A few years back the Taliban were using the Ghazi stadium in Kabul for public executions. Now, in a new stadium nearby, Afghan fans are cheering on their local football team. Tom Freston at Vanity Fair on the civilising power of sport, plus a few other reasons to be cheerful (via):
Americans see a nonstop barrage of bad news coming out of Afghanistan. There actually is some significant good news, if you dig a little deeper. In less than 10 years, thanks to better medical care and improved infrastructure, life expectancy has dramatically improved (from 42 to 62 years, according to a U.S.A.I.D. study). School attendance is way up, especially for girls (3.2 million girls are now in school, compared with 50,000 under the Taliban). There is strong economic activity not related to the war. The biggest successes have been in Afghan-led businesses in industries such as telecommunications and media. Under the Taliban, there were a few thousand telephone landlines; now there are 17 million cell phone subscribers. There was no television at all—it was banned. Today there are more than 75 TV stations. Obviously all of this has had a significant social impact, especially in the cities, where you see a new, young urban class (Afghanistan’s median age is 18) that is weary of war and wants to participate in the modern world.
The soccer league is a great example of Afghan entrepreneurship. Afghans are good soccer players and have fielded a national team off and on since 1948. Games were primarily played outside the country, so few Afghans saw them. The genius of the A.P.L. [Afghan Premier League] was to recognize that, with 60 percent of Afghans now having access to television, soccer games could be broadcast nationally on the new networks and a proper league could be supported. Football fever has ensued. Here are some new heroes at last; buff, handsome, polite sportsmen with colorful uniforms and gelled hair. (The A.P.L. does not sponsor a women’s team, but Afghanistan does have a women’s national team.) The TV production is state of the art: 10 cameras, slo-mo, instant replay, sharp graphics with stats, lively announcers. The command post is a shipping container outside the stadium.
I found a couch, watched a couple of games on TV, and then headed out on a Friday to attend a semi-finals match. It was a perfect fall day, the sky a deep cobalt blue. The stadium, below a stunning backdrop of mountains, was on the outskirts of Kabul, just beyond a crumbling Soviet-built neighborhood with the science-fiction name Microrayon 1....
As it turned out, the event was as peaceful as Woodstock, though with more clothing and less rain. The crowd was spirited and a great mix: male and female, old and young, rich and poor. The look on their faces was one of pure joy—something that has been missing from their lives. The stadium pumped with Dari and Pashtu pop music....
There are many people who won't be happy with such a positive report about happenings in Afghanistan.
Posted by: StarDasher | November 13, 2012 at 04:16 PM
Thanks for posting. It is good to hear something positive from this blighted part of the world.
Posted by: Barry Sheridan | November 14, 2012 at 08:25 AM
Afghan cricket is doing well too:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/587334.html
An important question here is: why do "Americans see a nonstop barrage of bad news coming out of Afghanistan"? It's probably not in most cases because journalists want to see Western efforts fail. It's probably more because detecting failure is viewed as the sophisticated thing to do.
Posted by: Bob-B | November 14, 2012 at 03:03 PM