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Reading Shakespeare in Kandahar

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Reading Shakespeare in Kandahar Find us on AFGHAN www.facebook.com/afghan.scene SCENEISSUE 88 - November 2011 Reading Shakespeare in Kandahar Highland Fling: Karzai in Scotland Behind The Scenes of Kabul At Work The 2001 invasion—up close and personal perspective • insight • people • reviews • pics • life Cartoon scene AFGHAN IntroductionContents Afghan Scene November 2011 Afghan Scene NovemberNovember 20112011 ISSUE 88 - November 2011 Publisher: Afghan Scene Ltd, Wazir Akbar Khan, Kabul, Afghanistan Manager & Editor: Afghan Scene Ltd, Kabul, Afghanistan Design: Kaboora Production Advertising: [email protected] Printer: Emirates Printing Press, Dubai Contact: [email protected] / www.afghanscene.com Check us out on Afghan Scene welcomes the contribution of articles and / or pictures from its readers. Editorial rights reserved. Cover photo: Julius Cavendish Keep updated at: www.facebook.com/ Afghan.Scene 7 Introduction 10 Who Is The Body Builder? A Kabul at Work vignette 16 Kabul At Work Behind The Scenes Scene talks to the man behind the multi-media mapping project 22 Highland Fling: Karzai in Scotland Former British Ambassador to Kabul Sir Sherard Cowper- Coles recounts how President Hamid Karzai went to 10 Scotland in an extract from his memoir of high diplomacy in Kabul 40 Cover feature: Reading Shakespeare in Kandahar Af-Pak correspondent Nick Schifrin asks if the cost of America’s revenge following 9/11 has, as in Shakespeare’s bloodthirsty play Titus Andronicus, been too great 58 Recollections of the 2001 invasion Journalists look back on the high hopes and brutal fighting that accompanied the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan 10 years ago 22 64 In the First Person Lapis man David James talks Afghanistan 68 Be Scene Kabul party pictures 72 Afghan Essentials All you need to know about where to go in Kabul http://stuffexpataidworkerslike.com www.manucartoons.com 40 4 Afghan Scene November 2011 www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene November 2011 5 Introduction Afghan Scene November 2011 Afghan Scene November 2011 Thank You and Goodbye he reins at Afghan Scene are changing There was waking on remote outcrops at hands, which seems as good a reason dawn, or rolling over the green breast of as any to look back on three years in the central highlands without another car Afghanistan and pay a valediction to for miles, or catching a glimpse of a wolf Ta country that almost anyone who spends at 13,000 feet. There was slurping sweet any time here comes to love deeply. green tea at chaikhanas by the way, or eating partridge in the dead of winter in a There was Kabul itself—city of secret gardens, snowbound village, or sipping bootleg whisky open sewers and edgy urbanization, of in Kandahar on hot summer nights while warlord’s temples to greed and garishness, gunfire grumbled across the city. slums rising up sheer mountainsides and the bucolia of the university campus, where it all What I’ll remember best are the visceral started so long ago. At night you could listen friendships, which took no account of to tabla and rabab in rose-scented gardens, background, circumstances or nationality, or you might stumble ceremonial sword the comradeship, the shared excitement. fighting on the streets of Qala-e-Fatullah to It was better than I’d have ever imagined. mark a local boy’s engagement, or you could Staelemashe, Afghanistan. We’ll meet again. hit L’Atmo—that ubiquity where waiters in � � starched tunics served anaemic coffees and industrial-strength cocktails to the hard- bitten and the hard living. [email protected] Afghan Scene November 2011 www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene November 2011 7 Scene Team Afghan Scene November 2011 Afghan Scene November 2011 Contributors Afghan Scene Magazine is proud to showcase work from the best photographers in Afghanistan Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles was the British Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2007 until 2009. He served as the UK’s Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2009 – 2010. He is now BAE Systems’ international business development director, focusing on the Middle East and south-east Asia. David Gill is a British writer, photographer and videogarpher focusing on a social documentary and overseas development. His current book project Kabul, a City at Work is a selection of over 100 original portraits. web.mac.com/shot2bits/work Lynne O’Donnell covered the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan for The Australian, for whom she was China correspondent from 1998-2002. She was Kabul bureau chief for Agence France-Presse 2009-2010 Nick Schifrin is the ABC News correspondent covering Afghanistan and Pakistan. Julius Strauss first travelled to the Balkans as a freelance photographer during the Serbo-Croat and Bosnian wars. Later he worked in Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Iraq and Russia. He now runs Grizzly Bear Ranch in a remote British Colombia valley with his wife Kristin. Almost all of the photographs and cartoons featured in Afghan Scene are available for sale direct from the artists. Most of them are available for commissions, here and elsewhere. If you would like to contribute to Afghan Scene, or if you can’t get hold of a contributor, please contact [email protected]. 8 Afghan Scene November 2011 www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene November 2011 Kabul at work Kabul at work Afghan Scene November 2011 Afghan Scene November 2011 Who is the body builder? Name: Ahmad Shuja Momuzai Age: 30 Length of service: 10 years Income: none Price: $100 for gym membership Employees: Personal trainer Gyms in Kabul: 500 Location: Iron Man Gym “We want to show the world that this is Afghanistan. A strong Afghanistan, a peaceful Mr. Afghanistan colours up Photo: David Gill Afghanistan” 10 Afghan Scene November 2011 www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene November 2011 11 Kabul at work Kabul at work Afghan Scene November 2011 Afghan Scene November 2011 never thought, when I was younger, that eligible to compete in Mr Afghanistan. I would be competing for the title in I Afghanistan. Again there is no prize but people take it very seriously. Last year, Mr Afghanistan spent I started body building in 2006. It is a more than $10,000 on his body with protein peaceful sport, you know, no fighting. My supplements and training over a year. It is an father was also a body builder but had to expensive sport and dangerous too. He died stop because of the wars. Anyway, he told me and his brother said he was poisoned. about it and I began training. For the last two years I come second in “Mr Kabul”. He was training for Mr South Asia and people were jealous. Sabotage is common amongst I work out 3 times a day. 30 minutes in the body builders. I remember when I was a morning and evening and 15-20 minutes kid during the communist times there were at midday. If I weren’t dieting I would be 52 body builders who were being flown all pushing 140kg on my arms and 500kg on my over the world. Someone killed the pilot on thighs. I train in the Iron Man Gym but there the plane and everyone was killed. It could are over 500 gyms in Kabul. have been Iranians or Indians who were responsible. Who knows? I used to be so skinny, weighing just 60 kg. Now I am 80. I am dieting at the moment I am not scared though as this is a peaceful as you have to strip down all the fat before sport. That’s what keeps me going. We want building up muscle again otherwise your to show the world that this is Afghanistan. muscles don’t look good when you pose. A strong Afghanistan, a peaceful Afghanistan. And people are inspired by us. Last year at “When we saw The trouble is that there are no professional the Mr Kabul competition a policeman asked gyms, they are good but there is no me where I work out. The next day he joined the attacks in the investment from the Olympic Committee or the gym and stopped smoking cigarettes and twin buildings the government to make them quality gyms. hashish. You pay for the privilege. Last year 16 people and realised we won medals in the South Asian games but I When I was younger I used to run and do kick think they had to pay for their own tickets to boxing. In one fight I broke my friend’s nose could go back to compete. And there are no physiotherapists and stopped after that. If you hit your friend… to help you if you injure yourself. well it is not good to fight. Afghanistan we were happy.” Anyone can try to compete in a competition, We moved to Pakistan when I was 17 after so long as you have a good body. There I was arrested and detained in Pul e Charki is no prize – just a trophy, a medal and a prison for being Panshiri. It was tough and I The Body Photo: David Gill certificate. If you win Mr Kabul you are worked in a garment factory to help pay for 12 Afghan Scene November 2011 www.afghanscene.com www.afghanscene.com Afghan Scene November 2011 13 Kabul at work Kabul at work Afghan Scene November 2011 Afghan Scene November 2011 my younger brothers’ education. It paid off worsened though. That’s politics for you. though as two of my brothers are working as interpreters for the military as their English is Life is good now however. It is more like so good. it used to be when I was a child.
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