Buying an Afghan off an Afghan with some Afghanis

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Hello,

From Gold and Gas to Blue and Cotton, or Turkmenistan to Uzbekistan I have seen a few things in Uzbekistan, but I'm still there so I'm going to leave Uzbekistan for my next blog.

This one is as you might expect is about Afghanistan, where i spent a very un backpackery like week. The title doesn't relate to the trafficking or paying ransoms, as that might make for far too exciting reading. Actually an Afghan is just a type of scarf and the Afghani is the currency which happen to share the name (presumably not complete coincidently) with the people.

While I was looking relatively incognito - brown hair, not very tall, half a beard and kitted out only with a shoulder bag, my companion was making a good sore thumb impression as he was tall, blonde, had a huge backpack covered in flag patches and had an outrageous French accent. Little did he know, if trouble reared his head, he was my decoy!

We added to our cunning disguise by buying some typical Afghan clothing, (we chose not to purchase any weaponry as we considered it bad taste.)

After smuggling out 300USD out of Uzbekistan just, (i had to quickly wap out my huge wad ... of souvenir currency). We quickly made it to Mazar-e-Sharif. Spent a couple of days looking at the stunning and spotless Blue Shrine, especially contrasting to the rubbish lined streets around it (a result of failing local government and infrastructure rather than personal hygiene standards).

The historic site at Balck is probably what most of the historical sites in Uzbekistan would look like if they hadn't been renovated! Surrounded by rolling meadows of unrestricted Hashish fields.

Then flying to avoid the roads (bandit country) we dropped in on Herat and Kabul where we discovered more blue tiles, extremely busy bazaars and castles! But far and away the best thing about Afghanistan is the Afghans, up there with Lebanese hospitality they will go a long way out of their way to help, which is a slight irony given that the countless foreign interventions into their lands dating back to practically the dawn of time.

Afghanistan has always been a war ground with peace only lasting more than 100 years back in 600 AD. The Russians have invaded twice and failed, the British thrice, the US have instigated a secret war as did the Russians. Persians have always wanted Herat and now there is a happy go lucky world alliance worth of armies doing there best to keep the Afghan Status Quo alive. Of course the only semi-successful invasion of Afghanistan was good old Alexander, and I believe his personal journal stated "OMG, This place is a pain in the arse to invade, I have done sooo many things to make it easy, but everyone, like everyone is just against me, and that's soooo unfair".

I have been asked to become more political by one avid follower so ...
Current Affairs
The war began in 2001 in the hunt for Osama although the conspiracy theorists are quick to point out that bombing started 3 months before 9/11!
Within 3 months the war was won with only three provinces providing pockets of Taliban resistance. Now there are security problems in all the provinces including the notoriously safe ones such as Balck.
The question on every Afghan's lips is how did end up like this?

To which I normally answer "It was only a kiss" (sadly the Taliban banned music and so nobody gets my witticism)

The answers are wide and varied and most very dubious i reckon,
1. the US and UK internal squabbles lead to a chance for the Taliban to resurge
2. The US/UK started supporting parts of the Taliban covertly as part of the policy of 'bringing the country together' but really to give them a reason to stay in the country, a good place for strategic bases, within range of Iran, Pakistan and China.
3. The Pakistan (secret service) trained and funded Taliban to fight against the Indians in Kashmir and also harboured Taliban bases in the north where ISAF military are not allowed to cross the border.
4. Its been so long in fighting that a load of bandits and other anti-gov groups have sprung up out of discontentment, leading to 'bad guy' identification being extremely difficult.
5. Britain wants the poppy fields in Helmand for the Opium.

I went to Afghanistan to ask the people about their view and find out the truths about this lesser travelled place. Every person has a different view and in reality there are no truths, it's a completely grey zone, although the grey zone has been nicely tiled in turquoise and azure.
One thing though that most people believed is that they don't think the US/UK (offensive actions) have helped but they do think the Germans, Italians and French have (mainly doing training and reconstruction). Most think that ISAF should leave but think it will get even worse if we do! If we are trying to win hearts and minds, there is a long way to go.

The NGOs are no longer in a great presence, security is deteriorating, this country needs a hero or it's many decades of war on the cards.

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Photos

Mazar-E-Sharif Shrine
Blue Tiles -> boy-o-boy

Chicken Street
Where hippies used to come in their hordes.

Tea at a local's
2 Melons, 3 Loaves, 4 Common Words and 5 Pots of Tea