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Trust Deficit Between the UK Police and Communities
October, 27 2011 | Musa Khan Jalalzai
The recent debates on trust deficit between the UK police and communities, the police way of conducting some recent operations, racism, discrimination and search and stop under the Counter Terrorism Act 2000, raised many questions. Communities complain about the inactive presence and invisible participation of police in streets and ...
Local Governance Still in Pathetic Condition
October, 26 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie
Afghanistan has been a nation-state for more than 250 years. It has a relatively long history of maintaining a modern-day government with the Kabul having functioned as the nerve-center of this nation-state as well as its capital. The post-Taliban era in Afghanistan, beginning with the American invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, has essentially ...
Current Economic Crisis and Marx
October, 26 2011 | Dilawar Sharzai
The current economic crisis has been able to raise certain important questions about the capability of the capitalist system to guide the international economy towards prosperity. The protests in Europe and America – the most developed of the countries having their economies based on capitalism – have highlighted, along with ...
A Message on the Wall
October, 26 2011 | Muhammad Younas
If Pakistan continues to maintain links with the Haqqani network, the United States will have no option but to break diplomatic ties with Islamabad, Senator Carl Levin, the chairman of a powerful congressional committee warned last Friday and further threatened to attack terrorist safe havens in Pakistan and those who control these ...
Clinton's Visit to the Region and U.S.-Pakistan Bargains
October 25, 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie
The peace and reconciliation efforts pursued by the government of Afghanistan headed by President Karzai seem to have been abandoned after the assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, the ex-president and the chairman of the High Peace Council. Within the 70-member Peace Council, the Late Rabbani ...
Softening Attitude towards Pakistan
October, 25 2011 | Dilawar Sharzai
Both Afghanistan and US have been showing softening attitude towards Pakistan, after a short period of relatively rough attitude. US secretary of state Hilary Clinton has mentioned that though relation with Pakistan has been complicated yet it has been compulsory. Pakistan can prove to be an important factor in the long term solution of ...
Suspicion is Not Cleared Entirely
October 25, 2011 | Jawad Rahmani
>On October 22, I wrote an article, titled "Gaddafi's Death Fuels Arab Uprising", where, somehow, I explained that the incident paved way for military withdrawal from Libya and provided a better chance to look after countries severely crack down unarmed civilians, calling for democracy and a dignified living ...
Qaddafi’s Death Fuels Arab Uprising
October, 24 2011 | Jawad Rahmani
Though the question how Muammar Qaddafi was killed has remained vague and blurred. Was he killed by rebellions after he was arrested or stuck in crossfire and perverted bullets hit his chest and head? But there is a certainty: Libyans got rid of an iron-fist dictator who was breathtakingly suppressing every opposing sound and never let...
The Tale of Afghan Currency
October, 24 2011 | Mohd. Ahsan
Afghani (AFA) is the currency of Afghanistan. The well-sized and charmingly colored paper money we have, on hand, today was not available just nine years back. Then, the Afghans did not expect their currency would, one day, have the value it is having today. The international intervention in Afghanistan, like everything, has caused ...
Killings of Hazaras: Makings of Genocide?
October, 24 2011 | Mohammad Taqi
Anyone who has read Khaled Hosseini's novel, The Kite Runner, or watched its heart-rending film adaptation needs not be reminded that the above quote was an Afghan man's response to a Russian soldier on the verge of a war crime claiming, "This is war. There is no shame in war." The man's son tried to stop him from standing up to the ...
Tale of Karzai’s Anticorruption Efforts
October, 23 2011 | Abbas Daiyar
It's an irony to see high-ranking anti-corruption officials making tours around the world to attend seminars on 'how to fight corruption', but having no single case of success, in large-scale corruption that has plagued the Karzai Administration top to bottom. To their credit, we always top the list of shame in ranking among world's ...
The World is Descending into A Financial Abyss
October, 23 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie
The financial crisis that engulfed the banking and financial sectors of the developed countries in late 2008 and brought a widespread economic recession, dubbed the "Great Recession", is finally over for now, but other equally dangerous crises threaten the global economy and many national economies. The financial crisis, having its ...
A Threat to Mankind!
October, 23 2011 | Dilawar Sharzai
Human beings, in the struggle for their survival, have gone to every possible extreme. They, both individually and in the form of some groups, have proved the Darwin's Theory of "Struggle for survival and survival of the fittest" correct in human society as well. There have been clashes and wars among human beings for the ...
A Renewed Focus on Af-Pak Border Regions
October, 22 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie
The border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been increasingly destabilized as result of activities by various militant groups of which the Taliban and the Haqqani network are the most prominent. The chaos and turmoil emanating from the Af-Pak border regions have thus far destabilized both Afghanistan as well as ...
$38 Billion International Aids: Poor People Had No Share!
October, 22 2011 | Mohd. Ahsan
The international poverty eradication day is celebrated every year on 17 October. Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries of the world. Therefore, for Afghanistan, this day must be significantly important but every year the poverty reduction day comes and goes just like other days. According to estimation more than 10 of 30 million ...
Equality?
October, 22 2011 | Dilawar Sharzai
Human beings, living in today’s world of ours, seem to be losing contentment and satisfaction. There are many incidents taking place in different parts of world that depict that human beings are not able to attain bliss and fulfillment that are really essential for them and that they should have achieved by now. There are marked short ...
66 Years of United Nations – A Reflection
October, 20 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie
The United Nations formally came into existence on October 24, 1945. We are less than a week away from the 66th anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations. In more than six decades of its existence, this international organization has come to play a vital role in global affairs and its contribution to lessening of human suffering has been ...
Socio-economic Mobility and Growing Frustration
October, 20 2011 | Dilawar Sherzai
Capitalism has always been in controversy because it has been a class-based system. The presence of three major economic classes in the system has always kept the discussions among the economists and politicians very hot - few considering it the failure of system while others suggesting it to be they beauty of it. Recently ...
Negotiations, Negotiations, Negotiations....
October, 19 2011 | Muhammad Younas
For the last nearly ten years the United States of American, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the militants groups are nearly reported every second day to have engaged in the negotiations in the print or electronic media to let the world especially the Afghans know about the peace process in Afghanistan. Till now, the media keeps reporting some ...
India – Twenty Years After a New Birth
October, 19 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie
India, in recent years, has been at the forefront of assisting Afghanistan. The recent strategic agreement signed with New Delhi takes Afghan-Indian bilateral relations to a new level. Promoting greater understanding of Indian society among the people of our country is essential for the goal of further enriching this relationship and ...
Confronting Popular Narrative about the Taliban in Pakistan— I
October, 19 2011 | Marvi Sirmed
Last week, one got the opportunity to be on a television talk show with General Hamid Gul and Oria Maqbool Jan, a civil servant turned hawkish columnist for Urdu language newspapers, on the panel. Both have a long, indomitable record of being Taliban apologists and proponents of the infamous 'strategic ...
Afghan Air Force Set to Break New Ground
October, 18 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie
Afghan Air Force is set to break new ground with the NATO Training Mission commander, Gen. William Caldwell, announcing that the alliance will provide Afghanistan's nascent Air Force with 145 multi-role aircraft and 21 helicopters in line with efforts to strengthen Afghanistan's overall defense capabilities. This is very good news for ...
Our Mobocracy
October, 18 2011 | Abbas Daiyar
It's now more than a year, but the parliamentary elections crises still produce a new chapter each time the older drama reach its drop-scene. The latest victim of this manipulation is female MP Simin Barakzai. She was among the nine MP's replaced by the IEC decision after Karzai's decree. Ms Barakzai went on hunger strike after her ...
Afghanistan, Droughts and Climate Change
October, 17 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie
The Emergency Response Commission of the government of Afghanistan has warned that 14 provinces are facing the prospect of drought over the coming months. This is no surprise as international institutions, including the U.S. government, had also warned earlier that the year 2011 would be a very dry year for Afghanistan, and that many ...
How to Destroy the Political Marriage?
October, 17 2011 | Sher Alam Saqib
Afghanistan is going through not only ruthless insurgency but also missile attacks from the neighboring countries. For the last five months, Afghan people been occasionally witnessing missiles launched from Pakistani soil. Unfortunately, Afghan government has not been able to react to these intrusions effectively. Last week, Afghan ...
TAPI and IPI - Pipelines for Good
October, 16 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie
Turkmenistan, being Afghanistan's neighbor to the north, now is said to have the world's second largest reserves of gas, making the country a global energy giant. It can be considered good news for an Afghanistan which desperately needs to grow its industries and economy. Having such global energy magnets as Turkmenistan and Iran as neighbors ...
Does Liberty Mean no Restraint?
October, 16 2011 | Dilawar Sherzai
The formation of states in human history has been convened by the concept that needs and rights of human beings should be safeguarded. In order to make sure that they have a better living, the formation of states has been necessitated. Today human beings are so much dependent on the state that life without state can only be considered anarchy. State ...
Unfolding Changes in Regional Geopolitics
October, 15 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie
As the drumbeats of 2014 withdrawal of foreign troops become louder and the prospects of a post-2014 Afghanistan become hazier, the regional countries rush to secure positions, revive old ties or make new ones and prepare for a time when, in their calculations, the political and security landscape in Afghanistan will be radically ...
Hunger Strike!
October, 15 2011 | Dilawar Sherzai
There have been different ways that individuals and groups have been following in order to protect or promulgate their wills and demands and on certain occasions even force others to follow what they want. These techniques have been both violent and non violent and they can be social, political and religious. When we talk of politics, such ...
The Fate of Afghan War is Still Uncertain
October, 13 2011 | Musa Khan Jalalzai
The assassination of Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani in a high security area of the Afghan capital raised many question about the ineffective security measures of NATO and the Afghan government for protecting civilian life in Afghanistan. This is a shameful failure that a known politician is brutally killed in day light in a country ...
Peace Process; Dominance of Suspicion Over AfPak
October, 13 2011 | Jawad Rahmani
Perhaps, Afghan government and its international allies rightly understood that the war and peace in Afghanistan both converge in Pakistani territory. Neither war would go and nor peace would come to country without Pakistan. What remains in between is the sphere for maneuvering of Afghan government and its international ...
American People’s Fight for Democracy and Rights
October, 13 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie
American people are protesting against a financial mafia/oligarchy that has taken over their country and is bent on preserving its own economic interests at the expense of people's welfare and lives. The fight for genuine democracy, people empowerment and an equitable and fair if not just society is not at all over in what we know as the ...
The Mirage of Peace
October, 12 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie
The government of Afghanistan under President Karzai has so far failed to break the deadlock of meaningful talks with the Taliban. There is a sea of difference between talks as one thing and negotiations as another with each having its own strategic and tactical parameters. Until very recently and before President karzai's change of ...
A Decade in Afghanistan – a Tale of Lost Opportunities
October, 12 2011 | Hadi Zaher
Ten years is a long time in the lives of nations and nation-states. Chinese Cultural Revolution happened over ten years, African-American civil rights movement changed America in a little over ten years, Marshall Plan for reconstruction of Western Europe was in operation for a little over four years; after their near-total destruction in ...
Opium Cultivation and Insecurity
October, 12 2011 | Dilawar Sharzai
Afghanistan, for last few decades, has not only been influenced by wars but by some other evils, as well. Among them opium cultivation, smuggling and its usage have been the most lethal one. Poppy cultivation and smuggling have not only brought bad name to the nation but they at the same time have made its usage more feasible for the ...