I agree with Karl that Karzai is a rather bland figure head for the purposes of the western media, but things are no doubt under contention beneath the surface.
From New Scientist 26 Jan 02 an initiative which could be reformist or it could be radical. It sounds better than setting up chains of McDonald's franchises. It might keep the value of labour power circulating in the local communities. But no doubt it will be the subject of class struggle, to maintain what is positive in it. Will there also be support for intermediate technology? Chris Burford >>> "A unique experiment in rebuilding a nation is about to begin in Afghanistan. Donor countries have unveiled a $15 billion reconstruction programme which calls for a small-is-beautiful strategy. Rather than wheeling out massive nationwide projects, the rehabilitation will begin with villages organising themselves to install solar panels and small hydroelectricity schemes, and rebuild local roads and wrecked irrigation canals. Donor nations pledged an initial $3 billion towards the rebuilding at a meeting this week in Tokyo, after the programme was outlined in a report by the World Bank, the UN Development Programme, the Asian Development Bank and the interim Afghan government. Twenty years of war have left Afghanistan ravaged, says the report, with few services and no central administration equipped to provide them. For instance, only six people in every hundred have access to electricity. However, the report sees no point yet in setting up a national infrastructure, such as an electricity grid. It calls instead for 'community and small-scale private approaches" for supplying electricity, including village-managed hydroelectricity. The report also recommends that each community should continue to provide its own water and sanitation, and says local enterprise will be the key to rebuidling roads. Some ministers in the interim Afghan government are keen on this village-based approach. One is transport minister Ishaq Shahryar, who pioneered solar energy in the US after emigrating from Afghanistan more than 40 years ago. Last year, before his appointment, he called for the creation of 'model villages' in post war Afghanistan, powered by solar energy and with schools and medical centres wired to the interet. 'Here's a country that is destroyed. To go back and rebuild it, my God, what a sense of opportunity,' he said."
