Tag: Afghanistan

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Afghan Chronicles: Day Five, A School Gets A Library

Today was one of the days of shooting that will go down as one of one of the most fulfilling days of not only shooting, but most fulfilling days, period. When working on a project, there is a process.

First, it’s the idea, something is here, a story, I am not sure what it is, but I can’t stop thinking about it, and I begin to shoot. Then the doubt sets in, what am I doing? Am I wasting my time and everyone else’s? And then there is the inevitable magic moment, and it always happens, where it all clicks. The hard work pays off and the moment arrives where you think, there is no other place or task that I would rather be doing than what I am doing at this moment. It is a moment of grace and flow, and when it happens, I feel extremely grateful. It motivates me when I am not feeling the “flow.” The memory and pursuit of these moments get me out of bed in the morning.

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Wounded Warriors Soar at STRIDE Adaptive Sports Snow Fest

They came from all over the east coast to meet their friends and cheer each other on as they overcame physical and mental hurdles, not to mention braving the sub-zero temperatures and ski the slopes of Jiminy Peak.  We don’t know who was more inspiring, the Wounded Warriors or the STRIDE Adaptive Sports team, but watch the video and be awed.

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Despite Death Threats A Gay Leader Emerges In Afghanistan

After the shootings at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, by Omar Mateen, a U.S. resident of Afghan descent, we can’t help but revisit a past interview with Afghani gay activist, Nemat Sadat.  His intelligence and honesty on what it means to be gay in Afghanistan is extremely insightful.

All eyes are on the upcoming run off of the Afghanistan presidential election between Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani in mid June. But millions of Afghans are talking about a new emerging leader not on the ballot, Nemat Sadat, who happens to be gay.   Continue reading “Despite Death Threats A Gay Leader Emerges In Afghanistan”

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Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School Addresses “Toughing It Out in Afghanistan”

Should the US start pulling their troops out of Afghanistan in 2011 leaving only a small peace-keeping force of 20,000 in 2014? Or should we stay in Afghanistan providing assistance until the Afghans don’t need us  anymore? By setting a time line do the U.S. and NATO signal to the Afghan people that we are not committed to their development or security? If that is the case, are we creating an opportunity for the insurgency to wait patiently to once again, continue to wreak havoc on the war-ravaged country?
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Afghan Kids Want Computers

Afghan Kids Want Laptops

On this day we travel to a high school in Charikar in Parwan Province,  a 90- minute car drive from Kabul centre.  The school does not have electricity or running water but the students have more things on their minds.  Computers.

Can’t see in on Vimeo?  Watch it on YouTube.


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Afghan Chronicles: Day One & Two, Newark to Kabul

After an uneventful 14-hour flight, leaving Newark Thursday night around 11 p.m., I arrive at the New Delhi Airport on Friday around 8 p.m.

When I pass the throngs of people waiting for their loved ones, I am so excited to finally arrive in India, I smile at everyone and say, “Hi India!” Some laugh, probably thinking “great, another American dork.” I meet my driver Akosh, and my buzz kill is quickly extinguished. After a perfunctory welcome, he immediately tells me how his knees hurt because he has been standing for so many hours waiting for my plane. He talks about how he is supporting his entire family, parents, in-laws on a few rupees a month. We are still five minutes from the car.

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Afghan Chronicles: Day Four, Navigating a War Zone

2:30 a.m. I am jolted awake with a muscle spasm in my calve. I am off my exercise routine of daily running and weight lifting. Like a packed mule, I lug over 60 pounds of camera equipment, but the exercise is not the same. I move between cramped car to a shoot, scrambling to capture the story, and then settle back into a cramped car for an hour and then pounce again.

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