Dispatches from Afghanistan

 View a slideshow of Professor Wahab’s images.

Inconvenient History

As the reader knows, this month marks the ninth year of “Operation Enduring Freedom,” the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and Bush’s “global war on global terrorism.” Looking at the situation here, OEF has clearly become a brutal nightmarish quagmire, and the longest war in U.S. history. The illegal, immoral, irrational and disproportional U.S. attack on this “graveyard of empires” was justified as self-defense in response to the criminal 9-11-01 attach on the U.S. We know how that: Al-Qaida, the Taliban, and their predecessors, the mujahedeen, were used by the U.S. government itself; 9-11 is referred to as “blowback”; there was not a single Afghan among the 19 highjackers; 14 were from Saudi Arabia; the plan to attack the U.S. was hatched in Spain and Germany; the attackers learned to fly in Florida; the Taliban did not know about the Qaida plan to attack the U.S.; Bin Laden and his followers were issued Afghan visas by the jihadi Afghan government, which was supported by the U.S. – before the Taliban took power; the Taliban tried to negotiate with Washington and avert a U.S. invasion; and most importantly, that the decision to attack and invade Afghanistan was made during summer 2001 and had nothing to do with 9-11. All that is history, but we have not learned anything from it.

Current Situation on the Ground

There currently are 60,000 U.S. troops, 30,000 NATO and allied troops, 74,000 U.S. contract security forces (one-third of them international), 85,000 Afghan army troops, and 100,000 Afghan police—all funded by the U.S. and its allies. Yes, Blackwater, Dyncorp, Armored International, etc., are all here and part of the shadow occupation forces. Imagine Blackwater and Dyncorp training Afghan security forces! While 12 U.S. troops were killed in the initial invasion in October 2001, 232 have been killed in 2009, 46 of them this October – a total of 800 U.S. troops have been killed over the last 8 years and thousands injured or maimed. Hundreds of allied troops have been killed, too. Tens of thousands of Afghans, mostly civilians, have been killed since. The U.S. has spent $228 billion on the occupation. It now spends about $5 billion per month and the Obama administration has budgeted $68 billion for the war for 2010. Washington spends 1.3 million dollars a year per American soldier in Afghanistan. For every dollar spent on the war here, the U.S. spends 10 cents on “development”; half of this money never enters Afghanistan. Of the other half, only 20% reaches the people. This is in a country that, according to the U.N. Human Development Index quality of life ranking,  places just above Niger among 185 countries. Afghanistan is one of the five poorest, most underdeveloped, corrupt, and unstable countries in the world.

I live and work here, so I see this daily. Transparency International, the U.N., the European Union, and Washington all recognize the problem and have said so. Right now, a group of insurgents have taken over the UNHCR guesthouse in Kabul. There is fighting going on at this moment (7 a.m., October 28, 2009).

Lies

Bush and company declared in 2001 that they wanted to bring peace, freedom, democracy, development, stability, women’s liberation, law and order, security, and an end to narcotics. Living here, I see none or very little of the above. Afghanistan produces most of the world’s heroin; drugs constitute one-third of the economy, and there are about two million addicts, including women and children. Insurgents control two-thirds of the country and have a presence in 90% of the land. There is fighting and resistance all over and not just in the Pashtun south. Per capita income is a dollar a day; half of the people are un- or under-employed and hungry. Crime syndicates operate openly with smuggling, abductions, extortion, bribery, rape, election fraud, embezzlement, and murder – normal daily occurrences. A culture of crime and impunity prevails and the government is an active participant in all of this. People speak of “Karzai-Warload, Inc.” and cartels. A few women’s lives have improved, but the vast majority exist under medieval gender apartheid. Ask Malalai Joya or read the RAWA website (http://www.rawa.org).  People live in fear, anxiety, insecurity, anger, and confusion. There is little trust, faith, mutuality, or community outside of your family, kin, clan, or tribe. Society is divided against itself; it is adrift and precarious. There were anti-American and anti-government demonstrations yesterday and the day before. A majority wants Western forces to leave the country in two years. We were under lockdown all day on Oct. 25.

Country in Need of Government

What the U.S., UN, and Europe installed in Kabul in December 2001 is clearly less of a state and more like a mafiocracy and kleptocracy. Since then, at least a billion dollars have been spent on elections, a constitution, and protecting and propping up the Karzai cartel. In actuality, there has been little governance in terms of what one would expect from a government. The vast majority live in abject poverty—with illiteracy, sickness, fear, insecurity, lawlessness, violence, repression, and abuse. A corrupt, inept, repressive and unaccountable criminal and predatory syndicate rules with the protection of its international—mainly Western—sponsors. The presidential and provincial elections for state councils on August 20 were an expensive charade. It took the principled Peter Galbraith to expose the massive systemic electoral fraud perpetrated by the U.S. and U.N.; he was fired, of course. There is a systemic subversion of democracy in the country. The people are furious at the corrupt system and its foreign backers. There were demonstrations starting at our Kabul Education University over the past two days against Karzai and the U.S. government. For most, the two governments have no credibility or legitimacy, and they demand to be free of both. People are calling for a grand national dialogue, a new constitution, new government system, and good governance, and freedom. But the Washington jihadi warlords are deepening, escalating, and expanding the war. Washington refuses to see Pashtun nationalism and recognize that a civil war rages in the country; and they insist on a so-called counterinsurgency even though James Jones, the national security adviser, says there are fewer than 100 Al Qaida in Afghanistan. So the beltway careerists continue to squander American blood and treasure and innocent Afghan lives with no prospects for a humane and just solution. The new great game for oil continues for a future Pipline-istan. No one can predict what will happen in the future.

The New York Times reported today that a partial recount has been ordered for the Afghan election due to allegations of fraud.

In the following slideshow, most of the Professor Wahab’s photos show election posters, and most of those are of Karzai.

Afghanistan slideshow

A made-for-TV extravaganza was staged on August 20 in order to elect (anoint) a president and 430 provincial councilmen/women for Afghanistan. The sham event was postponed from May to August due to widespread war, violence, and insecurity. Although August has been the most violent period since the U.S. invasion in 2001, with 26 Americans, several NATO troops, many insurgents, and countless civilians killed, the U.S. and the UN pushed for holding the election no matter what. With the occupation and war clearly becoming a quagmire, Washington must convince itself and Americans that steady progress is being made toward stability, democracy, liberation, and development.

The Obama administration mobilized all 100,000 U.S., NATO, and allied troops; 74,000 military contractors; 200,000 Afghan army and police; and thousands of Afghan militias to hold the election. Reliable maps show that two-thirds of the country is too dangerous for aid workers; the opposition controls one-third of the country and has influence in at least half of the land. Many aid workers went on “holiday.”

I am under lockdown August 19-23. There were spectacular rocket and suicide [bomb] attacks on the palace, NATO headquarters, and other government installation this month, causing real fear and panic throughout the country. Hence the massive mobilization for the election. Helicopters, thousands of vehicles, and 3300 donkeys were used to get ballots to polling places. A few polling station just did not receive any ballot. The opposition had warned people to stay away from “the infidel, imperialist scheme”’—or else. Meanwhile, Washington, the UN, European governments, the Afghan government, and mainstream U.S. media (including NPR, CNN, and the New York Times), hyped the event as if it were an American election. And, in a way, it was. The mechanics cost U.S. taxpayers $223 million. Massive security must have cost hundreds of millions for the day. The U.S. alone spends $4 billion per month on the occupation.

There were 36 candidates for president, including two women, and 3,300 candidates for the 420 provincial assemblies, 328 of them women. The insurgents followed up on their threat by killing at least 26 election officials and voters, and launching 76 attacks and cutting off the index fingers of two. Therefore, about 40% of the 16 million registered voters actually voted. Turnout was especially low in the Pashtun south and the east, thus hurting American-installed incumbent H. Karzai. Three other contenders—Dr. Abdulla, Dr. Ghani, and Dr. Bashardoust—all [former] Karzai cabinet members, did surprisingly well. If no one wins 50% plus 1%, there will be a runoff in October or later.

The Day After

With the spectacle and theatrics behind us, here is some of what we know: These are not charges and countercharges by the candidates and/or their followers, but the observations and findings of credible and independent sources such as the BBC, the EU, the UN special mission, the Huffington Post, the New York Times, the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan, the Washington, D.C. National Democratic Institute, the International Crisis Group, the U.S. Institute for Peace, the Associated Press, the Nation, the UN-sponsored Election Complaint Commission, and even special envoy for “AfPak,” Richard Holbrooke:

1.     There are 16 million [registered] voters in the country.

2.     There were fake ballots bought and sold all over the country.

3.     There was “proxy voting” (men voting for women).

4.     There was underage voting throughout the country.

5.     The indelible ink was easily washable, so there was repeat voting.

6.     Most Afghans have no IDs and 90% of women and 75% of men are illiterate, thus manipulated by officials.

7.     There were no monitors in many polling places, especially female monitors; most registered women did not vote.

8.     Many peasants relied on election officials for how and who to vote for.

9.     The independent election commission was appointed by Mr. Karzai and did not behave independently.

10. Karzai misused the entire government apparatus to his advantage.

11. There were many cases of bribery, intimidation, and coercion by local warlords and election officials.

12. In some cases, local strongmen took ballot boxes home for “safe keeping.”

13. Certain foreign countries supported their favorite candidates.

14. There were no name or addresses of voters.

15. No signatures or fingerprints were required of voters, just the registration card.

16. Ballot boxes disappeared in some cases.

17. There were many cases of ballot box stuffing.

18. More people were registered than the actual population. Example, Panjshir province showed 190,000 registered, while there are just 137,000 inhabitants; Nuristan – 443,000 registered, but 130,000 people.

19. Even in the most conservative provinces, more women than men had been registered. Example: Logar province, 36,000 women, 14,000 men; Paktika, 203,000 women, 167,000 men – impossible and not credible.

20. About 800 of the 6,000 polling places just didn’t open.

21. There are no political parties; candidates run as individuals.

22. Voting pretty much followed the ethnic divisions in the country.

23. Some candidates, including Karzai’s vice president, must have been prevented from running, and prosecuted for known horrendous war crimes and human rights violations.

24. Certain journalists and media outlets were bribed so to over the campaign and election selectively.

25. A fair and free election under occupation and war is a contradiction in terms.

Betraying a Nation

So this is where Afghanistan is, after eight years of brutal occupation, some $260 billion, 700 American lives, countless Afghan lives and a country in ruins. Most Afghans have little faith or trust in and respect for the U.S.-sponsored government; the puppet regime has little credibility or legitimacy, since it has done little other than rob this wretched nation. The low voter turnout indicates disillusionment, cynicism, and contempt. But people are exhausted by 30 years of war, violence, invasions, occupations, sanctions, and droughts. They yearn desperately for security, safety, peace, justice, democracy, dignity, good governance, progress, and development. Instead, this is what they get:  a corrupt, inept […] puppet regime. President Obama congratulates the Afghans for their “courage” “to vote”! Is he being honest and serious? Has he not heard of Vietnam and Lyndon Johnson? The American public seems to get it, as indicated by the latest Post/ABC poll – with 51% opposed and 47% for this occupation, with only 20% of Democrats supporting the war. The people here say that Americans have the watches, we have the time. Enough. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Michael Mullen views the Afghan tragedy as “serious and deteriorating.” The election complaint commission has received 225 complaints, “30 of which could sway the outcome.” Many here fear that the democratic charade could reignite the civil war. We shall see.

Learn more about Zaher Wahab from Graduate Student Michael Arrieta-Walden’s New Teacher blog. 

As I entered the premier military hospital in Kabul, I noticed six men lying motionless on their backs in their beds. One was an older man, the other five appeared to be in their early twenties. They all appeared unconscious and were kept alive by elaborate and complicated life-support systems. My guide Shekiba Hillal lead me to Rahib Doast, the patient in the middle of the room. Ms. Hillal is a university instructor and she is also one of my students in the masters degree program I teach in. The man in a coma, Rahib, is her nephew. Rahib is a 23-year old, tall, handsome and healthy soccer player and worker. And he was about to be engaged. Everything changed at about 9 p.m. on May 5.

When Shekiba came to class on May 7, she looked extremely distraught, shaken and unfocused. This is what she reported to me after class as she fought back tears and choking.

Blackwater International (now renamed Xe) at Work:

Rahib was just walking home at about 9 p.m. on May 5. One of two SUVs got into some kind of accident with a taxi; it was not a suicide collision. Two American contractors jumped out from one of the SUVs and started firing their AK-47 assault rifles, killing an Afghan, injuring two, including Rahib, and sped away. The four Americans, all former military, worked as military trainers for Paravant LLC, an affiliate of Blackwater, whose parent company is now called Xe. Paravant is assisting Raytheon Co in a multibillion dollar Defense Department contract. There is no agreement between the Afghan and U.S. governments regulating legal accountability for contractors. Two of the four contractors have escaped to the U.S.; the other two are with the U.S. forces in Kabul; and we are told that “an investigation” has been carried out. The parties involved blame each other for the episode. According to DoD information, there are 68,197 contractors in Afghanistan doing all kinds of things such as training the Afghan army and police, providing security and flying cargo. There has been next to nothing on this episode in the Afghan press, and scant coverage in the mainstream American media.

Back at the hospital:

I examined Rahib’s injury. The AK-47 bullet apparently entered underneath his right ear and exited at the top of the right side of his skull, which suggests that he was hit as he was fleeing the scene of the carnage or lying on the floor face down. But that is as they say, an academic question. Rahib has been in a coma since the fatal shooting on May 5; his eyes remain closed but his mouth wide open. I touched his limbs but there was no response whatsoever. He was breathing, but otherwise, looked like a tree trunk sprawled on a bed. There were wires, tubes and plastic bags attached to his entire body. I spoke to his Tajek Kabuli parents. They looked grieved, stunned, devastated and almost speechless. Rahib’s father is missing a leg due to a car accident. My student Shekiba said that the parents look twice as old. The family keeps a vigil round the clock. The family has to pay for everything which is an additional shock for the struggling family. They told me the Americans had given them $35,000 and had them sign some papers.

Reflections:

The military hospital is huge. While there, I saw people brought in with various injuries due to war. I also ran into the Xe man and four U.S. military men. I felt unbearable sadness, sorrow, rage and outrage. I thought about screaming “murderers,” “assassins,” “mercenaries,” “scum,” “criminal,” “invaders,” “occupiers,” “animals,” “get out.” But I kept quiet, and composed. Thoughts and emotions kept rushing and changing. As I looked at Rahib, I thought about the crucifixion; about the TV programs MASH and ER. I thought about my own brother Tahir, who disappeared at the hands of the communists and former USSR in 1979, and about what my mother goes through; and about how tragedy and grief caused my father’s death. I thought about the utter futility, the human and financial costs of war; the savagery and dehumanization of war and occupation; the criminal distortion of language into phrases like “collateral damage;” imperial arrogance; the lies and propaganda Americans are fed and the complicity and gullibility of most fellow Americans; the shamefulness of being an American; the massacre by the US-NATO occupation forces of some 137 civilians—mostly children and women in Farah province about a month ago. I thought about the occupation forces admitting to using white phosphorous in Afghanistan. I thought about U.S. predators controlled from Nevada hitting villages with Hillfire missiles. I through about Bagram prison—Afghanistan’s Guantanamo. I thought about how Washington intends to appoint Zalmai Khalilzad an Afghan-American and a cosigner of Project for New American Century as Afghanistan’s CEO. I thought about puppet Karzai and his corrupt, inept and treasonous clique. I thought about how the racist, immoral and complicit mainstream U.S. media keeps talking about trivia, but never or rarely delves into this criminal war and occupation. I thought about how our “yes, we can” liberal Obama is escalating and expanding the war and appointing a psycho assassin General S. McChrystal as commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. I thought about what can be done with the 5 billion dollars the U.S. spends each month on its occupation in Afghanistan. I think about how the U.S. is “losing” Afghanistan.
I just ran into Shekiba, she told me Rahib is still in a deep coma; I look at his pictures I took, and see him as a metaphor for the country reduced into a coma.

In the outside world, Afghanistan may evoke images of the “forces of good,” represented by the US-NATO occupying soldiers using ultra-modern weapons, hunting the “forces of evil,” represented by dark bearded, turbaned, sandal-wearing creatures labeled “Taliban terrorists” in a faraway moonscape. Most westerners now view the deadly battle waged at this “centerpiece of terrorism” as primitive zealots resisting the “peace, progress, prosperity, and democracy” the modern world is attempting to introduce. Most Afghans, even those who work for the occupation forces, view it as the new imperialism-colonialism. The carnage and the “quagmire” continue with no end in sight, Obama’s new “strategic plan” notwithstanding.

The Wars Within

Less spectacular, less newsworthy, but more deadly battles are tearing Afghanistan apart at its very core. There are the ethnoracial and clan divisions, exacerbated and manipulated by foreign meddling and local unprincipled warlords and chiefs. Afghanistan was never really a unified country, or nation-state, and the last 30 years of civil wars, invasions, occupations, and proxy wars have led to a deeply fractured society. In the current supposed “post-conflict” phase, there is a vicious rivalry and intense competition for access, power, opportunity, land, wealth, and success. Position and opportunities at the higher government level are all rationed according to ethnicity, not according to some law but practicality, proportionality, and loyalty to the head of state; merit has little or nothing to do with this. Beyond that, as soon as someone is put in a position of power, ethnic, racial, tribal, familiar, and personal considerations take over, and a kind of clustering occurs, and subtle purges of “the others” follow. This nepotistic system works all the way down to drivers, security guards, cooks, police, translators, etc. The main ethnic groups are the Pashtuns (more than half the 30-million population), Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, etc. there is little trust or cooperation continuing in workplaces, even schools and universities. But there is pervasive tension, hostility, subversion, and corruption.

Linguistic Battles

Linguistic divisions follow closely. Many languages are spoken in the country, but two are official and national according to the constitution and tradition. Pashto is spoken by the majority of Pashtuns, and Farsi (Dari) is the language of Tajiks, Hazaras, and some others. Turkmen, Uzbaki, and Pashaii also have millions of speakers. Pashto, like its speakers the Pashtuns, has been degraded to second-class status. Most of the Taliban are Pashtuns, but the insurgency includes many others. Linguistic battles are waged in the national assembly and all the way to university classes—over which of the two main languages to use for this or that purpose—even signs on official buildings, schools, offices, university lectures. Most official business is conducted in both languages, while the tension deepens.

Sectarianism

Third is the division between Sunni (85% of the population) and Shia (15% of the population). Most Shias are Hazaras, while Sunnis constitute the other groups, especially the Pashtuns, including the Taliban. Shias were always treated as second-class. But due to domestic dynamics and massive overt and covert intervention by Shia Iran, the Shias are asserting themselves openly and aggressively in all walks of life. To counter Iranian influence, Sunni Paskistan and Wahabi Saudi Arabia and others support the Sunnis. There has not yet been a sectarian clash such as in Lebanon in Afghanistan, but it might be in the future, since religion intersects with ethnicity, and power, and language.

War of the Sexes

Actually, it would be more accurate to describe the men/women situation here as a vicious all-out counterassault on women and girls by men in the “new democracy” outdoing the patriarchal Taliban era. Just yesterday, at a function in a girls’ high school in liberal Charikar, north of Kabul, a man hurled something into the hall whereby 33 girls lost consciousness and are now hospitalized. Late last year, men on motorcycles splashed acid on schoolgirls’ faces in Kandahar, disfiguring them badly. A few weeks ago, an Afghan-German women’s advocate and member of a provincial assembly, was riddled with bullets while walking home in Kandahar. A top policewoman met the same fate about a year ago. Two women journalists were murdered, one in Kabul, the other in Parwan, north of here. A young poet was murdered by her husband for writing a critical poem describing women’s condition in Heart. Malalay Joya, an outspoken member of the national assembly, was expelled from the parliament after being hit with water bottles and insults; she lives in hiding now. Dozens of women attempt or commit suicide by immolation monthly.

There is one female minister and one governor in the entire state apparatus. There is not a single woman in any position of influence in the entire education system, or in the two ministries of education and higher education. At best, 17% of the women and girls in the country are literate. When I posed the question to my graduate students if any women drove or rode bikes, they looked stunned and laughed, as if it was a stupid question. When my sisters, who have grandchildren, want or need to go someplace, they need an escort, even if it’s just a boy. Women cannot chose their husbands, travel, or live alone. Men and women seat themselves separately even in university classrooms. I mix them up; they think I am strange. Men and women separate themselves at weddings, wakes, socials, and most every place. Women who work outside their house or study also perform all the household work, and 90% of them have none of the amenities that you, the reader, has in your house. Thanks to wars, invasions, and occupation, Afghanistan has the highest percentage of widows in the world, and this in a country near the bottom of the development and poverty indexes.

Even educated urban workingwomen must cover head-to-toe with only the face showing. People still talk about the librarian who wore a relatively tight blouse in the university library. Women cannot sing live on TV, and in other roles of TV they must dress modestly. To top it all off, the national assembly passed a 135-page law and president Karzai signed it, regulating the husband-wife relations among Shias (15% of the population in the country). The law stipulates that the wife cannot leave the house for any reason without the husband’s permission, that she cannot refuse him sex, that she must wear makeup if the husband tells her to. When about 300 women demonstrated against the law recently, about 1,000 men and women counter-demonstrators started pelting them with stones, calling them whores and brainwashed infidels. The law’s passage met with some uproar and protest here and abroad, except that I did not hear any comments from Laura Bush, Cheri Blair, or Nancy Pelosi, vocal supporters of the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, in order to “liberate Afghan women from the Taliban.” This is the government the U.S. installed, protects, and pays. Karzai now says he signed the law without reading it, and that it will be amended. Critics counter that he signed it to get the conservative Shia and other men’s votes in the August 20 presidential election.

Whither Free Press?

A multidimensional battle is being waged between proponents and opponents of the free press. There are a dozen private TV stations, dozens of private FM radio stations and about 280 print media sources in the country. Some try to exercise their constitutional rights of free speech, but if/when a medium shows too much flesh, exposes government corruption and ineptness, or exposes a land grab or rape by a strong man warlord or their relatives, they encounter bureaucratic or legal hassles, imprisonment, threats, or assassination. A university student is serving 18 years in prison for printing and distributing something from the Internet about women and Islam. A journalist “fixer” was first imprisoned in Bagram by the Americans for a year for “Taliban ties,” was freed and then later beheaded by unknown persons. The parliament demands the closing of TV stations for showing Indian serials that show too much flesh. An outspoken female radio announcer was killed in her house. Professors and university students realize that in order not to be visited by the intelligence officer, they must censor themselves. Subtle pressure on the press prompted the entire diplomatic corps in Kabul recently to express grave concern over the issue. The government invokes religion, “culture,” and “national security” as guides for the press.

Families at War

Even families are beset with culture wars. An estimated six million people have cell phones; 12% of the homes have electricity, thus many have TVs. One in three homes have radios; a tiny segment of the population has access to the internet. Young and old, educated and uneducated, rural and urban people, men and women tend to use these media differently and for different reasons, whether at home, in the office, in classrooms, in meetings, or socializing. You can also find any pirated CD or DVD, film, etc. There are internet cafes, video stores in cities. This massive electronic-cyber assault on a very traditional, modest and religious culture has wreaked havoc at the family level. Parents feel as though they are losing control in a society where your family is the only thing you can count on. People express loss, pain, fear, and bewilderment at this development. The generations are fast growing apart in a society saturated with risks and hazards.

Clash of Civilizations

Finally, there is the collision between foreign and domestic cultures and populations. There are about 100,000 international soldiers, disguised missionaries, diplomats, aid workers, spies, drug dealers, business people, the UN, do-gooders, prostitutes, etc., in Afghanistan. These people have a lot of money and time, but no restraints. They have their own narcomansions, restaurants, bars, offices, bases, and so on—their enclave colonial settlements in a desperately poor country. They can and do have anything they need, want, and fancy—cheap drugs, alcohol, Chinese or Ukrainian prostitutes, Swiss cheese, Argentinean steak, Thai lobsters, you name it.  There are two vastly different parallel universes with a glass wall between them, where one can gaze at the other but with little transaction, respect, trust, or affection between them. The settlers live the dream and beyond, with little effort, while the colonized can only peek, fantasize, envy, or sell out. But as they reflect on their wretched lives, occupation, and siege, most choose rejection, resistance, and war. The country indeed faces a very uncertain future.

Dispatch from Kabul

Saturday, March 21st marked the start of the new year or Nawroze, ushering the year 1338 in Afghanistan. The minority with leisure, luxury and resources, visited relatives and shared “haft mewa” – a mixture of seven different fruits prepared for the occasion. The 15% with cell phones called to wish each other a happy and peaceful new year. Some men flew kites or strolled in the few parks and hills declared free of land mines and other ordinances left from the three-decade non-stop wars.

Given the war, violence and volatility, Kabul felt (and always feels) like an occupied city under siege, with huge American and Russian-made helicopters flying low, and massive police and U.S. and  NATO troops patrolling the dusty potholed streets and check points at every intersection.

There was a sharp increase in people calling in radio stations broadcasting various messages to, for and about missing/disappeared loved ones. For the vast majority of the ravaged nation, this was just another day—a real struggle to feed, house, warm, clothe and/or protect themselves and their families.

Per capita income is stuck at one dollar per day. Meanwhile the U.S. and NATO spends $43 billion per year on the death and destruction of a country that had little or nothing to do with 9/11.

Academic Year: Education

Schools at all levels started on March 23. There are two government ministries responsible for education—the ministry of education is in charge of grades 1-12 and some two-year teacher training, technical, vocational, and commercial, religious junior colleges. Then there is the ministry of higher education, responsible for the 22 four-year public colleges and universities.

I am associated with the ministry of higher education, teaching two courses in a master’s degree program for teacher education faculty from the 19 four-year teacher colleges, and once-a-week, conduct on a voluntary basis, an English conversation class for high school English teachers who are enrolled in the Kabul Education in-service program to receive their bachelor degrees. I am, of course, fluent in Pashto and Farsi, the two national official languages. I visit schools and universities when I have time—to fully understand what is going on.

Facts and figures

• About 6 million children, 34% of them girls are enrolled in some 13,000 first  through twelfth grade schools taught by 147,000 teachers, 281 of whom are women. But 6 million school-age children are not in school due to lack of schools, teachers, employment, war and cultural factors.
• Half of the 13,000 schools  have no buildings in which case schooling takes place in old tents, mosques, rented or abandoned buildings, or out in the open.
• Only one in five teachers is considered qualified, meaning s/he is a twelfth or fourteenth grade graduate; a few hundred teachers have college diplomas.
• There are thousands of under/unqualified semiliterate teachers in rural schools.
• Only 25% of schools have usable buildings.
• Most schools operate on a two or three shift basis. Attrition is a huge problem, especially for girls.
• Schools follow an archaic, disorganized, bloated and incoherent curriculum.
• Textbooks are in short supply, other instructional facilities and tools are largely non-existent.
• Very few teachers do any student-teaching.
• 170 of the 364 districts do not have any women educators—the main obstacle to girls’ education.
• Due to continued war and occupation, hundreds of schools are damaged or interrupted, many educators and students killed, and/or many children kept at home.
• In a three-shift school, a school day means 6 a.m.–9:30 a.m.; 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.; and 1–5 p.m. Then there are the countless holidays. The minister stated publicly that a school year at best means about five months of classes.
• Average teacher salary is $80.
• The government will spend 17% of its entire annual budget of two billion dollars on the education system (first grade through college), a pittance.

Higher Education

• There are 22 public colleges and universities in Afghanistan. This public system enrolls about 55,000 students, 82% men and 18% women; they are taught by 2572 instructors, (2186 men and 386 women). Seven percent have doctorates, 50% masters and the rest bachelor degrees only.
• Ninety thousand students graduated from high schools last year; about 80,000 took the government university exam; 19,000 were admitted to four year tertiary institutions; 15,000 to other post secondary institutions; about 40,000 were rejected adding to the human time bomb.
• There are about 9000 staff and administrators in the higher education system.
• The ministry of higher education has an operating budget of about 20 million dollars for the entire system, 65% of which is spent on student room and board.
• About 30% of higher education campuses are rentals.
• Faculty salaries range from $360–800.
• Currently about  0.15% of the country’s 25 million people are in higher education.
• The education provided for this fraction of the population is grossly substandard by international standards. For example, the college of education at Kabul University, the country’s premier institution located next to the ministry of higher education, has only seven classrooms for 1000 students. Of the 29 faculty, 2 have doctorates, 8 master’s degrees and 19 bachelor degrees. It has a tiny library with old English and some Farsi books, and a few computers, nothing else. It is a dark, dingy, smelling building.

The grossly inadequate quantity and quality of public education has led to an explosion of private education in the last five years, ranging from small one-room courses to the American University of Afghanistan. Some charge as little as $15 per month, others like the boutique international Kabul School, $600 per month, or the American UsAF, $5000 per year.

There are 13 government-certified private universities in the country enrolling about 5000 students. No one knows how many pre-collegiate schools there are. There is no quality control in the private sector—or for that matter, in the public sector.

We are well into the second week of school, but here at Kabul Education University, with about 5000 pre and in-service students and 170 faculty, just a few classes have started as of yet. Few students carry anything that would make them look like students. There is minimal expectation, demand or accountability in the education system or any other governmental function.

We are told that the international aid to the country amounts to 10 billion dollars since 2002. Surely, thousands of expatriate “experts” have gone through here producing countless “strategic plans” and reports, and conducting drive-by seminars. they make obscene amounts in this wretched land where PCI remains at a dollar-a-day. Driving around the country, one can hardly see any sign of reconstruction or development. One does see overwhelming evidence of a failed-corrupt-predatory government and the comprador class, both installed and protected by the U.S.-NATO occupation forces; and you see the vast majority live in the middle ages. That the people survive war, occupation, sanctions, indifference, and harsh geography, is a clear testament to their resilience, will and ingenuity.

Our plane from Dubai approached the Kabul airport carefully amidst the thick haze and steep mountains on the morning of February ninth. My handlers took an unusual route to the guesthouse. When asked, I was told that it is better to avoid the monstrous traffic jam and probably security risks. It has been freezing cold with snow on the mountains, ice on the ground, and ankle-deep mud when acid rain.

This is not the Kabul of March 2002, when I first returned to the capital city after many years, let alone the nice, clean, green, safe, exotic, manageable, and not-so-destitute city of my adolescent years. Gone are the clean air, blue skies, beautiful mountains, and tree-filled streets and compounds. Today’s Kabul is one of the most polluted, filthiest, congested, unhealthy, and dangerous cities on the planet. There are 800,000 vehicles, while the city was meant for 50,000. Most are old, many are SUVs, and all use unleaded gas or diesel. There are no traffic laws or lights. Only 20% of the roads were paved 60 years ago and are falling apart. The city has grown from half-a-million to 4 ½ million inhabitants without any plan, regulations, or provision of essential services. The city has no sewage system and perhaps only 15-20% of all the structures may have septic tanks. The rest have simple latrines or nothing. If relieving yourself in public were illegal, you will have a million people in jail. The once-Kabul River is now miles of filthy garbage dump, cesspool, and public toilets. Countless internally displaced people live in makeshift old tents or destroyed and abandoned buildings. Many of these squatters are nomads with animals, who have been urbanized by necessity. There is a city hall, but no effective garbage service.  And thanks to the introduction of consumer culture, there is trash everywhere. The animals and scavenging children, men and women serve as the de facto sanitation department. There is construction all over the city. Since there is little and highly irregular electricity or gas, most rely on wood, coal, and charcoal, plastics, or kerosene for heating and lighting and cooking.  This goes for public baths, bakeries, business, homes, offices, etc. We often hear of the death by carbon monoxide. There are very few trees or parks in the city and the country is fast denuded of its forests. I have seen few birds so far! The large expatriate community and the wealthy rely on huge generators using diesel. People, including the thousands of enlightened foreigners, smoke anywhere and everywhere, even though there was a government decree against it. There are huge military planes and helicopters flying at low levels and gas-guzzling military vehicles everywhere. Since it is a windy city, there is filthy dust everywhere. If it is not dust, it is ankle or knee-deep mud everywhere. There aren’t even open trenches, open sewer drains, or sidewalks in most cases. Thirty-year residue of depleted uranium due to nonstop war, military poison, constitutes the invisible elements of the deadly pollution. Since Kabul intertwines with mountains and hills, the heavily polluted air gets trapped and stays put, reducing visibility to less than a mile. Most people use brooms instead of vacuum cleaners for cleaning, which scatters dirt inside structures. As a consequence of all this, respiratory and skin diseases, cancer, and birth defects have reached a crisis stage. I have read that some Canadian soldiers with NATO here have sued their government for putting them at risk. And in a recent statement, the minister of public health declared that pollution was a more serious threat to Kabul than the insurgency.

Kabul is indeed dying, being killed, and committing slow but mass suicide. An environmental-ecological-human catastrophe is unfolding right before our eyes. And although on paper there is an environmental protection agency, headed by the former king’s grandson, nothing seems to be done.