• June 15, 2011: While officials hail progress on education, only half the country’s schools have the premises and teaching materials they need....
“Afghan Schools Short on Buildings and Books,” By Maiwand Safi, IWPR
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“On the Mend? America Comes to Its Senses,” by Andrew J. Bacevich
Andrew J. Bacevich is professor of history and international relations at Boston University and a retired career officer in the United States Army....
Water Ways film highlighted
The United States Institute of Peace's PeaceMedia initiative has highlighted Majid's short Water Ways. You can see it and learn more about USIP and...
So painfully obvious: best and worst solutions for Afghanistan
…if we were serious about development, we would pursue best practices, none of which are being exhibited in Afghanistan. If we really cared about freedom and democracy in Afghanistan we would do it much differently.
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Corruption at home: the DoD’s $436 hammer
…the DoD has tolerated so much fraud, waste and fat in each weapons program, with only a few of the contracts scrubbed for inflated costs. This has resulted in generations of fraud and fat, which have become part of the new baseline on historic costs. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), right now, major weapons programs are overrunning by $300 billion.
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Saving Yemen
Yemen is now at the forefront of U.S. counterterrorism efforts. To combat al Qaeda effectively and prevent the country’s collapse, the United States will need to balance its security objectives alongside political reform and development initiatives. … Yemen is the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest state and more closely resembles many sub-Saharan countries than any of its Gulf neighbors. The country faces recurring food security issues. … Of Yemen’s nearly 24 million citizens, 43 percent live on two dollars a day, while approximately 40 percent are unemployed. … This swelling demographic of young, unemployed Yemenis represents a significant socioeconomic concern and a potential target for radicalization and recruitment by terrorist organizations.
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The Binds That Tie Us
To succeed in Afghanistan, the international community must tackle corruption, make aid more effective, improve cooperation with the Afghan government, pursue a regional solution to the conflict, and commit to long-term reconstruction.
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First screenings and discussions in the States
To my surprise, a few of the art students in the evening didn’t believe the authenticity of the work – primarily because from their point of view the war is not mentioned or shown at all. When I tried to explain that the film’s intention is to present outsiders a view of Afghanistan beyond the battlefront it became clear that the western media has created such a strong impression of Afghanistan being only about war, terror and extremism, that viewers can not trust a representation that does not include these things.
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Job creation will weaken Taliban in Afghanistan, Pentagon official says
Not what a foreign military should be doing – would be much more appropriate for development and economc experts to be working with Afghan Government on this kind of initiative: “The Pentagon’s point man for winning the economic war in Afghanistan is coming to Dallas to tell local business leaders that jobs in farming and mining are key to weakening the Taliban insurgency.”
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Next steps and Expanding Goals
The completion of our October/November 2010 production training is only the beginning of our work. With your support we plan to extend our work to focus on guiding and supporting our trainees and other afghan filmmakers as they seek to submit production proposals and earn work on commissioned films.
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Training Concludes with Kabul Screening
Mehdi and Jamal were talking and one said to the other, “I can’t believe it, it’s magic – 10 films in 5 weeks – magic.” The magic has been the great energy, smarts, high spirits and unwavering determination that everyone brought to the work. Please make it all worthwhile and watch the films!
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Two Notes to Self
Note to self: Don’t use the dry cleaner next to the butcher. I was very excited to see my button down shirts coming back so clean and nicely...