The Taliban and The City
In a recent article, Antonio Giustozzi explains how the Taliban have improved their command & control structure. He describes how, under the military pressure of the US and NATO, and with the...
View ArticleIn Memoriam Doctor Niazi
Today I heard that one of my dearest friends died in a car accident on the Kabul-Jalalabad road. Doctor Mohammed Saeed Niazi was a true friend to me; more than that, he was one of those friends that...
View ArticleHow the collection of the National Museum of Afghanistan survived the civil...
My contribution to the “Art Trafficking and Restitution” roundtable organized by Walk of Truth at the Peace Palace in The Hague 16 September 2013 Ladies and Gentlemen, In the late 1970s, when Kabul...
View ArticleA visit to Nur Agha the kitemaker
Today I took a few hours off work to visit the master kite maker, Nur Agha, son of Bejo, the famous Kabuli kite maker. One of his friends, Zilgai, owner of a few kite shops in Shor Bazaar, agreed me …...
View ArticleDostum apologizes for war crimes
Below is the full English version text of Dostum’s apology, read on 7 October 2013. I edited the translation, using the Dari original of the speech to ensure it corresponds closely. The apology created...
View ArticleAfghan Urban Housing Dilemma
When we visited the mayor’s office during my last trip to Kabul, the deputy mayor, a great fan of Persian poetry, lamented the fact that all the houses currently being built in Kabul are of the...
View ArticleSecurity through integration, not isolation
The news of the bombing of La Taverna du Liban, a Lebanese restaurant in Kabul, reached me while I was following a pre-deployment course for a EU mission in Libya. I think I knew Kamal, the owner of...
View ArticleLessons (Not) Learnt in Afghanistan
I am posting the pdfs of my visual presentations for the course ‘Lessons (Not) Learnt in Afghanistan’, given at the Paris School of International Affairs in Feb-March 2015, here. My presentations serve...
View ArticleKabul rising and getting high, 2013
Today I guided a Dutch architect researching urban developments in Kabul. After fixing the roaming internet connection on his Apple computer in a record time – praise be to the helpfulness and tech...
View ArticleRich and Poor on the Outskirts of Kabul
Today we first went to visit the new city of Omid-e Sabz. It is located improbably far from the city center, about 10 minutes drive West of Darulaman Palace, and close to the southeastern rim of...
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