Dry Mouth - Kabul Life

Shirtless guitarists, headbanging and stage-diving at...

Wed, 08 May 2013 18:01:48 +0430

Shirtless guitarists, headbanging and stage-diving at alternative arts and music festival Sound Central 2013 in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Thousands of people passed through the third annual Sound...

Mon, 06 May 2013 10:53:44 +0430

Thousands of people passed through the third annual Sound Central festival - the only alternative arts and music festival, not only in Afghanistan, but the entire central asian region. We were lucky enough to play twice - once on women’s day and once on the third day of the festival with our brothers-in-arms, District Unknown, aka the only metal band in Afghanistan.

It was a challenge going on after the hometown favourites, DU with their brand of ultra-aggressive and infectious psychedelic-doom groove. The audience was tired out and left the auditorium for a well-earned break. But within two songs, we got them back.

You never know what the reaction might be from a group of (mostly) young men, who haven’t grown up going to gigs, let alone learned mosh pit etiquette or rocked out to a frontwoman, who isn’t provocative or girly, but in-your-face and energised. Perhaps surprisingly for some who don’t know Kabul, but not surprising to us, we received a hyped-up reception of jubilation and respect.

Sound Central is a safe environment where young people - musicians, artists, performers or just fans - can come and express themselves freely without judgement. In an often closed society, where perception is everything, this is something that’s lacking. There are no youth clubs here and young people are expected to become adults very quickly. Sound Central isn’t about changing Afghan culture, in fact it’s letting Afghans take the lead and tell the world what they want. It’s allowing us all to have options. It’s allowing us to see past the media bias and see this country as full of potential and fully paid-up members of the human race.

Enjoy the gallery.

Photos by Ellie Kealey It may be just a moment. It may not be a...

Wed, 01 May 2013 08:14:00 +0430

Photos by Ellie Kealey

It may be just a moment. It may not be a solution. But this makes everything worth it.

In all my four years in Afghanistan, I’ve never seen anything like the reaction of these Afghan girls to my band, White City. The highlight of my time here, by far.

My band, White City, played day one at Sound Central Festival...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 20:32:41 +0430

My band, White City, played day one at Sound Central Festival 2013 in Kabul, Afghanistan to a crowd of 450 screaming teenaged girls. What band could ask more?

The girls were there for a special women’s only day, designed to give women a safe space to enjoy the music, arts and culture from all over the world on offer. Playing also was the inspirational Ariana Delawari, who is premiering her David Lynch directed documentary, “We Came Home” at the festival.

Sound Central 2013 continues for the rest of the week.

Filming Georgian soldiers receiving a briefing in the field....

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:46:18 +0430

Filming Georgian soldiers receiving a briefing in the field. Musa Qala, Helmand.

(My USMC press officer escort was carefully watching my bag, in case you were wondering).

I travelled to Shindand air base in western Afghanistan last...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:26:44 +0430

I travelled to Shindand air base in western Afghanistan last month to cover the Afghan Air Force’s pilot training school, which will qualify all AAF pilots and flight crew from now on.

Although the Afghan Army Air Corps has been functioning since I arrived in 2009, the Air Force is relatively new, only stood up officially in 2010. Since then, it’s faced a number of challenges, not least the acquisition of light air support planes to replace the fighter MI-35 helicopters (known to many by their cold war NATO designation - “Hinds”).

Many of the pilots of the AAF qualified initially during the Soviet occupation, during extensive training in Moscow. They’re familiar with the MI-35s and MI-17 transport helicopters (aka “flying tractors”), as well as the AN-32 cargo planes. These aircraft are popular, because they’re easy to maintain. This commentator advocates de-mothballing the Antonov cargo planes, currently sitting at Kabul airport (I’ve walked among them).

However, the AAF support mission by the international community is mainly US funded, up to at least 2017. That means there’s a lot of resistance to obtaining spare parts and mentoring flight crews from contracting companies that are outside of the US.

The other problem is sustainability. MI-35s and MI-17s are very expensive to run - up to $6000 per hour, whereas light aeroplanes go further and run much cheaper. The Cessna 208s currently being trained on at Shindand are very reliable and rarely break down (the only maintenance I saw was the result of a trainee pilot taxi-ing into a fire extinguisher). Add to that a light support aeroplane, such as the Super Tucano and you have a pretty comprehensive capability - MI-17s for landing in remote areas, C208s for longer cargo runs and a bit of light air support, thrown in.

But, as seen by the disastrous acquisition of C-27 cargo planes, which ended in the entire fleet being ground, sometimes it’s just better to stick to what you know. I waved off a number of pilots in 2009, who were embarking on a 3 year course in the United States to fly the C-27. I have no idea what became of them.

Sound Central 2013 is nearly here. It’s just over a week...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 09:46:10 +0430

Sound Central 2013 is nearly here. It’s just over a week until Afghanistan’s only alternative music and arts festival rocks out for a third year running.

My bandmate and flatmate, Travis Beard, is the founder of the festival and has been bringing together Central Asia’s best artists, musicians and performers since 2011. I’ve been lucky enough to participate in all of the festivals - as a performer in our band, White City, and other acts, such as backing for female Afghan rappers, Ramika and Soosan; but also as a journalist.

The first year was an experiment in security. We had the Afghan National Police patrol the walls of the venue and the female performers wore hijab. We just didn’t know what the reaction would be.

But two years later, all we’ve found is encouragement and enthusiasm from young Afghans, who just want a chance, a venue, to express themselves. This is not a mission to expose Afghans to western culture or music, nor is it purely a celebration of traditional Afghan culture. It’s a forum for artists to meet up and for young people to have fun, in a country where there are no youth clubs, few sports clubs and young people are expected to grow up far too fast.

Follow the SCF13 Facebook page and Twitter feed and watch last year’s fun below.

I was in Herat, hosted by the Italian forces a couple of months...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:58:13 +0430

I was in Herat, hosted by the Italian forces a couple of months ago. Faced with a dearth of stories sticking with the military, I “unembedded” myself. This is where you sign a bunch of papers saying you’re leaving the care and protection of whatever forces you’re with and heading out on your own. If misfortune should befall you, you or anyone cannot claim damages from the Italians or Americans or whoever you were originally accompanying.

Herat is known as a safe city. This is, of course, a relative term, but in general, the main threat here is kidnappings of wealthy Afghan businesspeople. Military institutions, such as the Provincial Reconstruction Team have been attacked and the Heratis also love a good protest, but it’s largely quiet and surprisingly well-developed and beautiful. A beautiful blue mosque is a popular attraction, as well as the recently repaired Herat citadel.

I met up with a local Afghan female journalist, named Massouma. Like many working Afghan women, she had a number of jobs: journalist for ISAF’s Dari-language radio station; women’s rights activist; blog circle webmaster and “homemaker” (as the Americans would call it). Of Hazara ethnicity, which by and large offers its women more freedoms in terms of working, she and her husband took me for pizza and one of the more upmarket restaurants and then to a school that they’d founded and built, purely from their own salaries.

The school was originally meant to be a profit-making business. But, in choosing the cheapest plot of land, they soon discovered that the reason the price was so good was that the surrounding area was prone to flooding and, therefore, had a large population of Hazara refugees from Iran. These were people, who had escaped the fighting before 2001 and had returned to no jobs, homes or were forced to eke out a living in the city, as there was little to no work in the countryside.

She told me how taking on 100 students from these refugee communities, as a free school, presented its own peculiar problems. Many of the children would bring knives to school, have bad hygiene or malnutrition. They had no social skills and would resort to violence or crying. The parents were not much better. Massouma and her small team of female teachers had to start at the beginning, with social behaviour classes for the children and handicraft classes for the mothers; giving them a chance to raise money in the bazaar with their wares and also keep them from gossiping in the schoolyard.

Registering the school with the Ministry of Education, she was told the students had to have a uniform. The cheapest option, on visiting the market, was to buy the kids imported Chinese sweatshirts of bodybuilders. Unable to afford to take on more than 100 children, she decided to make the school a permanent two grade institute, which would move up as the children grew older. They started at kindergarten and grade one, now the children are at grades two and three.

Thanks to some funding from the US, they hired an English teacher and now the majority of the children are beyond the level usually accorded to their age. However, the second floor of the building is yet to be completed and there’s no heating for the winter months.

Massouma tells me her ambition is to keep renewing the curriculum, year on year until the kids graduate and then found the first free university. However, with funding pulling out already, even prior to the complete 2014 withdrawal of foreign forces, it’ll be a tough job for Massouma and her husband to continue their pet project.

Anyhow, the footage I took from my coincidental meeting with Massouma made it into a wider piece by my colleague, @jaketupman, on female entrepreneurs.

I interview the most senior British commander in Afghanistan, Lt...

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 13:34:30 +0430

I interview the most senior British commander in Afghanistan, Lt Gen Nick Carter, who reflects on his third tour of the country.

I'm a woman considering applying for a faculty position at AUAF. Is it safe? Have you heard about salaries at the university and interacted with anyone who has worked there?

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 13:32:14 +0430

I have several friends who work at AUAF. It’s very safe and a lovely campus. If you’d like me to link you up with them by email, drop me a direct message at my Twitter - @ruthowen

Pulling faces in the middle of a poppy field with Georgian...

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:57:00 +0430

Pulling faces in the middle of a poppy field with Georgian forces on a foot patrol in Musa Qala, Helmand. The locals told us, “if you destroy it, we’ll die.”

Karzai bans US special forces working in Wardak province

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:28:31 +0430

President Karzai took a surprise turn this week, by issuing a ban which gave US special forces operating in Wardak province two weeks to leave. He accused the SF units of partnering with Afghan forces, who locals claimed were harassing, abusing and, in one case, murdering villagers.

As with all issues in Afghanistan, it’s more complicated than it may seem. And it already seems pretty complicated.

* The reports of SF harassing Wardak locals seem to be true. The Country Director of the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (who is, full disclosure, also the drummer in my band) has issued a public complaint as part of the Afghanistan Alliance of Health Organisations against SF operating in the area. The report says that ISAF helicopters have landed at night and Afghan men in military uniform have tied up their workers, smashed windows and equipment and occupied their clinics, which is, they say, in breach of the Geneva convention, which states that healthcare facilities are to be regarded as neutral crowd.

He has told me, also, that his doctors often complain of Afghans, claiming to be special forces, entering on their own, without ISAF and demanding to see patient details or forcing doctors to sign papers for “driving licences”.

* No-one seems to know who these Afghan “special forces” are. Afghan special forces, such as the Crisis Response Unit, based in Kabul, do exist and have done exemplary work in the past, responding to complex attacks in the city. They are mentored by ISAF special forces, in Kabul these are New Zealand and Norweigan forces.

However, in Wardak, it seems murkier. As no ISAF operation is permitted to happen without Afghan Security forces partnering, US special forces in Wardak would have to have Afghans working alongside them. However, there have been accusations of the US hiring Afghans to work with them to provide a credible face, rather than being bona fide special forces, accountable to the MOI or MOD.

These Afghans could also be NDS (National Directorate of Security) aka the “Afghan FBI”, who are known for not caring too much about asking permission first or the concept of human rights.

* It’s also no secret that Wardak is a cradle for Taliban and Hekmatyar’s men. Most attacks on Kabul are staged from this province. Karzai is surrounded by Hek members in his government, being as it also operates as a political party. If Karzai wants to put forward his candidate for President in the next elections, he’s going to need Hek support. If the SF operations in Wardak have been too successful, he may have received pressure to ease up operations in the province.

* There’s also speculation that ISAF isn’t behind all this at all, but it’s the work of the CIA. Of course, in a country that thrives on rumours, this is not only par for the course, but, naturally, impossible to ascertain.

ISAF promise there will be a full investigation, but where they might start and what they might dig up remains unmistakably murky.

Hey Ruth, I am just dropping a quick hello from Canada. You interviewed me in Kandahar and your Cpl Tuck piece on Christmas Sweaters is a cult classic in our unit. I just checked out your site. It is awesome. Hope all is well. Major Steve MacBeth

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:13:50 +0430

Steve! Great to hear from you. Just dropping you an email on your hotmail adress.

Is Kabul safe for female foreigners?

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:13:27 +0430

In short: yes. Stay within cultural boundaries, take sensible precautions like you would in any third-world city (or first-world, in many circumstances), like not walking alone at night. Also, listen to advice from other foreigners and, more importantly, Afghan friends. You’ll be fine.

I spend some time with the Afghan Air Force in Kandahar, where...

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 17:44:26 +0430

I spend some time with the Afghan Air Force in Kandahar, where they provide essential support to troops on the ground with the MI-17 “flying tractors” and brand new Cessna 208s.

Behind the scenes - the Cessna they’re working on had to have its engine replaced, because a novice pilot taxi-ed it into a fire extinguisher.

He’s served for a lengthy 19 months, taking command at the...

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 07:55:45 +0430

He’s served for a lengthy 19 months, taking command at the height of the surge of US troops into Afghanistan. He’s overseen demonstrations, murders and international crises, as well as a drawdown of thousands of international forces. General John Allen talks to me on the eve of his change of command ceremony about the Afghanistan he found and the Afghanistan he’s leaving.

Coalition Forces Stop Kabul Attack - Ruth Owen reporting (shot...

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:22:12 +0430

Coalition Forces Stop Kabul Attack - Ruth Owen reporting (shot part and edited completely). A good 22 hours of being under attack was scripted and edited, while sheltering under my office desk.

The Train Through Hairatan - Ruth Owen reporting (shot and...

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:20:58 +0430

The Train Through Hairatan - Ruth Owen reporting (shot and edited also). This was a homage to my love of trains, but managed to receive a huge pick-up.

Afghan Women on Night Operations - Ruth Owen reporting (shot and...

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:19:40 +0430

Afghan Women on Night Operations - Ruth Owen reporting (shot and edited also)

Historic Boxing Bout is a Fight for Peace in Kabul - Jake Tupman...

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:19:00 +0430

Historic Boxing Bout is a Fight for Peace in Kabul - Jake Tupman reporting. I was part of this multi-camera shoot and subsequent edit.