Afghan Star

Afghans in search of an idol

The Age, Australia 10/31/2005

BRITAIN exported Dicko to Australia and now we're carrying on the tradition, exporting the Australian Idol/Search for a Star concept to the hitherto celebrity-deprived terrain of Afghanistan. Afghan Star, or Setara e Afghan as it's known locally, premiered on Afghan television a few weeks back, and it's all thanks to the Mohseni clan who settled in Melbourne before returning to their homeland following the demise of the Taliban regime.

Wajma Mohseni was eight when she landed here and has returned to Kabul after a couple of decades living mostly in East Brighton. Now, the co-creator of Afghan Star says the program has been a big success as it tries to find a successor to Ahmad Zahir, the charismatic singer dubbed the Afghan Elvis, who died tragically in a car accident in 1979. A quarter of a century after Zahir's death, his songs still top the charts in a nation that hasn't had the luxury of an entertainment industry since the Soviet invasion.

"About 50 per cent of the population is under the age of 20, and there's an incredible demand for music and entertainment here," says Mohseni. "Since we started the phone has been ringing off the hook."

And what about the judges? "Well, we don't have a Kyle Sandilands or a Dicko; the culture here is slightly different," she says, employing understatement. "We have someone who knows about the music industry, a female, and a comedian to keep it light. We wouldn't want anybody to get too offended; the culture here is a bit more polite than Australia!"

And there is no shortage of aspirants to fill Zahir's shoes. More than 500 hopefuls queued for hours to audition for the show in Kabul; they have even held auditions in the conservative Taliban heartland of Kandahar.

These are not obvious places to sing pop songs, but Mohseni is determined that the show will unify the country. So far contestants have displayed both traditional and contemporary Afghan and international music styles. Indian Bollywood-style pop is an influence and one contestant sang a song in English, which took Mohseni by surprise. In the modern fashion, the final winner will be selected by popular vote, but is unlikely to have a 'fro.

libby leak

This is the article that Robert Novak wrote about Ambassador Joe Wilson, the op-ed that revealed his wife's identity as a CIA agent

surprisingly, the agent isn't an outright criticism of Joe Wilson, from what i read, but still the mere fact that his wife was being revealed as a cia agent is a pretty big blow to the both of them.

this is screwed up

http://www.theworld.org/content/10265.wma
http://www.theworld.org/content/10266.wma

there's this one chinese company that developed a highly effective anti-malaria drug, it's the most effective drug treatment against the strongest form of malaria. The drug is based on the ingredients of a chinese tree, which as been used since ancient times to reduce feaver. however, it's under threat right now because counterfit companies are producing fake anti-malaria drugs. I have seen counterfit cd's and dvd's but this is really a dirty business because people take these drugs to save their lives. The counterfitters are producing exact replicas so well that doctors have no way of distinguishing the drugs. However, they are able to test the drugs for the active ingredient, which can work but lately the counterfitters have started adding small amounts of the active ingredient in order to get past these chemical tests. This is even worse because it gives small doses of the drug to the malaria parasite, enabling it to become resistant to the drug much faster than it normally would. when i recently went to a dvd shop here in kabul, i was extremely impressed by the ridiculous quality of the dvd labels and what not, they sell season series of popular shows such as "24", "Seinfeld" and tons of other cool stuff in what looks like normal packaging. however, this is also scary when you think about how that same advanced copy-technology is being used to produce fake drugs, which is a pretty sinister business.

Gov. Bush urges against hoarding gas

this was a pretty hilarious headline on cnn today:

"Gov. Bush urges against hoarding gas" (especially after eating beans)

please....do flachellate away...


Main Entry: break wind
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: pass gas
Synonyms: cut one, cut the cheese, fart, let her rip, rip one

Source:
Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.1.1)Copyright © 2005 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Defeating Malaria

this is a really great radio report about Malaria and how Equatorial Guinea is trying to eradicate it in its entire country, which would be amazing because it kills millions throughout africa. this report has some great information about how it spreads and how they're trying to combat the disease:

http://www.theworld.org/content/1025full.wma

Sediq Shabab

just wanted to give the link to this great afghan song, it's in Pashtun and has some good beats. There's a couple of other good songs on the same album, i suggest downloadin it:

http://www.mastana.net/music/index.php?p=Sediq%20Shabab/Shokhak

"Gerda de lamana" is my favorite, here's the mike guarino butchered lyrics, i got it online and then converted it to my own phonetic liking, i basically combined words to read as they sound cause i'm trying to memorize it. It's an idea for trying to learning pashto, which is pretty hard from what i hear. I'm gonna have a friend make corrections:

Geradada en lamana, sheena kamees de lamang dara
Geradada en lamana, sheena kamees de lamang dara
Geradada en lamana, Ah

De asman sturay mekakhudaya
Wey che hamesha, deyar pasar walara yoma, Geradada en lamana
sheena kamees de lamang dara
Geradada en lamana, Ah

De keber jam badenasakurshee
weya-ipu ajizu, khalekumakawa zilmuna, Geradada en lamana
sheena kamees de lamang dara
Geradada en lamana, Ah

Te bakhtawar-ey sawda gara
wey che malaghalare, kharesaveeshumaraykhaluna, Geradada en lamana
sheena kamees de lamang dara
Geradada en lamana, Ah

De gudara harubutee darudee
Wey chepee-ey lageege, de injura palavuna, Geradada en lamana
Sheena kamees de lamang dara
Geradada en lamana, Ah

btw, when i was little, i used to think that the Star Spangled Banner was "Jose Can you see..." - i really liked jose canseco at the time so it was a good fit. for some reason this song is named gerda de lamana but it sounds like "ger-a-dada en lamana", which reminds me of 'dada en la manana' = dad in the morning

Al Humdililah!!! some chalam, a haircut and things are goin well

Although I'm prone to calling it sheesha, I now have to recognize the water pipe as Chalam, because it seems as if afghanistan is on its way back with the chalam culture. last night, after a frustrating week of built up boredom, I met my good friend Wafi at this new traditional afghan restaurant near my house. Sorry to my family members who hate seeing pictures of me smoking, but this was just so cool and rest assure in the fact that i've been exercising lately (yeah...do you know where the weight room is???) so my lungs are perfectly healthy. It's a really great place because of two major things: I asked the guy how long they were open and he responded "24 hours", i almost soiled myself when he told me this because I have been longing for a place to go and hang out with people after 9:30 - which is the regular closing time for the city. A great part about this restaurant is that they have these little mini huts that are constructed inside, and they put nice rugs to sit on and compfy pillows, plus those cool beads that act as a shaggadelic see through door. Add the traditional afghan music of 1 guitar thing and a drum, that makes a really cool atmoshpere. The other major thing they have is really delicious chalam (sheesha) and me and Wafi enjoyed a mint flavored one that was prepared very nicely i have to say. Wafi was really happy too because there really aren't many places for people to go and hang out, i think it has to do with the electricity issues here in kabul so people don't stay open late, but also the culture of people here is to go home to their families and stay home at night. To a foreigner, that can get really frustrating because i don't have a family here, but I keep myself busy with people from work and other fun stuff. So this was pretty good news, that kabul's social life just got one restaurant better, which is what they need in my opinion because it makes life here more social and fun for everyone.

besides that, yesterday i got a haircut finally after going around a while with a puffy afro. not that i don't like the afro, it's pretty rad, but it's much harder to deal with here cause i shower at my office and it's just much easier when i can wet my hair without using two gallons of water to penetrate the enormous afro. I was about to snap cause i kept getting this delayed due to the fact that most things aren't open here after 5pm due to the Ramadan period, so i was racing from work to get to this barber shop in time before they closed up shop. I walked in and found like 5 guys sitting on the couches, i thought they were waiting for haircuts. I thought i was done, so i asked but luckily they were just typical barbergoers sitting around reading the newspaper and chatting, i was invited to sit in the barber chair. This wasn't the best haircut experience cause me pointing at the electric buzzer wasn't enough to explain to the guy that i wanted my hair short - translation of such a word isn't too easy due to the large number of varying meanings of the word 'small/short'. even in english it's hard to explain but usually things go well. so eventually he was done and it wasn't even close to being short enough so i told one of the guys in the shop who spoke english and the barber started to defend himself like i'd insulted him. so thankfully he made the bottom shorter but i didn't push to get the top shortened and now i have a bit of a mushroom head, those crazy barbers man....in his defense, it was like 4:30 and they don't eat all day until 5pm, so i think i'd be on edge a bit if i were him. but anyways, thank god i got the haircut, as i like to say in my office: 'i feel like 100 bucks'. this is a phrase i coined after taking a shower, searching for a way to say 'i feel like a million bucks', I instead said '100 bucks' and my coworkers thought it was really funny so now they make fun of me for it. that's all for now, I'm going to be going to a traditional Iftar meal (breaking fast) on friday at my friend Wafi's house, there's also a halloween party i might go to so that should be interesting to say the least.

My very first pomegranate, in the land of pomegranates

Most people are not aware that Afghanistan is the home to a treasure trove of indigenous fruits and vegetables. The pomegranate just happens to be one of them...the best pomegranates in the world are produced in Kandahar, so forget about the taliban and their reputation for being centered in kandahar, the much more important thing going on here is the pomegranate. The origin of the fruit is in the region of eastern persia (somewhere in eastern iran or afghanistan, who knows). I tried one of these (i bought them for less than 25 cents each as a gaudy tourist) that wasn't from kandahar, my friend tells me that it wasn't anything compared to the best of the best in afghanistan that are produced in kandahar, and it was mighty delicious to say the least. Anyways, i just wanted to let people know that afghanistan is on its way back and pomegranates from here rock. it's seriously like a taste explosion in your mouth when you shove a bunch of seeds into your mouth. And it fights prostate cancer (yay), so guys start eating those pomegranate seeds so you can extend the shelf life of your own proverbial seeds. by the way, did you know that the 'adam and eve' story referred to pomegranates and not apples?? yeah we were all fooled...

The Wisdom in poetry of Omar Khayyam

Omar Khayyam's Letter to Prophet Mohammed:
From me to Mustafa (Mohammed) please
receive my salaam (greeting of peace)

With complete honor, meanwhile tell him

Oh most respected one of the Hashemite tribe, why the bitter
drink(salty yogurt drink common in persia) is halal (legal)
in sharia (islamic law) while pure wine is haram (illegal)?

Prophet Mohammed's letter back to Omar Khayyam:

From me to Khayyam please receive my salaam

And meanwhile tell him that Khayyam is
still yet raw (not developed as a man)

When did I say that wine is haram? but

to a mature one it is halal and to an immature one it is harram

.

.

i think i made some mistakes in the farsi text above

.

.

This is by no means the word of God according to Muslims, but Omar Khayyam wrote this imaginary letter/ poem in between the 11th and 12th centuries while living in the persian speaking area near the border of Iran and Afghanistan. In much of his poetry, he praises wine and often sarcastically questions why such a great thing could be banned in his religion. This guy was a great mathematician who calculated the number of days in the year to a extremely accurate amount, he was a great philosopher and questioned God and his faith, which I think is really a great thing, not blasphemy as some people would say.

farsi dic?

so I was asking my friend about a word in farsi today and he showed me this really cool website that kind of surprised me due to its vulgarity.

http://www.farsidic.com/

if you're ever interested in knowing a word in farsi, i highly recommend farsi dic, it's a very good site. This farsi dic is among the best in the world and will really knock your socks off!




also, there's this company that always advertises on TV called Barf. The first time i saw it i almost wet myself laughing, just imagine. It's a laundry detergent...








see:
http://www.iran-export.com/exporter/company/PAXAN/detergnt.htm

my first earthquake

This morning at like 8:30-ish i woke up cause i thought that my body was shaking or something. It turned out that it was an earthquake! I'm from quite little New Hampshire where we don't have earthquakes, so this was new to me. My roomate yelled at me to get up, so i got up and started looking for my shoes, which i couldn't find...by the time i found them the earthquake was over. Luckily it was centered in India or Pakistan, so we got a little part of it.

Besides that, last night was the 1 year anniversary of Tolo Television, so I went to that and it was fun. I've been lighting up my sheesha lately, and i'm becoming pretty good at it (thanks to Ali Taha who showed me the fine art of sheesha making). I prepared one at the party and a bunch of guys came around to try it, it was pretty funny cause you can tell that even though there isn't that much sheesha smoking here in afghanistan, they must have some sort of history of it because they all knew what it was and wanted to try. It gives me hope that maybe at some point in the near future there will be sheesha cafes or some afghan version of what i saw in Egypt - the best sheesha in the world.

Anyways, it was funny cause they did a sort of kareoke thing to commemorate our TV show Afghan Star, and I got up there and sang a backstreet boys song, "i want it that way". usually when i sing the song, i do it as a joke because the lyrics are so ridiculously cheezy but when i said i was going to sing the backstreet boys, everyone in the crowd recognized it like, ahhhi like them... When I sang it, i was doing my best to joke around but it was hard cause of the language barrier, so I gave up on that, just laughed on the inside and it turned out to be a fun occasion.

where will google go?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/10/03/growing.google.ap/index.html

this is a really interesting article about the future of google.

Oh it was glorious

Since I've arrived in Afghanistan, i have had a few problems with the water heater in my apartment - it doesn't work. Thus, I am not able to take showers and am forced to reside to splash baths with ice cold water, which is not a very effective means of cleaning - especially for a stallion such as I. finally, today, i learned of a shower at my work that is used by all of the drivers who drive around the staff. As gross as the ground was that i had to stand on (i ended up showering with my socks on cause i didn't have sandals), it was still a glorious shower because there was hot water and finally my body was replenished.

here's a short poem I composed to commemorate this great, glorious occasion:

I finally took a shower, a gloooooorious shower
the steamy water shined down from above
my shorts got wet from the spray, but that's ok
cause now i'm free ballin and there's no stallin
and i'm finally clean, it's the end of a fine, fine day