The Kabul Conference, this big event on the horizon for months, came and went like a puff of air. Of course it was much more important, people said, than a puff of air, but we saw mostly the symbolic aspects of it, on TV and very little of the months of meeting and writing that had gone into the various programs that were being presented and that will determine our agenda for years to come.
Some people called the whole thing a waste of money and time while others listened for the story that was being told. One important story that got repeated over and over in the media was that within a few years 50% of all foreign aid should be channeled through the government. I can only say, good luck as I have witnessed up close the hurdles to getting money, once inside the government, out again to pay for services. The combination of corruption and elaborate procedures to counter the corruption combine into a glacial process that includes countless signatures and approvals by an already overworked corps of administrators.
Today’s news report are congratulatory because there was no security breach, like with the Peace Jirga, and no one is relieved from his duties. True, there were some rockets fired, and some other explosions that we were told about via SMS’es. But few people were hurt and as a result the attacks are downplayed. I always thought rockets were the scariest things, but they are different from these local amateur rockets that are fired by bad shots, far from where we live, and that do little or no damage.
And so life returned back to normal today: the airport is open again and people who are not VIPs can come and go as they please. We all went back to work and caught up with our two-day absence from the office while preparing for the next two day break, an ordinary weekend.
Next week I plan to go to Badakhshan, my third attempt since last March to go there and remind myself about the realities of life in the province.
Sylvia's Journal 
0 Responses to “Open and close(d)”