Radhika Coomaraswamy, United Nations Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, discusses her recent mission to Chad and the Central African Republic. Ms. Coomaraswamy’s mission was to meet and work with the governments of Chad and the Central African Republic, as well as UN agencies and non-state actors to discuss the status of children in armed conflict. Ms. Coomaraswamy was pleased to report that Chad will release all children in detention, provide the United Nations with a list of names, and work to reintegrate them into their communities. (2:09)

 

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Baksheesh, noun, (in parts of Asia) a small sum of money given as alms, a tip, a bribe. ORIGIN based on Persian ba k sis, from ba k sidan, “give.”

     Want to hear something about the new Afghanistan? First, you have to know a little about the old Afghanistan, and the word is, “baksheesh.” And first, baksheesh must be considered in all of its meanings: “alms, a tip, a bribe.”

Alms: Afghanistan ranks among the poorest countries on earth. According to the CIA World Factbook, 53% of Afghans are below the poverty line, there is 40% unemployment, and in 2007, per capita GDP was $1,490, USD. But the Western traveler needs few of these factoids to intuitively sense the ugly truth they represent. On crowded streets in Kabul, beggars, many of which are women garbed head-to-toe in faded and filthy blue burkhas, crowd the “rich” Westerner, extending gnarled, sometimes scabbed hands, pleading for baksheesh. Old men in rags bearing semi-conscious children on their backs, or amputees from wars past, and men unable to rise from the street also ask for alms. Appearance alone suggests that there are few fraudsters among these indigent. The price of a salved conscience is cheap: 10 or 20 Afghanis earns words translated as “thank you” or “Allah bless you.” Gratitude can be had for between 20 and 40 cents, USD. This is one meaning of baksheesh.
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Talk Radio News Service embedded military affairs correspondent Richard Miller interviews Peter Jouvenal, a former war photographer and a hotel owner in Kabul, Afghanistan about his experiences covering the constant state of war in Afghanistan. (21:25)

 

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Talk Radio News embedded Military Correspondent Richard Miller interviews Specialist Michael C. Smeltzer, 4th Brigade Combat Team, in Afghanistan about his second career in the military. (10:21)

 

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Talk Radio News Service embedded Military Affairs Correspondent Richard Miller interviews Lt. Jason Chambers who is serving as a chaplain in Afghanistan. (9:07)

 

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Talk Radio News Service embedded Military Affairs Correspondent Richard Miller interviews an officer in the U.S. Army, Col. Scott Waterman a special forces trainer of the Afghan security forces. (9:53)

 

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Talk Radio News embedded Military Affairs Correspondent Richard Miller accompanies a group of soldiers in the Afghan National Army to the firing range on a training day

The Instructor

Loading AK-47 magazines one round at a time

The face of the NCO

Check out more photos from Richard’s trip to Afghanistan on our Flickr Page!

In the Democratic Policy Committee hearing “Have Bush Administration Reconstruction and Anti-Corruption Failures Undermined the U.S. Mission in Iraq?” Chairman Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) said the U.S. government had contributed to the culture of corruption in Iraq, and that corruption involved both Iraqi and American money. This was the fourteenth in a series of oversight hearings to examine contracting fraud, waste, and abuse in Iraq. (more…)

Embedded Military Affairs Correspondent Richard Miller interviews a colonel in the Afghan Army, Col. Said Faqir Shah, who is also an imam and helps with the spiritual development of the troops under his command. (14:51)

This interview is translated.

 

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Embedded Military Affairs Correspondent Richard Miller interviews two American officers, Lt. Col. Mark Sherman and Lt. Col. Lynn Heng, responsible for the training of the Afghan police force. (6:20)

 

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