Afghans without recognizing the Taliban”, The Washington Post, January 18, 2022.
Norway Talks. Three days of talks will take place in Oslo on the Afghan humanitarian crisis from January 23 to 25. Diplomats from several countries will attend. “Taliban delegation due in Norway for humanitarian talks”, Reuters, January 21, 2022.
Crypto Currency to Survive. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) looking to provide emergency aid to Afghanistan despite failing banks and U.S. sanctions are turning to cryptocurrency. Many U.S. banking institutions are refusing to send money to Afghanistan – worried about being penalized for violating currency sanctions imposed by the U.S. government against the Taliban.
A recent DoD Inspector General report on the support provided to Afghan evacuees at MCB Quantico identified a few shortcomings while concluding the overall operation was a success. “Marines didn’t properly track Afghan evacuees at Quantico, Virginia”, by Todd South, Marine Corps Times, January 18, 2022.
Afghans in Kosovo. There are still a little less than one hundred Afghan evacuees held at a U.S. military base in Kosovo. Their cases are in limbo as they are still undergoing security vetting at Camp Bondsteel.
( The Wall Street Journal, Jan 20, 2022).
Stranded in UAE. An American citizen has been neglected in ‘Humanitarian City’ in the United Arab Emirates since October. The U.S. Department of State has utterly failed in addressing his case.
Ryan Mills describes the predicament of the Afghan turned U.S. citizen.
There are a number of reasons the Taliban came to power. Ben Acheson spent seven years in Afghanistan and he argues that looking at the security situation in Ghor province would help to explain what was happening across Afghanistan the past two decades.
He argues that Ghor can be viewed as a microcosm of the layered complexity of Afghanistan. Acheson also says that the Taliban rule will be challenged with these same complexities in the future. “Murky Militias in Forgotten Provinces Reveal Why Afghanistan War Isn’t Over”, The Diplomat, January 20, 2022.
Books, Reports, Podcasts, and Videos
Event – Women’s Role in the Future of Afghanistan. The Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center and US-Afghan Women’s Council hosted a conversation on the critical role of Afghan women in Afghanistan’s future.
And now, the majority of such exchanges have removed their posters and are interacting with great caution. They are barely accepting new customers and tend to ignore messages when contacted via social media platforms.
“I largely fear Taliban fighters. They are very suspicious of things they don’t understand, and they sometimes act before consulting with their leaders,” Abdul, owner of a crypto exchange in Herat, told Cryptonews.com. “If they show up here and ask me what it is that I do, I am afraid I wouldn’t be able to convince them.”
Abdul says that the Taliban might adopt cryptocurrencies, but they first need to understand it.
“They [Taliban] haven’t addressed crypto so far, and I don’t expect them to do anytime soon,” according to Sayed, CEO and Founder of a crypto exchange in Kabul, told Cryptonews.com.
“Crypto should be their last concern.
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Assisting the Afghans is a complicated process because of the large amount of legal regulations imposed by sanctions against the Taliban. The “humanitarian exchange facility” will allow donors to convert their dollars and euros into the local currency to pay doctors, nurses, aid workers, and others who are important to the social safety net of Afghanistan.
“How the U.S.
He was responding to accusations by the Free Speech Hub, a media-supporting organization in Afghanistan, that Afghan journalists face systematic censorship. “Islamic Emirate Denies Reports of Interfering With Media”, Tolo News, January 18, 2022.
Tough Life for Christians. An organization that tracks global religious persecution has published its 2022 World Watch List ranking the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. Afghanistan sits at the top of that list. (BlazeMedia, Jan 20, 2022).
The Sikhs Dilemma. As little as 140 Sikhs remain in Afghanistan – most in Kabul and Jalalabad.
The small number is vastly different than the over 100,000 who lived in Afghanistan in the 1970s. Decades of conflict, poverty, and intolerance have driven most into exile.
Feared Increase in Suicides Among Troops After Afghanistan Exit Hasn’t Materialized”, by Patricia Kime, Military.com, January 18, 2022.
Afghans Starve – Democrats Dicker. While congressional Democrats argue over conditions for relief, some 20 million Afghan people stand to starve. Ryan Grim and Sara Sirota explain the details in the various schemes advanced by Democrats (and some Republicans) to authorize the release of funds to Afghanistan.
“Democrats Dicker in Congress as Biden Flirts with Afghan Genocide”, The Intercept, January 19, 2022.
Ghor Province – A Study of What Went Wrong in Afghanistan. Many outside observers point to the United States and other western nations withdrawing their forces as the reason Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. Some say that President Ghani was at fault for departing Kabul in mid-August 2021.
That could cause a liquidity crisis first of all to the new government itself, which could decide in some way to make up for the problem by eroding citizens’ savings.
Afghans are afraid of losing their money, and in fact, they have already started running to the banks to withdraw as much cash as possible.
The real risk is thatbanks do not have enough cashto support all withdrawals or even that the new regime itself imposes limitations on withdrawals or the movement of capital, especially abroad.
Afghans resort to Bitcoin
In such a scenario, it is not surprising thatChainalysis’ recent 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Indexfound areal surge in Bitcoin exchanges in the country.
Suffice it to say that Afghanistan suddenly jumped to 20th place, out of 154 countries analyzed, in terms of the cryptocurrency adoption index compiled by Chainalysis.
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