Nobody around here seems too convinced by my little consent form and its guarantees of confidentiality. Today one of my interviewees seemed to take my promise that I wouldn't use his name in my report as an accusation of cowardice. "I'm not afraid of Americans or English or Germans or Taliban. I'm only afraid of God," he bristled.
The tiny fish-shaped thing in the background sky is the surveillance blimp of the American Provincial Reconstruction Team.
Research aside, I had a long and slightly surreal talk with the head of the provincial council here, Hajji Ehsan Noorzai, who succeeded President Karzai's half-brother Ahmed Wali after the latter was assassinated last year. We sat on huge pillows in the guest room of his straight-out-of-an-Ikea-catalogue mansion, located behind the scarred earth construction site of the private hospital he's building, and he told me through my Pashto translator all about the ills of corruption here in Kandahar.
My experience in Kabul was that when asked about politics people mostly told me what they thought I wanted to hear, depending on whether they categorized me as American or Iranian or Turkish. But here was one of the top US-allied politicians and tribal leaders in the region blaming the US for corruption and outright robbery to an American he'd just met. Ehsan told me that the Soviets had been more honest (a few people have told me this kind of thing--that the Soviets at least believed in what they were doing and in their development ideology, while Americans are just interested in power and money) and the Taliban better because at least they weren't corrupt, much as it pained his heart to say so because he hated the Taliban.
Just yesterday, he told me, he'd gotten a flurry of phone call complaints that US soldiers had detained a bunch of shopkeepers, tied their hands, and made them stand out in the sun for four hours and then let them go without charging them with anything. The Americans had stolen money right out of the pockets of those they tied up. Then (this is all by Ehsan's account) local police had showed up and the Americans had asked them to sign a paper confirming that their operation had been carried out successfully, provoking a stand-off that Ehsan said could easily have turned into a firefight. He called up one of the men who had called him saying that the Americans had robbed him and put him on speaker phone to have him rehash the story (in Pashto), the translation of which verified Ehsan's summary. The guy claimed they had taken 35,000 Afghanis--$700--from one shopkeeper.
He added that just recently a friend of his (also a friend of my translator) had his house raided by US special forces, who stole a wad of money and some golden jewelry.
The tiny fish-shaped thing in the background sky is the surveillance blimp of the American Provincial Reconstruction Team.
Research aside, I had a long and slightly surreal talk with the head of the provincial council here, Hajji Ehsan Noorzai, who succeeded President Karzai's half-brother Ahmed Wali after the latter was assassinated last year. We sat on huge pillows in the guest room of his straight-out-of-an-Ikea-catalogue mansion, located behind the scarred earth construction site of the private hospital he's building, and he told me through my Pashto translator all about the ills of corruption here in Kandahar.
My experience in Kabul was that when asked about politics people mostly told me what they thought I wanted to hear, depending on whether they categorized me as American or Iranian or Turkish. But here was one of the top US-allied politicians and tribal leaders in the region blaming the US for corruption and outright robbery to an American he'd just met. Ehsan told me that the Soviets had been more honest (a few people have told me this kind of thing--that the Soviets at least believed in what they were doing and in their development ideology, while Americans are just interested in power and money) and the Taliban better because at least they weren't corrupt, much as it pained his heart to say so because he hated the Taliban.
Just yesterday, he told me, he'd gotten a flurry of phone call complaints that US soldiers had detained a bunch of shopkeepers, tied their hands, and made them stand out in the sun for four hours and then let them go without charging them with anything. The Americans had stolen money right out of the pockets of those they tied up. Then (this is all by Ehsan's account) local police had showed up and the Americans had asked them to sign a paper confirming that their operation had been carried out successfully, provoking a stand-off that Ehsan said could easily have turned into a firefight. He called up one of the men who had called him saying that the Americans had robbed him and put him on speaker phone to have him rehash the story (in Pashto), the translation of which verified Ehsan's summary. The guy claimed they had taken 35,000 Afghanis--$700--from one shopkeeper.
He added that just recently a friend of his (also a friend of my translator) had his house raided by US special forces, who stole a wad of money and some golden jewelry.
How can I get in touch with you for some traveling advice? If I post my e-mail here will you read and delete? Or is there an address I can email you to?
ReplyDeleteLovely blog, btw.