Reuniting and Replenishing the Two Afghanistans

We have been coming to terms for some time with the many dualities of society. It evokes neither query nor sigh that vital aspects of Afghanistan's future may be decided by a group made up largely of Western upper and middle class men, with a select set of educated, relatively liberal elite as well as nominal tribalists from the country, in far away London this week. Meanwhile, the country itself is largely very conservative, very Islamic, and very poor.

There is simply no way to successfully address the bitter fights torturing Afghanistan without seriously bridging this enormous gap. If participants at the London Conference are to build the most important bridge, they must focus not only on NATO's shared goals with the Karzai Administration, but more specifically on the Karzai's Administration's shared goals with its enemies.

In London, talks will begin with a woman speaker, a big thanks, and a joke. In Zaranj, rural Afghanistan, talks will include only men, begin with an intense prayer, and be followed by news shared of each other's families. In London, small talk will bubble about entertainment and media over catered bagels with cream cheese and coffee. In Zaranj, small talk will simmer about health over homemade flat bread and tea. Both spheres will discuss war, partnerships, and irreconcilable differences in philosophy. But there is one specific common goal remaining still under-discussed and under-treated in Afghanistan which is irrefutably pulling on all sectors like a tempest -- migration.

Can the bizarro Afghanistan -- with its Blackberries, male and female work partnerships, and broad, shining statements -- forge the kinds of agreements which will genuinely persuade Afghanistan-proper and its millions of under-employed, radically conservative, and brutally realist decision-makers in the battleground areas of the country to agree?

To some extent, many of those who are under-represented, not women and ethnic minorities in this case, but Taliban sympathizers and other likely spoilers of any peace proposal, are the primary constituency for peace and reconstruction talks because they are the block most willing to participate in violence.

Ironically, Western democracies have long understood this polarization of politics and consciously discuss how it effects even Afghanistan. However, the vast, sweeping suction of migration is often seen as a symptom, rather than a core issue in every sector.

More specifically, it is ten million people shifting their careers, many abandoning once-productive farms, rural factories, and cooperatives, and moving to the cities. Once crowded in cities, their very desire for work and demand for resources over-burdens the town, and turns things consistently tense. Educated and resourceful members of the elite leave for Dubai or Peshawar or Moscow, leaving politics and teaching to those less capable. Rural wastelands -- not everywhere, but a critically high number of places - stand with few but those who have nothing left but their land and God.

Reversing migration is not just about finding homes for refugees and displaced families. It is also about bringing qualified teachers, trained doctors, diversity, and moderacy back to the whole of Afghanistan. The international community, following earlier recommendations to this effect in 2003-6, did indeed shift massive resources into revitalizing Afghanistan's rural economy, including the re-introduction of alternative livelihoods. It was a huge effort worthy of applause. However, it's focus was at first rightfully on water systems, then shifted well to crops, then shifted to narcotics, then in some places fell to security threats.

Last year in Kabul, researching the southwest, I had the chance to discuss with local planners how great investment ideas for the rural economy went down the drain because the decisions in the field weighed on people who were either the only skilled people available and incredibly overworked, or people who lacked knowledge and creativity.

If a series of conferences, agreements, and reconstruction proposals are to seriously reunite and replenish Afghanistan, they must not only serve to feed the two Afghanistans, but encourage them to live side-by-side or else face violent consequences. The efforts must seek to eliminate the cultural gulf separating the two created by thirty years of forced migration.

Photo credit: CanadaGood (Bakery in Herat, Afghanistan)