There is a term that is often thrown around in reference to how elections, in any nation around the world, should ideally be conducted: “free and fair”. When much of the world is watching an election and trying to gage if it is a good election, we look for evidence that people were able to vote without intimidation or any other undemocratic obstacle, and that the results of the vote were processed without irregularities. If this does not happen, then the reports start coming in, and we all sort of collectively decide that whatever elections a nation claims to have had, they were not up to the “free and fair” standard and therefore are not really a democracy.

Here in Afghanistan elections are only 2 weeks away. It is no secret that the government does not control the entire country and a war continues to be waged. Last month the announcement came that due to the strong risk of fraud and violence in certain regions, 900 polling stations would remain closed on election day. In a city like Kabul, Afghan National Police (ANP) run checkpoints throughout the city and there is the undertone of fear of being attacked or kidnapped by both foreign and local people. All-in-all, the task of holding an election in two weeks time is obviously going to be difficult and not without some problems.

The conclusion many observers in the media, governments, and perhaps you reading this right now, is that based on the aforementioned problems, the election is a failure before it even takes place. They take the standard of “free and fair” and they look at the poll closings, the threat of violence, and the recent attacks on political candidates, and they say – nope, Afghanistan’s election is a failure.

Yet the situation could also be looked at in another way. We could look at the 19,942 other polling stations that will be opened and look at the examples where people are voting when election day comes. We can look at the long list of 2,556 candidates from diverse backgrounds, including 405 women, running for parliament. Because looking at election with an interest in what goes right, not only what goes wrong, should also be part of the story that is Afghanistan today.

“Free and Fair” is certainly something anyone would want in an election, and if we were honest, we would admit that this doesn’t exist anywhere in the world. In the end we aim for an election that is as free and fair as possible within its context. The Afghan context is no doubt one of the most difficult in the world right now, but to be able to carry out an election, even one wrought with problems, should also be worth something on the road to stability.

Bananas on Chicken Street

On one summer night in Kabul, 6 friends of various backgrounds sit on a roof under the stars when the city is at its quietest, to discuss their thoughts on this place thats means something different for each person.  During the course of this extended podcast, we get into how to explain the ways of this place, as well as the answer to these statements you often hear about how “They don’t want us here” and “Afghanistan must solve its own problems.”

As I choose each step carefully to make sure I don’t step in a hole or an open gutter, I suddenly notice a steady noise in the darkness across the street.  It is the sound of a shovel and as my eyes adjust to the lack of light, I notice this person is working on the road. I scan the darkness and notice 2 or 3 more figures carrying tools and doing some kind of work on the road that looks like it might be paved in the next 24 hours.  These men work late at night in the dark…. I’m impressed they can see what they are doing.

Kabul is, for obvious reasons, not known for its night life and evening strolls.  But if you do dare take one you can watch the pomegranate stand guy close up his stand for the night. You can watch the bread store sweep up and take the last bread out of the window. You can experience the groups of Afghan police  attempting to communicate with you or talk about you in semi-English as you pass their roadblocks. And just when I thought no one else was out on the street, a gang of 5 children on rickety bicycles rolls by, just barely noticing me while negotiating the gigantic potholes in the road.

An Afghan friend, knowing that I’m new in town, takes us on a long drive around town… among the landmarks we see, the drab yet fascinating neighborhood built in the Soviet era, the incredibly fortified American military base that looks like something dreamed up in hollywood, and the most spectacular site of the night -the wedding centers- which look like Las Vegas casinos with extra christmas lights wrapped around them. Shining commercial temples against the backdrop of a town that goes quite dark and bleak at night.  No matter which direction the car turns, way up ahead in any direction are the mountains. Even at this hour, still towering over us with pockets of small white lights.

Kabul during the day is infamous for its chaos, a chaos that is often frustrating, but when you least expect it, a chaos that can somehow make you laugh or learn to let go and just let the city do what it needs to do.

Food Venders prepare for the end of the fast.

The following podcast is just an introduction to this journey, with a limited explanation as to what I’m doing here, what I’ve observed so far, and all kinds of additonal thoughts about Afghanistan.

My arrival in Dubai was in the dark which is perhaps a good thing for someone who thought he understood what hot weather was.  Even late at night, everyone is kind, helpful, and I can’t help but notice way too many doormen, desk people, greeter, general I-don’t-know-what-person.  All these people work here?

Fast-forward, 8h30am and I’ve arrived at the Afghanistan consulate early, since getting the Visa today is pretty much the key to this entire journey.  Naturally its around back that people sit around a plastic table and chairs next to an air-conditioner using every bit of its mechanical strength to provide a touch of less than steamy air. I walk in, scan the room, nod my head towards everyone, and take a seat.

As I steal glances at the faces around me, 2 things strike me:

1- The are all wearing (except for one gentleman who is likely reading this text) the comfy looking white pajama like clothing which I think is typical in desert nations.

2- With my beard now at a good level of thickness, and a lightly tanned face, some of these guys look like me! Or is it that I hope to look like them, in order to one day fit in once I get there?

I'm on a Dhow.

An hour later the men in pajamas are almost all gone, replaced by western looking contractor types. Irish, Canadian, American, South African, Japanese…many are polite and friendly, both to me and when they speak with staff.  Others seem in a rush or wanting to have things their way in a situation where I seriously doubt you can dictate terms.  I listen to an older grey haired woman chat in Afrikaans with a white bearded gentlemen who just arrived.  Only one day since leaving the Netherlands but I get a little thrill to hear a variation on Dutch.  They discuss how many times they’ve now been through this process.

I stop listening. Too much to soak in if I’m going to start listening to every conversation.  Eventually after a long wait, a strange window opens and people look towards myself and another gentleman who arrived first. He lives in Afghanistan for some years now.  I start to find some strange comfort from meeting a few polite and upbeat westerners who are eager to get back to Kabul and relaxed about the Visa process.  Not that being un-relaxed would help any.

Hours later my visa is ready. My plane ticket to Kabul is booked. I have a few hours and one short night in Dubai. The temperature is something cruel far above 100F /40C. It is Ramadan so it feels impossible to find an open restaurant (i think its illegal?). I want to give up and sleep in the comfy bed til it is time to fly, but then I hear the voices and I see the messages on facebook… go explore.. go see what this Dubai has to show you in the limited time you have. Come morning, being a tourist is no longer a safe idea, and there is work to be done.

Outside Lisbon, 2008

It isn’t hard to find things that don’t work correctly in Portugal.  It also isn’t hard to find people who will go on and on about how the prime minister is a bum and a crook. Indeed Portugal has plenty of problems as a nation with high unemployment, a disappearing rural population, and unsustainable metropolitan centers.

So it may come as a surprise after all this, to learn that Portugal is a global leader in alternative energy. More specifically, as of this year the country gets 45% of its total energy from renewable resources like wind, solar, wave and hydro.  Besides being an impressive number it is even more eye opening when you learn that this is a 28% increase from 5 years ago.  And just when you thought you’d already been impressed, you will find that -in fact- Portugal has become one of the largest (if not THE largest) wind energy producers in the United States!

How did this happen? What conditions and factors somehow led to this fairly small and less wealthy European nation become so active in alternative energy?  Here are a few reasons:

Despite a very low approval rating now, when his party was elected with a parliamentary majority in 2005, Prime Minister José Socrates and his cabinet set their sites on major investments in renewable energy, even under huge warnings that it would cost too much money.  5 years, many landmark projects,  and 13.6 billion euros later, Portugal has developed energy production and a smart grid that most of the world only talks about having one day.  The nation is now in a position to decommission 2 coal power plants and even sold energy to Spain this year. In the next few years they will roll out the world’s first nation wide electric car and charging station network. They also expect their percentage of electricity produced by renewable sources to be 60% by 2020.

Sure there are questions and a whole lot of concerns about what has happened in Portugal.  The biggest being the high price of electricity in the country.  Or what will happen if private investors and private energy companies get into financial problems, will the windmills, solar panels, tidal machines, and hydro-electric power plants still be run and maintained?

In the short term people may look at their energy bills and feel like they have been wronged.  The government may be accused or in fact involved in some scandal eventually resulting in it being voted out of office.  The achievements of Portugal may always be overshadowed by large nations like the US and China being unwilling and unable to take bold steps towards an efficient and environmentally sustainable energy system.   Yet despite all the criticism that has come and may come one day, especially in the political and economic realm, Portugal has accomplished an amazing feat in the quest to reduce emissions and dependence on fossil fuels.

Lisbon, August 2010

Podcast recorded on my last day in Lisbon, thinking out loud about the issues related to housing and squatting in Portugal as well as the Netherlands.  Also further laying out plans for what to look into and who or what to be consulted in the quest to find answers and plant the seeds for a solution. No interview in this edition, just thinking out loud and an update for you the audience.

Tagus River, Lisbon- 2010

A few months ago I was invited as a guest on the lunchtime leaders podcast, a program produced by a group of enthusiastic middle school students in Connecticut. Moreso than most interviews I can remember, I had a great time answering their questions, and I really stand by my answers. So I figured to share the link with you, give it a listen and let them (or me) know what you think.

Alfama 2008

4,000 abandoned buildings in Lisbon, that is what a study found in 2008.

Walking around in 2010, it feels as though with every passing month more businesses are closing, more people are giving up on their deteriorating rental apartment, and that number must now be high above 4,000.

A recent piece written in El País talks about how Lisbon has lost 100,000 people per decade for the last 30 years.  The reasons they list include poor condition of public services like schools and hospitals, and the fact that property in Lisbon costs 3 times more than in surrounding municipalities. It is such factors that have landed both Lisboa and Portugal’s second city, Porto, in the EU’s top ten most quickly shrinking cities.

Speaking with neighbors and friends, you hear alot about these factors that led to the vast amounts of abandoned buildings.  You also hear the frustration that something more isn’t being done to renovate, restore, or above all – make use of these spaces somehow.  Through the eyes of someone who has seen the beauty of Amsterdam’s squat movement, or Copenhagen’s Christiania, there is a lack of creativity is this legendary capital city when it comes to reclaiming abandoned and forgotten spaces.

But what is being done on a small or large scale in Lisbon? And why can’t more be done? Why not get radical and yes, a little crazy, when it comes to policies regarding abandoned property and taking over such spaces from irresponsible and absentee owners?

These questions and more I intend to get answered. Stay tuned.

My guest, Anchises De Paula, is an exception to the rule. Based in São Paulo, Brazil, he has taken the time to check on these stories and speak out about them. The result is something most politicians don’t want you to hear. They prefer to keep the public in fear; believing half-truths and myths.

Follow Anchises on Twitter or via his Blog

Viseu, Portugal

I’ve been running around the North of Portugal, cities full of history, pride, tradition, and granite!

Hours later, when the merciless sun has finally passed behind one of the city’s seven hills, I make my way to the cozy restaurant with wifi, where I always hold court when I am in town. I’m greeted by one of Lisbon’s busiest and kindest restaurant owner-entrepeneurs, my good friend David. He reminds me to make myself at home and I ask how is business, with my best “businesslike” tone. “Really really good actually”, he tells me with an air of satisfaction, “It has already been a great summer business wise.” David looks up motioning towards the upper floors of the building which he rents to tourists for several years now. He clears a few tables and chit-chats with various costumers in French, Spanish, Portuguese, and English, before he finally pulls up a chair to ask me about my journeys and get up to speed with my offline life.

Outside the night air is still hot and people move slowly through the beloved streets of the Bairro Alto. They love to talk about how bad the economy is here, they being my fellow Portuguese citizens. Yet when I look around, I see people everywhere, walking, eating, photographing, talking business on the phone, opening up another bizarre pseudo-clothing shop-bar-club.

Alas I love Lisbon and I was once an urban anthropologist in this town, my hours of study were between 11pm and 6am. But now I am an outsider, observing and enjoying still, but out of touch with what is what for the people of this proud city. Then again, I was probably always an outsider.

Photo in the Bica (Lisbon) from the Archive (2006)

Photo by Flickr member jit bag

After all the glamour and hoopla surround the World Cup in South Africa, what about the actual costs and benefits of such an event for South Africa. The construction of massive new stadiums, the infrastructure projects, the tourism… was it everything people hoped? Was it everything FIFA promised? Where did the money come from? And do the benefits outweigh the costs?

Chris Bolsmann, Lecturer in the Sociology Department at the University of Aston (UK) has been following the topic since before SA got the world cup. He has been speaking and writing about the real costs of such a tournament for the nation. He joins me on the program from South Africa.

Laura’s audio as part of the NOS Haiti file

Outside Port au Prince, Haiti, Photo by Talea Miller, PBS NewsHour

Not the World Cup in Rwanda photo by flickr member kigaliwire

Amidst my recent rush to dig for information about what effect world cups and high profile soccer tournaments have on nations, I almost missed a very valuable voice on a recent edition of Radio Open Source.

Who is Vishwas Satgar, I’ll use Chris’s description over at ROS:

Vishwas Satgar is a labor lawyer and leftwing activist, an insurgent ex-Secretary of the South African Communist Party who’s way out of alliance with the ANC on the uplift politics of the World Cup.

In this interesting interview, Satgar talks about the democratic deficit of this World Cup for his country.  He gets into the struggles that have intensified in the time leading up to the tournament, by social movements demanding the state meet long promised needs.  Specifically he talks about marches for Quality of Education, HIV-AIDS, and anti-privatization – among others, all which have held demonstrations during this high profile event.

Apparently at this very moment there is a national newspaper in South Africa that has gone to court to demand the government be transparent about the total cost of the World Cup. The total might turn out, when the information is finally released, to be around 5 billion dollars.  Beyond that, many cities including Johannesburg went way over budget and have spent themselves into massive debt.

There is much more to talk about and be heard in this interview, I recommend you give it a listen of you’re at all concerned about this topic of what does this tournament DO to or for a country.

Aveiro Stadium, Photo by flickr member moacirpdsp

It is surely an unpopular topic when so much national pride seems to be placed on large international soccer tournaments, but while everyone is high-fiving each other or fuming about their team being eliminated, there is a tremendous cost for all this fanfare.  Who bares this cost? How much is it? Why is it so expensive?

Few are brave enough to ask these questions, to question such a loved and long-running tradition is surely a risky dinner conversation.  In an era where sustainability is so vital to the future of our existence on this planet, fans don’t seem to care if this applies in the context of the sports. But what if they knew the truth about their beautiful game?

In a future post I will get into South Africa and Germany, the current and most recent host of the World Cup. But since I have a personal connection to the Portuguese republic, I’d like to take you back their massive soccer tournament Euro2004.  In this case, not to go back to the highlights of what player did what unbelievable thing, but to go back to what was built, invested, loaned, and promised then as compared to how things are now.

Let’s do it by the numbers:

• 6 cities, 6 new stadiums
• Total cost of 6 projects – 445 million euros.
• Total cost of these stadiums to these cities annually 19.9 million euros.
• City of Leiria pays 5 million per year in interest alone
• Aveiro, a city with around 73,600 inhabitants, has a new stadium with a capacity of 30,000.
• Mayor of Aveiro once suggested blowing up their stadium, which costs 4 million per year in loans and maintenance.
• Algarve’s stadium, capacity 30,000+ costing over 3.1 million annually, does not have a team in the 1st division of Portugal’s national soccer league.
• Cities of Leiria, Aveiro, and Faro are all hoping to sell their stadiums.
• The city of Braga is now expanding their previously expanded stadium in hopes of qualifying for a Spain-Portugal World Cup Bid.  They pay 6 million euros in loans annually

Ok so that wasn’t just by the numbers.  Because beyond the numbers, both the lack of use of these massive structures, and the tremendous cost burden for municipalities who openly want to rid themselves of these problems, indicates that when all is said and done the beautiful game has a financially crippling effect.

Yet the big name sponsors and FIFA would like you to ignore the man behind the curtain. Ignore the elephant in the room. Relax and enjoy the game, everything is fine.

Next up: Germany 2006, perhaps a better case?

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