Karzai Poster in Traffic

If you would like more information about the World Affairs Council Leadership Delegation visit to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, a PDF version of the Trip Report can be downloaded by clicking here.  The report was written by our own Ken Furst, and his fellow delegates Maria Zammit from the World Affairs Council of Greater Hampton Roads, Laura Dupuy from the Utah Council for Citizen Diplomacy, James Falk from the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Forth Worth, Mimi Gregory from the Naples Council on World Affairs, and Ljubomir Stambuk from the World Affairs Council of Charlotte.  It offers very detailed accounts of all of their meetings in Kabul in March.

Rug Merchants

You can read Ken’s blog posts, written during his trip, on our website here and see video or download audio from his Instant Issues presentation in April here.

Renaissance High School students Yezenia Rodriguez, Kristal Viera, Jesse Lederman (alternate), Kyle Richmond-Crosset, & Zachary Holland at The White House in the rain.

Zachary, Kyle, Yezenia and Kristal prepare to compete

We have a couple of photos of our team from the Springfield Renaissance High School who represented the Council and the region at The World Affairs Councils of America’s 10th Annual Academic WorldQuest competition in April.

In addition to the competition with teams from all over the country, the students attended a reception at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China where Ambassador Zhang Yesui gave his observations on the US-China relationship and a reception at the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia.

Coach Angela Sullivan with the Renaissance Team and the Washington Monument

Please join us in celebrating all the Springfield area students who participated in our local competition at our next Instant Issues event featuring Michael Klare, Director of the Five College Peace and World Security Studies program, who will be speaking about his new book on Thursday, May 17.

Dr. Michael T. Klare

Dr. Michael T. Klare, Director of the Five College Peace and World Security Studies Program, will speak on The Race For What’s Left: The Global Scramble for the World’s Last Resources, on Thursday, May 17, 2012 at noon in the Community Room at 1350 Main Street—3rd Floor (Sovereign Bank), downtown Springfield.

We will also be recognizing area high school teams who participated in our Academic WorldQuest competition at Western New England University in January, including our champions from the Springfield Renaissance High School who represented the Council and the region at the 10th Annual Academic WorldQuest competition on April 21, hosted by the World Affairs Councils of America in Washington, DC.

The cost for members is $5 without a lunch and $15 with a lunch provided.  Nonmembers cost is $10 without a lunch and $20 with a lunch provided.  To reserve a sandwich (tuna, turkey or vegetarian), please  register on line with a credit card here or call the World Affairs Council office at 413-733-0110.

RSVP deadline for this event is Tuesday, May 15, 2012.

Michael Klare is defense correspondent of The Nation magazine, and author of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet:  The New Geopolitics of Energy, Resource Wars and Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America’s Growing Petroleum Dependency.  Klare serves on the boards of directors of Human Rights Watch, and the Arms Control Association. He is a regular contributor to many publications including Tom’s Dispatch, Mother Jones, and is a columnist for Foreign Policy In Focus.  He is a frequent and popular speaker at World Affairs Councils across the country.  Copies of Michael’s new book The Race for What’s Left will be available for purchase at the event.

The Instant Issues series is generously sponsored by United Bank, Robinson Donovan PC, Wells Fargo Advisors LLC, Wilbraham & Monson Academy, and A. L. Cignoli Company.  Our media sponsor is BusinessWest.

US Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker (left) and Ken Furst look on as ISAF Commander Gen. John Allen greets Mimi Gregory from the Naples Council on World Affairs in Kabul.

If you missed World Affairs Council Past President Ken Furst’s presentation at our April 18 Instant Issues event–or if you’d like to see it again–it is now available on our website here , thanks to our web maven Jeremy Cole.  You can also download an audio podcast of the talk on that same page.  Ken’s blog posts during his trip to Afghanistan in March are still available here.

National Academic WorldQuest 2012 Tee Shirts

The 10th Academic WorldQuest 2012 national competition hosted by The World Affairs Councils of America was held on Saturday, April 21, in Washington, DC.  No photos yet from our team from the Springfield Renaissance School, but we have a few from WACA to share.

Congratulations to the winners of the National Competition.  Placing first was Plano Senior High School representing the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth.  Keystone School representing the World Affairs Council of San Antonio.  And we can bask in a little shared Commonwealth glow as WorldBoston fielded the third place team from Walpole High School.

Chinese Ambassador Zhang Yesui giving his observations on US-China relations.

The weekend included a reception at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China where Ambassador Zhang Yesui gave his observations on the US-China relationship, a reception at the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, and an exciting, down to the wire Academic WorldQuest National Competition complete with a sudden death tiebreaker round.

The teams also heard from students from the Hayah International Academy in Cairo in Egypt who talked about their experiences during the revolution.

Students from Hayah International Academy in Cairo discuss their experiences during the revolution

We will be recognizing all of the students and schools that participated in our local Academic WorldQuest competition in January at our next Instant Issues event on May 17 featuring Dr. Michael Klare.

Don’t miss this opportunity to try a taste of Portugal and get to know your fellow World Affairs Council members in a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere.  We will begin at 6:00 P.M. with a Social Hour-Cash Bar featuring an Appetizer Table of Pasteis Bacalhau (Codfish Cakes), Chourica Assada (Grilled Portuguese Sausage), and Fresh Vegetables with Dip.

Dinner will be served family style–so everyone can have a bit of everything–at 6:45 P.M. and will include  Bacalhau a Gomes de Sa (baked codfish with potatoes in an onion sauce), Carne de Porco a Alentejana (Clams and pork served over “home-fried” potato chunks), Coelho-Rabbit in a garlic/olive oil paprika sauce, Arroz- Rice, Portuguese Rolls and Butter.

To finish we will have a Dessert of Pudim de Flan (custard pudding) or Rice Pudding with Coffee and Tea.

The cost is $35 per person

Space is limited so please register with payment by April 23 by contacting the World Affairs Council office.   If you would like to pay with a credit card, please register on line here online with a credit card.

General John Allen & Ken Furst at International Security Assistance Force command headquarters in Kabul

Ken R. Furst, president of the Momentum Group and Past President of the World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts, had an extraordinary opportunity in March 2012 to participate in a mission to Afghanistan under the auspices of the US Department of State and hosted by Ambassador Ryan Crocker.  Ambassador Crocker arranged for this mission so that a group of independent citizens could meet with Afghan people and officials to get first-hand their views of the current situation in Afghanistan. The Ambassador believes World Affairs Councils are the premier organizations in the U.S. for informing Americans on foreign affairs at the community level. This once in a lifetime opportunity included high level meetings with people representing a broad variety of constituents and activities, including General John Allen, Commander of the International Security Assistance Force, and an unprecedented audience with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

On Wednesday, April 18, 2012, Ken will speak at an Instant Issues event on his Impressions of Afghanistan at noon in the Community Room at 1350 Main Street—3rd Floor (Sovereign Bank), downtown Springfield.

The cost for members is $5 without a lunch and $15 with a lunch provided.  Nonmembers cost is $10 without a lunch and $20 with a lunch provided.  To reserve a sandwich (tuna, turkey or vegetarian), please register on line here or call the World Affairs Council office at 413-733-0110.  RSVP deadline for this event is Monday, April 16, 2012.

During his trip, Ken blogged about his experiences for this website.  He currently serves as chair of the Nominating Committee of the World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts and also sits on the board of the WFCR Foundation.

The Instant Issues series is generously sponsored by United Bank, Robinson Donovan PC, Wells Fargo Advisors LLC, Wilbraham & Monson Academy, and A. L. Cignoli Company, Our media sponsor is BusinessWest.

Dubai…

The day spent in Dubai was certainly a stark contrast to the seven we spent in Kabul. It is modern, flourishing, rather expensive. It was fun to see the tallest building in the world (which is very elegant), the largest fountain show in the world, the indoor ski slope (which was quite busy), the Dubai Mall (largest in the world and it also has an impressive aquarium), the Mall of the Emirates, a boat ride on Dubai Creek (more a of river), the Gold Souk and the Spice Souk, souks being more traditional markets/bazaars.

Then off to the airport for the 22-hour trip back–hotel to home. All-in-all, an enormously informative trip and a fantastic personal experience which I will share in the next few weeks and months with the residents of this region beginning with the April 18 World Affairs Council Instant Issues luncheon in Springfield. I hope all readers can come and will bring friends.

Thank you to my fellow delegation members Maria Zammit (Hampton Beach, Virginia) the mission organizer and leader, Laura Dupuy (Salt Lake City, Utah), Jim Falk (Dallas Fort Worth, Texas), Mimi Gregory (Naples, Florida) and L.J. Stambuk (Charlotte, North Carolina).

And of course thank you to Ambassador Ryan Crocker and everyone at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

More to come.

 Education…The Minster of Education, Ghulam Farooq Wardak, is a power house politician. As mentioned in early posts, education advances have been tremendous since 2001 when there were  900,000 students (our equivalent of K-12) in a population of 30 million, and they were all boys. Now there are 7 million students and 40% are girls. Kabul University and several private universities are growing. There is a long way to go as there are too few teachers (particularly female teachers), too few adequate books, too many students still not going to school (about 4 million) because of religious beliefs and poverty. The good news is that improvements have been made each year since 2001 and plans are in place to continue upward.

President Karzai…Our final meeting was a 40-minute audience with President Hamid Karzai in his private office. We were able to meet with him due to the personal involvement of Ambassador Crocker who joined us. He pushed for the meeting because he feels our mission and that World Affairs Councils across the U.S. are extremely important in informing grass roots Americans about the facts from which foreign policy must be made.

President Karzai expressed sincere appreciation for the U.S and the International Community for their work in the social and economic infrastructure of Afghanistan. But he was critical of security actions over the past two years that he believes have led to recent terrible incidents that have inflamed Afghan feelings towards the U.S. and its allies. He thinks that foreign forces needed to draw back on night raids and other direct military interface with the public and that Afghans should be doing their own security. Some of this has been happening and I will be talking more about it at my talks when I return. In many ways this is not different than the goals of ISAF, but the timing is quite different. A lot of diplomacy will be called upon to resolve the differences and find acceptable agreement between the U.S. and the Afghan governments.

The Palace (meaning President Karzai and his staff) released a press statement about our visit showing appreciation for our visit to Afghanistan.

Bazaar Rug Merchant

Bazaar…Fridays are the day of rest in Afghanistan so no meetings were scheduled except for General Allen at the end of the day. This is the one day off for the Embassy as well. Amb. Crocker took us to the Bazaar which he enjoys. This bazaar is the only major one in Kabul and it is open only on Fridays on the grounds of the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) which is adjacent to the U.S. Embassy. The reason there are no other bazaars is that there really aren’t any tourists in Kabul.

Rug Merchants

The bazaar is quite extensive and is fun on a nice day as this was. Some really nice goods are for sale…rugs, jewelry, scarves, knives, boxes, bowls, etc. I estimate there were about 100 vendors. One has to bargain (or at least you’re foolish not to) and you can agree at about 50% of the first price.

Bazaar Jewelry

General John Allen is the Commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). You may have seen him on TV as he just returned this week from the U.S. He said that 2012 will be an important year in the fighting as the Taliban were severely battered last year and he feels confident that 2012 will be even more discouraging for them.

The fighting season is March to November so it is just starting again. It is interesting to note that there is a fighting season and that the enemy will take two weeks off for the poppy harvest in about two weeks, and then continue through to fall. Of great importance to Gen. Allen is the vast improvement in Afghan forces that is intended to position them to take over the lead in operations by early 2014.  

Just prior to our meeting he finalized his decision on how to meet the President’s planned force reduction of 23,000 by year end. Perhaps the most important part of the plan is the assumption of the lead role by the Afghan forces. One reason for this is that the enemy often has second thoughts when they are confronted by Afghans. The plans are in place. Reality on the ground will tell us if the goals are being met.