Stories about Afghanistan from July, 2007
Afghanistan: Korean hostage crisis
Eugene Echo is keeping up with the latest developments in the Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan and complains about the lack of attention given to the story by US media.
Global Voices in Persian Takes off
Global Voices in Persian finally takes off officially. It started its first baby steps in June and a few of its translations have already been republished on a few sites including a very popular one, Gooya.com and the Iranian Digg,Balatarin. On good days we get around 350 hits and 250...
Korea: On the kidnapped Koreans
Robert Koehler at The Marmot's Hole follows up on a series of posts looking at the plight of the 23 Korean missionaries—now on hunger strike—recently taken for hostage in Afghanistan in ‘My personal view on the current hostage crisis,’ an answer to his question: “why would 23 men and mostly...
Afghanistan/Kazakhstan: Moving around 42 kids
Tom T retells his adventures of accompanying 42 young Afghan students across the border from Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan.
Afghanistan: Soviet veterans
Two Soviet war veterans who served in Afghanistan are portayed on blogs: Afghanistanica looks at Captain Zakharov, an example of successful counter-insurgency; and Registan.net portrays the mysterious Mahmud Khudoberdiev, who went on to fight in the Tajik Civil War.
Reactions to kidnapping of Koreans in Afghanistan
South Korean Christian missionaries were abducted in Ghazni, south-west of Kabul, on the 19th of this month. The abductors who kidnapped 23 missionaries are Taleban fighters. The hostages were abducted from a bus travelling from Kandahar to Kabul. What the Taleban fighters demand to the Korean government is first to...
Afghanistan: The King is dead
Afghanistan's former king Mohammad Zahir Shah died on Monday and SunLeaf says that he will be remembered by most Afghans for his ambitious, yet unrealised dreams to modernise Afghanistan.
Afghanistan: Is less more?
Carl Robichaud wonders whether Rory Stewart's ideas about how to turn around Afghanistan are very realistic.
Afghanistan: Kites for hearts and minds
Civil-Military Relations wonders whether handing out free kites with an ISAF logo to Afghan children is a good idea.
Afghanistan: Child labour
Afghan Lord talks to a 9-year-old girl who does not go to school but has to help her family make ends meet instead.
Central Asia: Clash of opinion
Josh Foust engages in an extremely interesting discussion with an Uzbek journalist (working for a Russian news agency) about Western promotion of democracy in Central Asia.
Afghanistan: Breadmaking
Bread is the main staple of poor Afghans and Õnne Pärl has a closer look at the inner workings of a bakery in Kabul.
Afghanistan: Interview with Baktash Siawash, blogger and journalist
What follows is an interview about censorship, media and blogs in Afghanistan with blogger and journalist Baktash Siawash. Baktash writes for several magazines including WashingtonPrism. Q: Please introduce yourself and your blog. A: My Name is Baktash Siawash and I live in Afghanistan; my blog's name is “Writings of Siawash”...
Afghanistan: Pessoptimist
Barnett Rubin, in his first post on a new blog about global affairs, says that being pessimistic about Afghanistan is not an intellectual challenge. Instead, Rubin (who was on the UN team during the Bonn conference a few years back) is a practicing “pessoptimist”: “Every morning we thank the Lord...
Afghanistan: Personal experience
On a detour from his usual policy analysis, Tom Perriello shares some of his personal experiences in Afghanistan, including locals’ expectations from marriage, road traffic and basketball games.
Afghanistan: Rebuilding telecommunication
Afghanistan's telecommunications infrastructure is likely to be rebuilt now that the World Bank has announced it will support investment in the sector, says Bonnie Boyd.
US Independence Day: Afghan Edition
Afghanistanica retells a story told to him by an Afghan friend about a recurring dream that turned out to be a distant childhood memory about the Soviet invasion.
Afghanistan: Walking around Herat
After exploring the streetlife of Herat, a city in Eastern Afghanistan, Tom T met with local students who are actively involved in civic projects and who will receive more training in Kyrgyzstan this summer.
Afghanistan: Radio Taliban back on air
Afghan Lord thinks that by launching a mobile FM radio station in the southern provinces of Afghanistan, the Taliban are proving how powerful they have again become.
