Kabul – First Sight

Don’t forget, you are in Kabul now!

The first image of Kabul for me was the glamorous life behind the shady looking fences. I am staying with an Indonesian friend of mine, working in an IT company with several foreign workers. He got paid well, even that he said it was not enough. The place where he stays (also the same place I am staying now) has some luxurious room, gym room, some servants and security guard.

My friend invited me to watch the openning of world cup. He said that it was open air show, with giant TV. I thought that the audience would be Afghani, as the place we were going just looked like a sad house completely walled. But you know that it was not a normal building inside a wall fence, as the area was heavily security guarded, and there were many high class cars parked outside.

Inside, there was a bar, with its blinking lights. The bar is famous among expats and well-to-do locals. Its name is l’Atmosphere. It has garden, swimming pool, bar, restaurant, and also fully packed by foreigners. It seemed that they had very luxurious life as ‘social workers’ in Kabul. I asked my friend about average salary of those people working in social organizations. The answer astonished me. 1000 dollars minimum, and many of them above 4000 dollars, and not few of them even up till 20000 dollars. The life in Kabul might be even more luxurious than their life in their home country, but here, it’s just invisible from outside.

New projects here and there

Kabul in 2006 is so different from Kabul I knew three years ago. Now, replacing the rubbles, there is a big shopping center being the city’s new landmark. It is the Kabul City Center and nearby Safi Landmark Hotel. I met three Indonesians, one as a chef in a 5 star hotel and the other two as bartenders. They invited me for lunch in Safi. When I entered the building, I was astonished by the marble floor, upper class shops selling imported expensive perfumes and jewellries, four star world standard hotel, and luxurious restaurant. All of this in Kabul? The customers of the shopping mall are mostly locals. I bet that people got very rich in last few years in the country. The entrance was heavily guarded, everyone was checked. Safety is still the main concern in the country. Shalwar kameez is not as common as in Peshawar, where most men were still wearing the traditional dress. In Kabul many of the men now wear western clothes, and the women even wear tight jeans combined with hejab. Burqa is still common, but now the women have many much more varieties to choose.

What is life now? Everything in Afghanistan, especially Kabul, is so much expensive. Some said now is cheaper than before, but still expensive. To have a SIM card for mobile, the cheapest price is 25 dollars, and six years ago under Taliban it was even 250 dollars. Just a SIM Card for 25 bucks? It’s still not cheap. Food in places like Safi might cost you 16 dollars for buffet. Many other restaurants also put the price in dollars. The flood of foreign money has made big inflation in Afghanistan, everything is valued in dollars. This is typical, for places which is flooded by foreign organizations like those NGOs, UN, USAID, etc etc. I remembered in Aceh a driver might earn 1000 dollars per month, far away beyond Indonesian worker standard.

Contrast of old and new

Life now is more happier for most people. Muhammad Dawood, 30, said that under Taliban, the only good thing was, everything was cheap. A three bedroom house rent cost only 15 dollars, but now it costs thousands of dollars. Under Taliban everything was cheap, but the life was full of horror. Once he trimmed his beard, the Taliban put him in jail for hours, and he was whipped there. When he was a school student, he was walking on the street without cap. The Taliban stopped him and questioned him. He was forgiven as he was student. But many other men were punished, during that day ‘special investigation’ of Taliban, merely because they didnt wear caps.

Life has changed. Whether it is going to better or worse side, it’s the Afghans’ opinions that should be trusted.