Kabul by day, Kabul by night

Salam to all, I am writing this posting on this Friday 13, sitting on the comfy couches of L’Atmosphere, a French club with a swimming pool, a bar, and a restaurant where I would advise the Steaks with Roquefort Sauce right after a carpaccio, not forgetting the chocolate fondant with pomegranate seeds, all washed off with one hell of a red wine… where am I? In Kabul of course! This is part of my answer to the questions I have been getting frequently. How’s life in Kabul? Not too dangerous? Not too constraining? First of all please note we are in an Islamic republic, and like all identical religious regimes (Iran, Pakistan…) in capital and in the main cities, two worlds collide, the one of expats, bi nationals, dignitaries, and certain adventurous locals, with the one of average afghans, less glossy, much more exposed, and of course much more dangerous in those recent afghan years marked by an impressive deterioration of security. The more religious it is, the more hypocrite it is (nothing new of course) since authorities do close their eyes, too busy looking for wallets and other bakchichs surrounded by grey areas, legal blur, and populist demagogy provoking from time to time prohibition style raids, less the Hollywood glamour.

When you’re an expat, all tastes and wallets can be accommodated. May everyone be assured, we‘re not missing anything and specially not food or alcohol, all of that in the most secure environments. It becomes a little bit more complicated when we want to discover the other world, the real one, the one of afghan people. Welcome to the reality of tight security (which I have to monitor) controlled risks (or not) and all kind of assessments every time we go out of our green zone. We’re banned form walking outside of a small perimeter, banned from driving, accompanied movements most of the time with national staff. Always be discreet, no NGO visibility over here, the contrary actually with a low profile policy to blend as much as we can. The cultural barrier is also quite impressive as you can imagine, regarding women first of all, but also regarding a strange type of Islam rather difficult to perceive, somewhere between politeness towards expats, proper zealousness, and disillusion towards the west which, once again, only portrays its most mercantile and less ideological side, a side regularly denatured by ignorance, anger and other extremist manipulations.

So past the usual salamaleks, the couple of outings to popular restaurants with the staff, and the cups of tea exchanged at the office, what is left? Expatriates, my biggest deception since arriving in afghan territory. The readers of my French blog often
Saw me doing the apology of those friends and arms companion circles, as rich as strong and sincere. What about Kabul? Sadly all the contrary L First chock, the average experience and age.

Arriving in such a battled context, I was expecting to meet people with a certain experience, who would have been through other difficult destinations, and mostly older people (more mature that is) How wrong was I! With a rough 25 years of age and consequent reasoning, the level of debates is alarmingly low. Add to that an impressive naivety, shining through admiration for “this great country of warriors and wonderful landscapes) forgetting all realism and/or social, historical, and cultural barriers. The humanitarian world has always partially been populated by people escaping something and looking for something else, but a culture medium for growing youngsters doing their semester abroad in Afghanistan, this leaves me jaw dropped.

Another choc, the community circles reigning in the expatriate world, and more specifically in the French one. If getting together with compatriots has always been a joy, augmented with a good wine bottle, some genuine food, and all kind of pretexts used to do the apology of the French way of life (and bashing of the English in rugby hehehe) here the situation is closer to a linguistic and cultural ghetto. My humanitarian experience has always been rich thanks to the melting pot of nationalities I have come across, so what a deception to fall in such a monochrome universe! Annoying clichés surface again, along with stupid prejudice sometimes even flirting with intolerance, but the worse bit? Other nationalities do the same…who to blame then?

Of course we’ve organized resistance, undermined though by end of assignments of valorous warriors, but the fight goes on. In the end is this situation really bad? This little resistance group has an undeniable advantage of clearing a lot of free time, then available to be enjoyed in many ways, but this will be the topic of my next posting.

A military vocabulary adapted to the situation, but why? Because we are in a country engaged in an active war (a novelty for me) and I am discovering a new part of the NGO world, our friends the campaigning military men, in charge of war but also of winning “hearts and minds” the infamous motto common to all Einsteins in battle gear. The name of foreign troops in Afghanistan, ISAF (International Security and Assistance Forces) sums up the confusion we pay the price for as NGOs. For the I the S and the F no problem, but isn’t strange that assistance, usually reserved to NGOs, be part of their mandate. Yes we are “facing competition” from our friends the army men…and what does it give? A real mess as dangerous for the quality of Aid provided as for our own security. Big up to the men in green. My disgust of the uniform may come today from more complex elements, but is still as alive as ever. More explanations? To be followed in the next episode….to keep you hanging on to this blog ;-)

Little interview

Salam to all,

Following the kidnapping of 2 french aid workers, and while we slowly dig the increasing insecurity sadly promised to us in Afghanistan this year, find a little interview I did with the french news site lemonde.fr. In french of course (sorry guys...) Thanks Marion ;-)

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3216,36-892470@51-799721,0.html

Off we go Afghan style

Salam aleikoum,

So here I am writing my first official post in English from…Afghanistan! I am sitting comfy in my bed in Kabul trying to give birth to this new blog after my silent year 2006 which saw me mostly not sending any news to the outside world. So where to start? First of all please know that Trayle and I are still together. For those of you not in the know (any left?) I met this lovely lady in DRC end of 2005 and we have been together since. Well girlfriend is not really the word as we are officially engaged since the 3rd of December. This happened on a sunny Kenyan day at the Masaï Market in Nairobi. A street vendor gave us his blessings by selling us two nice silver rings, in a ceremony witnessed by all neighboring vendors, happy for us, but sad not to have us contributing to their daily turnover. This ceremony followed an official proposal made (and accepted) on a white sandy beach on the Indian Ocean six months earlier. No talks of wedding for now, even though several ideas come across...in due time my friends ;-) Our Kenyan mission on the Somali border ended on December 19th and we were able to take 3 weeks of rest between Paris and London (interrupted by all kinds of briefs and related meetings though) before heading for the country which gave birth to Action Against Hunger in 1979, a country that remains an emblematic destination for the humanitarian world, a country where its past, present, and future collide with such a density that it is hard not to be in permanent questioning about what we see and experience over here. Nothing messy in my head, but all that is brewing in an unconventional way and having lots of (side) effects on me little head. How can I explain that? Let me go chronologically to bring you where I am standing right now. What comes across when you think of the history and past of Afghanistan? The Russian invasion, the mudjahiddins, the civil war, Massoud, Ben Laden, the talebans, the coalition, the poppy…internal and external conflicts sadly too old to mention, that have put the country on its knees, traumatized generations, and annihilated all hopes of future, making this notion impossible to grasp for a lot of people. DRC comes to mind not for the nature of the conflict or its duration, but for the horror it has created and the devastating consequences it had on the population. On our NGO side, well Afghanistan remains the humanitarian laboratory where blossomed (not to say where born) protocols, procedures and other methodologies that make today the strength of organizations like Action Against Hunger. A mission to which special attention is given by our Paris headquarters, and with whom the relationship is comparable to a past love affair, where one is still in touch with his previous flame, hoping for a new beginning as melancholic as improbable, while this flame has grown, evolved, and changed for better or for worse. Afghanistan today, is summed up as far as I’m concerned by this huge poster of Massoud one can see as soon as one comes out of the airport parking and we start our journey to town. Afghans are alike, warriors for who honor comes before dialogue, and for whom gunpowder remains sadly the most used language, regardless of what the media and others feed us regularly. Massoud of course rhymes with France and its official and unofficial massive investments in terms of human, financial, and military resources ever since this love relationship started. We are talking about the same Massoud who despite his noble intentions did not hesitate to bomb the Hazara areas of Kabul owing to one of the ever changing alliances with warlords and other AK47 masters…food for thought as the last thing I want to do is to launch once again this debate. Let’s get back to this enormous poster serving its purpose: a reminder to the French of what they like, and I would even say a poster comparable to a direct debit form? One wonders owing to the number of Froggies in Afghanistan, and the amount of official representations, NGOs and other French companies. The “Afghanistan” label seems to be a very successful one as I have met expatriates working for “Free Afghanistan”, “Afghanistan Tomorrow”, “Afghanistan Brittany” (!!!) and the list goes on….so what to think about this poster? A well crafted marketing strategy or a genuine identity in the process of being built to overcome clan interests, without forgetting all the smuggling business and the mighty poppy? I don’t think I will find any answer to this question, but remain fascinated and enchanted by this country where so many strong emotions cohabit. What about the future then? The great unknown for a year considered to be decisive (like the one before actually) at all levels. On society level where tradition, religion, and other cultural exerts are being extinguished by all kind of futilities coming from our beloved consumer society. But how can you condemn Afghan people for enjoying bits of our western consumerist paradise, an escape from a gloomy present they rather bury and replace with sophisticated mobile ring tones, and big imported SUV? On the political level too, where corruption has completely corroded an administration incapable of keeping promises for a better tomorrow that Karzaï had once sworn to make reality. Also on the economic level where poppy eradication becomes an obsession while growing it is often the only income generating activity allowing people to alleviate their misery, leaded with the absence of any other alternative. And finally on a military level where the infamous talebans are exploiting this (almost) still life to go back to an era where, to quote a 2001 European ad, 100% of afghan women had disappeared. Add to that of course the strategic interests of neighboring Pakistan, and the one and only Uncle Sam hell bent on triumphing from evil, in order to eclipse the Iraki gong show and other republican adventures you know better than me… The future of NGOs too? I am realizing, with all consequent enthusiasm and interest, that we are writing the new post 9/11 humanitarian order, with the slow death in its actual form of our neutrality, and a fair amount of our operating principles, replaced by a new deal emerging from humanitarian/military interventions, war of religions and civilizations (god do I hate such stupid expressions) and all the good vs. evil confusion one can retain. Ok, I will stop for this time; I think you have a good idea of where I am for now. Next time I will try to give you a glimpse of our Kabul daily life at and off work, not forgetting our friends the militaries who add their unique touch to an already crowded scene. I would like to finish this posting with a special and sincere thought to all friends and colleagues currently in Darfur. No need to dwell on the news or the context of this intervention, but I would like to point that the physical and sexual aggressions the local populations and NGOs are subject to have become beyond the unacceptable. All my thoughts go more specifically to all Action Against Hunger teams which have been exposed to that recently, and that still go on despite all the horrors they witness and are victims of. Big Up Amigos all I can say from here.

Salam Aleikoum everyone So it took me almost three years but i've finally decided to start a second blog in English this time! Being in the Aid galaxy since 2004 I've had less and less time to keep up with a decent correspondence and instead of endlessly promising responses to your emails that never come I have opted for the almighty blog, where all of you guys will be able to follow up on the adventures of hotpotbelly (i.e. me) in NGO land. In hommage to my country of adoption, and owing to the majority of French speakers I know, my first blog blabber was in French, and proved to be a successful way in updating them French guys on what's happenning on my side of the globe. I'm happy to be able to do the same with you, my anglosaxophone friends :-) Here we go, from now on I'll be posting something at least every month, so make sure you connect from time to time. Even though I will of course still try to mail you guys back and even though I can't promise anything regular as most of you have witnessed in the past year, please keep on showering me with your emails, questions, and comments ;-)I hope to make it up with this blog and from now be a little bit more consistant in communicating with you guys...next posting in couple of days inch allah!