Dear readers! We have made it!

Today I picked up the Embassy newspaper and found an article on blogging Ottawa diplomats and there was not only a mention of my blog but also a screen shot of it.

Ottawa's 1st Afghan Film Festival - 18th -20th November 2010

I have organised a small film festival here in Ottawa and you are all welcome to it, provided that you get hold of a ticket in time. I made a long long list of films but at the end selected 6 of them for the festival.

First film we will show on the evening of Thursday 18th Nov is called Afghan Star. It is a documentary about an American Idol style program on Afghanistan's Tolo TV. The first series of this program was amazing, very emotional to watch Afghans coming out to sing after a decade of ban on music under the Taliban. When I was leaving the country in January 2010 the latest series was showing, with a man from Helamand province reaching the semi finals. On Friday night (19th Nov) we're showing Return to Kandahar, starring Nelofar Pazira, an Afghan Canadian who goes in search of her childhood friend to Kandahar. You get to see the harsh but beautiful landscape of Western Afghanistan.

Next film is one of my favourites, Osama, showing on Saturday morning. I have watched this film so many times and each time I have felt a pain in my heart for what this film represents.

Later on Saturday we are showing two films by Roya Sadat, a master film maker, an Afghan woman only in her twenties. This is your chance to discover the world that Sadat creates, a world full of colours and some pains that comes with being an Afghan woman. The finale of our small festival is Earth and Ashes. It is made and made by Atiq Rahimi who won France's Prix Goncourt. How exciting is that?

If you would like to buy a ticket please visit the Afghanistan Embassy at 240 Argyle or Jacobsons at 141 Beachwood. You also send an email to aff.ottawa@gmail.com to request tickets or call 613 983 7242

and here is the poster for the festival.

Thunder over Kandahar

Last week I spoke at the launch of a fantastic book called "Thunder over Kandahar". I was sent a copy a month in advance and I read it all in one sitting. The book is about two girlfriends on an adventure in insurgent controlled Kandahar. I suppose it is for young adults but I found it a delightful read and I consider myself somewhat of an adult!!!


The book was hard to read for me as the memory of war in Afghanistan is still very raw in me but I think if I had a child of reading age I would give her a copy right away and then have a good discussion at the end.

A must read for young Canadians wanting to understand Afghanistan but more importantly for young Canadians wanting to understand the role of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan.
Highly recommended!!! Now go and buy a copy here.

Oh and I suggest that the young readers should pester the author, Sharon McKay, after reading the book with questions on her visits to Kandahar as a war artist.  She was the first young people's writer I have ever met and she is exactly how a fantastic young people's writer should be. I won't say much. You have to find out for your self. Her website is right here.

Images of Afghanistan - Exhibition of Undiscovered Afghan Art

I am so delighted to anounce that we are holding an exhibition of arts from Afghanistan at the embassy 240 Argyle Avenue from the 20th to the 26th Sep 10am to 630pm. Please come along if you are in town and also forward the information below to others.

In a time when most images of  Afghanistan shown in the media are the dusty and crude war images, seeing this colorful face of Afghanistan captured by Afghan artists provides a balance.

I look forward to seeing you all.

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Chehlcherogh Art Gallery from Kabul has brought together a selection of Afghan art created by artists living and working in Kabul. These pieces will be on display, and for sale, next week at the Afghan Embassy, 240 Argyle Avenue, in Ottawa. Ranging from traditional miniature paintings and drawings, to more contemporary takes on calligraphy, this exhibit brings to light a varied and emerging group of artists making their entrance to the North American art market.



La galerie Chehlcherogh de Kabul rassemble une sélection d'art afghan créé par des artistes vivant et travaillant à Kaboul. Ces pièces seront exposées et en vente la semaine prochaine à l'ambassade de l'Afghanistan, située au 240 avenue Argyle, à Ottawa. Cette exposition met en valeur une groupe d'artistses variés et émergents faisant leur entrée sur le marché de l'art nord américain. Elle inclut des peintures et dessins plus traditionnels, ainsi que des pièces de calligraphie plus contemporaines.
 

Talk at the Museum of Civilization - 13th September 2010

Here's something you can't and must't miss!!!

Afghan Initiatives
Meet Zuhra Bahman-Ludin, wife of Afghanistan's Ambassador to Canada, and art dealer and philanthropist Rameen Javid, to learn about new initiatives in Afghanistan, as well as current trends in Afghan art.

Event Type:
Meet and Greet
Where?
Cascades Salon
When?

September 13, 2010 - 2:00 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.
Audience:
Adult
Fee and Booking Information:
Free with Museum admission
More Information:

Our Meet and Greet Series provides opportunities to learn from industry professionals and other experts in an informal setting. Please see individual listings for fee information.

Come and meet Zuhra Bahman-Ludin, wife of Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Canada, and learn more about some of her projects and goals while posted to Canada. She will also introduce Afghan art dealer and charity organizer Rameen Javid, who will give an illustrated presentation on current trends in contemporary Afghan art.

Kabul Conference July 2010

The 9th conference in 9 years is taking place on Afghanistan but this time it is different as it is taking place in Kabul. I hope that consensus on the role of the international community in Afghanistan is reached and realistic goals are set.

Here's the must read on the Kabul Conference from the Afghanistan Embassy in Ottawa published in today's Globe and Mail.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/why-this-weeks-meeting-on-afghanistan-is-different/article1644420/

The Nanny Business

There was a fantastic documentary on Wednesday night on the Global TV channel’s Currents series called “The Nanny Business” (http://www.globaltv.com/schedule/index.html).

Having worked on prevention of trafficking before and having seen women from the Philippines everywhere in the diplomatic and regular community in Ottawa, caring for homes, children and elderly, deep down I hoped that nothing sinister was going on.

However, as the documentary showed what to the layman looks like a simple case of demand for childcare in Canada and the supply of cheap labour that are women from the Philippines is open to so much exploitation.
I hope that the Canadian government and the civil society manage to engage with the government of the Philippines to rectify the situation.

As far as I am concerned I wish I could employ an Afghan at my home. However, the Canadian government takes over 6 months to deal with a visa application by an Afghan wanting to work for the embassy here while handing out visas to women from the Philippines within weeks without providing them with the necessary in country safeguards.

Optimistic June

I was thoroughly disappointed during the first few weeks of my time in Ottawa when I saw people around me talk of Afghanistan only when it came to peripheral issues, the real issue such as the post 2011 engagement was the giant elephant in the Ottawa that all saw but no one talked about.

Adding to the anguish was the fact that some people, armed with narrow understanding concepts of tribes, jirgas, war and honour in Afghanistan, haphazardly applied their so called lessons learnt from the Great Game and the Cold War onto the 21st Century Afghanistan and started rhetoric of imminent defeat and failure. This I found not only disrespectful to the gains of the Canadian armed forces but also to the Afghan people who have shown their support of education and peace by continuing to engage in the country’s development and fighting the Taliban.

June brought a welcome change!

The Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence reported after visits to Afghanistan that, although Canadian troops will pull out, the Canadian role in Afghanistan would not end in 2011. Canada would continue to focus on its 6 priorities in Afghanistan which are helping provide security, basic services, humanitarian assistance, institution building, reconciliation with elements of the insurgency, and a more secure border with Pakistan. You can find the full Committee report here: http://www.parl.gc.ca/40/3/parlbus/commbus/senate/com-e/defe-e/rep-e/rep04jun10-e.pdf

I was glad that the debate started to change from that of disengement into one of changing the engagement from a combat one to something else.
Now post 2011 engagement is a blank canvass; Canada has a chance to make of it what it wants. The idea of training the Afghan National Police as put forward, amongst others, by Honourable Michael Ignatieff, is a superb one. With the Canadian experience and expertise in Kandahar, creation of an elite regional police training academy there would not go amiss.
Another sector Canada can be effective is higher education. The international community must not pull out of Afghanistan unless a generation of Afghan highly educated leadership is ready to take charge therefore investment is higher education must be the first step to any eventual pull out from Afghanistan.

Once again Canada, with its foothold in the region, can leave a strong and valuable legacy if it developed the Kandahar University so that it becomes a major centre of learning. It is after all the only place young men and women can engage in higher education in the region.

And of course there is significant Canadian presence in field of development, which could be expanded and extended post 2011.

Before I start to sound like a preacher I better stop here as I enjoy the excitement in anticipation of all the debates to come over BBQ’s in summer and once the parliament comes back in September.

Oscar Company in Kandahar: First impressions

whie I get my thoughts together for the next posting here's a link to an interesting article written by Maj Steve Brown, the officer commanding Oscar Company, deployed in Kandahar.

http://www.cefcom.forces.gc.ca/pa-ap/fs-ev/2010/05/28-eng.asp

Seeds for Peace

Last week I went to speak with a group of school children in Winchester, near Ottawa. I had to talk with the students about peace. All was well except that the audiences were between the ages of 3 and 12, so extremely tough crowd.

The students were exploring the concept of peace as part of an amazingly innovative project called Seeds of Peace, which intends to sow seeds of peace in young minds. The students listened to representatives from Yemen, Iran, USA, South Africa and myself from Afghanistan. Later I taught students how to write peace in Dari and Pashto. Later students drew on and wrote messages of peace on envelops filled with sunflower seeds and gave them to me so I can send it to Afghanistan where school children could sow it in their schools.

Such beautiful way of teaching something essential to children and what a good time to start.

I will update you on the seeds' travel to Afghanistan.

Private Kevin McKay

Last week I attended the repatriation ceremony for a Canadian fallen soldier, Private Kevin McKay, 144^th Canadian soldier to have been killed in Afghanistan. Nothing, not even sense of ease with death that comes with being an Afghan of my generation, could have prepared me for the sad occasion.

With an overwhelming and awkward sense of gratitude, marred with guilt, to Kevin I joined his family, comrades and friends.  We watched on as Kevin’s body was lowered onto the Canadian soil from a plane that came from Kandahar.  Neither pomp and ceremony nor the high office of those in attendance could distract from the brutal fact that a precious life was lost.  

For a moment I forgot the NATO mission and Afghanistan. I just felt the grief thick in the air.

It was not until later that day that I remembered something I had long forgotten, which put things back into perspective.

It was 1997 and the Taliban had attacked the Northern Afghanistan city of Mazar e Sharif. As rockets were flying around my neighbourhood we hid in our basement. It was late at night and when I felt a break in the fighting, not sure imaginary or real, I went into my bedroom upstairs. There was small window high up on my bedroom wall that looked on to the street. Hearing a commotion in the street, I climbed up on mattresses and looked out from the small window.  I saw a man pushing a wheelbarrow full of dead and injured people. He was weeping. That night I could not sleep. 

What links the goriness of that night in 1997 and Kevin is that Kevin is part of the force that has transformed Afghanistan from what it was then to what it is now. Let us not be bogged down by petty politics and thank Kevin and others like him for making Afghanistan an unimaginably better place.  Let us also learn from Kevin’s belief and his resolve and continue to develop Afghanistan.