The explosion at Kabul’s luxuriousSerena Hotel several weeks agosent shock waves around thethriving international community

in the dusty Afghan capital.In a cold, muddy and impoverished city

in which not much functions, the five-starSerena was an oasis of joy – as long as youcould afford to go in, of course. The Sere-na was built, not for Afghans, but for thewealthy expats with bulging expenseaccounts who queue up to get past thearmed guards at the gates of the hotel com-pound. Inside, the parking lot is alwaysfilled with bulky 4x4s from one or other ofthe hundreds of international aid agen-cies, security companies and consultanciesthat have flocked to make money out ofAfghanistan. I know, because last year, Iwas one of them.

It is no consolation to the eight peoplewho lost their lives in the capital’s suicidebombing but, in many ways, the conspicu-ous consumption on show at the Serenaencapsulates the sheer folly, uncheckedgreed and commercial self-interest of thewestern rebuilding effort in Afghanistan.

The Serena was built by the Aga KhanFoundation and does good work in traininglocal people and its profits fuel local char-itable projects. It also gives jobs to women.

But, on Fridays, the start of the week-end, its tables are packed out with western-ers. On offer is everything from sushi togourmet Cantonese food – at a price.

There is airport-style security beforeyou enter a vast, bright central lobby –where last year I ran into Tim Spicer, theformer British Army officer who now runsone of the world’s biggest private armies.Inside the hotel grounds, there are terracesand a garden, a pool and expensive spawith every treatment you could need.Rooms run to £150 (about R2 000) a nightand a meal without alcohol – the Serena is“dry” – would cost about £20 (about R300),almost a month’s wages for a local in this,the fourth-poorest country in the world.

And here is the rub. First-world govern-ments pour billions of dollars intoAfghanistan each year, ostensibly to fix acountry reduced to little more than rubbleby three decades of warfare culminating inthe 2001 United States-led invasion.

But little actually reaches infrastruc-ture projects or the Afghan people whoneed it most. Instead, it is too often frit-tered away in an insane and immoralmoney-go-round, where multimillion-pound contracts are awarded to multibil-lion-pound western corporations, whorecommend that yet more western con-sultants are needed.

Last year, I was recruited by the inter-national public relations firm Hill andKnowlton to work in Kabul for threemonths. The company has an excellentworldwide reputation for its expertise incommunications strategy for govern-ments, corporations and major brands. Ithad been awarded a contract by the USstate department to advise three Afghanministries – the ministry of the interior,the ministry of agriculture, and theministry of rural rehabilitation anddevelopment.

I was employed as a senior adviser. Iwas thrilled to go to Afghanistan, and keento do my job, but I made no secret of thefact that the only skills I had to offer werethose of a journalist. On my first day inKabul, I was asked to outline my mediastrategy for the ministry of rural rehabil-itation and development (MRRD). It was aludicrous demand I could not meet.

The MRRD had a sophisticated minis-ter. The two young local men who workedin his press office were smart, energetic,

ambitious and trying really hard. They hadan excellent command of English andseemed dedicated to getting Afghanistanon the road to recovery. My advising them,I soon realised, was a bad and extremelyexpensive joke.

One of their most important tasks wasto help in the war on opium productionwhich, by some estimates, now accountsfor 90 percent of the economy ofAfghanistan. Under guidance from the USstate department, H&K’s big idea was torun poster campaigns and radio advertise-ments telling dirt-poor farmers who strug-gled to feed their families that opium pro-duction was un-Islamic – clearly a policydesigned by foreign consultants addicted tospin, rather than anyone with a real graspof the region.

Millions have been spent on a uselessand unco-ordinated counter-narcoticspolicy, while the farmers who grow the pop-pies have little alternative means of earn-ing a living. The crop is 10 times more prof-itable than wheat.

While the western governments claimto be eradicating the source of illegal nar-

cotics, the heroin trade in Afghanistan isincreasing year on year. It has become sopervasive that it now infects every level ofsociety. In the Sherpur district of Kabul,there is a new rash of grand and gaudyhouses being built on the back of drugmoney. The style has been called,inevitably perhaps, “narcotecture”.

And the effect of our anti-drug adverts?Precisely nothing. Millions of pounds ofother people’s money were spent whenthere appeared to me to be no overall strat-egy. Why not, for example, simply buy theAfghan opium crop to solve the worldshortage of pharmaceutical morphine?

I still maintain that public relations hasan important part to play in the recon-struction of Afghanistan – winning heartsand minds and providing information tothe people of a shattered country is impor-tant. It is also true that – as I soon discov-ered in Kabul – we in the developed worldtake PR skills and our established masscommunications networks for granted.

But, while H&K has a good worldwidereputation, it is unlikely to be as highlythought of in Kabul – ultimately H&K lost

the contract. My guess is that is becausemany of the people I worked with there –both Americans and British – seemed notto be interested in seeing results or bring-ing about useful change in a country des-perate for both.

They, like so many other contractorsthere, wanted to make money, capture newand even more lucrative business con-tracts and live high on the hog. Whilemany westerners do live in harsh and aus-tere conditions, expat life was a whirlwindof alcohol-fuelled private parties, eveningsat international restaurants or functionshosted by diplomats, NGOs or other inter-national bodies.

Though that has come to a standstillsince the bombing, and there are manywho are not allowed off their premises andlive in severely restricted conditions.There was much concern among expatslast year when the city’s red wine stocksuddenly dried up – not for long. Thedemand is far too high and the profits toolarge for a long-term alcohol drought.

Afghans aren’t allowed in the dozens ofrestaurants that serve alcohol – mostly dis-

creetly run by foreigners and operating byword-of-mouth recommendations – and thegrowing number of bars operating in pri-vate homes. Most can’t even dream of pay-ing the prices charged by places such as theSerena Hotel.

But what do all these westernersachieve? When I lived at one of the twoH&K houses – like many Afghan homes,they were low, airy buildings set in walled,private gardens behind heavy gates, staffedwith unarmed guards – the company’smain boss in Afghanistan was hardly everpresent. He roamed the world looking fornew business, which never seemed to mate-rialise. In my view, you cannot successful-ly manage a multimillion-dollar pro-gramme, one thought to be vital to thecountry and central to the western govern-ments’ strategy to reduce heroin produc-tion, and simply not be there for most ofthe time. On his occasional visits to Kabul,he said in front of Afghans that you had to“treat them like children”. What a shamethey understood English.

But H&K isn’t the only one. The RendonGroup, USAID, and the Lincoln Group all

charge vast amounts for their executiveexpertise. With these large multimillion-pound contracts, lots of the money goes tokeeping the contractors in a cushy life.Many of the contractors have drivers,cooks, cleaners, generators, securityguards. All these posts employ Afghanswho need work, and who get paid better-than-average salaries.

It is good accounting practice, ofcourse. The more local people you had onyour books, the more money you made forthe company. But appalled expats andsources within the Afghan governmentestimated that 80 percent of the interna-tional aid money is frittered away on over-heads and multinationals’ profits.

These profits come from money ear-marked to improve the infrastructure of adesperately poor country, teach Afghansnecessary skills and leave a legacy whenforeigners are no longer there. I’m sureAfghanistan does have more roads, moreschools and better healthcare. But with allthe money that has been spent, thereshould be so much more to show for it.

I knew I had been sent to fill a three-month gap before H&K’s contract came toan end. After about a month, I was instruct-ed by H&K not to return to the ministry. Iwas given the impression that H&K felt theministry wasn’t co-operating with whatthey wanted to do.

I ended up staying in Kabul for fourmonths – several weeks after my contractcame to an end. But one previous incum-bent was asked to leave and others leftbecause of internal politics and one beforethat had been unexpectedly asked to leave.It was a dysfunctional office with strangerules. The company employed a wonderfulcook, Reza, who made really deliciousfood. But, at lunchtime, the expats wouldgather in the dining room while the localAfghans we employed were given money togo elsewhere for their food. I found itincredibly awkward.

It was a real privilege to have had thechance to go to Afghanistan, a bewildering-ly wonderful place. I met many expats who,like myself and some of my colleagues,genuinely cared for the people and thecountry and worked six days a week foreight or 10 hours a day. But others were dis-dainful of the Afghans and seemed to bethere to cash in, happily enjoying a goodlife at the expense of the taxpayer and jus-tifying themselves by making money fortheir employers. Many would have strug-gled to justify their wages had they beenworking in Britain or America.

The majority of Afghans support therebuilding programme and welcome theinternational presence in their country.But while expats charge more than £1 000a day for their services in a country wherethe average annual income is not muchmore than £250, it’s not surprising thatprogress is slow, resentment is growingand very few Afghans, save those on thecorporate payroll, are any better off.

A spokesman for Hill and Knowltonconfirmed the company had two full-timeworkers and up to five western contractorsin Afghanistan for the duration of its 12-month contract with the US state depart-ment, which ended in May 2007. “We alsoemployed up to 20 Afghans and part of ourremit was to train them in the communica-tions skills needed – everything fromanswering the phone and running an effec-tive office to writing press releases,” thespokesman said.

“Local Afghan contractors were alsoused to produce publicity material for theanti-narcotics campaign. Our work waswell-received by the Afghan and Americangovernments.”

THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT MARCH 2 200816 DISPATCHES

An artist’s impression of the Ponte della Musica, a pedestrian bridge unique because it is an arch with no supports DRAWINGS: POWELL-WILLIAMS ARCHITECTS

Tiber bridge adds new note to Rome’s axis of music B Y H E I D I K I N G S T O N E

Veni Vidi Vici. They came, they saw andthey built a bridge over the Tiber, the firstsince Benito Mussolini held power andthe first pedestrian bridge since anyonecan remember.

Construction of the Ponte della Musica(Bridge of Music) will begin next month,after designers, Powell-Williams Archi-tects in collaboration with Buro Happold,

won an international competitionlaunched by the Council of Rome in 2000.It is scheduled for completion in 2009.

Buro Happold, a British engineeringfirm, was involved in drawing up the mas-terplan for the 2012 Olympics. It was alsopart of the team that built the MillenniumDome – now the 02 Centre – and the spec-tacular and celebrated Sackler Crossing atKew Gardens, designed by John Pawson,the acclaimed British architect .

The bridge is named Ponte della Musi-

ca because it is at the western end of theinformally named “axis of music” and isdesigned as a destination in itself.

On one side is the 1960s soccer stadiumused for the Rome Olympics and the 1990soccer World Cup. It is also home to Italianclubs Lazio and Roma.

On the other is the Maxxi Museum,dubbed a “gallery for the 21st century”,designed by Zaha Hadid, the acclaimedBritish-Iranian architect and currentlyunder construction.

“The bridge is 200m long with a clearspan of 150m and it is 20m wide,” saysDavood Liaghat, technical director at BuroHappold.

It will feature “a piazza, stalls andrestaurants, reinvigorating this part ofRome. The steel structure is uniquebecause it is an arch with no supports.

“The views on this long elegant struc-ture will also be exceptional because youcan see the Seven Hills [of Rome] fromwherever you stand.”

High-living hogs squander aid fundsWar-ravaged and poverty-stricken Afghanistan attracts opportunists with an eye to quick profits, writes Heidi Kingstone

On the outside looking in: people watch authorities leaving the inauguration ceremony of the Serena Hotel, the first five-star hotel in Kabul, in November 2005. The luxurious establishment, tooexpensive for most Afghans to dream of patronising, was recently rocked by an explosion PHOTOGRAPH: TOMAS MUNITA, AP

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