Prost! Kabul's high life

[Kellanved]

A German beer garden is probably one of the last things anyone would expect to stumble across in war-ravaged Kabul. But, as Can Merey found out, the Deutscher Hof is doing roaring trade.

Guards brandishing submachine guns watch over the entrance to the property on Kabul's Street Number Three, which is ringed by five-metre high stone walls topped with steel spikes.
But this is not a crucial government ministry working at securing the peace in the tense Afghan capital, rather a German beer garden, complete with restaurant, set up by two former soldiers who have come to Kabul to do business.
...
"It's much better than in Germany," Wojahn says, adding with a smile that: "There's not so much competition here."
Among the guests enjoying a solid, German-style lunch prepared by Wojahn and his apprentices are Germans, Americans, Britons, Australians and Japanese.
In the evening, those stationed at the United Nations, the various embassies and aid organizations come in for a beer or two in the beer garden after work.

...
The first batch of apprentices recently passed out at the Deutscher Hof, All of them had jobs to go to before they had completed their training, Voelker says with a note of pride.
The eight new apprentices he has taken on have already had offers for when they finish their course.
Casting a sceptical eye at the well-paid aid workers in Kabul, the former soldier adds: "Creating jobs makes a greater contribution to lasting peace than endless talk and riding around in huge vehicles."

http://www.expatica.com/germany.asp?pad=199,350,&item_id=33432



This seems to be much like the Burger King in Iraq. I'm not so sure that this is a good thing; serving alcohol and pork is asking for trouble IMHO. The job issue seems to be sound however.

[DuctapeFatwa]

1. A somewhat different picture of life in Kabul..

Most people outside of Afghanistan have the mistaken perception that the country leads a divided existence, with urban stability on the one side and rural chaos on the other. There is the city of Kabul -- the conventional wisdom goes -- an oasis of security in which there are embassies, an international military force, a relatively stable government, even a new Thai restaurant. Outside the city limits, though, there are the lawless rural areas in which former mujahedin warlords run wild and remnants of the Taliban maraud in the mountains. In recent days, the Taliban has escalated its attacks on the shaky, U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai, killing nine police officers in eastern Afghanistan on Monday after taking four others hostage, launching a murderous attack on a district governor's house, and ambushing Afghans who work for a British charity. In all, some 80 people have been killed in the last week, making it one of the deadliest since the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban regime in December 2001.

If Kabul could control the rest of the country, the hope goes, things would get better. Yet this isn't an entirely accurate picture. In reality, the lawlessness of renegade warlords and strongmen like Sayyaf, whose troops operate in west Kabul, extends right into the city itself. The capital city's perceived political stability is in many ways an illusion. Many of the most destabilizing figures in Afghan politics are not in the hinterlands, but right in Kabul. Numerous government officials in Kabul -- many of them former commanders who received support from the United States during the 1980s and again in their fight against the Taliban -- are now engaged in underhanded dealings, corruption, and human rights abuses against civilians. Several leaders, including members of the Cabinet, have been involved in attacks and death threats directed at potential rivals and critical journalists, as well as in abusing their governmental posts to increase political support. Kabul is filled with rogues and troublemakers. Sayyaf is just one of the most menacing.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/08/21/afghanwar/index.html