I found this new, and I believe it is very interesting for understading the current issues happening in Afghanistan. Let's hear the other side of the "story"...

Afghanistan on the edge

Adaptability is plentiful, as this family in Herat Province demonstrates. But after seven years of occupation, where is Afghanistan heading? Fardin Waezi / AINA PHOTO AGENCY / AFGHANISTAN www.ainaphoto.org

Living on the edge is nothing new to Afghanistan. The country and its people are familiar with extremes of most kinds – geographic, political, religious. But today they are well and truly on the brink.

During 2008 the conflict in Afghanistan has escalated dramatically, claiming some 3,000 lives, almost half of them civilians. This is worse than at any time since the US-led invasion seven years ago. The monthly death toll of international servicemen and -women in Afghanistan has topped that of Iraq. The Afghan police force has lost no fewer than 700 personnel this year, while the targeting of aid agencies by militants has led to a doubling of charity workers killed.

The Taliban is resurgent; its fighters determined to get foreigners off Afghan soil, to topple the Western-backed Government of Hamid Karzai and to impose sharia law. ‘No negotiations with invaders’ is their line – reiterated recently as US and British military top brass were saying: ‘We need to talk to the Taliban.’

The fundamentalists aren’t behaving quite as before, however. As well as engaging in conventional fire-fights with international and Afghan troops, they are also planting IEDs – improvised explosive devices – by roadsides. And they have resorted to a tactic that was previously taboo in Afghanistan – suicide bombing. It’s beginning to look and sound like… Iraq.

But Afghanistan isn’t Iraq. This, remember, was meant to be the ‘good’ invasion; or at least the ‘not so bad’ one. It had the tacit support of most of the country’s people. After all, it was Afghans who did most of the fighting to oust the hated Taliban.

Increasingly insurgents are using Iraq-style tactics such as suicide and roadside bombings. Fardin Waezi / AINA PHOTO AGENCY / AFGHANISTAN www.ainaphoto.org

So what’s gone so badly wrong?

The Afghan Government has been quick to blame its neighbour Pakistan. Since its defeat in 2001 the Afghan Taliban has been able to launch sporadic attacks from safe havens in the tribal areas across the border in Pakistan. Under the watch of former President Pervez Musharraf, Taliban militants enjoyed the support of their Pakistani equivalents and, it is said, Pakistan’s Interservices Intelligence (ISI).

But militant and meddling neighbours are not the sole reason for Afghanistan’s woes, as the contributors to this magazine show. The fact that the despised Taliban are regaining a measure of popular support, to the extent that in some regions they are operating parallel administrations, is indicative. It tells us what Afghans think about the performance of their own Government and of the US and NATO occupation forces.

At the time of writing, a bloody battle is raging across the border in Pakistan’s tribal area of Banjaur. Pakistan’s new President Asif Ali Zardari has launched an offensive against Taliban militants in one of their strongholds. For the moment, the Pakistani army has the support of local tribal groups who also want to see the back of the Taliban. However, their greater hatred is reserved for the US forces which have been conducting ground and air attacks against militants in their area, killing and displacing many civilians in the process. The situation is delicate and explosive. Al-Qaeda and the various groups associated with them are clearly dangerous. But so is the US, whether by design or blunder.

A new US Administration takes charge of the White House this month. Will it do any better? The arrogance of power, displayed so nakedly during the Bush years, led to the deaths of thousands as the advice of regional experts was repeatedly ignored in favour of simplistic, vote-winning, sound-bite solutions. If the new US Administration is deaf to the voices of those it carelessly tramples underfoot or sweeps to one side in the ‘war on terror’ then hatred of the US and its allies will only grow.

So far, American and British politicians have responded to the escalating conflict in Afghanistan by proposing that more international troops be sent to the region. But what do Afghans want? Is anyone asking? Defence journalist Khabaryal (see page 6) has a rather different view on what a foreign troop ‘surge’ would achieve in his country – and his analysis is shared by many Afghans and Afghanistan experts. While the ‘surge’ that journalist Horia Mosadiq wants to see in her country is one of democracy, justice and accountability (see page 16).

In a world of instant-access global news it’s easy to imagine we know exactly what’s happening in distant parts. We may, for example, interpret images of girls in school and women presenters on Afghan TV as indicators of liberation. But it takes an Afghan writer, Zuhra Bahman, to unpick the far more complex and intriguing daily lives of her compatriots, and enable us actually to understand what life is like for women in Afghanistan today (see page 11).

The contributors to this magazine – who are all Afghans – are outspoken and critical. But they are also practical and ready to suggest alternative ways forward. Their frustration is palpable at times, but they have not given up hope. ‘All is not yet lost,’ as Abdul Basir, writing about the scandal of official aid to Afghanistan, says.

But it might be if we don’t pay attention. History has taught us that the capacity of outsiders to mess up in Afghanistan is formidable – not for nothing has the region been dubbed ‘the graveyard of empires’. And if we can’t even listen to the voices of the country’s thoughtful journalists and commentators, disaster is more-or-less guaranteed.

Text taken from:
http://www.newint.org/features/2008/11/01/keynote-afghanistan/

Viewd on the 25 of November, 2008.

Barack Obama's new fashion has arrived in the whole world.The BBC news reported this morning that more than half of the babies born in a Kisumu Hospital on the day after the election were named either Barack or Michelle Obama.

Apparently Kisumu is close to the village where Mr Obama's father was born and raised and Mr Obama is a local hero.

The region erupted in celebration after he won the race for the White House.

Out of 15 babies born in the New Nyanza Provincial Hospital in the western city of Kisumu on Wednesday, five boys were named Barack Obama and three girls were called Michelle.

Pamela Adhiambo, who gave birth to twins – a boy and a girl - on the night after the elections, named them Barack and Michelle Obama.

"I made up my mind to name them long before the elections, and even if Obama had not won, I would still have done the same," she said.

Hopefully, the names will inspire them to become great human beings willing making a change in their communities for the best.

I wouldn't be surprised if that happened in my country, Mexico, too.

More information....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7712560.stm

More than 500 years ago, when the Spanish Conquistadors landed in what is now Mexico, they encountered natives practicing a ritual that seemed to mock death.

It was a ritual the indigenous people had been practicing at least 3,000 years. A ritual the Spaniards would try unsuccessfully to eradicate.

However, the Spaniards considered the ritual to be sacrilegious. They perceived the indigenous people to be barbaric and pagan. In their attempts to convert them to Catholicism, the Spaniards tried to kill the ritual. But like the old Aztec spirits, the ritual refused to die.

To make the ritual more Christian, the Spaniards moved it so it coincided with All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day (Nov. 1 and 2), which is when it is celebrated today.

In rural Mexico, people visit the cemetery where their loved ones are buried. They decorate gravesites with marigold flowers and candles. They bring toys for dead children and bottles of tequila to adults. They sit on picnic blankets next to gravesites and eat the favorite food of their loved ones.

In the United States and in Mexico's larger cities, families build altars in their homes, dedicating them to the dead. They surround these altars with flowers, food and pictures of the deceased. They light candles and place them next to the altar.

The altar includes four main elements of nature — earth, wind, water, and fire.

Earth is represented by crop: The Mexicans believe the souls are fed by the aroma of food.

Wind is represented by a moving object: Tissue paper is commonly used to represent wind.

Water is placed in a container for the soul to quench its thirst after the long journey to the altar.

Fire is represented by a wax candle: Each lit candle represents a soul, and an extra one is placed for the forgotten soul.

Information taken from:
Altar Information:
http://www.dayofthedead.com/TraditionAltars.html

Day of the Dead history:
http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/articles/dead-history.html

Picture taken from:
jornada.unam.mx
dayofthedead.com
hispanopolis.biz