan frustration?… the US promise of democracy and a better society?… the affect of western influence?…. fanaticism and religion?
There’s no doubt that the majority of Afghans want peace and rebuilding for their country. If the US and the international community can deliver, they will be in full support.
My Afghan friend told me my first trip, “the best thing that ever happened to Afghanistan was 9-11…it made the world remember my country.” Now billions of dollars flood into Afghanistan, which has created an entirely new set of relationships.
The buzz of Apache attack helicopters and armored personal carriers rumbling through the dusty roads are a constant reminder of occupation. If you ask Afghans, they are torn between wanting reconstruction and security, and adamantly not wanting foreign military on their soil. Now that Afghans are beginning to question the effectiveness of the reconstruction effort, you begin to see the murmurs of a quagmire five years in the making.
The barriers of separation
The visible Western presence also consists of approximately 3,000 western contractors and foreign aide workers building roads, de-mining, constructing schools and creating micro-hydroelectric and micro-finance programs in the villages, to name just a few projects.
It was my job to edit short films to show Western institutions such as NATO the progress of reconstruction. I worked closely with a very large aide organization, but as an independent filmmaker I was one of only a few westerners that could freely walk on the streets and travel the country, not beholden to security restrictions.
The aide organizations have strict security measures and curfews for their employees. But even so, an Italian aide worker for Care International, Clementina Cantoni, was driving back with her driver from a yoga class in the night when her car was rammed off the road and men with guns busted her window and dragged her out of the car. I was at a BBQ with her three days earlier, dancing, and having a good time. She would eventually be released after more than a month being held. But the international community, myself included, felt the tension ripple through, as its’ worst fear of being a high value target were confirmed.
Special Forces
Private security companies made up of former special-forces and ex-military men from around the world who have experienced wars on every continent are hired to protect private contractors, diplomats, and other VIPs. The security company, Dyncorp, is famous for its protection detail of the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.
For many Afghans on the street there is no love lost for the private security…the Afghans call them “special forces” because they are dressed in plain clothes. One little boy asked me, “are they scared of us?” You will see private security SUV convoys zooming through the streets, weapons poking out their windows. When they are caught in traffic, or on the streets strapping machineguns and dressed in bulletproof vests and protecting their subject, they’ll bark orders and wave their arms in firm tones at Afghans in their way. In the process Afghans feel belittled and disrespected on their very own streets, allowing animosity to fester.
But the threat for Westerners is very real. An internet café I often visited fell victim to a suicide bombing. I saw the damage of this suicide attack, as well as the carnage of a grenade attack that killed two Western soldiers and a little Afghan girl on Chicken Street—a location famous for its Afghan Rugs and shopping.
The Seeds of Misunderstanding
To escape the anxiety, and the 14 hour working day, being cooped up in compounds, and the lurking unknown, social mixers and parties were often organized. Some of these parties were as large as a thousand internationals, dancing in a lighted garden to DJ mixes from around the world with a foreign mixture of flavors, camels and guns that left your senses buzzing. It was like you were transported to a zany middle world that had neither a home in Afghanistan nor in the West.
It just happened my second trip I was there during the heat of the summer and the lead-up to Afghanistan’s provincial elections. The JEMB, the UN election body had brought in 100s of workers from around the world to prepare. One of the only places not banned for international aide workers to go, other than work, was the UNICA compound, United Nations, which is equipped with a bar and large swimming pool. The pool was filled with bikini-clad beauties from around the world, and other sun revelers like myself.
But relaxation by the pool was interpreted by a Mullah as a drunken orgy. Rumors amongst Afghans about what goes on behind the internationals’ compound walls run wild. Granted, Afghans have a completely different social interaction between men and women. A woman is to be completely covered, and often wears a burqa which covers everything including the woman’s face. You are never to touch a woman as it’s disrespectful and may implicate the woman as a “floozy.” And just like with segregation, everything is separate between men and women including sitting in a mosque, and an ice cream parlor where a screened off section for women allows them to lick their cones in peace.
One very contentious issue for Afghans is the Chinese Tea Houses. The Afghan government is always trying to shut one down. During the recent riot, along with aide organizations, a mob of angry Afghans burned one down. My first trip to Afghanistan I went into one establishment and naively tried to order Lo Mein, only to encounter very confused faces of cute little Chinese girls. All around the smoky, red-lit room were men in cargo pants, with machine guns slung around the necks of some. It wasn’t until later that I realized you don’t go to the Chinese Tea House to order green tea from the cute hostesses.
A Tale of Two Cities
While most of the westerners I worked with had to eat lunch at specific locations like the UN compound, I was free to roam. The Afghans that worked in the office, Ahmed Shah and Sears would invite me to lunch at local Kebab stands. We walked around the park in Shar-I-Now and looked at a large traveling photo exhibition that was on display, and ate ice cream, and talked about women and the differences in our societies.
Partly because of the scrutiny by the Mullahs, partly because of security, and partly out of respect for Afghan rules and cultural traditions many internationals isolate themselves so as not to infringe on the Afghan community. This has spawned a healthy economy including guesthouses, restaurants (there is a French dining establishment that serves duck), night-clubs and stores carrying Western supplies including alcohol. You will pay $4 to $7 a drink and upwards of $15 for a meal at some of the restaurants, versus $1 at a kebab stand. Many of these establishments do not allow Afghans to enter unless they have a foreign passport or are accompanied by a westerner for various reasons, alcohol being the main one, but this leads some to view the international community as exclusive.
As the Chicago Tribune poignantly states: “Kabul has turned into a two-tiered city. With billions of dollars in aid pouring in, some Afghans have found well-paying jobs with international companies. But most labor for only a dollar or two a day and live in mud-brick homes with no water and sporadic electricity…international groups willing to pay Manhattan-level rents, [price] many Afghans out of the market. Before the Taliban fell, Fatah paid about $13 a month to rent a house… Now an international aid agency pays $2,500 for the building.”
Most Afghans find it hard to afford to live in their own society, while they watch foreigners down the street live extravagantly, and in some cases, perhaps a little excessively.
While I was in Kabul, Coco Cabana, a nightclub opened to a lot of attention. It was the first late night dance club in Afghanistan. It was set back behind concrete barriers and barbed wire placed to prevent the entrance of a speeding car loaded with explosives. Inside a disco ball and smoke machine and full bar obscured the fact you were in Afghanistan.
Why are we there?
“Afghans have realized that Americans aren’t in Afghanistan to rebuild the country, but are there only out of vengeance for 9-11,” an Afghan woman living in the US told me as she talked about the riots that have galvanized Afghan sentiments against the West. It’s a major frustration for Afghans that there are few signs that reconstruction is successfully moving forward. Some Afghans say the roads in Kabul were better under the Taliban than the last five years of reconstruction. The Washington Post has chronicled the corruption in the rebuilding effort.
Yet it seems there is an elite group of Afghans who have been able systematically control much of the reconstruction money coming into the country. From Afghan contractors, to Afghan landowners demanding “Manhattan” rents, to government officials. But this money is not trickling down to the people on the streets as much as it was hoped.
Compounding the slow reconstruction is corruption in the Afghan government, which has not only challenged its very integrity, but more importantly, its legitimacy. The BBC reported that the transport minister admitted that the national airline, Ariana, was being used to smuggle opium and other drugs to Europe. While it seems ministry positions are being filled to placate notorious warlords, the people on the street continue to struggle, and the Afghan people blame the US for installing and supporting a corrupt and ineffective government.
There are now rumblings that the Soviets did more for the Afghan people than the Americans. Religious leaders find it easy to rile up crowds, some estimated at 10,000 people, pointing fingers at the West for perverting their cultural traditions. But the root of the people’s frustration is the slow sign of improvement in their life, which is magnified by Western affluence, which they see zooming in SUVs over their pot-holed roads.
Beacon of hope
Despite the cultural collision, the greed, the fanaticism, and the fighting, one thing remains clear, rebuilding Afghanistan needs to continue at all levels.
The problems of the Taliban, opium, warlords are central to the battles being fought. Intense fighting is being waged in Southern Afghanistan.
However, in the end the success of Afghanistan won’t be measured by how many Taliban were killed, but will be judged more by how many Afghans were educated, how many jobs created, how high the average wage was raised. Yet this doesn’t happen with a snap of the fingers. And unfortunately there are very few large public symbols for anyone to point to the Afghan people and say, “look, here is progress in the rebuilding of your country…this is where your country is going.”
As it stands, being an after thought in the wake of Iraq, Afghans are becoming disillusioned with the rebuilding effort.
Perhaps this is going out on a limb, but why not help build Afghanistan a symbol for its reconstruction? The people of Afghanistan don’t see every well drilled, every stitch of clothing sewn. They need to be given some idea of where their country is heading.
The Afghan people need something to take pride and believe in as a path to a new future, other than war and rutted roads. A calling card of sorts, so that Afghan leaders, and even US soldiers in the field can tell the people, “look, we are committed to rebuilding Afghanistan.”
(posted: 9/19/06)
