Has anyone read this book? Let me know what you think of it.
Terry Dougherty

Young Afghan-American Visits His Damaged Roots
By Gary Thomas Washington 22 February 2006 VOA
Since the ouster of the Taleban from Afghanistan, Afghan expatriates in the United States and Europe have been returning to their homeland. Some of them stay, looking for business opportunities, while others decide to move on. VOA correspondent Gary Thomas talked to one young Afghan-American who went home, and found a reality far different than his dreams.

It is a long, strange trip from California to Kabul. But, even at the age of 17, it was one that one young Afghan-American named Said Hyder Akbar was compelled to make.

"I felt really guilty for having the kind of life that I had, for managing to escape and to get an education," Mr. Akbar says. "And that also kind of drove me to go back to the country because I had this deep passion for it, but had never been there. And I felt like to sort of validate or to sort of back up my interest in Afghanistan with action, I would have to visit there and spend time there."

Now 20 and a student at Yale University, Akbar has penned a memoir of his visits to Afghanistan after the 2001 fall of the Taleban. The book's title conveys his dual heritage. Called Come Back to Afghanistan: A California Teenager's Story, it spins out a tale of adventure and sorrow.

Akbar was not even born when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. His parents fled to neighboring Pakistan, where he was born, and later made their way to the United States, ending up in California. There he grew up as a typical American teenager.

But, as in many expatriate families, Akbar grew up with an intense interest in a homeland he had never seen, but had heard of in stories of Afghanistan's former glory spun by relatives and other Afghan expatriates.

"Afghanistan was definitely painted in my mind, and it gave me images of this place of orchards and gardens and mountains and the beautiful, peaceful countryside," Mr. Akbar says. "I would have these kind of pristine images when I would think of Afghanistan."

His father, Fazel Akbar, was deeply involved in the anti-Soviet resistance from abroad, and was close to key figures in the resistance. So when Fazel Akbar was called to Kabul in 2002 to become President Hamid Karzai's spokesman, and then governor of Kunar province, Hyder Akbar felt he had to go along to offer Americans a different perspective of Afghanistan.

"There was interest in Afghanistan, but I felt like most journalists were reporting on Afghanistan, but not really looking at it in a nuanced way and not really looking at it from all sides," he says. "So I kind of wanted to offer a perspective that sort of looked deeper into Afghanistan and gave explanation to things people here that most people would not understand, and sort of looking at things through more that just the war on terror or post 9/11."

But the destruction, corruption, and political intrigue startled him, and it was a far cry from the idyllic images of his youth.

"It is incredible to go through it and look at it and breathe it. It looked like, for me, a giant wrecking ball had sort of come over the whole country from one end to the other and just broke everything," Mr. Akbar says.

Akbar went for summer of 2002 and two more, filing dispatches for National Public Radio that formed the basis of his book. He saw up close the political machinations. Another family friend, Haji Qadir, was assassinated while he was there.

If there is anything Akbar wants people to know about Afghanistan, he says it is that it is not yet quite the success story proclaimed in some quarters. He says it is still a fragile state that could collapse under the weight of narcotics production and insurgency.

"I see insurgency, I see opium, as being the two main problems facing Afghanistan right now," Mr. Akbar says. "And it is deeply worrisome for me because I do not know how much longer the situation can be in the balance like this."

Fazel Akbar had to leave Afghanistan to return to the United States for heart surgery. But his son plans to go back. For all of his California upbringing, Said Hyder Akbar remains the child of a homeland it took him 17 years to find.

Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 11:26:38 -0500
Dear All Salaam,
;
I am pleased to invite you to look at the Afghan Connections newsletter through the link provid below. I have two ideas that I would like to discuss with members of the Clarence Sister City Committee. I hope that some of you will be able to continue addressing the worthy decision that you made following; the attacks of September 11, 2001 that has done so much for Afghan; children in your sister city. The decline of Afghanistan and its capture by the Taliban took a generation to occur. I sincerely believe that the solution will take just as long and require a; continuing effort on the part of the US and the West:

First, can one of your members write up an article to be published in Afghan Connections? (See web address below.) Your school construction project in Pul e Khumri is a special expression of American concern for reasonable dialogue with Islamic nations. Afghan Connections wants to feature community groups and individuals who have made a tangible difference in the lives of Afghan children and in so doing have made a significant contribution to the nation of Afghanistan as it struggles against powerful forces of international extremism, to build a civil society for its people.

Second, please consider using your talents, energies and community networks to find a family in Clarence willing to host an Afghan student next year, as a part of the US Department of State's pioneer exchange program with Afghanistan. My partner in Kabul, Ted Achilles
> is the Afghanistan Country Director for this program. I sincerely believe that if we get an early enough request from a Clarence family and confirmation from the schools, we could find a boy or girl from your Sister City to live with you in your community for a whole school year. You have been special in what you have done for Afghanistan so far.

If your community does nothing else for Afghanistan you would have left a legacy greater than 99% of America. I sincerely believe that hosting a student from your sister city would be news of national interest. Please rsvp with ideas or to contribute an article for publication. Thanks in advance for any attention to the above requests.

As a predeparture alert, I plan to return to Afghanistan this summer to support a project that will transform an elementary school into a middle school in Wardak province. Shirin Ebadi the 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate mad a large contribution to this project. I'll keep you updated.

Sincerely, Tony Agnello

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 12:00:27 -0800
Afghan Connections from Friends of Afghanistan

Dear All,

Tony Agnello, President of Friends of Afghanistan, has asked me to forward copies of the latest Afghan Connections to each of you. Please let me know if it doesn't come through and I'll make sure you get a copy some other way.

Anyone who wants access to Afghan Connections online can get to it on our web page http://afghanconnections.org

The link to AC is at the top of the page. Enter the ID and Password when prompted.

If you are a member of Freinds of Afghanistan, contact us at:

pcv@friendsofafghanistan.org to obtain the password.

Jessie Schilling
Membership, FOA

Hi Clotilde,

I'll be sending you a copy of a message that I am finishing up to send to the Coalition encouraging them to stay the course and giving them huge props for work already accomplished.

As the US ponders its role in Afghanistan and considers a force reduction for very pragmatic reasons, we (folks like you, Khris and I) have to redouble our work to keep the issue fresh in the minds of the American people. It would be foolish to think that if we abandoned Afghanistan again, like we did after the defeat of the Russians, that the outcome today would be different than the downward spiral that led to the Taliban and the extreme repression suffered by Afghan women and minorities.

Keep me in your quality circle. I'm working on a list of Afghanophiles that I will share with you. Also, FYI
OP Outreach just won a $1,000.00 communication grant. We plan to contact politicians, celebrities and all of the schools in NY State plus selected schools in North America and Europe. Any other suggestions?

Keep up the good work,

Tony Khris Jaan Salaam,

We have to reconnect regarding the needs of the Wonkhai Valley project. Exactly what has to be done to transform the elementary school into a middle school. And I shudder to ask; what do you project the cost per room to be? I plan to visit Afghanistan this summer and your Wardak program will be one of my top priorities. I hope to work through the University of Nebraska @ Omaha to oversee implementation of my students projects.

After the elem/MS project we intend to refocus on your Wardak girls' school and rejoin the effort of Clotilde's Coalition in Buffalo. Speaking of which, I just got an email from Clotilde regarding establishing an organization at Harvard to address women's issues. She ask me what organization awarded your project the "Most Proficient NGO in Afghanistan" title a few years ago. Drop her a line at her new school address,

(Let's chat soon. Did you get a copy of the Afghan Connections newsletter? Let me know and I'll make sure that you're on the list. Peace, Tony