Dispatches from Afghanistan and Pakistan 2011 #5

by Michael Skinner

Sunday, 13 March – Islamabad

I have a day off from scheduled meetings today, so Arshad takes me sightseeing.

We first visit the Faisal mosque, which is nestled in a beautiful location at the base of the Margalla Hills on the Northwest boundary of Islamabad. The immense mosque, was built as the principle mosque of Islamabad. Its four minarets pay homage to a rich Islamic architectural heritage, but the rest if the mosque exhibits the aesthetic of 1960s-1970s institutional modernism all too familiar to Europeans and North Americans. Other than its impressive dome, it is an angular building built with far too much concrete.

Dispatches from Afghanistan and Pakistan 2011 #4

by Michael Skinner

Thursday, 10 March

I departed Kabul today and arrived uneventfully in Islamabad Pakistan. Now that I am out of Afghanistan, I can safely give my thanks and acknowledge my great debt to Eng. Sayed Jawed of HAFO for his generous hospitality and to all the HAFO staff who were so helpful during my stay in Kabul. I am looking forward to working with Sayed and the HAFO staff, the staff at AREU, and other Afghan organizations to make the dialogue on Afghanistan a success this summer.

Dispatches from Afghanistan and Pakistan 2011 #3

by Michael Skinner

Monday, 7 March

U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates has made a surprise appearance in Afghanistan. It is unclear whether he is in Kabul or at Bagram air base outside the city. Regardless, traffic has come to a standstill as heavily armed American embassy staff convoys and Afghan police and military forces try to outmanoeuvre the anti-occupation protestors who are filling the streets. I have been stuck in the traffic so I do not hear news of Gates' visit and the protests until they are over; otherwise, I would have tried to get some photographs. I did see news photos and video from the protests Sunday during which riot police wearing the all too familiar Darth Vader battle gear and swinging their truncheons beat back crowds of anti-occupation protestors.

Dispatches from Afghanistan and Pakistan 2011 #2

by Michael Skinner

Sunday, 6 March

I have a full day of meetings lined up today. The first is with a sociology professor at one of the many private universities (some of dubious quality) that are popping up here. Surprisingly, a member of the Afghan parliament also drops by (unfortunately, I don’t know how to spell either of their names; I’m waiting for an email with the proper spellings). The professor argues, along the lines of Samuel Huntington’s “too much democracy” argument, that the problem with Afghanistan is too many political parties. We have a pleasant chat over lunch, but I leave unconvinced of the logic of his argument that implementing authoritarian measures will strengthen democracy in Afghanistan, or that the American two-party system is superior to any other means of democratic governance and should be applied here to wipe out dissenting perspectives.

Dispatches from Afghanistan and Pakistan 2011 #1

by Michael Skinner

Sunday, 27 February 2011

I’m on my way to New Delhi, Kabul, and Islamabad. This journey started with an invitation from the Indian Major General Dipankar Banerjee, of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in New Delhi, to speak at a conference organised to assess Canadian and Indian policy on Afghanistan. Since I was so close, I took the opportunity to visit friends in Afghanistan and Pakistan to assess the current situations there. On the way home I’ll stop in the UK for a few days for speaking engagements at the University of London, Bradford University, and at the University of Leeds where my daughter Kira is currently studying. It will be great to see her for the first time since she left home in January.