Lipstick on a Pig

Disclaimer: Yes, I realize that a pig may not be the most culturally-appropriate animal to choose as a metaphor for Kabul. Blame English's idiom inventory, not me.

Anyway.

Driving through the streets of Kabul the other day on my way from the airport to my guesthouse, the city looked extremely familiar to me. Not that I had expected much to change - I was only gone for a little over five months, after all, and things move slowly in Afghanistan. But I saw many of the same traffic jams, the same sad vegetable carts on the roadsides, the same beaten-down-but-determined-looking Afghans waiting for cabs, and too much of the same crushing poverty.

And then we turned onto the main street near my guesthouse. Now, this street is large enough to have a name, which means it is a relatively important roadway. And it does link one of the more bustling business areas of the city with one of the two or three biggest vehicle arteries in town. But it's really not that important in the scheme of things.

So I was quite surprised to see that the street had been paved in my absence--and not just paved, but paved seemingly quite well! With paint markings separating the lanes (even including solid lines and dashed lines to indicate where you could pass other cars). And real, brick sidewalks. And grates to cover the wialas.* And even crosswalks. I pointed this out to my driver (after three flights and two nights spent on airplanes, the best I could manage was "The street is not broken any more!"), and he commented excitedly that he was very happy about this development.

*Wialas are basically open sewers that run along each side of most of Kabul's streets. Not exactly the city's most endearing feature.

Now, one of the things that my time in Afghanistan has taught me is that it's difficult to overestimate how important a functional transportation infrastructure is to the economic development and prosperity of a country. And I'm sure that the paving of the road and the other tasks involved in the project provided much-needed employment and salary to more than a few needy Afghans.

Still, though, I wonder whether the money mightn't have been better spent on a water treatment plant, or a more reliable electric grid, or better healthcare, or even upgrading the road infrastructure on more important roads. The work done on our street strikes me as an excellent example of cosmetic change implemented mostly to be able to say that something was done.** Which is really not what Afghanistan needs right now.

**The choice of location was undoubtedly also influenced by the fact that there are more than a few international organizations in our area.