First, look to your right. On the webpage. Photos.
So I've been back in Kabul for nearly a week now. During that week, just about everyone else has left.
The holiday period will be quite a stretch, as Eid holidays coincide with this season. So our national staff get around 6 days off. We get at least 2. But the remaining 4 will be slow, if not the whole stretch from now until a week or two into January.
It's getting cold too. As usual with the winter onset, and thankfully, it's been quieter in the country overall and remains quiet here in Kabul.
So I've had to change the template. I put that little sidebar gizmo thing linking to my flickr account. You'll find photos of Kabul and Singapore up there. I have no clue how often I'll update it, but I'll try to remember to post something if I put up photos of Afghanistan.
All: Merry Xmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Saturday, December 09, 2006
My Apologies...
...especially to the regulars who check the blog for updates. It's been quite hectic at work, especially so since I've been trying to tackle a few high priority things, fighting a few fires, and getting things straight before my R&R.
So yeah, I get a short break for 7 or so days. Will be much appreciated, especially after the last few weeks.
I'm off to Singapore, so I'll hopefully pick up a camera too and get back to posting pictures.
To those comments I haven't replied to, I apologize for that as well.
See you all soon.
So yeah, I get a short break for 7 or so days. Will be much appreciated, especially after the last few weeks.
I'm off to Singapore, so I'll hopefully pick up a camera too and get back to posting pictures.
To those comments I haven't replied to, I apologize for that as well.
See you all soon.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Hunting Turkey
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Last year the cooks managed to find a turkey in the city markets. This year they had no luck. So we decided to go hunting for turkey on Tuesday. It took about three hours, but we came back with about 30lbs of bird.
At about 1pm, about 9 of us loaded up into two SUVs, 5 of us with rifles at the ready. Ok, so they were AKs, and not the ornate Enfield elephant guns one can find in the tourist shops of Kabul (though we were looking for what translates from Dari as “elephant chicken”). And true, the 5 armed men were our usual security detail, in uniform, just along for the ride to keep us safe...and it’s true, that we were just going to the expat grocery store.
So we had to trek down the infamous Jalalabad Rd. (a few 2-3 meter craters are still readily visible in the road, i.e. a nice reminder that a car was blown up right where you’re driving over), but the calculus of the moment said it was OK to go down the road. Plus, since the PXs can’t sell alcohol anymore, one would think the road was less frequented by foreigners, and thus less of a “hot” road.
But there are still ISAF patrols on the street, but our drivers kept their distance from the one that was there. Also, I saw an ISAF foot patrol on a off street along the main road. That was a first, and I’m wondering if it is a new tactic. The soldiers are less concentrated, which is a good thing, but I’m wondering how the Afghans feel about it. But if any people are used to armed men in their midst, it’s surely Afghans, and especially Kabulis.
So after finding no luck at the first Aussie run store, at the second we found a 30lb bird in the freezer of the Italian run store. When standing in the kitchen with the cooks, all of us circling the frozen bird, marveling at it, they started wondering where it came from. The wrapper had Cyrillic, Arabic, Spanish, English, and what I now assume is Portuguese writing on it.
See the bird came to us, in Kabul, via an Italian run store, from Brazil; “Producto de Brazil” clearly written on the back side of the bird. [Delete “aaaah, the globalized ‘flat-world’” comment here.] So now the Brazilians are beating the U.S. out in the citrus AND the poultry market???
However far the bird traveled, our cooks did a masterful job of cooking it up, fixins and all. We had a quite, family style, dinner this year, as opposed to the T-day party we had last year. Our style this year reflects the changes that our project and company have gone through over the past year, and the dynamic of the house now versus this time last year. All in all, a great holiday. Plus I get tomorrow off. This two-day weekend thing is phenomenal. Gotta make sure my next job has that deal.
Also, and much more importantly, and something to truly give thanks for, I found some new live Modest Mouse on line; and not just any old bootleg. This is from a show earlier this month in LA. And yes, those that are fanboys of the band as I am, you know what this means.
Johnny Marr is playing guitar with the band. Hell, not just “with” the band, as now he’s “officially” part of the band. For those not in the know, yes, this is that Johnny Marr. For you all really not in the know, and I should ban you all from reading my blog, the Johnny Marr that played guitar in The Smiths, the Johnny Marr that wrote all the beautiful music of The Smiths.
MM’s new album was supposed to be dropped some time this year, but that is no longer the case. Though the sound quality isn’t too good, several new songs available on the web page. It’s enough to make any loser hipster very very happy—and thankful. And you need not ask if I think they are at least a few that are brilliant.
So, just to make sure: go get them here.
Last year the cooks managed to find a turkey in the city markets. This year they had no luck. So we decided to go hunting for turkey on Tuesday. It took about three hours, but we came back with about 30lbs of bird.
At about 1pm, about 9 of us loaded up into two SUVs, 5 of us with rifles at the ready. Ok, so they were AKs, and not the ornate Enfield elephant guns one can find in the tourist shops of Kabul (though we were looking for what translates from Dari as “elephant chicken”). And true, the 5 armed men were our usual security detail, in uniform, just along for the ride to keep us safe...and it’s true, that we were just going to the expat grocery store.
So we had to trek down the infamous Jalalabad Rd. (a few 2-3 meter craters are still readily visible in the road, i.e. a nice reminder that a car was blown up right where you’re driving over), but the calculus of the moment said it was OK to go down the road. Plus, since the PXs can’t sell alcohol anymore, one would think the road was less frequented by foreigners, and thus less of a “hot” road.
But there are still ISAF patrols on the street, but our drivers kept their distance from the one that was there. Also, I saw an ISAF foot patrol on a off street along the main road. That was a first, and I’m wondering if it is a new tactic. The soldiers are less concentrated, which is a good thing, but I’m wondering how the Afghans feel about it. But if any people are used to armed men in their midst, it’s surely Afghans, and especially Kabulis.
So after finding no luck at the first Aussie run store, at the second we found a 30lb bird in the freezer of the Italian run store. When standing in the kitchen with the cooks, all of us circling the frozen bird, marveling at it, they started wondering where it came from. The wrapper had Cyrillic, Arabic, Spanish, English, and what I now assume is Portuguese writing on it.
See the bird came to us, in Kabul, via an Italian run store, from Brazil; “Producto de Brazil” clearly written on the back side of the bird. [Delete “aaaah, the globalized ‘flat-world’” comment here.] So now the Brazilians are beating the U.S. out in the citrus AND the poultry market???
However far the bird traveled, our cooks did a masterful job of cooking it up, fixins and all. We had a quite, family style, dinner this year, as opposed to the T-day party we had last year. Our style this year reflects the changes that our project and company have gone through over the past year, and the dynamic of the house now versus this time last year. All in all, a great holiday. Plus I get tomorrow off. This two-day weekend thing is phenomenal. Gotta make sure my next job has that deal.
Also, and much more importantly, and something to truly give thanks for, I found some new live Modest Mouse on line; and not just any old bootleg. This is from a show earlier this month in LA. And yes, those that are fanboys of the band as I am, you know what this means.
Johnny Marr is playing guitar with the band. Hell, not just “with” the band, as now he’s “officially” part of the band. For those not in the know, yes, this is that Johnny Marr. For you all really not in the know, and I should ban you all from reading my blog, the Johnny Marr that played guitar in The Smiths, the Johnny Marr that wrote all the beautiful music of The Smiths.
MM’s new album was supposed to be dropped some time this year, but that is no longer the case. Though the sound quality isn’t too good, several new songs available on the web page. It’s enough to make any loser hipster very very happy—and thankful. And you need not ask if I think they are at least a few that are brilliant.
So, just to make sure: go get them here.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Another Article
From the LATimes comes an article on the Afghan National Army (ANA). Particularly interesting is the discussion about the focus on making a multi-ethnic army, aimed at providing a unifying symbol for Afghanistan. This is something, as the article notes, that never existed before. Something I still find confusing is the "Afghan" identity and what it means to those claiming it. Similar issues, of course, come up with may nations in the region carved from colonialism. But Afghanistan, with it not being under the brits or any other recent colonizers, I find particulary interesting and difficult to understand.
The article discusses some of the disparities between the US soldiers training and operating with the ANA, and are somewhat expected. More interesting to me was the info and insights on the internal issues of the ANA and how the soldiers are dealing with the "unified army". The aspirations seem noble and provide some hope, though as the article notes, achieving that will depend on the actual existence and growth of the ANA (which goes back to the more technical issues the ANA faces).
Either way, and interesting read. I'd love to hear what some Afghans think about the article and the aims of the ANA for providing a "unified Afghan" identity (Hamesha?, HIK?). Also, I wonder if the US army is using it's own history of integration efforts and lessons learned there, and also the benifits of such, in its work with the ANA.
The article discusses some of the disparities between the US soldiers training and operating with the ANA, and are somewhat expected. More interesting to me was the info and insights on the internal issues of the ANA and how the soldiers are dealing with the "unified army". The aspirations seem noble and provide some hope, though as the article notes, achieving that will depend on the actual existence and growth of the ANA (which goes back to the more technical issues the ANA faces).
Either way, and interesting read. I'd love to hear what some Afghans think about the article and the aims of the ANA for providing a "unified Afghan" identity (Hamesha?, HIK?). Also, I wonder if the US army is using it's own history of integration efforts and lessons learned there, and also the benifits of such, in its work with the ANA.
More Photos...from others of course.
The WaPo is featuring an interactive photo essay, "The Women of Afghanistan", on their front page today. The stories of 5 women are presented against the photos of Paula Lerner. Lerner is a photojournalist volunteering with the Business Council for Peace and has been documenting the work of the NGO, which is working with women entrepreneurs in Afghanistan.
The photo essay is framed by an intro and an epilogue by Lerner. At first, listening to only those, I was a bit disappointed, partly thinking it was another doom and gloom piece. But after going thorugh the whole presentation, I find it to be incredibly well done. The features on the women contain photos of them, their work, and some random photos of Kabul, providing good context. The narration is either by the women or provided via a translator ( I believe). They tell their stories, their stuggles and their success all within 2 minutes each.
The lack of detail perhaps helps to leave one finding the stories incredibly inspiring, at least I did. That feeling, balanced by the more macro-level insights on the recent developments provided by Lerner at the beginning and end, comes across more even keeled. It's quite nice to see a story on Afghanistan so well tempered.
The photo essay is framed by an intro and an epilogue by Lerner. At first, listening to only those, I was a bit disappointed, partly thinking it was another doom and gloom piece. But after going thorugh the whole presentation, I find it to be incredibly well done. The features on the women contain photos of them, their work, and some random photos of Kabul, providing good context. The narration is either by the women or provided via a translator ( I believe). They tell their stories, their stuggles and their success all within 2 minutes each.
The lack of detail perhaps helps to leave one finding the stories incredibly inspiring, at least I did. That feeling, balanced by the more macro-level insights on the recent developments provided by Lerner at the beginning and end, comes across more even keeled. It's quite nice to see a story on Afghanistan so well tempered.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Tempered Temperaments
Despite the fact that heavy amount of news from the other current concerns would have overshadowed much of the news from Afghanistan, the truth of the matter is that despite a few headline worthy events, and one fairly tragic event, there hasn’t been much to spotlight here recently. Even the German soldier gaffe didn’t spend too much time in the news.
I’m happy for that. Event wise, Ramadan went fairly unnoticeably, and the subsequent weeks have gone by quietly too—at least here, for me, in Kabul. (Though, a week or so back, nightly, one could hear the jets taking off from around the area. I assume this was tied to the activities in the south and along the western border). Mullah Omar promised a continued assault, by the Taliban, through the winter. Though it’s too early to make a call the veracity of that, as maybe they’re bedding down for that assault, there hasn’t been much news regarding them on the assault recently.
The recent dearth of front-page worthy news (with the few noted exceptions) and the press’ focus shifting, headline wise, may have to do somewhat with the apparent shift in temperament. Apparent to me at least. Through the spring and summer, everyone was spelling doom. It felt like this place was on the verge of a doom-laden spiral. I both believed and felt it true, at least the part about it being at a precipice. Despite there not being any singularly significant events, it seems like there is a noticeable shift here. The military transitions have gone fairly well, and what was to be a slow and grinding war in the south seems to have been a quelled insurgence in retrospect. I hope I’m not hasty in saying that.
Hopefully the headlines and attention of a few months past were just crying wolf. That is not to say that they were false, the wolf was (and still may be) there. Just rather than raiding the chicken coop, it was circling the hills. The failures, difficulties and problems chronicled in those articles and stories are true, and the problems still remain.
The tone, though, was maybe a bit more apocalyptic than what has come to play. In the least, my temperament at the time was a bit over the top. As for what I’m working on, despite how problematic it is, and how difficult things are, they are moving. Crises are being averted. Perhaps the take on this place, and at least my thoughts and disposition, got caught up in the tragedy to the west of us, but thankfully, things are nowhere near the same, both institutionally and governance wise, and simply in the day to day life of everyone here. All may not be functioning well, but they are functional.
The nip at the heels this past spring and summer (I hope that isn’t too diminutive) may have been, and will hopefully be, a necessary dose of reality as to the current state of this place and what is still so desperately needed over here. Hopefully expectations are a bit more realistic now. Hopefully the rhetoric, from all spectrums (and especially after the shake-ups in D.C.) will be tempered a bit. Hopefully the donors will start to get their act together and priorities can be aligned. Hopefully the blunders have taught some lessons.
There isn’t much rose-glassed hope here anymore. But for the work I’m involved in, there are at least positive expectations for the next 5 to 6 months. I hope that’s true on the larger scale for what’s going on here and with a tempered hope things are turning for the better.
As a complete side note, I am very hopeful about what may be to come from a new band I’ve come across. I’m still loving the recent finds, though today I came across this track, “Brittle Britches” by Quien Es, Boom! via Salon’s Audiofile. The EP (though called a full length release, it’s only 7 tracks), which I promptly downloaded from iTunes, “Cast Your Burdens Aside” is titled well for the current mood. The music captures and conveys the current temperament quite well, so it’s been on repeat for the past several hours.
The band is from Austin, with some strong links and ties to Chicago (may have been recorded there? and the producer is from the Chicago scene). Listening to a few tracks reinforces both of those locales' sounds. The album is fairly heavy on the alt-country and Americana sound of a few of the Austin bands like Calexico. There are nearly equal measures of Chicago post-rock of several variants, such as the bluesy Califone to the jazzy Pele or Joan of Arc. A few of the songs have well done math-rocky time signature and/or tempo shifts. The guitar lines are largely clean and melodic, the hooks simple and repetitive in a good way.
That free song linked above sounds like it coulda been the intro to a Joan of Arc or Don Caballero song, shifting to a lyric verse instead of distorted guitars and breakbeats. The drumming is largely sparse, and fills the space incredibly well. In many ways, this does sound like the Chicago (?) band Pele with lyrics, and a new found country/Americana fixation. The songs, over all, are composed really well, crescendos and codas and other musical terms I don’t really know how to correctly define, let alone identify.
And the dude's voice is quite good, a slight gruffiness, and a slight drawl, with good phrasing and delivery for poppy songs. One song in particular, "Twenty Eight in Twelve", with a quick sunny poppy cadence, the dude sounds like a smoked out Paul Simon. Though the plucky guitar line may make that reference to "Diamond on The Soles..." era Simon easier.
Regardless of my incompetence, or perhaps largely because of it, I’m hopeful that this EP bodes very well for things to come from this band.
On it’s own and with an affable ethos, the band crafts balanced and nearly languid songs while displaying solid musicianship and well placed electronic/experimental flourishes...why yes...it's all tempered well.
I’m happy for that. Event wise, Ramadan went fairly unnoticeably, and the subsequent weeks have gone by quietly too—at least here, for me, in Kabul. (Though, a week or so back, nightly, one could hear the jets taking off from around the area. I assume this was tied to the activities in the south and along the western border). Mullah Omar promised a continued assault, by the Taliban, through the winter. Though it’s too early to make a call the veracity of that, as maybe they’re bedding down for that assault, there hasn’t been much news regarding them on the assault recently.
The recent dearth of front-page worthy news (with the few noted exceptions) and the press’ focus shifting, headline wise, may have to do somewhat with the apparent shift in temperament. Apparent to me at least. Through the spring and summer, everyone was spelling doom. It felt like this place was on the verge of a doom-laden spiral. I both believed and felt it true, at least the part about it being at a precipice. Despite there not being any singularly significant events, it seems like there is a noticeable shift here. The military transitions have gone fairly well, and what was to be a slow and grinding war in the south seems to have been a quelled insurgence in retrospect. I hope I’m not hasty in saying that.
Hopefully the headlines and attention of a few months past were just crying wolf. That is not to say that they were false, the wolf was (and still may be) there. Just rather than raiding the chicken coop, it was circling the hills. The failures, difficulties and problems chronicled in those articles and stories are true, and the problems still remain.
The tone, though, was maybe a bit more apocalyptic than what has come to play. In the least, my temperament at the time was a bit over the top. As for what I’m working on, despite how problematic it is, and how difficult things are, they are moving. Crises are being averted. Perhaps the take on this place, and at least my thoughts and disposition, got caught up in the tragedy to the west of us, but thankfully, things are nowhere near the same, both institutionally and governance wise, and simply in the day to day life of everyone here. All may not be functioning well, but they are functional.
The nip at the heels this past spring and summer (I hope that isn’t too diminutive) may have been, and will hopefully be, a necessary dose of reality as to the current state of this place and what is still so desperately needed over here. Hopefully expectations are a bit more realistic now. Hopefully the rhetoric, from all spectrums (and especially after the shake-ups in D.C.) will be tempered a bit. Hopefully the donors will start to get their act together and priorities can be aligned. Hopefully the blunders have taught some lessons.
There isn’t much rose-glassed hope here anymore. But for the work I’m involved in, there are at least positive expectations for the next 5 to 6 months. I hope that’s true on the larger scale for what’s going on here and with a tempered hope things are turning for the better.
As a complete side note, I am very hopeful about what may be to come from a new band I’ve come across. I’m still loving the recent finds, though today I came across this track, “Brittle Britches” by Quien Es, Boom! via Salon’s Audiofile. The EP (though called a full length release, it’s only 7 tracks), which I promptly downloaded from iTunes, “Cast Your Burdens Aside” is titled well for the current mood. The music captures and conveys the current temperament quite well, so it’s been on repeat for the past several hours.
The band is from Austin, with some strong links and ties to Chicago (may have been recorded there? and the producer is from the Chicago scene). Listening to a few tracks reinforces both of those locales' sounds. The album is fairly heavy on the alt-country and Americana sound of a few of the Austin bands like Calexico. There are nearly equal measures of Chicago post-rock of several variants, such as the bluesy Califone to the jazzy Pele or Joan of Arc. A few of the songs have well done math-rocky time signature and/or tempo shifts. The guitar lines are largely clean and melodic, the hooks simple and repetitive in a good way.
That free song linked above sounds like it coulda been the intro to a Joan of Arc or Don Caballero song, shifting to a lyric verse instead of distorted guitars and breakbeats. The drumming is largely sparse, and fills the space incredibly well. In many ways, this does sound like the Chicago (?) band Pele with lyrics, and a new found country/Americana fixation. The songs, over all, are composed really well, crescendos and codas and other musical terms I don’t really know how to correctly define, let alone identify.
And the dude's voice is quite good, a slight gruffiness, and a slight drawl, with good phrasing and delivery for poppy songs. One song in particular, "Twenty Eight in Twelve", with a quick sunny poppy cadence, the dude sounds like a smoked out Paul Simon. Though the plucky guitar line may make that reference to "Diamond on The Soles..." era Simon easier.
Regardless of my incompetence, or perhaps largely because of it, I’m hopeful that this EP bodes very well for things to come from this band.
On it’s own and with an affable ethos, the band crafts balanced and nearly languid songs while displaying solid musicianship and well placed electronic/experimental flourishes...why yes...it's all tempered well.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
The Action Returns
Today everything came back in full swing. I didn't notice much of a post holiday lull, the kind so common after New Year's in the states. The laundry guy was at least quite busy...having one weeks of laundry from me (though I did skip his mid-week visit) and a lot from the other expats, I assumme.
So in escaping from work, and in trying to find some music more aggressive than Rogue Wave, I went digging through my hard-drive...internal and then external. Couldn't find much and I knew what I wanted to listen to...some good college-days hardcore punk. So I went to the web, looking for some Pee Tanks (btw, that myspace link will take you to a brilliant cover they did of "With or Without You")...and look what I found: The Action Patrol. If any of you readers were around Richmond or Roanoke in the early and mid 90s, you may remember them. Best yet, it appears their whole discograpy (well at least enough to make any returning fan happy) is online, all free MP3s to download. If you're reluctant to believe me regarding their unquestionable brilliance. Start here with "Tube"...unquestionable.
So in escaping from work, and in trying to find some music more aggressive than Rogue Wave, I went digging through my hard-drive...internal and then external. Couldn't find much and I knew what I wanted to listen to...some good college-days hardcore punk. So I went to the web, looking for some Pee Tanks (btw, that myspace link will take you to a brilliant cover they did of "With or Without You")...and look what I found: The Action Patrol. If any of you readers were around Richmond or Roanoke in the early and mid 90s, you may remember them. Best yet, it appears their whole discograpy (well at least enough to make any returning fan happy) is online, all free MP3s to download. If you're reluctant to believe me regarding their unquestionable brilliance. Start here with "Tube"...unquestionable.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Updates and Changes...
As you may have noticed, there had been less and less of the "on the ground" perspective of what going on in Afghanistan. I think it was partly subconcious, as I was preparing to disengage from this place and move on. I was looking at returning in December. Yeah...that preceding sentence was written in the past tense.
Our contract got extended again, till March '07, and there are a lot of things that may continue on past then. Even as this current extension was developing I was still planning on coming home in December and getting ready to give the bar exam another shot in February, get a normal job, move on with life, a year here was enough, etc... Just yesterday I told my boss I'll stay on...kinda indefinately, and more accurately that I've dropped the solid plans on coming home in December.
So maybe I'll become reengaged with this place again, and rather than just passively take it all in, start thinking and writing about it more. In the least, I'll be updating the blog roll on the right hand side. There are a few new Kabul/Afghanistan related blogs, some have dropped off, and some are posting again (well one Hamesha...hopefully he'll start posting about Afghanistan again).
Our contract got extended again, till March '07, and there are a lot of things that may continue on past then. Even as this current extension was developing I was still planning on coming home in December and getting ready to give the bar exam another shot in February, get a normal job, move on with life, a year here was enough, etc... Just yesterday I told my boss I'll stay on...kinda indefinately, and more accurately that I've dropped the solid plans on coming home in December.
So maybe I'll become reengaged with this place again, and rather than just passively take it all in, start thinking and writing about it more. In the least, I'll be updating the blog roll on the right hand side. There are a few new Kabul/Afghanistan related blogs, some have dropped off, and some are posting again (well one Hamesha...hopefully he'll start posting about Afghanistan again).
The Long Promised
Here it is. The post about regional issues, focused through Balochistan, rather than Kabul.
Though originally I was going to write a long post, in the end (due to laziness, distance, or even myself paying less attention to the regional news), I think this will be a quick post. At least I’ll try. Besides, you all come here to read about my musical discoveries, not my political theories and armchair observations.
(On that note, it’s been Rogue Wave out of the Bay area. Heard “Eyes” (listen here on their Myspace page) while watching NBC’s Heroes, tracked them down quickly. Four free MP3s on the left on their Subpop page.
So over the past year, as you all know, I often end up talking to the Afghan nationals in Urdu. They ask me where in Pakistan I’m from and I ask them where they lived and if they still have family still in Pakistan. Many times I’ll ask them directly if they were in Peshawer, the primarily Pathan/Pashtun city and area in Pakistan. What has surprised me is how many have answered that they were in fact in Quetta.
Quetta is south of Peshawer, and though apparently different now, was (in my mind at least) a Balochi town, it being in the Balochistan province. I’m not sure about the linguistic roots of the language Baloch, but as I understand the ethnic roots, they are a long standing Persian rooted ethnicity. How distinct they are from other Persian ethnicities and the Pathans, I don’t know, but there has been a continuous independence movement post-colonialism, and marked autonomy before then. Either way, there are a large group of Balochi people both in southeast Iran, and traversing the border, in southwest Pakistan and a small amount in Afghanistan.
Over the past several years, the central gov’t of Pakistan has been trying to develop the resources in Balochistan and exploit the geographics of the area. There are gas and other natural resources in the area, and the coastline has a key deep-sea port, Gwadar, that is being heavily invested in. The area is also key to the Iran-Pak-India pipeline. Supposedly, as I’ve recently learned, China has heavy interests in Gwadar, both as an export route for NW China and an import route for energy resources.
Iran is in a particularly rough spot, balancing fighting the US/NATO alliance in Afghanistan via the Balochis and Taliban residing in and around Quetta, ensuring their energy/resource export routes to India and China and making sure their Balochis don’t get too many nationalist aspirations (also, it seems like the deep sea port in Gwadar contends w/ Persian Gulf ports of the Iranians and the Gulf Arabs). India, of course, is in constant power checks with Pakistan while desperately trying to make sure they get their energy they need and keep their export routes and battling China for economic dominance.
So you have three countries with strong economic and/or geographic empire building interests, Iran, China and India battling it out over an area inhabited by a traditionally autonomous and apparently fiercely independent people. Then you have two sub-player/proxy countries (and their contending internal power players), Afghanistan and Pakistan, keeping their selves alive and their provincial interests and exploits continuing...all while figuring out how to play off and around all the long-term promises.
I imagine it’s like picking a skirt to hide under while there is a square dance going on. How do you hide when there are constant positional and partner changes? Maybe this has a lot to do for explaining the apparent intransigence of the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan in dealing with the tribal issues they share. Maybe just pick a place and wait till the skirt comes to you. It seems like the Balochis may face the fate of the Kurds. It may be unfortunate and a constantly forgotten issue that will just make everything more difficult.
As far as keeping up with the news on the area, Ahmed Rashid seems to mention the topic quite a bit when talking about the regional issues. I think I’ve linked to or mentioned his writing on the issue before. Here is a “Live Online” discussion from two weeks back where he answers some questions related to Balochistan.
Google news searches always work well, and just a few days ago some Balochi militants blew up the pipeline there. Besides Reuters, it seems like only regional newspapers picked up the story. Though I’m lacking Nexis, so I’m limited to Google’s news sources/search.
A really good resource on the issue can be found here, provided by the Hindustan Times. Titled “Battleground Balochistan”, with a distinctly US media feel to it, I find it’s presentation style comforting.
In the end, I think with all the long-term promises, always made in general terms, with the obvious and incredibly contending and complex regional and global self-interests, these promises may stay long promised.
Though originally I was going to write a long post, in the end (due to laziness, distance, or even myself paying less attention to the regional news), I think this will be a quick post. At least I’ll try. Besides, you all come here to read about my musical discoveries, not my political theories and armchair observations.
(On that note, it’s been Rogue Wave out of the Bay area. Heard “Eyes” (listen here on their Myspace page) while watching NBC’s Heroes, tracked them down quickly. Four free MP3s on the left on their Subpop page.
So over the past year, as you all know, I often end up talking to the Afghan nationals in Urdu. They ask me where in Pakistan I’m from and I ask them where they lived and if they still have family still in Pakistan. Many times I’ll ask them directly if they were in Peshawer, the primarily Pathan/Pashtun city and area in Pakistan. What has surprised me is how many have answered that they were in fact in Quetta.
Quetta is south of Peshawer, and though apparently different now, was (in my mind at least) a Balochi town, it being in the Balochistan province. I’m not sure about the linguistic roots of the language Baloch, but as I understand the ethnic roots, they are a long standing Persian rooted ethnicity. How distinct they are from other Persian ethnicities and the Pathans, I don’t know, but there has been a continuous independence movement post-colonialism, and marked autonomy before then. Either way, there are a large group of Balochi people both in southeast Iran, and traversing the border, in southwest Pakistan and a small amount in Afghanistan.
Over the past several years, the central gov’t of Pakistan has been trying to develop the resources in Balochistan and exploit the geographics of the area. There are gas and other natural resources in the area, and the coastline has a key deep-sea port, Gwadar, that is being heavily invested in. The area is also key to the Iran-Pak-India pipeline. Supposedly, as I’ve recently learned, China has heavy interests in Gwadar, both as an export route for NW China and an import route for energy resources.
Iran is in a particularly rough spot, balancing fighting the US/NATO alliance in Afghanistan via the Balochis and Taliban residing in and around Quetta, ensuring their energy/resource export routes to India and China and making sure their Balochis don’t get too many nationalist aspirations (also, it seems like the deep sea port in Gwadar contends w/ Persian Gulf ports of the Iranians and the Gulf Arabs). India, of course, is in constant power checks with Pakistan while desperately trying to make sure they get their energy they need and keep their export routes and battling China for economic dominance.
So you have three countries with strong economic and/or geographic empire building interests, Iran, China and India battling it out over an area inhabited by a traditionally autonomous and apparently fiercely independent people. Then you have two sub-player/proxy countries (and their contending internal power players), Afghanistan and Pakistan, keeping their selves alive and their provincial interests and exploits continuing...all while figuring out how to play off and around all the long-term promises.
I imagine it’s like picking a skirt to hide under while there is a square dance going on. How do you hide when there are constant positional and partner changes? Maybe this has a lot to do for explaining the apparent intransigence of the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan in dealing with the tribal issues they share. Maybe just pick a place and wait till the skirt comes to you. It seems like the Balochis may face the fate of the Kurds. It may be unfortunate and a constantly forgotten issue that will just make everything more difficult.
As far as keeping up with the news on the area, Ahmed Rashid seems to mention the topic quite a bit when talking about the regional issues. I think I’ve linked to or mentioned his writing on the issue before. Here is a “Live Online” discussion from two weeks back where he answers some questions related to Balochistan.
Google news searches always work well, and just a few days ago some Balochi militants blew up the pipeline there. Besides Reuters, it seems like only regional newspapers picked up the story. Though I’m lacking Nexis, so I’m limited to Google’s news sources/search.
A really good resource on the issue can be found here, provided by the Hindustan Times. Titled “Battleground Balochistan”, with a distinctly US media feel to it, I find it’s presentation style comforting.
In the end, I think with all the long-term promises, always made in general terms, with the obvious and incredibly contending and complex regional and global self-interests, these promises may stay long promised.
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