Forgive me if I continue to mention it but it is an area affected by war. The movie that I watched showed a young man returning to Afghanistan after he and his single father fled the country as it was being invaded by Soviets. What once had been streets lined with vendors selling their wares and the smell of lamb kabobs cooking had been transformed to a desolate place. The smell of lamb cooking was no longer. It had been replaced by the smell and extreme pollution of the diesel powered generators. The young man was returning to bring his nephew home to the U.S. after his father had been killed by the Taliban. However, it was not the Taliban that had transformed the aroma of Kabul it had been the Soviets. Of course, I am not praising the Taliban in any way but the movie itself did not go into the reason behind the lack of electricity to the city nor the use of diesel powered generators. It left the point open and made it seem as if the power problems were related to the Taliban’s control which is not the case.
Information is power, knowledge is power and that power is generated by electricity. When sacking a city one of the first things the attacker will do is hit the power plants to slow down if not cease all communication and to degrade life to the point that the city will eventually give up. The Soviets did a good job in doing so and continued their occupation of Kabul by knocking down the power poles and destroying the wiring. In effect the Soviets destroyed the power grid of the city of Kabul. They destroyed it to the point that it has to be built from the ground up. The Taliban, obviously, did not set a priority at rebuilding that grid.
Although the smell of burning diesel is almost overpowering and a brown haze is ever present the Afghans and the residents of Kabul do their best. Still yet many do remain without power. Most of the 4 million residents of Kabul, yes 4 million do not have access to the power grid still even 7 years post the American invasion of Kabul since freeing Kabul of its terrorist reign 7years ago. Billions and billions have been spent to bring power but there is still a long way to go. There is just not an electrical infrastructure to do so. Those that do including the schools and embassies only get electricity a few hours a day as what is there remains unreliable. The rest of the time those that have the means must rely on the generators to power their homes. Of course there are those that have gone into business and supply homes with electricity from their huge noise and air polluting generators but the amount charged is huge in a country whose average yearly income is as low as it is.
Information is power, knowledge is power and that power is generated by electricity. When sacking a city one of the first things the attacker will do is hit the power plants to slow down if not cease all communication and to degrade life to the point that the city will eventually give up. The Soviets did a good job in doing so and continued their occupation of Kabul by knocking down the power poles and destroying the wiring. In effect the Soviets destroyed the power grid of the city of Kabul. They destroyed it to the point that it has to be built from the ground up. The Taliban, obviously, did not set a priority at rebuilding that grid.
Although the smell of burning diesel is almost overpowering and a brown haze is ever present the Afghans and the residents of Kabul do their best. Still yet many do remain without power. Most of the 4 million residents of Kabul, yes 4 million do not have access to the power grid still even 7 years post the American invasion of Kabul since freeing Kabul of its terrorist reign 7years ago. Billions and billions have been spent to bring power but there is still a long way to go. There is just not an electrical infrastructure to do so. Those that do including the schools and embassies only get electricity a few hours a day as what is there remains unreliable. The rest of the time those that have the means must rely on the generators to power their homes. Of course there are those that have gone into business and supply homes with electricity from their huge noise and air polluting generators but the amount charged is huge in a country whose average yearly income is as low as it is.
Some have emailed me with questions. The most frequent being so what is it like. Well those are some of the sights, sounds, and even smells of Kabul. But I most hold back some or you all will stop reading.
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