Afghanistan Inc.

[realFedUp]

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13518

Afghanistan, Inc.

May 2nd CorpWatch event San Francisco

Investigative journalist Fariba Nawa has spent the last four years in Afghanistan detailing the bungled reconstruction effort, which the Bush administration touts as a success story. On Tuesday, May 2nd, Ms. Nawa and the Bay Area based non-profit CorpWatch will be rolling out the report, Afghanistan, Inc. at 111 Minna Gallery (at 2nd Street). (photo: Mark Knobil)

Fariba Nawa, an Afghan-American reporter returned to her native country to examine the progress of reconstruction. She uncovered examples of where the money has (and hasn’t) gone, how the system of international aid works (and doesn’t), and what it is really like in the villages and cities where outsiders are rebuilding the war-torn countryside.

At the 111 Minna Gallery event, Ms. Nawa and CorpWatch, Executive Director Pratap Chatterjee, who has just returned from Iraq himself, will reveal how some of the same politically connected corporations who are doing similar work in Iraq: Kellogg, Brown & Root (a subsidiary of Halliburton), DynCorp, Blackwater, The Louis Berger Group and The Rendon Group are pocketing millions of dollars and why the Afghan people are increasingly frustrated and angry with the results.

With little or no competitive bidding on the contracts, Afghans see foreign engineers, consultants, and mercenaries make as much as $1,000 a day, while the locals they employ make $5 per day. They see a highway that is crumbling before it is finished, a school with a collapsed roof, a clinic with faulty plumbing and a farmers’ cooperative that farmers can’t use. Basic security is still not in place although high-priced foreign “experts” trained Afghan police and military.

After the journalists provide a picture of the reconstruction, the Afghan musician, Tameem will take us on another journey fusing Eastern and Western sounds; his compositions use verses by many of the great Persian poets, Rumi, Hafiz, Attar and the twentieth century woman poet Forough. Tameem’s unique sound has been influenced by his teachers, Ustad Zakir Hussain, the master percussionist of India and the Afghan master Naseem Khan.

Maneesh, the Twister, co-founder of the Dhamaal Artist Collective, which has been championing hybrids of South Asian audio and visual art for over seven years will be spinning dub reggae, bhangra, breakbeat and other Asian electronica to end the evening.

Proceeds from this special evening will support CorpWatch’s investigative projects. At Afghanistan, Inc., you’ll get an inside look at a system gone out of control, with little accountability and plenty of opportunity for graft and abuse. It is a story we all need to know.