I've been here almost a week - two more to go. Too short a visit to such a super country.
"Super country"? you ask - thinking of a generation of war, almost the lowest life expectancy and income in the world, mines, militias and oppressed women. Well, I can see I'm going to have to say something more about why I love it here. Later. But here's a clue: there is a legend here that when God expelled Lucifer from heaven, the rebel angels fell to earth in Kabul (near the zoo) - because God saw that otherwise it would be unfair on the rest of the world.
So that update. Yesterday there were big demonstrations against the USA and Pakistan. The areas around the embassies were closed to traffic and my programme officer couldn't get to where he was going to find out what we need to know so that was dull.
A demo against Pakistan makes perfect sense - did you know the two countries are at war? There's a border dispute. North West Frontier Province (NWFP) is part of Pakistan by a treaty from the 1890s (repudiated by the Afghan government in 1949), but has some autonomy, being in culture part of Afghanistan.
Some parts of the mountainous border between NWFP and Afghanistan are, as you may imagine, open to doubt. What's clear is that Afghan soldiers (dismissively termed "militia" in the Pakistan News, but I'd rather not be on the wrong end of them all the same) have been fighting the Pakistan army, with actual people killed and homes evacuated.
The whole NWFP thing is a big injustice and confusion, and a key to understanding Pakistan's dealings with Afghanistan. I'll go into this later - but take a look at an atlas and you'll figure it out perhaps.
A demo against the US embassy may make less sense to the western ear. On the one hand, obviously, America is a wicked country, don't you know, so any demo against the USA is a good thing, as any right thinking European will tell you. But on the other hand the US supported the forces that overthrew the Taliban who were bent on oppressing women, so in this instance America seems to be on the side of the angels.
What gives? I'm not quite sure, but I think what it is, is it's a Pashtun thing. The Taliban, as I've mentioned elsewhere, were a cultural movement: specifically a Pashtun cultural movement. More Afghans are Pashtun than belong to any other cultural grouping - but Pashtuns are not a majority. An awkward situation.
The Northern Alliance, who took over last year with American help, are mostly Tajiks = the second most populous group. And whilst the President, Hamid Karzai, is a Pashtun, he's in many respects a lame duck because, unlike the other ministers in government, he doesn't command a loyal army of his own.
So Pashtuns are feeling a bit left out, and, whilst not all, particularly in Kabul, would want the Taliban back, they're against America for backing the Tajiks. And the NWFP is heavily Pashtun, so the fighting with Pakistan rouses Pashtun ire as well. Kabul is a mixed-race city in a Pashtun province, so anything can happen.
At least... that's as far as I can make out. But I might be wrong. And I've certainly oversimplified. Particularly because, although racial differences polarised over the last ten years or so, when the ethnically-based mujahedin groups that had been united against the Russkies started scrapping with each other, Afghans have much more of a sense of shared nationhood than you might expect. I'd guess certainly as much as the English and Scots - we joke at each other's expense and play hard-fought rugby games, but when the chips are down we are on the same side.
Then again, maybe I'm wrong about Scotland too.
One thing I do know - this is a super country.