Word: kabul
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Regular news reports of the rising military death toll has made recruiting new soldiers even more difficult, laments Colonel Karimullah, head of army recruiting in Kabul. "The boys themselves are not afraid," he says. "But it is their parents who make the decisions to let them join, and when they see all this on TV, they don't think it's worth it." Although legitimate jobs are still hard to come by in Afghanistan, where unemployment hovers around 70%, poppy growing and smuggling in many provinces is a much more lucrative undertaking...
...Kabul Military Training Center, where all recruits undergo basic training, the U.S. advisers are enthusiastic about their charges' progress. "These guys are the future of Afghanistan," says Sgt. 1st Class David Asay, as he watches a new batch of recruits struggle to tie the laces on their brand-new army boots. "They may be sheepherders now, but in 16 weeks they will be soldiers." Staff Sgt. George Beck, Jr., says the development of a full professional army may take a little longer. "It's all about crawl, walk, run. Right now the Afghan army is at a crawl...
...billion worth of goods every year, and "half of those products could be produced here in Afghanistan," says Noori. "Dairy, foodstuffs, cement-there are huge opportunities, but the problem is that there is no infrastructure." Most of the country is out of reach of an electrical grid. Even in Kabul, residents receive just three hours of electricity a day. Although a national highway system is scheduled to be completed by 2010 and a planned electrical line from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in the north could light up Kabul by 2008, Afghanistan's unstable political situation is a further deterrent to foreign...
...there, Roshan had to make plenty of adjustments. Afghanistan has no functioning mail system or credit-card services, so billing methods prevalent in the West couldn't be used. Instead, customers get airtime by purchasing prepaid calling cards from roughly 4,000 vendors who are Roshan franchisees. In Kabul, the vendors, most of them selling cards on the street, earn about $100 a month, much more than most laborers. "We are creating an entrepreneurial middle class," says Khoja. Roshan is also helping to entertain the masses by sponsoring one of Afghanistan's most popular TV shows, a knockoff of American...
...performances were banned. So was TV. But today, media company Moby Capital Partners, owner of Tolo TV, is prospering. Tolo TV's mix of news, sports, music, reality shows and Indian soap operas draws nearly two-thirds of the country's viewers, according to a recent survey by a Kabul consulting company. Tolo, one of six private stations in Afghanistan, has drawn the ire of conservatives who decry its use of female presenters. But its programs appeal to young Afghans (half the population is below the age of 20), and advertisers are stepping up. Saad Mohseni, an Afghan exile...