“Dear Queen - here’s your first born male.” As it happens, I was on my way to a choir practice when I heard the sad news of her death. The choir acknowledged the moment by singing the national* anthem with the first verse only, and the pointed agreement that it…

I met Wahid Rahimdil working for Teahouse Consulting, a media company in Kabul with deep roots throughout Afghanistan. Wahid is a thoughtful, urbane intellectual with a great sense of humour and bags of style. He is getting a name for exploring issues of philosophy and religion in the modern Afghanistan…

The way they leave An American friend — let’s call him Fred — has visited Afghanistan, where I met him. He has written a book about the aftermath of American occupations and invasions, and, astoundingly, had this to say: "The speed of the collapse was astounding and what matters now…

Afghan voices: the wolf is a wolf Short post — you MUST read this blog. You MUST follow this account. Honest, hard-hitting voices are going to be few and far between. This is one of them. He is taking a considerable risk in speaking freely and pledges to continue to do so, even as the international community loses interest, even as the Taliban tightens its grip and forgets its promises. The name is not his name. He will be executed if they ever find him. Please repay his bravery. Please share widely. Thank you.

https://youtu.be/1Ug9fCENsWM Did anyone ask any Afghans? Does anyone listen to Afghan voices about that or about anything else? Did anyone ask if they wanted a bunch of warlords to drain the country of all the aid money then run away? Did anyone ask if they wanted the international community to…

Afghanistan: write to your MP! As a collective of people who have worked in Afghanistan for the last couple of decades, we are horrified about the recent turn of events. Our friends, our colleagues and the entire nation of Afghanistan has been forgotten. We have set up a non-funded support…

Quick and brutal. The Taliban are in Kabul already. US intelligence said 90 days. Which shows how accurate their understanding of Afghanistan is, and that is the level of intelligence which they used to attempt nation building. The US is supposed to have asked the Taliban leadership to remain outside…

A friend, Erica Flegg, pointed out “What feels so weird about this is that it all passed off without comment until now.” ‘Now’ being a huge upsurge in the fight against racism led by #blacklivesmatter. I remember first learning about this list something like five years ago. Like everybody my…

2020 showed that we can’t rely on the government, even to take the basic action needed to protect us all. The scum even made money for their mates through a pandemic. There can be little that’s more despicable than that. … and please can we end with this, “at least…