News today of nine Australian special forces personnel injured in a Taliban attack points to what many have been saying for some time now - the Taliban are increasing in strength and effectiveness. But as the war drags on, there are two Afghanistans developing - one where Afghans with wealth and power flourish, and the other where the rest of the people do without even the most basic necessities of life. Dateline's John Martinkus found these desperate worlds coexisting uncomfortably in the capital Kabul.
REPORTER: John Martinkus
FARHAD GHAFOOR, ENTREPRENEUR: One thing very positive here - the rose bushes grow the best in Kabul. Beautiful colours, beautiful roses. It's kind of unique.
Farhad Ghafoor is the face of a new Kabul - optimistic and driven to succeed, he represents all that the West wants for this divided country. But his life here has its obstacles - his daily commute, complete with bodyguard, has to be timed to avoid the peak hour for suicide bombings.
FARHAD GHAFOOR: Those incidents have happened, you know, between the hours of 7:00 to 8:00. So I'm trying to be cautious. You're not sure when you walk on the street whether you are gonna make it alive. My home is only two or three minutes away, but who knows? It's a busy place and you're visible, people know you, and if some group or somebody don't like you... ..you're gone.
Alright. We are gonna go this way. This is one of the fanciest buildings in Kabul.
Farhad is taking me to his office in the centre of town.
FARHAD GHAFOOR: As you can see, we have some global companies' names here. We're trying to build a Dubai-style, Australian standards, US standards copy centre where you would come in and do your copies and printing in high volume. We're still working on it.
The copy centre is just one of Farhad's business plans. He already runs a wireless Internet company as well as providing IT services and repairs.
FARHAD GHAFOOR: As you can see, we are very sharp-looking guys here.
As Farhad settles into his office, it's a different story across town. In a refugee camp I meet Khan, who is building a house out of mud for his family of 17. He is the other face of Kabul, the angry side, with a story of suffering and loss.
KHAN, (Translation): My son was martyred and my daughter was injured by an exploding mine. They bombed the area and destroyed our homes, we didn’t want to leave, we left to escape cruelty.
Khan is one of tens of thousands of refugees from the provinces living in poverty on the outskirts of Kabul. Like many here he blames the Western forces – including Australia – for his plight.
KHAN, (Translation): Yes, those people should leave this Islamic state, they can’t bring peace, they should not stay. There should be separate roads for foreigners, do they have the right to be in the city? No they do not. We need a caliph to lead us. Is that clear? We want peace, is that clear? This is what we want....for the fighting to stop and a caliph, an Islamic state. If there was an Islamic state... there would be no need for foreigners to be here.
Farhad Ghafoor knows Afghanistan is a deeply divided country and he says he's doing what he can to rebuild it.
FARHAD GHAFOOR: I'm going to New York. I need to talk to you about something.
Having worked in the United States for years, he's now drawing on his international experience to introduce new ways of doing business to Afghanistan.
FARHAD GHAFOOR: Why you guys are so shy? Come on!
Today, he's holding a meeting to welcome new staff to his Internet business. Farhad currently employs almost 150 Afghans, many of whom have also recently returned from exile.
FARHAD GHAFOOR: We know that you are the brightest and the smartest workers, resources, engineers, professionals that Afghanistan has yet to offer at this stage and we are very happy and proud to have you on board. And now I open the floor to the honourable Mr Chairman.
There's a lot of opportunity here in Afghanistan. We just need to work on these basic things, you know, like security, like power. I think Afghan people are very talented, very motivated, very capable and they're hungry for success.
But Farhad is also aware that there's a huge job ahead if Afghanistan is ever to rebuild.
FARHAD GHAFOOR: I think the government is trying to portray a message that everything is normal. Everything is not normal. After all, Afghanistan is just coming out of more than two decades of war so there has to be a sense of heightened urgency to rebuild the country, to be more responsible, to feel more responsible to rebuild the country. It's not like we have had two decades of peace.
So when you wake up in the morning you should feel like you can come to work and make a difference and achieve higher for yourself. Thank you, Mr Chairman. I appreciate your time.
Now we are going to go have some Afghan food. That's what I usually do around 1:00. We go home and have lunch.
DIANA GHAFOOD, WIFE: It's bread that's like soaked in...it's yoghurt, right?
FARHAD GHAFOOR: I thought we were stuck. When we met you in Lahore, we had totally run out of money. We didn't even have money for a taxi to go take us back to the hotel.
DIANA GHAFOOD: It's bread. Bread and yoghurt. Do you like it?
Farhad's wife, Diana, had lived her whole life in the US before she returned to Afghanistan with Farhad five years ago.
REPORTER: What were the biggest problems with adjusting? Getting used to...?
DIANA GHAFOOD: I think the way women were treated, I think, was the hardest thing. I would shiver when I had to walk outside. Going anywhere alone was impossible. Your independence, your freedom just get taken away. You didn't have any of it. And the way people looked at you, in the beginning. I mean, now it's very good. But compared to how it was in the beginning, it was extremely difficult. Just looking a little different, you were getting a lot of attention. Not in a good way but in weird way, a scary way.
REPORTER: Are you glad you came back here?
DIANA GHAFOOD: Yes. I mean, you see changes and when you look at people's faces and the positive energy you get back from them for what has happened now, compared to what they have gone through. It was definitely worth it.
Back at the refugee camp, I could find little sign of this positive energy.
KHAN, (Translation): I would not trade my area for the whole of Kabul, there uncovered women were shot, but h ere women do not cover themselves. What are the benefits of the Americans being here? Islam is getting weaker.
Mixed with their strict fundamentalism, there's a sense that many here are feeling humiliated.
KHAN, (Translation): Explain to him that I don’t have a bed, we have no carpets to sit on, we were respectable people but we have lost our dignity. Where can we go next?
While Farhad and his family enjoy their lunch, I meet Nandoy Mama, another refugee, who wonders how he can feed his wife and six children with the little that's left in his cooking pot.
NANDOY MAMA, (Translation): We cook whatever is available - I use whatever I earn to buy food for my family. We have no tent, no money, no flour, no rice, nothing. Why is it such a struggle just to fill our stomachs?
Nandoy Mama takes me to the spot where he lost his life savings soon after he arrived here.
NANDOY MAMA, (Translation): This is where my tent burnt down. 10,000 Afghanis and 5000 Pakistani rupees were all burnt in there. I have chosen this location to erect a new tent, do you think we can live in this tent, it is plastic. When it is hot, my family boils, they can’t bear the cold or the heat.
Now he too is trying to build a mud-walled shelter.
NANDOY MAMA, (Translation): These are the foundations, this is the clay I am using.
He and his family fled from Helmand province in the south, where the fighting has been heaviest.
NANDOY MAMA, (Translation): When the Taliban started shooting, tanks were firing from the ground, jets were bombing from the sky, so I had to move my family here for safety.
FARHAD GHAFOOR, SONG (Translation): ‘My countrymen, my countrymen, my fellow Afghhans, countrymen. My countrymen, for the salvation of our land we have to get together.’
At the end of Farhad’s midday lunch, he shows me a video, and I learn that he’s a singing sensation recognised by Afghans around the world.
REPORTER: So the song itself, what was that about?
FARHAD GHAFOOR: It's about unity. It's called 'Hamwatan', which means 'My Countrymen', calling on them to become united, to forget about bloodshed and show to the world that we can get united.
Farhads’ singing success has led to him being a celebrity judge on 'Afghan Idol'.
FARHAD GHAFOOR: People are so desperate for entertainment, for recreation, you know? We don’t have that many theme parks for the young crowd to go to. We used to have a culture of going to the movies. Now that's gone, pretty much.
Farhad missed the last three decades of war and what it did to Afghan society. So like many who have recently come home, he wants a return to the old tolerant Kabul of the '70s.
FARHAD GHAFOOR: My gut feeling is that what you see right now is because of residuals of all this brainwashing and all this onslaught of extremism over the society. But underneath of it all, the Afghan people are very fun-loving people.
NANDOY MAMA, (Translation): We need a toilet, I need a school I can send my children to, I need them to give me land to live on, my family are illiterate, if they are literate I would be happy. God, please preserve us in Islam
When I catch up with Nandoy Mama again a few days later, he is busy making more mud for his hut. He says this morning he had to fight with 70 people over his water source an hour's walk away.
NANDOY MAMA, (Translation): The one big difficulty is water, other problems we have are accommodation and schooling.
This man approaches us. He says he was wounded in a coalition air strike several years ago and recovered in Pakistan. The translator accompanying me starts to get nervous. It is late in the day and he believes the man is trying to stall us. He says the situation is unsafe and urges me to leave.
I head back through the checkpoints and traffic to central Kabul, where Farhad has one last place to show me.
FARHAD GHAFOOR: This is a 4-star hotel plus shopping centre, the first very fancy mall in Afghanistan, with the first set of escalators and capsule-style elevators, so really, really fancy.
REPORTER: This is the sort of place you'd like to see more of here in Kabul?
FARHAD GHAFOOR: Absolutely. It's really a nice place where you can bring your guests and impress them if you want to impress them. So now we're going to go to the rooftop. It has a very nice view of the city of Kabul. It's a spectacular view of the city of Kabul.
REPORTER: It is, yeah.
FARHAD GHAFOOR: Especially when it rains, when it comes here, the air is filtered out and it's beautiful, it looks very nice. You see lots of construction and new development. Construction industry is booming right now, which is a good sign. It puts more people to work and everything. It's good for the local economy and unemployment.
Over coffee at the hotel's restaurant, I asked Farhad if he thought that maybe one day all Afghans might be able to afford to eat in a place like this.
FARHAD GHAFOOR: Yes, I'm hopeful that, if not in a decade, hopefully sooner, they can, the majority can go to places like this and there will be more theme parks, recreational parks for them to go and take their kids and play in. You have to have the vision. If you don't have the vision, you never go ahead in life.
Maybe prosperity will finally bring together a people divided by years of war and displacement. But then again, maybe it will only increase the divisions in this city of stark contrasts.
Reporter/Camera
JOHN MARTINKUS
Translator
ALEEM AGHA
ARSHAD WARDAK
EditorS
MICAH MCGOWN
NICK O'BRIEN
Producer
AARON THOMAS
Subtitling
NADIR YOUSUFZAI
Original Music composed by
VICKI HANSEN
Production Company
SBS