Expat Advisory Services Central Asia

DUSHANBE — “Afghanistan’s Economic Development” trade fair held on Aug. 5 at the Borbad complex in Dushanbe featured wares from more than 120 Afghan firms. Afghan Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal said that the wares of more than 120 companies were featured in the display, including agricultural produce, jewellery, rugs and other consumer goods from companies in Kabul and the provinces of Balkh, Kunduz, Kandahar, Herat, Jalalabad and Bamiyan.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called upon the government of Afghanistan to protect journalists and set “model standards” for democracy if it wants upcoming elections in the country to be fair.

Speaking at a national assembly of journalists’ leaders from across the country in Kabul at the weekend, IFJ General Secretary Aidan White said Afghanistan needed to provide more access to information to media, more guarantees of safety for journalists and more professionalism in the state broadcasting system, which is heavily biased in favour of governing parties.

Naive and idealistic, relief worker Amy Mallory arrives in Kabul ready to change the world. She soon discovers that as a woman in Afghanistan, the challenges she faces are monumental. As the new security chief to the Minister of the Interior, former Special Forces veteran Steve Wilson is disillusioned to find that the country he fought to set free has fallen into its old habits of greed and corruption. Afghani native Jamil returns to his homeland seeking a job while his painful past continues to haunt him. All three search for truth . . . and for freedom . . . but at what cost?

Afghanistan has witnessed the return of children’s theatre to Kabul after an enforced cessation of two decades. The play, Dragon Mountain, carries a meaning beyond the legend it recalls. This is an Afghan story from an ancient past, tinged with hope for an emerging future

In his 2007 book A Thousand Splendid Suns, Afghan author Khaled Hosseini told how the dogs of Kabul developed a taste for human flesh in the worst days of the fighting. Yet today, the dogs of Kabul run in packs, no longer able to stumble alone upon a generous meal in the remains of a shattered building.