MetaFilter posts tagged with kabul and Afghanistan

Don't wonder where the sisters are now.

ChuraChura — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 12:35:15 -0800

From 1967-1968, Dr. Bill Podlich took a leave of absence from Arizona State University to join UNESCO, teaching in the Higher Teachers College of Kabul, Afghanistan. He took many photographs.

"...now I am the Jew here, I am the boss."

timshel — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 06:40:28 -0800

Afghan Jewry may date back 2700 years. Today, there is but one: Zablon Simintov. Zablon, of Turkmen-Afghan descent, is a carpet trader and the caretaker of the only synagogue in Kabul. Zablon had a feud with Ishaq Levin, the second-to-last Jew of Afghanistan. The two, together (but in separate rooms), lived in the ruins of the last remaining synagogue in Kabul starting in or around 1998, but quickly had a falling out: Simintov suggested that Levin, then in his late 70s, move to Israel, to escape the bitter cold weather in Kabul. Levin took it as an affront, the two quarreled, and each reported the other to the Taliban for various alleged wrongdoings. Each ended up imprisoned by the Taliban. Ishaq died in 2005. "I was glad when he died. I didn't speak to him for years. He tried to get me killed." Last year, Zeblon transformed the ground floor of his synagogue in to a commercial space. Zeblon lives upstairs, in a small pink room. He slaughters his own chickens and sheep in keeping with kosher dietary laws. Normally, only a specially designated person can do this, but Simantov said he got permission to do so from a rabbi in Uzbekistan because he's going it alone. The majority of Jews of Afghan descent, including Zeblon's wife and children, now live in Israel, with the second largest population based in Queens. – In other Afghan Jewry news: A trove of medieval scrolls, smuggled out of Afghanistan into the hands of London art dealers, could shed new light on a once-vibrant Jewish heritage. Former synagogues in Western Afghanistan, until recently disused, are being converted into schools. A recent essay: The story of the Afghan Jews is one of remarkable tolerance.

The Boxing Girls of Kabul

aught — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:54:48 -0800

A documentary by Ariel Nasr, "The Boxing Girls of Kabul" (National Film Board of Canada trailer), profiles a group of young Afghan women training to compete in women's boxing in the 2012 Olympics (which will feature boxing for the first time as a women's event). Radio Netherlands interviews 18 year old Shabnam Rahimi, and the Toronto Star has a photo album on the athletes. If all that inspires you, petition President Hamid Karzai's government to support the team, via this petition page. (Nasr is also known for his documentary, "Good Morning Kandahar".)

The Hidden Victims

gman — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 05:38:26 -0800

Rafaela Persson photographed female drug addicts and their children in Afghanistan.

Drug addiction is an often-told story in Afghansitan, though female and child victims are rarely highlighted. Many of the women that I photograph tell me that they see it as the only way to comfort themselves and their children at times when they have no food or they cannot keep warm. Their journey to rehabilitate themselves has them on the perilious border between addiction and sobriety, a story of many failures and few successes.

Skateistan, the film

Ufez Jones — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 13:23:28 -0800

Skateistan - To Live and Skate in Kabul (9:16) is a short documentary based on the work of the NGO Skateistan (previously), who provide lessons in skateboarding, environmental health, information technology, art and language to hundreds of boys and girls in Kabul, Afghanistan. (via) Some additional video, for those interested: Semester Two: Environmental Health (3:10) Some video diaries from the filmmakers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Official site for the film, with trailer embedded.

The 72-Hour Expert

TheOtherGuy — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:03:47 -0800

"If you spend 72 hours in a place you’ve never been, talking to people whose language you don’t speak about social, political, and economic complexities you don’t understand, and you come back as the world’s biggest know-it-all, you’re a reporter." - PJ O'Rourke visits Kabul

Eighteen Terabytes of Afghanistan

suedehead — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 23:14:13 -0800

"I have just got my hands on something wonderful and precious. It is five computer drives containing the unedited rushes of everything shot by the BBC in Afghanistan over the last thirty years." So writes Adam Curtis on his blog. Curtis is a documentary filmmaker who also works for BBC Current Affairs, and recently obtained access to this material from Phil Goodwin, a cameraman for BBC. The material is amazing, astounding. Watch more than two, ten, thirty seconds at a time and you'll understand: most of us not involved with the Middle East or with war have been trained to watch this material with quick cuts, headline graphics, a newscaster's voiceover. Without these trappings of the conventions of broadcast journalism, you get an alternate viewpoint, a sense of really-being-there. The footage of Afghanistan isn't just a shot of a cannon firing cutting to a shot of Kabul, but includes six slow minutes of government troops, poring over a manual, trying to figure out how to work a gun. Or, the footage at the beauty spa, for example, could be a typical 'zany' piece about the life of soldiers, full of conveniently 'absurd' imagery. Without any cuts, however, you get somewhat of a sense that this is just one part of a day in the life of a soldier, something on the level of going to the bathroom, the vending machine, the rec-room with the ping-pong table. The spa with a manicure. Curtis: "It is just stuff recorded. It doesn't make any sense. But it doesn't make any less sense than the way Afghanistan is reported by newspapers and television."

'BP And The Axis Of Evil'

robself — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 11:52:22 -0800

'BP And The Axis of Evil': Adam Curtis provides some historic information on the Anglo-Perisan Oil Company, later the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, later BP. Since last time I brought up Mr. Curtis' blog (apologies for the repetition), I believe more of the embedded video footage is available to our international brethren, and he has been rather busy on the content front: 'Kabul: City Number One' Parts Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, and Nine are now up, along with 'Kinshasa: City Number Two', Part One, 'How Much Do You Know?' - Part One: Democracy on Trial, as well as Yemen - The Return of Old Ghosts, The Economist's New Clothes, and plenty more besides.

"When Kabul had rock and roll, not rockets."

availablelight — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 03:49:50 -0800

Once Upon a Time in Afghanistan. "It is important to know that disorder, terrorism, and violence against schools that educate girls are not inevitable. I want to show Afghanistan's youth of today how their parents and grandparents really lived."

Adam Curtis - Kabul: City Number One

robself — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:22:38 -0800

"I am researching the extraordinary history of the West's relationship to Afghanistan over the past 200 years. It is a very complex, and sometimes weird, story. These are notes on some of the characters and episodes involved." A work in progress by Adam Curtis - Kabul: City Number One. Part One, and Part Two.

Are fortification and foreign aid making Kabul more dangerous?

homunculus — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:28:18 -0800

The Archipelago of Fear. "International surveys show that the more people trust their neighbours, strangers, and their government, the more likely they are to help strangers, to vote, and to volunteer. If better streets, sidewalks, walls, and buildings all improve the ways people engage with one another, then the reverse should also be true: antagonistic architecture can corrode trust and fuel hostility. Kabul just might be a laboratory of toxic urbanity."

Ten Questions With Aziza Mohmmand

davar — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 04:04:42 -0800

Guy Kawasaki interviews Aziza Mohmmand. What’s the most inspiring story of entrepreneurship that you’ve heard in 2006? My answer does not involve two guys in a garage who sell their company to Google for $1.6 billion. No way...my answer is a woman who runs a soccer-ball factory in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Dead Putting Society

3.2.3 — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 11:52:05 -0800

We will act deliberately and decisively, and the cause of freedom will prevail. Now, watch this drive.

Afghanistan 1969-1974

plep — Wed, 09 Apr 2003 00:21:27 -0800

Afghanistan 1969-1974. Many photographs of the landscapes and people of Afghanistan as was. 'Searching the internet at the beginning of the year 2001 for "Kabul & museum" or for "Bamiyan" displays alarming news. This is why I'd like to put my old photographs of Afghanistan of the years 1969, 1970, and 1974 into the WWW to preserve a vivid memory of the treasures collected in the museum in Darulaman and of an Afghanistan as it used to be years ago ... ' (Also in German).
Related :- Lost and Stolen Images: Afghanistan, including a section on the Bamiyan Buddhas and some images from the Kabul Museum (via the Huntingdon Archive of Buddhist and related art).

Car Bomb Rocks Central Kabul, Many Dead:

tranquileye — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 06:31:24 -0800

Car Bomb Rocks Central Kabul, Many Dead: "Two explosions rocked Kabul today, killing at least 15 people, sending panicked citizens running and causing serious structural damage in the Afghan capital, authorities and witnesses told CNN. Many were wounded [in the blasts], which took place near the Ministry of Information and Culture, but it is not clear if the ministry was the target."

The Lion of Kabul has died.

Wildcat3 — Sat, 26 Jan 2002 22:46:43 -0800

The Lion of Kabul has died. He survived mistreatment at the hands of the Taliban and even lived through a grenande attack, but it was finally old age that put him in his grave. I'm hoping he's symbolic of the Afgan people -- that they will see their troubled times through to the end.

Northern Alliance Fighters Enter Kabul.

tamim — Mon, 12 Nov 2001 19:13:07 -0800

Northern Alliance Fighters Enter Kabul. It's almost over.

He said the roof of the building was marked with the Red Cross symbol.

tiaka — Tue, 16 Oct 2001 07:44:53 -0800

He said the roof of the building was marked with the Red Cross symbol. Good idea. Maybe they should hire Jakob, he would tell them that the cross is ineligible and might be thought of as a target.

The Kabul Museum

waffleboy — Tue, 02 Oct 2001 07:17:46 -0800

The Kabul Museum ...prior to its destruction in 1993. What's left of the exhibits is now in the hands of looters and their customers. Just part of the continuing sadness...

Kabul revisited (TOI photos by Siddharth Varadarajan)

arf — Sun, 16 Sep 2001 10:32:28 -0800

Kabul revisited (TOI photos by Siddharth Varadarajan) - The Times of India doesn't say more about this photo gallery.

Explosions in Kabul.

geoff. — Tue, 11 Sep 2001 15:03:23 -0800

Explosions in Kabul. There are missles coming in Afghanastan. (Saving front page bandwidth, more inside)

Archaeologists wonder where Afghanistan's antiquities have wound up, if they still exist.

lagado — Sat, 30 Dec 2000 21:49:36 -0800

Archaeologists wonder where Afghanistan's antiquities have wound up, if they still exist. There is not much left to see inside Kabul Museum these days. Once a priceless repository of ancient Buddhist, Persian and Greek artifacts, during the civil war the museum changed hands several times and in the process was looted of nearly everything in the collection. Not only did Afghanistan's war claim 1.5 million lives, it also swallowed up the country's history.