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“A walk through the crumbling architecture of the Karzai regime is like stumbling through a fun house on the midway, with warped mirrors reflecting a weird array of characters, all of them darting mischievously among the shadows. Some, in truth, are honourable appointees, trying their best for the country, while others are impostors, clowns – and, predominantly, villains.”
This excerpt comes from an article published today by the Montreal-based Institute for Research on Public Policy in the summer edition of its magazine, Policy Options. To download a pdf of the complete text, please go to http://www.irpp.org/po/index.htm and click on “Covering up Karzai & Co.” by Arthur Kent.
Today’s excerpt continues:
"The man at the top, Hamid Karzai, was once portrayed as his nation's great hope. His greatest success was his malleability: in his American mentors' hands he became a stylish projection of leadership, a media darling. But after five years of waiting in vain for basic services (electricity is still unreliable, even in Kabul, where only one in five citizens receives piped water supplies) many Afghans, including some of the president's leading political allies, have had enough.
Kabul MP Shukria Barakzai traces Karzai’s undoing all the way back to his installation as interim leader in December, 2001, a month after the Taliban fled Kabul in the face of a post-9/11, U.S.-led assault. Both at that juncture, and at the subsequent conference in Bonn, Germany, which created the governing infrastructure Afghans endure today, the Bush administration was in the driver’s seat.
“The Bonn agreement was a very bad start for a new political life in Afghanistan,” says Barakzai, who had a hand in writing the country’s new constitution. “The old criminals were given new places. It was difficult for Mr. Karzai, as president, without any soldiers, without a penny in the government’s pocket, while the cabinet was full of malicious leaders, warlords and people with direct connections to drug money.”
Barakzai says she no longer supports Karzai “because he simply hasn’t done his best” in the past five years to reduce his vulnerability to the scoundrels in and around his palace. Instead, she says, he’s become more dependent on them.”
I read the article in Public Policy, and continue to marvel at the subject matter; Afghanistan's form of government is terribly facinating. It has all kinds of dust on it, and it hardly shines like the diamond it is (I hear you saying so), but looking at a map of the world, one can see how much human traffic has dominated the dialogue. It is a cross-roads of seminal human importance, this I hear you saying. It's time for you to write a book about this ORIGINS OF MAN subject that you have grasped. There are trails in there, I can hear it, with over 5,000 years of human footfall on the same goatpaths. People still tread those paths, 5,000 years on the same dusty path
The IRPP!
good choice.
poeple
Arthur - When I read your article in Public Policy, I thought of Shirley Bear's poem "Fragile Freedoms."
The grievances of the oppressed people are the same everywhere: their frustration with politicians, their disappointment with "fragile freedoms" written on paper, the degradation of their environment in the name of technological advancement, etc...
And amid all this, their "delicate hope for the possibility of making this time forward as the beginning of healing..."
"Fragile Freedoms
Fragile Freedoms are the delicate balancing
acts played by the indian act politicans and the
canadian government bureaucrats in the plush
carpeted offices of the inner governmental
chambers, a game that affects the original men
and women who have survived unrecognized from
1492-1992, the games that continue to deny the
original people the right to self-determination.
Fragile Freedoms is the backlash that further
denied freedoms to the warriors at Wounded Knee
and Kanesatake.
Fragile Freedoms is the fragility of the paper
made from the disappearing grasses of the rain
forests of south america, the herb medicines of
the amerikan continent, the air that we breathe,
the water as it drips its final drops, our skin as it slowly blotches and disintegrates from radiated
pollutants in the air that affects this whole planet.
Fragile Freedoms is the delicate hope for the
possibility of making this time forward as the
beginning of healing."
Shirley Bear: virgin bones (Belayak Kcikug 'nas'ikn'ug)
Yep, that Shirley said it all, we never give up the pursuit of freedom. Interesting to watch China exercising freedom today on the Live Earth concert IN SHANGHAI Wow, that freedom is so pretty. Seriously. Really pretty
ujhjhhg
i really apreciat for your effort i sincerly thing you are the only news reporter which is not
currupted because you are always telling the truth
and this makes you very special indeed thanks alot for the hard work.Specialy the reports about our national hero A S Masood he was indeed loved by his poeple god bless him. and thank you.
It is about time someone reported what is happenning in Afghanistan. Aruthur Kent hit it right on the button. For those of us who have worked in the rebuilding of Afghanistan for several years what Aruthur Kent describes is a daily occurance. My only negative comment is that I think he painted too rosey of a picture. The corruption within the Afghan Government and basically anyone with any power is beyond description. It is a rare day when you can get through 24 hours without some type of shake down. When you see first hand how much is stolen through corruption, kick backs, bribery it makes you wonder how we all got ourselves into this situation. Good on you Mr. Kent for saying it like it is.
Aziz
i loved the poem
afghanistan democracy is the true dectatorship at this point under american control
seems afghan ppl have a long way to go
first british, then ussr now america
lets see who is next on the line for occupation
Wipe out all these warlords (Dustom, Fahim, Rabbani, Sayaf, Karimi). They are the filth on the face of afghan nation. They shed the blood of hundreds and thousands of innocent afghans. Karzai is either an ally of these EVILS or an enemy of these Evils. He has to choose one way.
Arthur Kent-----you have so much common sense and honesty! Thank you for your contributions to the truth.
Asad, how come all those names are NON PASHTONS? Why dont mention the suicide bombers all of whom are pashtons?
Oops, you have mistakenly mentioned "sayaf" in the list too...