The tide is turning

In the spring of 2007 USAID’s Social Services Division held a farewell party for its much respected director Dr Jim Sarn. His loyal and creative staff assembled a cover band to play his favourite tunes at the event. With Tom Petty's "Won't back down" we paid tribute to Jim's principled approach to work, but it was U2's "The tide is turning" - accompanied by the International School of Kabul Choir - that really celebrated Dr. Sarn's belief that change was possible.

The tide is about to take a dramatic turn in Afghanistan. This weekend major funding cuts will likely be announced concerning $250M of municipal governance programs - all five could be shut down very soon. The impact of the March2011 Congress mandated reduction of $1.4B in USAID's Afghanistan budget is finally being felt on the ground - even Hillary is rumoured to have received a bit of a bruising in the House last week.

US retreat from the war in Afghanistan is being driven by domestic economics and the rapidly growing political currency of withdrawal. Meanwhile the moral outrage will continue to ebb and flow fueled by royal heists of public funds and civilian collateral damage in the unwinnable guerrilla war. How can we lever the good investments made - in such areas as education and health - without feeling obliged to stick around and "protect" them?

I believe there is still a place in the world for aid - collaborative assistance. But the industry needs to take a resounding swing away from the mega project whose most important yard stick is the “burn rate” of Congressionally allocated funds.

Non verbal SIgns

I finally tracked down my music teacher from 2007 ... cruised music street in old Kabul and met his brother minding the new studio ... demolition is creeping in and history being squeezed out ... I wonder what happened to the guy who made my rabob?

Ustad Mucktar and I have a much stronger common musical language – Hindustani solfege - than we did four years ago ... we are managing with minimal verbal translation. In fact i am forced to listen to the notes much more carefully ... to hear the tune less intellectually ... to find the culturally unique beat

I probably need to adopt that attitude a little more liberally in these troubled times. My expectations of people at work are much too high – tied perhaps unfairly to the excessive price tag of the project I am working on.

And at the end of the day ... well I am responsible to men I will never meet.

Compliance and Creativity

I spent much of the day evaluating bids on a translation “Request for Quotes’. There were fewer bids that expected and each was missing something essential so I had to get creative to be compliant. I thought fondly back to the days of the Ex-Taliban Employee Waivers that I used to prepare for visa applications.

The game here is not that hard to play.



Gotta be careful though not to flash too much colour on the grey landscape.

Tourist Spot Talk

It is helpful to get new perspective - or ancient - from time to time. Had a nice visit with friends at our Embassy recently and there was some invigorating ex-Afghanistan talk. Like good tourism spots ... I promised not to say more than that.

Someday soon they will be talking about Bamyian in the same breath.



Oh yes tourism will spoil the place a little ... It might get crowded again with pilgrims in great humility before the easy to conjure up Buddha. It may be difficult to get a great cliffside view of the valley from the Roof of Bamyian Hotel ... but every room has its charm. And I’m sure Tourism Bamyian has some other great suggstions.

Visitors will be helping to fund and shape the tourism leg of the economic development strategy of Afghanistan’s most compelling province. Bamyian is one of the great crossroads of ancient history only a fraction of which has been uncovered.

Ensure that you make plenty of time to just sit … and stare … and honour …

Less cruising around

I don’t know this nan man. Or any nan men for that matter – no more cruising around the neighbourhood like in the good old days.

Not even in Kabul. I moved here in 2006 for security reasons ... and prowled safely back then.

Nonetheless this nan man had a friendly message. From the beleaguered regional capital of Gardez 80 K south east of Kabul. It was safe to drive on that road back in March – like most recent winters.

What might peace look like Afghanistan?