I've moved out of Taimani/Qala-e Fatullah, where a mix of middle class Afghans and mostly small NGOs and news offices are hidden behind high walls, to Wazir Akbar Khan, where embassies and larger NGOs and news offices are hidden behind even higher walls.
Here are some sheep eating garbage. General/VP Hopeful Rashid Dostum's heavily-guarded mansion with its pink-tinted windows is just behind me around the corner. This sums it up pretty well.
It's a bizarre mix of extreme poverty--trash pickers and mud brick hovels--and McMansions owned by the nouveau riche (read: warlords) or rented by foreign organizations. The AP was paying $18,000/month for theirs last I heard but they recoup some of it by charging other TV stations to use their balcony for broadcasts because it has a good view of the area including the US embassy that is most often hit with large-scale attacks.
Despite the wealth the roads are still some of the worst unpaved and jagged rocky in the central city. Maybe this is by design for security because it forces everyone to drive very slowly.
Here's one from one of the fancy new malls that's opened up in the past 2 years since I was here for fair and balanced reporting:
Here are some sheep eating garbage. General/VP Hopeful Rashid Dostum's heavily-guarded mansion with its pink-tinted windows is just behind me around the corner. This sums it up pretty well.
It's a bizarre mix of extreme poverty--trash pickers and mud brick hovels--and McMansions owned by the nouveau riche (read: warlords) or rented by foreign organizations. The AP was paying $18,000/month for theirs last I heard but they recoup some of it by charging other TV stations to use their balcony for broadcasts because it has a good view of the area including the US embassy that is most often hit with large-scale attacks.
Despite the wealth the roads are still some of the worst unpaved and jagged rocky in the central city. Maybe this is by design for security because it forces everyone to drive very slowly.
Here's one from one of the fancy new malls that's opened up in the past 2 years since I was here for fair and balanced reporting:
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