We interviewed an old, old man with a gray beard and a turban, tiny and frizzled, who a neighbor gave twenty dollars to as a charitable gift. She had noticed him sitting on the street outside her apartment building, silently begging and accepting hand-outs of food. He took that twenty dollars and started a banana stand, and now he eats without begging.
He is still very poor, and told us he is four months behind in his rent of about $40 a month, and that his grandson needs a blood transfusion in Pakistan, but he doesn't know how he will afford to get him there. He teared up as he told us this, and so did we.
What he didn't know was that we had seen him, before the interview began, down the street when another man approached him begging for something. We watched as the old man rushed to a bread vendor nearby, take money out of his own pocket, and buy a loaf of bread. Then he went to the man who was begging and gave it to him.
At our interview he told us of how there were no jobs, nothing, not even for his son-in-law, who would be helping if there were work. He said he told the landlord coming for the late rent, that if he made some money soon, he would pay him everything. And that if he died before he could pay, to please forgive him.
The Diarist and his Afghan colleague at Jobs for Afghans are in Afghanistan. Please keep the calls coming to
Sen. Daniel Inouye, Ph: 202-224-3934 Fax: 202-224-6747
and Rep. David Obey. Ph:(202) 225-3365 Fax: (715-842-4488)
who are hammering out in a conference committee the War Supplemental Appropriations bill. Please fax them this diary and ask them to add a 10% of military operations budget earmark for the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund administered by the World Bank, specifically directed to create cash-for-day-labor jobs for the poorest of Afghans, then call and email this diary to your own congressman to ask him or her to call them with the same message, as your representative.
Also please send a copy to President Obama.
Ralph will be blogging from Afghanistan this week. Other blog posts at KabulJourney.blogspot.com To join the email list for future congressional actions please shoot an email to ralphlopez AT hotmail DOT com.