Sarah Chayes in Afghanistan

Sarah Chayes is a caring, unstoppable American woman who has lately devoted her life to Afghanistan, and its people. Chayes had been a war correspondent in Afghanistan, but had returned to her home in the United States after the war supposedly “ended.” She says her decision to quit a respected job with NPR and become involved in the reconstruction was in answer to a simple question by a friend, who happened to be the Uncle of Afghanistan’s president Karzai, “Wouldn’t you come back and help us?” She would, and she did.   Her first task was to help run a non-profit organization which rebuilt homes and schools, and worked to bring about intelligent public policy—Afghans for Civil Society. It was not an easy job. Afghanistan was far from ready for democracy—a term alien to most, and against the traditional warlord-driven society—to which the people were, and still are, quite accustomed.   But by 2004, she felt the organization could stand on its own feet. It was time for her to take on a new project. There was great need for small entrepreneurial businesses which would employ local workers and inspire others to engage in something other than relying on the poppy industry, with all its ramifications. She wanted to find a business that would use traditional Afghan fruit and flower crops. She was amazed, she said, at what would grow in that dry, dusty soil, and much of it growing wild—hers for the taking. She called her small Agri-business Arghand, and began to produce high-end skin-care products—beautiful soaps and bath oils. She also created jam which was sold locally.   “What we are doing is incredibly exciting”, she says, “We are exploring the rich agricultural and botanical resources of southern Afghanistan, which we are crafting into soaps that resemble river-polished lumps of marble.”   She has no illusion that her small efforts, and the wages that she pays to her eleven workers, will change the deteriorating situation. In a recent interview with Bill Moyers, she spoke bluntly about the Insurgency, and the situation as it has changed since the effort to defeat the Taliban began.   She spoke of the corruption in the supposedly democratically elected government, and in the army, and the police. She puts much of the blame on Pakistan, which turns a blind eye to the Taliban’s activities. It is there that the Taliban regroup. It is there that they raise their families, send them to schools that teach a warped version of the Koran and encourage hatred of the west. Yet it is Pakistan which is supposedly the ally of the U.S., which sends millions in support for the Taliban’s pursuit. She says schools are being built—yes—but also burned by the Taliban, and teachers and students fear for their lives. Women are fearful of going on the streets. Canadians count their dead—but no one can estimate how many Afghan men, women and children have died. “Collateral damage” is the vague, impersonal term for those.   It is amazing that she has managed to create a successful business. She sells her products all over the world in high-end shops. But she tells of the frustrations of trying to get legitimate assistance from the American agencies even though millions are spent on efforts to help business enterprise in Afghanistan. She finally became so disgusted with their pointless red tape that she refused to work with them. Instead, she relies on connections made mostly through the Internet—people who send her money or ideas, people that help advertise her lovely soaps and salves. That she is successful now is an incredible accomplishment in a war zone! But she admits she has no idea where her little business may be in three years. And she doesn’t expect she will make any real change in the Afghanistan situation. Moyers asked her how many troops might be needed to subdue the Taliban, allowing Canadians to carry out the constructive work they went to Afghanistan to do. She mentioned a tentative number of 40,000. But, she says, Kandahar is the traditional Taliban capital. They want it back—and deaths will not deter them. She has written a book, which will be released next summer, called “The Punishment of Virtue—an Alliance with Outlaws.” Perhaps if the Canadian government officials had read that book, they might have had a clearer vision of what lay ahead, and recent decisions might have changed.   Chayes says things have steadily deteriorated in southern Afghanistan. “What I am doing is simply irrational. There is no indication that anything is changing for the better.” But her philosophy has not changed. “Even if you know you won’t succeed, you have to try as hard as you can.” It is, she says, the last line of her book.

 

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