Afghan blogger Sanjar Qiam thought he was being constructive when he suggested that his employer, U.S. government contractor and nonprofit International Relief & Development, might want to end segregated dining arrangements at their Kabul headquarters. For his trouble, Qiam was summarily dismissed from his job as a media consultant.
You can read his account of the firing here. The whole thing started when Qiam received an all-hands e-mail from IRD senior finance officer Leonard Chitekwe-Mwale, offering a special 4th of July lunch to expats.
"I found this email quite disturbing," Qiam later wrote. "We are celebrating [an] American national holiday in Afghanistan, but Afghans are not welcomed to fully celebrate the occasion. [A] special meal is only offered for expatriates. This resembles very much the colonial ages; rules and regulations are placed to compel locals to observe the dominant nation’s culture but they are not fully welcomed."
In response, Qiam fired off a note, suggesting that Afghans and expats should share lunches together, instead of in separate dining rooms. According to his account, IRD's chief of party, Frederick Chace, summoned him to his office and dismissed him from his job after an expletive-laden lecture.
Success in Afghanistan is supposed to hinge on a civilian development surge to complement military efforts. But if that, in practice, means handing out contracts to Beltway bandits who regard the natives -- sorry, national staffers -- with suspicion, then we are in big trouble.
Disclosure up front: I'm friends with Qiam, although we've been out of direct contact for the past couple of years. But if Qiam's account is correct, this attitude is troubling. IRD is a major U.S. Agency for International Development implementation partner in Afghanistan; it oversees a three-year, $400 million project to build roads in southern and eastern provinces of Afghanistan. I'm waiting for a response from IRD.
[PHOTO: Impawards.com]
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