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Afghanistan 'A Good Country Again'
Thursday, August 22, 2002
(12:18 AM ET)
By Mark Memmott
USA TODAY

Amil, 20, opened a small video rental shop in Kabul six months ago, shortly after returning to the city from Pakistan.
Image Credit: Mike Memmott -- USA TODAY.

Three months ago, Wafia returned. He has since opened up a shop in a storage container set by the side of one of Kabul's busier roads. A sign outside advertises his services, which include not only singing but making party decorations. He sings, in Persian, what's considered to be modern pop music here. To a Western ear, it's similar to pop music heard in India and Pakistan: long, repetitive songs that are heavy on percussion and keyboards. Wafia has had only a handful of customers pay to have him and his band perform, but he's hopeful business will improve in the month to come. More important, "before, there was not freedom for singers to speak with their voices," he says. "Now there is."

KABUL, Afghanistan -- USAT
During his second trip to Afghanistan this year, USA TODAY reporter Mark Memmott looked this month for signs that the outside world is creeping into Afghanistan's capital. Progress in Kabul virtually halted 10 years ago, first because of civil wars that devastated the cityand then because of Taliban policies that isolated Afghanistan.

Cell phones, satellite dishes and SUVs are the symbols of a modern world any visitor first notices. There are definitely more of all three since my first trip here in the spring.

There's also an Internet cafe open to the public at the Intercontinental Hotel. It's run by the local cell phone firm, the Afghan Wireless Communication Co., a joint venture between Telephone Systems International of New York and the Afghan Ministry of Communications.

But those aren't changes that affect the lives of most Afghans. The only Kabul residents talking on cell phones, watching satellite TV, surfing the Web or driving sport-utility vehicles are top government officials or the relatively small number of translators, drivers and office aides who are lucky enough to work for relief groups or media outlets.

To see how the outside world is touching real people and how they are responding, stop in any of the hundreds of businesses that have opened up in shacks, tiny buildings or roadside stalls across the city.
(More: USAToday.com News Source)
2002 © USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Dan