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East and West part in Kabul as aid workers live the high life
THE Elbow Room bar is the place to be seen sipping cocktails, while the Gator club and restaurant offers a fine range of caviare and Cuban cigars. For brunch, why not linger over an imported cappuccino at the Flower Street cafe, and if you're still feeling delicate from the night before, there's a Thai massage available at $25 (£14) an hour. But this is not a chic metropolitan corner of Edinburgh or London. Welcome, instead, to central Kabul where, in a land still very much part of the ancient, Muslim East, an influx of foreign aid workers has brought the pamperings of the 21st century, liberal West.Three years after the Taleban finished pushing life back to the Middle Ages, the clock has wound forward with equal speed as Kabul sees a plethora of stylish restaurants, bars and night spots catering to Western tastes - and foibles. Despite the odd car bomb, rocket attack and threat from Taleban remnants, the Lai Thai restaurant apparently has some of the best spring rolls outside Bangkok, while at the German-run Deutscher Hof, a mini-version of the beer-swilling Munich Oktoberfest has just got underway. And for those who overdo it, either in work or play, a trained counsellor from Chicago offers personal analysis sessions - and twice-weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. But with most Afghans struggling beneath the poverty line, the birth of "Islington-on-Kush", as one aid worker dubs it, has not been universally welcomed. Among locals especially, criticism is now mounting that the country's estimated 2,000 aid agencies and non-governmental organisations - NGOs - spend too much time and money enjoying themselves and not enough on those they are here to help. "Most will not give ten Afghani [11 pence] to a beggar, but they will spend a hundred times that on an evening out," said Najeem Massoud, a taxi driver. Posted by: tipper 2004-10-06 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=45191 |