Karzai's total wealth is less than $40K!!!

What a story!

The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, who has been in office for almost a decade now and has worked most of his 52 years of life in well paying jobs claims to have a total wealth, including his wife's jewellery and other valuables, of less than US$40,000. How is this even possible?!? And the anti-corruption committee buys this story!

Any sane person would call this nothing but mere nonsense!

Read here for more details.

backbone or bone of contention?

Many hope that the discovery of almost $1 trillion worth of minerals (iron, copper, lithium, etc.) in Afghanistan could provide the “backbone” of the future development of Afghan economy. Unfortunately, I am less convinced. We are all familiar with the “resource curse” literature that claims more of than not such discoveries of vast reserves of resources could prove to be a curse rather than a blessing for most developing economies. Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Russia, and countries involved in the “blood diamond” are but few examples.

The current situation of Afghanistan, often referred to as “the pot without a lid” (dig-e-bey-sarposh) by many Afghans, makes it even more vulnerable to such predictions. While many focus on this discovery becoming a bone of contention among domestic players, warlords, Taliban and the Mujahideen, I am equally, if not more, concerned about international players, such as neighboring Pakistan, China, American and other special interest groups, private companies and MNCs, each of which would want a piece of the pie.

Absent a strong and accountable national government, this news further delays at least my hopes of a prosperous, stable and peaceful Afghanistan by a at least a few more decades.

Where do the Taliban get their funding from???

Here is one article, backed up by a report by a Harvard Research fellow, Matt Waldman and former Head of Advocacy for Oxfam International, which argues it is Pakistani ISI...I would also add to it that Pakistan won't spend all this money from their own pockets alone, but a big chunk of their funding is channeled through Pakistan for sure. This makes me think of the funding sources for the Mujahideen who fought against the Soviets in the 80's, which was a puzzle at that time, but is almost as clear as "the sun in the sky" today...skeptics may be convinced of the links to Taliban also in a decade or so!

Read here the BBC article and find here the original report.

A former Canadian Ambassador to Afghanistan and later UN envoy, Christopher Alexander, recently made a similarly bold comment...read here for more details.

Major accomplishment for JobsforAfghans.org

It was almost hard to believe when I opened and e-mail from a colleague at JobsforAfghans this morning forwarding me an article titled "US Afghan strategy uses economic aid to battle Taliban"...and my reaction was "they are finally seeing the light!"

We consider this a major accomplishment for JobsforAfghans, whose members have been working tirelessly to convince the US Congress to give non-military solutions a chance (of at least greater than 10% of military expenditure), by implementing large-scale, labor intensive public works projects that would keep the 40% unemployed men and women at work by paying them at least $10 a day, which is roughly near what the Taliban pay their low ranking fighters. This will not only promote (short term) economic growth and put cash directly on the poor and unskilled workers' hands, but also (hopefully) lure some of the non-ideologically driven Taliban to dignified, civilian work for relatively reasonable pay.

I understand that as the article alludes to it, this may seem like an unsustainable practice with horrible consequences…but we are knowingly pushing for such a strategy as a short-term solution only and if you compare these figures to more than $30 billion a year spent on military alone, it won’t look so unsustainable anymore…with only 10% of current military expenditure set aside to such interventions, millions could be hired, several millions would be fed and clothed, tons of visible improvements in irrigation, sanitation and infrastructure will be accomplished, local support to insurgency will be weakened and hopefully the country will be placed on a trajectory of safety and stability so that more long term development strategies may be designed and implemented.

Send me your feedback and reactions by e-mail to najimdost@gmail.com or as comments on this posting. Thanks!

Afghanistan wouldn't look like a 13th century barbaric nation if...

...it weren't (at least partly) for greedy foreign interventions...Read this piece to see what I mean. Reading the article, please note that while this may not represent an accurate illustration of life all over Afghanistan, except in few urban areas, it is still a clear indication that Afghanistan has regressed terribly and it will take us at least a few generations to get back to where we were only a few decades back.

A brief look at the history of the country would reveal that these "extremist" and "barbaric" groups are not innately born so, but actually "created"...there is nothing intrinsically "violent" about a certain people, but rather what we let them become or more importantly what we "make" them become. Charlie Wilson may be a hero to many, but if one is really concerned about the state of the security in Afghanistan, the region and by extension the world, one can't help but to ponder on the role that he and the establishment that backed his efforts played in shaping the world we live in today.