Bomb Explosion Blocks Kabul-Jalabad Road

Around noon Thursday 7 July an Incendiary Explosive Device (IED) exploded on the Kabul-Jalalabad Road causing severe disruption of traffic on this vital trade route through which a variety of items of daily sustenance ranging from wheat flour to soap, from milk to fruit reach the Afghan capital from Pakistan.

Life in the bustling capital itself continued normally, however. Only a few remaining ruins from decades of war, heavy barricades around major offices, and the occasional convoys of American Armoured Personnel Carriers manned by drivers and gunners on the alert remind one that a civil war is waging in parts of the country.

Otherwise the roads are choke full of cars of all makes, pavements are bustling with pedestrians, shops and restaurants are choke full with patrons, Pakistani and Indian buses ply the street disgorging passengers at each stop, and ubiquitous white UN armored Toyote Land Cruisers race around as traffic permits.

The UN rest house is an Island of peace and fun. Housed in a rambling old building, it has a character quite its own. The furniture and the fixtures are old, and the treadmills in the gym do not work -- almost proudly so. But the Europeans, African, Chinese, Pakistani and Indians that stroll around in the many tree-lined gardens, and along paths winding around foutains and through empty sheds and under security cameras, passing by the broken piano or the ping pong table without a net (proudly so) appear to be animated and in bliss dare one say. The bunker doubles as a club and last evening it was quite raunchy.

These consultants and such of the UN, World Bank, and IMF are critical to the reconstruction of this post-conflict country. They are reforming customs, building roads and schools, and assisting in Governance. But the man on the street's high hopes about the democratically elected government of Karzai are evaporating, and morale suffers as people sense the Taliban are gaining ground. The latest bomb explosion will only rub salts into long-festering wounds. Yet the youth has a vigor which cannot be underestimated. Many Government organizations are headed by people in their twenties and thirties. As they gain experience, they constitute the best hope of a better Afghanistan.