US hidden message

US stresses Pakistan's role in Afghan peace

by Frozan Rahmani on 5 March, 2011 - 20:46

KABUL (PAN): President Barack Obama's point man for Afghanistan and Pakistan on Saturday called for a political dialogue with militants to bring peace and stability to the country.

Addressing a news conference at the US embassy in Kabul, Special Envoy Marc Grossman said Pakistan's role in dealing with the insurgency in Afghanistan was crucial.

While emphasising a smooth security transition from NATO-led troops to Afghan forces, he believed regional countries, particularly Pakistan could play a key role in a political settlement of the problem in Afghanistan.

In order to bring peace and stability to the Central Asian country, Pakistan should step up efforts to eradicate insurgent hideouts on its soil, said Grossman, who was appointed as US special envoy in mid-February after Richard Holbrooke's death.

Currently on a swing through the region that has already taken him to London and Jeddah, the veteran diplomat identified success in the war on terror, support for the peace process and the security handover to Afghan forces as his top priorities in Afghanistan.

He made clear the US did not want to have a permanent military presence in Afghanistan but remained committed to long-term cooperation with the ally.

During his trip to Jeddah, Grossman attended the International Contact Group (ICG) meeting and met key US partners and allies. The first ICG meeting of 2011 was hosted by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

From Kabul, he is scheduled to fly to Islamabad for talks with Pakistani officials and civil society members. His visit will conclude with a stop in Brussels, where he will meet NATO leadership.

 

The man who guards my workplace.
Seeing camera in my hand, he wanted to get clicked and when I did, he came running to see the shot .It was in a sense a moment of great satisfaction for him to see this picture that defines his identity.

A major part of his life in Kabul is spent in front of this gate, guarding our workplace. A city where deadly suicide attack is a living reality.

 

This is my dear friend Hafizullah Ahmadi.
He drives me around in Kabul in his Toyota 4WD Runner, a baby elephant :)
Hafizullah speaks fairly good English, better than many of us in India. Soon after his birth, his father decided to migrate to Pakistan in 1988 with family at the time of the Soviet invasion. They came back to Kabul in 1996. After finishing his school he had to discontinue his studies, after he lost his father to blood cancer.
The youngest in the family of 5 brothers and 2 sisters, he supports his family in a big way.
Hafizullah now dreams of studying Business Administration. Inshallah,  one day he will.
He smiled not when I said cheese, but when I called him handsome, which actually he is!
:)

Thats Afghanistan's own 'Burger'.
An indian 'Naan' type of a bread is rolled with lots of french fries, mutton kebabs, and mutton sausage.

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Kabul at 6 in the evening.
Afghanistan works between 8am-4pm. Offices close by 4pm,and shops by 6 30pm in the evening.
I have not seen the concept of street lights in Kabul. And in fact this is one of the most posh areas in Kabul, called, Sher-e-Naw. One is not allowed to venture out into the city after 8pm.
The vibrant colorful shops keep the city alive and glimmer the roads till about 7pm. After that its only the beautiful dark blue sky to give you company

 

 

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The streets in Kabul give a very dry look, like the climate here. The trees at the moment have all dried up maybe because of the weather. It is the snow that takes the place of the leaves, beautifully forming a white layer on the branches.
Kabul, now appears like a desert, a cold one. It used to have a lot more trees, but the Soviets cut down most for security reasons (the mujahadeen hid in them to snipe at the Soviets).
After the Soviets left and the warlords fell to fighting one another, the city was shelled for almost three straight years from 1993 to 1996, destroying or damaging more trees. Then when the Taliban was in power, they paid little attention to planting new trees.
With no Taliban now, trees are being planted, but at a slow pace. In fact trees are being cut for firewood. With no trees left they will then go to the roots!!

 

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The famous Kabul Bread Factory. It was built by the Soviet 40th Army.
This old barren structure standing tall was once feeding mostly the soldiers fighting the civil war. It was processing and grinding 141.000 tons of wheat as well as cooking 40.000 tons of food items such as bread, cookies, and spaghetti before the wars but it was completely destroyed during the wars and all its machineries were looted.
It is surreal to look at this structure and feel its stillness, after knowing its history.

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If not a bird you will definitely spot a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk in Kabul. The sky is, 24*7, flooded with them, mostly transporting NATO officials/soldiers, VVIPs, and UN officials from one point to other. Because travelling on road is not a viable option.

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A local bread shop in Kabul. Nobody in the city bakes bread at home, they all purchase it from these local bakeries.
Every meal has to have a bread, either a long Naan, or a Naan Rogani(seen in the picture above), which is round in shape.
Naan Rogani is a little greasy as opposed to a normal Naan, which is dry.

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Qarga Lake. Just 10kms from the city, set in the barren hills, north-west of Kabul, towards the pakistan border, is this artificial lake, created in the late 50's by President Daoud as a recreation facility. So Suddenly, in 20 mins from the dust and fumes of the city you enter a serene, cllear air and cool water atmosphere.
This area is also home to the Kabul Golf Course. I am told this course is one of the most unusual courses in the world.

 

PEACE WITH TALIBAN

Peace talks with Taliban underway: Karzai

by Javed Hamim Kakar on 3 March, 2011 - 13:30

KABUL (PAN): The Afghan government and its international supporters, in an effort to end the ongoing conflict, are in peace negotiations with Taliban insurgents, President Hamid Karzai has said. 

"We are in direct talks with some of the Taliban. At the same time, there are also contacts by our international partners," the president said in an interview with a British TV channel late on Wednesday. 

They were trying to put the contacts together and be well-informed about the reconciliation drive at all levels, Karzai told Channel 4 News. "There are contacts (between the British and Americans) with the Taliban."

Through the High Peace Council, which was set up last year, the Afghan government was holding talks with some Taliban members, he said. "The contacts don't get to a fixed address, unfortunately, because that address is not there."

He believed the dialogue would take two to three years to yield concrete results.

While accusing the Western media of overstating the magnitude of corruption in his administration, he insisted that allegations about his brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, were "absolutely wrong and politically motivated".

Conceding that Afghanistan's largest private-sector bank, Kabul Bank, is in crisis because of corruption, the president said that financial institutions in the United States and Britain had faced similar situations.

Sayyaf, the next Cheif Justice of Afghanistan

Karzai offers Sayyaf, Qanuni key slots

a Pahjwok Report on 20 February, 2011 - 16:13

KABUL (PAN): Former Wolesi Jirga speaker Yunus Qanuni and his rival Abdur Rasul Sayyaf have agreed not to run again for the top parliamentary office, a lawmaker said on Sunday.
They held out the promise at a meeting with President Hamid Karzai on Saturday, the legislator told Pajhwok Afghan News on condition of anonymity.
In return, Karzai promised to nominate Sayyaf as Supreme Court chief justice and Qanuni as foreign minister, the source revealed. The two accepted the presidential offer, he added. Their appointments would be notified soon, the MP quoted the president as saying.

Parliamentarians Sayed Ali Kazimi and Abdul Ghafar confirmed the meeting, but offered no details. According to some legislators, Qanuni was supported by Abdullah Adullah in the speaker's election and Sayyaf by Karzai.

Social Media for Journalists

SOCIAL MEDIA- It is a way to interact socially using web based and mobile technology. Regular media is one way street and social media is two way street through which you can communicate.

Journalism is bound to change in the coming years, and it becomes very imperative for all of us journalist to become part of the social media revolution and leverage its power.  Today’s audiences expect to be able to choose what they read, and most believe they should be able to contribute content and opinions, too. So be a ‘social journalist’

Some facts about social media

1.       96% of the world population is on facebook

2.      The number of years each of these media took to reach 50 million users: Radio - 38 years; TV - 13 years; Internet - five years; iPod - three years; and Facebook - less than two years.

3.      Court notices and summons sent through Facebook are legal and binding in Australia

How different from regular media. (Print, Radio, TV)

1)      Interactive- You can reach and connect the global audience

2)     Its exclusive to everyone, not owned by one but all

3)     Needs no special skill to use and be a part of

4)     It is faster

5)     Can be changed altered and edited and that’s how the interaction progresses

6)     Social media not being used by people who create content, but mostly by people who want to generate conversations and create a rage.

Blogging

Blogging is an informal approach to content creation that has evolved in response to Web users' need for a simple publishing tool giving maximum engagement with readers

• Be interesting.
• Be conversational: raise questions, invite contributions, discuss what’s happening on other blogs, leave some loose ends, and respond to comments made by readers.
• Link to external sites with relevant information
• Monitor other bloggers in the same space and attempt to build reciprocal links with them.
• Tag posts so that they are easy for search engines to find.
• Inject some personality into their posts and include observation and anecdote.
• Make use of multimedia whenever possible and think about a post’s layout.
• Credit the original source of all content embedded in posts.

How to use twitter/facebook

Effective use

1)      Establish yourself as an expert on the information, get credibility-(a-with the people in your beat, b- the ministers, MPs, say what does the constitution say on a particular subject like election of speaker, or budget, give figures and facts)

2)     Be Active- Constantly involved in a dialogue you feel for or wish to bring a change in, this will force people to acknowledge you. (an issue you feel for in parliament some province that needs attention, give your suggestions, do not leave an issue, like the budget-compare your budget with immediate neighbors or if you want to be critical of the budget, ask question to your fellow reporters and ministers)

3)     Ask and open for feedback- The more the better

4)     Track other trends (a good beat reporter gets to know as many people as possible on his or her beat, both experts and  people with something to say)

5)     Tweeting or facebooking events, articles, others articles- Use it during live events

6)     Be interesting and creative and not repetitive (Like suppose a speaker gets elected then you could send a tweet on him and have a link to the pajhwok website that says read about his background, create a hashtag around the parliamentary elections-start your own trend )

7)     Directly interact with leaders, activists and ordinary citizens.(The minster will acknowledge you if not your input, shashi tharoor example and Jairam Ramesh example)

8)     Find and search for people who have shared interests

9)     Besides all these, mainstream media can use the internet as a more a dynamic resource than a static resource (simple website) using social media to popularise news and opinions that they are generating. 

Examples

Social Media tools such as Facebook and Twitter have been very useful in news dissemination where freedom of expression has been much curbed, particularly in countries such as Iran and Egypt of late. In that sense they have served as an alternate media. Even in India, issues related to the collusion of media players and government - leaked as the "Radiagate" issue - was highlighted because of the efforts of the social media more than the mainstream outlets.

Citizen journalism - Highlighting events and occurences that can catch the eye of otherwise clueless media resources on various subjects; that is very much part and parcel of social media. Facebook, with its "pages" and "groups" sections have also fuelled intense discussion on various issues of public import and is thus a new media component. 

Recommendations before you try your hands with Social Media

1)      Know your subject-Think before you post- be careful of what you post, be aware of what your organization’s stand is on that subject. It should not conflict with the organization’s stand. Do not embarrass your company.

2)     Attribution- Must give a link to the headline or the message you are posting. The readers want to know where you got the information from.

3)     Is it a hoax? Always check your facts and re-confirm the report before posting it.

4)     Avoid raising questions about your freedom from bias-Your Facebook profile, Twitter stream or personal blog give clues to your political and other affiliations and you should take care about what you reveal. A determined critic can soon build up a picture of your preferences by analysing your links, those that you follow, your 'friends', blogroll and endless other indicators. We all leave an 'online footprint' whenever we use the Web and you need to think about whether your footprint might create perceptions of a bias toward or against a particular group.

Think about the groups that you join -- it may be safest not to join a group or to follow participants on just one side of a debate

Think about using 'badges' expressing solidarity with some cause

Think about whether it would be best to leave your political affiliation out of your Facebook profile

Think about whether you link only or mainly to voices on one side of a debate

5)     If you use social networks for both professional and private activity then use separate accounts