Afghanistan, Karzai, and the easy-chair critics

Elizabeth Rubin has a new NY Times article about Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan‘s President:

Karzai in His Labyrinth

She offers a gentle-but-tough, compassionate, and honest view of the incredibly complex nature of Afghani politics, and Karzai’s nature.  As excellent as this article is, words just touch the surface of the realities.  And it’s the realities that have my head spinning.

The mixture of old and new culture, the tremendous forces of social connection that far exceed those active in the West, tear the fabric of Afghanistan a thousand ways, a thousand times, every day, in every corner of that difficult and beautiful country.   I wonder how anyone could think of running Afghanistan with any kind of permanent success.

Karzai’s biggest fault has been to stick too closely to the non-institutional format of traditional politics in Afghanistan.  This has stymied his ability to fund the work he needs to do to reach his goals.

Karzai’s strongest virtues are his deeply sincere intent for the well-being of all of Afghanistan, an almost unbelievably resilient and patient perseverance, and a penetrating, intelligent mind.   Using these strengths, Karzai has survived –  not a small feat –  and continues to lead his country, and keep faith with his hopes and goals, on behalf of its peoples.

Although his leadership has been almost universally criticized, I wonder if there’s anyone in Afghanistan who could a do better job than Karzai has done.  Every time I read in Rubin’s article of one of his so-called allies, or his enemies, saying what other choices Karzai could have made, my instincts rebelled.  It’s a hell of a lot harder to do the work than it is to get comfy in the easy-chair called “hindsight” and criticize someone else’s mistakes. If these people really really wanted Karzai to succeed, they knew Afghanistan as well as he did, and they could have supported and advised him, instead of catering to his weaknesses, glossing over his blind spots, or playing a double, or sometimes a triple, game on him.  That Karzai has survived is amazing enough.  That he’s still sane, compassionate and able to work is even more surprising, and heartening.

Karzai is as crazy as Obama, in wanting to lead his country in such difficult times, and for attempting to turn around a very big ship indeed.  My prayers are with both Presidents. Karzai is said to be very edgy and have an eye tic.  He needs some magnesium and vitamin B12, as these are being depleted by stress.  I hope someone figures this out and tells him.  Afghanistan’s first President doesn’t have the medical resources that America’s Presidents have.

Follow Elizabeth Rubin on Twitter.

Serious confrontations

Was wondering what y’all think of what’s going on in Pakistan.

Yesterday, an attempt to destroy one of the Intelligence Agency centers in Lahore killed more than two dozen people, injured more than three hundred, and destroyed an emergency services building:

• Article:  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/world/asia/28pstan.html
• Pics: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/05/27/world/0527-pstan_index.html

Today (28 May 2009), Pakistan the Taliban warned people to evacuate cities (scary !!!).

Are Things Under Control?

I’m sorry I have to ask this but I’m beginning to wonder if there is anyone left  who understands what’s going on.

It all started with 9/11 and look where we are now.

First Afghanistan. Then when things were almost under control Iraq was sprung on an unsuspoecting world. Then  back to Afghanistan but it hasn’t stopped there. Now I wonder where this roadshow will end up. Is Pakistan the priority or Afghanistan?

If the idea is that Afghanistan will stabilise once Pakistan is bailed out , I am unable to understand the logic. Sure they are entwined to an extent. Even so, they are two seperate issues altogether and should be handled individually. One cannot run an operation by shifting focus every few weeks. More problems will arise.

Will it work?

Obama’s AF-Pak review has come up with some fresh legs and ideas . There’s also some old wine in new bottles. Am not yet aware of all the details except for what has appeared in the local press and some fairly comprehensive coverage on TV channels.

Personally I like the idea of concentrating on creating a competent Afghan force to look after its own problems over time. This was the focus in Iraq too, didn’t seem to be very successful. Perhaps the lessons learnt there have been assimilated and there will be better results.

Holding Pakistan responsible and extracting commitments from it is, in my view, the key to the whole problem. The key to success in Afghanistan, and success means peace and stability to me, lies in one single question. Does Pakistan have the ability and the desire to take on the Taliban and the Al Qaida? It cannot get away anymore playing footsie with both sides.

Biden’s plan of giving them 1.5 bn a year for the next few years is the old wine stuff. Pakistan has made a flourishing business of taking US money to help it fight its battles. Starting from the ’60s,  its always been with one hand held out for doles.  Just how much of this money has been well spent is a moot question. Personally I think its throwing good money after bad. But the US is rich. I have my doubts this will change attitudes in Pakistan.

I am  not aware of what is planned regarding Afghanistan finding its political feet . The current administration started off with a lot of promise but gradually deteriorated and is now pretty dysfunctional. How is a healthy political environment going to be created and what form will it take?  Given the many tribes and fierce  tribal loyalties, this will not be easy. Yet it is also an imperative.

Now he says “Lets Talk”

Remember Mullah Omar? The guy whose Taliban took Afghanistan into the barbaric age. After the Pak President wrote an Op-ed in an American newspaper about the good and bad Taliban, and Obama endorsed the idea of doing another Iraq by talking to ‘moderate’ elements,  Mr Omar says “speak to me”.

At first I found it funny. However, I have always thought it better to talk than to blow out brains. I think that maybe it’s ok to talk to the guy. Just remember though that the US has a  reward of a few million on this one eyed Jack’s head. The only condition should be that he keeps both hands visible and on the table at all times.

He is reportedly still conducting operations and running his bizzare operation from around Quetta, in Pakistan. Talk to him by all means. I would  keep in mind though that this is the guy who had the Buddha blown up at Bamiyan, whose lackeys carried out executions of women with a bullet through the head during half time at foot ball matches, the guy who is attacking convoys and supply lines and the guy who refused to give up Osama, because as he said, one doesn’t betray a guest in his country.

So when this nut wants to talk, one can bet that he is doing so for a very specific purpose.  He’s either running out of support and finds his leadership under threat. This could be his way of getting back at his adversaries in his fold. Or he could just be plain sick and tired and hoping to get free treatment, kind courtesy Obama. He could be buying time. And maybe, just maybe he has had a change of heart – rather he has probably just discovered he has a heart. So Mr. President, talk to him but never forget he is a leopard.

Dara

Walnut-love

Almonds are sweet,
but walnut-bitterness is sweeter.

Why I love newspapers

Or is it newscreens, newswebs or newsnets?  I haven’t bought a paper paper in more than a year.  One of my fav’s, TOI, isn’t available at my local newsstand. What’s the newsstand guy going to do when we’re all reading digitally?

Today at NYTimes.com…

• …there’s this challenging Op Ed piece on Japan’s attitude towards living by Masaru Tamamoto.
• …and a pic, taken in NYC’s Central Park, of the unrelenting quality of today’s US east coast snowstorm, which reminded me of the fight scene set in a real blizzard in House of Flying Daggers, which I once referenced in a truly bad (but heartfelt) poem called Snow in August: whiteout conditions.
• …and this photo of one of the flour wars in Greece that celebrate the end of Carnival and the start of Lent, which startled me into realizing that Carnival and Holi may be related,

Green Waves of Revolution

There’s a green revolution, like a tsunami, coming.
Wave after wave of green technology that has been pent up for many years, hiding behind Bushes, well more like hiding from the Bushes.
The flood gates are open, the garage scientists bent on saving our planetary lives can come out of the closet and mass produce their passionate dreamy techno greeny products.

I have been asking around to see if any of these green jobs are on the grow, retrofitting our cribs to the new green grid. Maybe installing solar systems on your roof or twisty turbines, with two way power play and checks from utility shmecks.

Yo

derek

Slumdog wins 8 Oscars

Slumdog wins 8 Oscars, an answer to critics

February 23, 2009 by authorharb

Congratulations
Slumdog has won 8  Oscars…
and don’t worry about the critics
there are people who can criticise even God
to understand God’s perfection
you need the vision of God
to understand an artist’s work
you need the vision of the artist

Below are a few lines from me
dedicated to the mystery of India
and which actually mesmerizes some westerns
to explore it even at the cost of
getting raped and abused

JAI HO

*******

Amazed at the mystery of
what is there
beneath their dirty bodies
beneath their appalling poverty
beneath the last peel
of their foul-smelling onion
that makes India tick
some daring westerns try to
explore their dirty bodies
churn their appalling poverty
peel their foul-smelling onion
in books, in movies
in an effort to solve it

Rather than feel proud
of their mystery
like the sages of the yore
like Ramana
whose unyielding, unwavering, unfathomable
equipose, calmness, stillness
would make those westerns
who would dare to ridicule
squirm under their shirts
some rather youthful indians
who are apparently not in touch
with their deepest mystery
and consider themselves
limited only to their bodies
their poverty, their onion
and thus ignoring what is
really their uniqueness
play at being great patriots
and condemn them

Yes, particular incidents
can be criticized
even though those too
must not be taken as
because of some bad intentions
on their part
but because of ignorance of
the complete knowledge of an alien culture
but slamming the whole effort
as some sort of plot
to downgrade India
especially with which
they are now trying to forge
the best of relationships
probably drawn by the same mystery
among other things
simply betrays nothing but
their own insecurity
their own prosecution complex

Harb

The Amateur

Calling someone an amateur is a common insult in the USA.   But did you know that amateur comes from the French word for lover?

Post Modern Times

Last evening while doing research on the net; I ran across these videos that were interesting ,both from the aspect of the medium used  and the message.

“They are a series of short animated films presenting new ideas about global consciousness and techniques for social transformation.”

I enjoyed them and thought  you might also.   You can watch them atPost Modern Times

SDM and Me

Watched Slum Dog over the week end. Enjoyed the story very much. It held my interest throughout. Yet I really can’t quite figure out what makes it so outstanding. Other than for the music, aren’t most of the awards/nominations for
technical quality?  The story has all the ingredients of a good ‘masala’ movie – a game show which took India by storm a few years ago, violence, the underworld, romance thrown in and some disturbing visual content on the misery of life in the slums.

For me the people who really made the story
come to life were the three street kids who are actually from the slums. I don’t see any of them in any of the zillion photographs or TV screens. They just seem forgotten and I get the feeling they are perhaps just a very little better off in their lives than before. I get the feeling these kids have been exploited and left out to dry now that they have served their purpose. Maybe I’m wrong but I can’t for the life of me remember seeing those three wonder  kids in any newspaper or on a TV screen.

Dara

Rahmania

“Who’s A.R. Rahman?”

If you’re from the U.S., U.K. or Europe, that might be your thought if you heard his name, even if you’ve seen Slumdog Millionaire, or heard its music.  Yes, even then.

So just who the heck is Rahman, and why this blog post titled Rahmania, and what does the A.R. stand for?