Thank you Arthur , your reports indicate that treking around the outback as a journey man reporter has molded your skills into a master .
Be safe - no thanks to politicians Canada is struting it's stuff which can only bring out the best in others .

Just reporting the story.

Today's film is a study in contrasts, a good news bad news vigniette. I feel it is important to note the woman's point of view about engineers on the 'spear' side (opposite distaff) lacking something in the finer details of the science. Sounds like occasionally Afghani women give as good as they get, but we know that ain't true. Still, they give. . .

Please don't take this the wrong way and the timing of this post is more than just a little off, but this site serves as an important reminder we back at home mustn't let ourselves be taken in by things like Harper's latest feel-good tour of the Tang.

Thanks for the vigilence and thanks also for actually finding ways to show there really is cause hope if you care to look. Its a pity the people will continue to suffer while our diplomats and bureaucrats define progress to their own purposes.

Brian, I couldn't agree with you more. If Prime Minister Harper had paused to speak with any genuine citizens in Kabul, they would have told him the last thing their country's stifled democracy needs is Western wazirs dropping by to polish Hamid Karzai's image as Mr. Clean.

The best and only true support Mr. Harper can offer Canadian troops and the Afghan people is to press effectively for a thorough housecleaning at the Presidential Palace. Unless the population gets responsible government and soon, no amount of war fighting will stabilize the country.

Well, what I am trying to say here might not be relevent to the topic - but it matters to Afghans. Last night I saw in TOLO TV fun program, zang-e khatar or "danger alarm" a terrible trafic accident in which I recognized British soldiers were involved. The convoy of British soldiers crashed a man, ijured him almost to the death, and were trying to escape the scene. The corrupt Afghan police didn't stop the convly - maybe feared. But again - brave Afghans stopped the British convoy with stones and sticks. They once more showed that they are not afraid of arms or weapons and will react if their pride is concerend. An Afghan man said to TV reporter that he was one of those who stopped the convoy and he added that he would do that even if it had cost his life.

Do you think that the NATO, ISAF and the so called IC is wining the war "heart and minds" with such savage actions with the innocent, simple and normal Afghans? Warn Mr Bush that the situation is worsening here.

Mazar-e Sharif

Arthur,
The new building is impressive, as is the fact that it is being designed mainly by women. But as you rightly suggest, a beautiful building is hardly any substitute for clean effective government. Given the fact that the Western 'wazirs' are blind to Karzai's weaknesses, do you think that there is any realistic likelihood of effective government emerging in the foreseeable future? And how might this transformation take place? Since it would be naive to expect Afghanistan overnight to turn into some form of Western democracy, what political model do you see in the Middle East/South Asia after which the country might fashion itself?

Arthur,

What are the predominate Muslim sects in Afghanistan? What sect is the Taliban? I am more familiar with the ones in Iran and Iraq. Also, is Therocractic rule one of the problems there? If so, what do you see as the difficulties in establishing a Democracy in an area that is a Theocracy?

Bonny, Afghans are predominantly Sunni, but the country's Shia minority are a proud, creative and hospitable people. I've been travelling to Afghanistan since 1980, and through all the various phases of the conflict one factor has ensured my safety: the genuine warmth and openness of the population.

The Taliban are a phenomenon of the Sunni south, and were born in Pakistan's northern tribal areas. The leadership's extreme interpretation of Islam is a distortion of traditional Afghan values. No kites or music? How un-Afghan can you get...

Bill, the answer is best left with the Afghans. They've produced many promising legislators and even more effective civil servants. The problem is that too many of President Karzai's friends are holding back the process of democratic development through ineptitude, corruption and criminality.

Faqiri's remarks are a stark warning to all of us in the West. Our leaders have got to break with the Bush administration's back-firing foreign policy. Otherwise we'll all suffer the consequences - Afghans and Westerners alike.

We are currently suffering from the bush administration's lack of a domestic policy. We are at the beginng of a homeless crises of a magnitude that will shake this country to its core. Homeless shelters are filled to capacity and people are beginning to sleep on the streets. These are working people who can no longer afford the pice of a home or rent. People are losing their homes and have nowhere to turn.

Add to that the fact that we know we will suffer a huge backlash from the bush administration's foreign policy. It will take decades to fix it all, and my grandchildren will suffer the consequences of what is happening today.

Hard times here in America for the average working person. I'm one of them. I can no longer afford to even rent a room. I'm in Delaware with my daughter, working a minimun wage job until I can find employment in my field.

What I want to do right now, with all of my heart, is go out onto the St. John's river, in Florida, throw out a fishing line, and call to the 'gators. Its peaceful there and I do love hearing the female 'gators answering my call. It lasts until the male 'gator roars to let me know that he knows I'm not an alligator and that I'd better get out of his neck of the river. Sometimes you have to leave a place to find out what it means to you. After 26 years in Florida, I moved here to discover that I miss Florida. I won't move back to New Hampshire (where I am originally from) because I'd never survive the winters.

At any rate, forgive me for the digression. We are already feeling the pain of living with the bush administration.

Speaking of Shiia and Sunni, I have many Arab and Iraqi friends who wonder and don't know where the hell the "Sunni Triangle" is. :-)

Leave it to the Western media and politicians to focus on ethnicities and Sunni/Shiia topics.

The comments made here are indicative of the role that racism plays in the world today, especially when racism reveals itself "in peacekeeping and humanitarian encounters, because such encounters as Sherene Razack puts it in her book called 'Dark Threats & White Knights', offer us a sense of self and belonging." She argues that an identity that is is formed like this is profoundly racially structured, and hails us "as civilized beings who inhabit ordered democracies, citizens who are called upon to look after, instruct or defend themselves against, the uncivilized Other."

She continues to say..."In this fantasy, we enter a moral universe that limits the extent to which we can even begin to think about humanity of Others; our very participation depends on consigning whole groups of people into the category of those awaiting assistance into modernity. We can even believe, as Romeo Dallaire does, that there are no humans more human than Others, and still understand the world as made up of those needing assistance and those providing it. True on one level, the paradigm of saving the Other nevertheless precludes an examination of how we have contributed to their crises and where our responsibility lies. It is a paradigm that allows us to maintain our own sense of superiority. With its emphasis on pity and compassion, saving the Other can be a position that discourages respect and true belief in the personhood of Others."

Another great piece of video report.
Thanks Arthur.

is the afghani form Pakatay Provance

It is wonderful to see women emerge from under the damning rule of the Taliban and take their place as creative, productive, and contributing members of their country. I hope that their ability to live in a free society continues.

salam