My work (lets see if this works)

http://www.sendspace.com/file/am1llh

My work

Here is the link to my part of the work.

http://fs03u.sendspace.com/processupload.html

:)

Presentation

When will you be presenting your work? I thought it would be yesterday. You need to contact me on this issue.

Afghan Views

so here are the topics of my part. It was based on the answers I was given in the muxlim community. Though it may seem long, it won't take much time to explain.

Life After the Taliban Regime:
Economy and Politics
Resources distribution, access to education and health
Civil and Human Rights
Foreign Presence
The Opium situation
Living in a western country

Work on the blogs / just type the adress on the adress bar

http://www.sendspace.com/file/hz3xjo

Question

Boys and girls... Do we need a computer or not?

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)

Well, I selected three good news and three bad news (although I found many more bad news) :(

I also found this:
http://www.rawa.org/index.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQh7KlT2_wk

Time is flying

So you don't go all worried that we won't have the presentation ready on time, I should say that I've already got some really good answers from the muxlim community. Now I'm just organizing them, correcting eventual spelling mistakes, etc. you'll get hold of it asap :)

Dear all,

The answer hasn't come yet and to tell you the truth I do not believe that it comes eventually... I don't know Hi5 or any Afghan people but even if I would - what am I supposed to look or for? This is a group presentation and we should have any general plan/topic. The presentation is on Wednesday. I will not be there with you (because of my work! I have talked to the professor already.) but I would like to help to prepare the things. Can you give me any "task" to do? Waiting for your response...

Link-to-the-link

Afghanistan Directory

Afghan students in the UK

Afghan association of blog writers (in English) - has some very interesting articles and wonderful photographs


edit: I found this very interesting.

still no response :-(

Hey all,

I am a bit worried because I still haven't received any answer from Polish embassy. What is the "plan B" if nothing comes? Let me know!

Spongebob Cartoonpants

Yes, I might be bored.

Pictionary

Had tons of fun nicking cartoons. Enjoy!

World of Websites

Life in an Afghan village
And more
Aaaaand more!

On Afghanistan

Women entrepeneurs

surveys on a rainy day

So the surveys are dealt with. Isabel, Zé and I handed them to very helpful students this afternoon. Some of the answers are hilarious, but well, you'll see that for yourselves pretty soon.
Now we only have to make the counting, and wait for the embassies to answer (hopefully).

O HAI!

Download survey draft by clicking on any of these words.



Now gimme your thumbs up/down.

Frankly, Mr Shankly...

Lisbonne, le 13 de mai 2008

Messieurs,

Nous sommes un groupe d’étudiants à l’Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal), et nous sommes en train de faire une recherche sur l’Afghanistan.

Nous vous écrivons avec l’espoir de vous demander votre aide dans notre projet à l’université. Nous voudrons déterminer le contraste entre ce qu’il est dit sur l’Afghanistan dans les media et ce que les gens de l’Afghanistan pensent sur cette questions.

Nous comprenons que vous n’aurez pas beaucoup de temps pour depenser avec nous, mais nous vous invitons à répondre seulement à quatre questions – ça ne vous occuperez que cinq minutes!

Si vous êtes disponible pour nous aider, est-ce que vous pourriez donner les réponses, selon vous, à les questions suivantes?

1. Comment décrivez-vous la situation economique en Afghanistan?

2. Est-ce que l’image de l’Afghanistan dans les media est proche de la realité?

3. Quelles sont les difficultés le plus préocupantes que un afghan peut affronter en vivant dans un autre pays?

4. Afghanistan et le Monde occidental – quelle est la difference?

Finalement, nous vous remercions pour votre temps et disponibilité, est nous espérons que vous voudrez bien nous aider.

Avec tous nos remerciements,

(And no, I don't really care that I used remercier and its varations twice in consecutive sentences. I hadn't put my French into use for such a long time, I'm actually happy about how it turned out.)

This is a Polish version of the letter that I would like to send today. The problem is that I do not know your complete names and if we talk about five students would be good to sign with five names. Can you please send me your names :-) ?? By e-mail for example: bozena@clix.pt I will wait and when I get everything I will send it


Szanowni Panstwo,

Jestesmy grupa pieciu studentow z Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugalia), zajmujacych sie aktualnie przygotowaniem projektu dotyczacego Afganistanu.
Postanowilismy napisac do Panstwa z prosba o pomoc w uzyskaniu pewnych informacji dotyczacych naszego projektu. Naszym celem jest ukazanie kontrastu pomiedzy informacjami na temat Afganistanu (kraju i mieszkancow) pojawiajacymi sie w zachodnich srodkach masowego przekazu oraz rzeczywistymi odczyciami mieszkancow Afganistanu dotyczacymi poruszanych przez nas aspektow.
Doskonale rozumiemy, iz Panstwa obowiazki zawodowe moga nie pozwolic na spedzenie dluzszego czasu odpowiadajac na nasze pytania, ale chcielismy serdecznie prosic o poswiecenie nam doslownie paru minut. Panstwa odpowiedzi beda dla nas nieoceniona pomoca. Jesli wiec jest taka mozliwosc, prosilibysmy o krotkie odniesienie sie do nastepujacych kwestii:
-Jak opisaliby Panstwo obecna sytuacje gospodarcza Afganistanu?
-Na ile trafnie przekazywany jest obraz Afganistanu w mediach miedzynarodowych?
-Jakie sa glowne przeszkody, lub trudnosci, jakie napotykaja obywatele Afganistanu zyjacy w krajach zachodnich?
-Jakie glowne roznice?
Jeszcze raz dziekujemy za poswiecona nam uwage i czas.
W oczekiwaniu na odpowiedz przesylamy najserdeczniejsze pozdrowienia,

Z powazaniem,

About Afghanistan

Here are some FAQs about Afghanistan:

http://www.embassyofafghanistan.org/faqs.html

I can send the e-mail to the USA embassy...

Spanish version of the letter

Estimado Señor / Señora

Somos un grupo de cinco estudiantes de Portugal de la Universidade Nova de Lisboa haciendo una investigación sobre Afganistán. Deseamos solicitar su ayuda en un proyecto universitario sobre Afganistán. Nuestro objetivo es establecer un contraste exacto entre lo que se dice por los medios de comunicación occidentales sobre Afganistán y su pueblo y cómo se sienten los afganos reales sobre algunos de esos asuntos. Entendemos que su apretada agenda no puede permitir que usted pase mucho tiempo cuidando de nuestra humilde petición, pero sólo pedimos cinco minutos de su atención para responder a un par de preguntas. Si está disponible y dispuesto a ayudarnos, por favor, ¿podría darnos una visión sobre las cuestiones abordadas por las siguientes preguntas?
- ¿Cómo describiría la economía Afganistán en el momento actual?
- ¿Cómo es exactamente la imagen de Afganistán previsto por los medios de comunicación internacionales?
- ¿Cuáles son las principales dificultades que encuentra un afgano cuando viven en un país occidental?
- ¿Qué diferencias importantes se identifica usted?
Una vez más, muchas gracias por su tiempo y ayuda.
Esperamos recibir noticias vuestras. el suyo respetuosamente,
los abajo firmantes

e-mail to the Embassies

For those who didn't attend our meeting this afternoon, here is the e-mail we came up with. Please send it to the embassy of your choice as soon as possible.

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are a group of five students from Portugal's Universidade Nova de Lisboa doing research on Afghanistan.
We are writing to request your help on a university project about Afghanistan. We aim to establish an accurate contrast between what is said by the western media about Afghanistan and its people and how real Afghans feel about some of those matters.
We understand that your busy schedule may not allow you to spend a lot of time taking care of our humble request, but we only ask for five minutes of your attention to answer a couple of questions. Should you be available and willing to help us, could you please give us an insight on the issues addressed by the following questions?
-How would you describe Afghanistan's economy at the present moment?
-How accurate is the image of Afghanistan forecasted by the international media?
-Which are the main difficulties an Afghan finds when living in a western country?
-Which major differences would you identify?
Once again, thank you very much for your time and help.
We look forward to hearing from you.

yours respectfully, the undersigned

Joana's E-mail

joanaR@fcsh.unl.pt

What are we, stupid?

Here we are wondering about which embassy to contact, and whether they'll reply and whatnot, simply because we couldn't come up with any other means to contact an Afghan. But it just hit me: how 'bout we use the www's most useless networking website: Hi5! I mean, surely we'll still send the e-mails to the embassies, but we can message someone from Afghanistan on Hi5 as well.

General interest

Clickety-Click!

And also...

Righty-O...

Since we're undoubtedly running out of time, I'll take care of 3 Embassies (hey, the more the merrier, right?). Paris, Canberra and Brussels.

Now, to get it over with. I suggest we start setting deadlines, otherwise we risk getting behind on things and not having the presentation ready on time.

How's everybody's schedule on Monday? Say, we could meet up outside the classroom at 1.45pm sharp, discuss the e-mails and head to class in no time. If you're available, give us a shout and let us know so we can arrange to meet at that time. The meeting should take place provided that 2 or more of us are available. Be sure to post a comment if you can go, otherwise no one will know and you risk showing up and standing alone. We cannot keep delaying this. I assume we trust each other to make the right decisions, so if someone for some reason cannot attend a scheduled meeting, everything will be posted on the blog.

Righty then. We should have all the embassies picked by Sunday/Monday and a draft of the e-mail on Monday afternoon. E-mails would then be sent by Monday evening the latest, and then we have to wait for a response. Hopefully all will go according to planned.

embassy in Poland

I could send an e-mail to the Embassy in Poland. We just need to decide the questions. and I think we have to do it as soon as possible - they might need time to answer! And there is also another possibility - they do not answer at all! Hugs

choose your Afghanistan Embassy

I'll work with Afghanistan Embassy in Canada. now all we have to do is decide which questions to ask.

at a loss

As I didn't go to class, I missed the discussion you had about our presentation project. So, please tell me what you've already set, so I can contribute with my part. :)

For those of you not in class today...

What we established as a work plan:

- general quiz / survey - I already have a draft, I'll post it here in a while
- we can try other embassies. the advantage of being a group of 5 is that each of us can contact one embassy. please refer to this website and choose which embassy you'd rather contact and let the rest of the group know.
- we should meet up to agree on the questions to be asked at the embassies. alternatively, we can post whatever questions we may come up with in the blog.

Tidbits

Just thought you'd find it interesting:

http://www.islamicrepublicofafghanistan.com/

Tiny fyi

No Embassy of Afghanistan in Portugal. Further suggestions?



Edit: Universities in Afghanistan are not a viable option. Their websites are nowhere to be seen, and our best shot would be the Ministry of Education, although I'd say no one in a governmental position will want to risk their position by giving a potentially controversial interview to a bunch of Portuguese students. That being so, I believe we should try to contact someone with diplomatic immunity - maybe someone from the Embassy of Afghanistan in London, or even a former diplomat or an Embassy from a neighbouring country of Afghanistan here in Lisbon. Open to all suggestions, of course, as this is merely the reply to Mary's suggestion.

P.S. Or even a journalist. As long as it's someone with in depth knowledge and unbiased opinions.

See ya in class tomorrrow.

isobel idea

i like your idea... but the question is.... where do we find a afghani woman that is willing to talk to us? ...

Idea! *shiny light bulb next to title*

Anywho, I was thinking, out of sheer curiosity, what if we could talk to a real Afghani? What would he/she tells us? As the book tells us a fair bit about the country and the people of Afghanistan, we could contrast those views with those of the mainstream western public (aka media-hungry people), and to put the cherry on top, get to talk to someone from Afghanistan and get, on his/her own words, a truthful report on a vast collection of subjects. Say, for example, that instead of focusing exclusively on one topic, like the other groups are doing, we sellect a hatful of topics (views on politics, freedom, economy, education, religion, etc) to proceed with.

Seriously, we all agree that the media loves to feed us lies. Most people's views on the eastern world, be it the Middle East or Asia, are very distorted views. Let's demystify Afghanistan, shall we?

topic suggestion

what if we talked about the history of rug making ?
the meaning in the afghan culture etc, and possibly make reference to some chapters in the book. i guess somewhere in the book they talked about carpets and rugs. well, that is if we are aiming at a not so political coverage of afghanistan. though it can be equally boring.
here's the link http://www.afghan-web.com/culture/afghan_rugs.html

xxx

edit:
detailed history of the country- http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/aftoc.html

Site

this web site has a lot of stuff including analysis, study guides, etc take a peek ;) http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/kiterunner/

characters

From wikipedia
Characters
Amir — protagonist and narrator of the novel, said to be born in 1963, in Kabul, who begins as a well-to-do boy in monarchical Afghanistan and later migrates to America following the downfall of the monarchy. Amir is Hassan's half brother; however, Amir does not learn of their relationship until much later in his life. Hassan never learns of the relationship.
Hassan — a childhood friend of Amir, although Amir never explicitly admitted to this. Hassan is first thought to be the son of Ali (Baba's servant and inexplicit childhood friend) and Sanaubar; later in the story, Hassan is revealed to be the illegitimate son of Baba and Sanaubar. Hassan died without ever knowing about this fact.
Assef — a sadistic, bisexual teenage rapist (and later notorious pedophile) from Amir's neighborhood in Kabul, antagonist. As a teenager, he rapes Hassan. As an adult he sexually assaults Hassan's son, Sohrab, and numerous other young children of both genders. Assef is the son of a German mother and Afghan father. He is a Nazi sympathizer and a has hatred of Hazaras, giving a book about his "idol" Adolf Hitler to Amir for his thirteenth birthday. Many years later, he becomes a Talib-executioner and pedophile. Sohrab severely damages one of Assef's eyes during Assef's fight with Amir.
Baba — The father of Amir and Hassan. He is said to be born in the year 1933 (when the Afghan king begins his 40-year reign). He is described as a big, strong, healthy looking man with wild brown hair and beard. Baba is depicted to be of about 1.96 meter (6'5") in height. He is a bit of a party-maker, and known for his strength. (He is said to have fought with a black bear and won the fight, in his younger years). Baba is a successful business man amend a benevolent force in the community, helping many other people establish businesses for themselves and constructing an orphanage. During the book, Baba seems to be a bit disappointed in his son Amir, who he wishes to be as much as a man as he is (but his son only reads books and lets others fight off bullies for him). After leaving Afghanistan for America, he ages quickly and dies at fifty-three, in 1986, of cancer. He lives long enough, though, to see his son Amir marry a young Afghan woman called Soraya. Many people attend his funeral.
Ali — Baba's servant and inexplicit childhood friend. He is initially thought to be the father of Hassan. Before the events of the novel, he had been struck with polio, rendering his right leg useless. He is killed by a land mine.
Rahim Khan — Baba's business partner and best friend in Afghanistan, later he was the one who tells Amir about Hassan's actual father. Amir liked him as a child, and Rahim Khan is also the one who invited Amir back to Afghanistan to pick up Sohrab. Later in the story, Rahim Khan goes off alone leaving a letter to Amir telling him not to find him. He dies peacefully knowing he has successfully made Amir the man Baba wanted him to be.
Soraya — an Afghan woman living in Fremont, California. She marries Amir. Soraya wants to become a teacher. Before marrying Amir, she ran away with an Afghan boyfriend in Virginia, which according to Afghan tradition made her unsuitable for marriage, but because Amir also had his own regrets, loved and married her anyway.
Sohrab — son of Hassan, traumatized and sexually abused by Assef; Rahim Khan contacts Amir later in life in an attempt to get him to come back to Afghanistan to find Sohrab. In the end, he is adopted by Amir.
Sanaubar — Ali's wife who gives birth to Hassan as a result of an affair with Baba. She then leaves home to pursue the life of a gypsy. She later returns to Hassan in his adulthood, providing a grandmother figure for Sohrab.
Farid — bitter driver who is initially abrasive toward Amir but later befriends him. Farid's two daughters were killed by a land mine years back. Farid is Amir's means of transport, information, and knowledge of current Afghanistan when he returns.

Resume

The Kite Runner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] Introduction
The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir, a boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, who is haunted by the guilt of betraying his childhood friend Hassan, the son of his father's Hazara servant. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of the monarchy in Afghanistan through the Soviet invasion, the mass exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the Taliban regime.

[edit] Plot

This article may be too long.Please discuss this issue on the talk page and help summarize or split the content into subarticles of an article series.
(The story of 25 chapters is narrated by Amir, directed to the reader, except that chapter 16 is narrated by Rahim Khan, directed to Amir.)
The two main characters of the story are Amir, a well-to-do Afghan boy, and Hassan, a Hazara and the son of Amir's father's servant, Ali. The boys spend their days in a peaceful Kabul, kite fighting, roaming the streets and being boys. Amir’s father, Baba, loves both the boys, but seems often to favor Hassan for being more manly. He is critical of Amir. Amir’s mother died in childbirth, and Amir fears his father blames him for his mother’s death. However, he has a kind father figure in the form of Rahim Khan, Baba’s friend, who understands Amir better, and is supportive of his interest in writing stories.
Assef, a notoriously mean and violent older boy with sadistic tendencies, blames Amir for socializing with a Hazara, according to Assef an inferior race that should only live in Hazarajat. He prepares to attack Amir with his brass knuckles, but Hassan bravely stands up to him, threatening to shoot Assef in the eye with his slingshot. Assef and his henchmen back off, but Assef says he will take revenge.
Hassan is a "kite runner" for Amir, he runs to fetch kites Amir has defeated by cutting their strings. He knows where the kite will land without even seeing it. One triumphant day, Amir wins the local tournament, and finally Baba's praise. Hassan goes to run the last cut kite, a great trophy, for Amir saying "For you, a thousand times over." Unfortunately, Hassan runs into Assef and his two henchmen. Hassan refuses to give up Amir's kite, so Assef exacts his revenge, assaulting and anally raping him. Wondering why Hassan is taking so long, Amir searches for Hassan and hides when he hears Assef's voice. He witnesses what happens to Hassan but is too scared to help him. Afterwards, for some time Hassan and Amir keep a distance from each other. When Hassan wants to pick up their friendship again Amir holds it off. When people ask what is the matter, Amir reacts indifferently. He feels ashamed, and is frustrated by Hassan's saint-like behavior and worries that Baba loves Hassan more, and that this would be even more so if he knew how bravely Hassan defended Amir's kite, and how cowardly Amir failed to act.
To force Hassan to leave, Amir frames him as a thief, and Hassan falsely confesses. Baba forgives him, despite the fact that, as he explained earlier, he believes that "there is no act more wretched than stealing". Hassan and his father Ali, to Baba's extreme sorrow, leave anyway. Hassan's departure frees Amir of the daily reminder of his cowardice and betrayal, but he still lives in their shadow.
A short while later, the Russians invade Afghanistan; Amir and Baba escape to Peshawar, Pakistan and then to Fremont, California, where Amir and Baba, who lived in luxury in an expensive mansion in Afghanistan, settle in a run-down apartment and Baba begins work at a gas station. Amir eventually takes classes at a local community college to develop his writing skills. Every Sunday, Baba and Amir make extra money selling used goods at a flea market in San Jose. There, Amir meets Soraya Taheri and her family; Soraya's father has contempt of Amir's literary aspiration. Baba has lung cancer but is still capable to do Amir a big favor: he asks Soraya's father permission for Amir to marry her. He agrees and the two marry. Shortly thereafter Baba dies. Amir and Soraya learn that they cannot have children.
Amir embarks on a successful career as a novelist. Fifteen years after his wedding, Amir receives a call from Rahim Khan, who is dying from an illness. Rahim Khan asks Amir to come to Pakistan. He enigmatically tells Amir "there is a way to be good again". Amir goes.
From Rahim Khan, Amir learns the fates of Ali and Hassan. Ali was killed by a land mine. Hassan had a wife and a son, named Sohrab, and had returned to Baba’s house as a caretaker at Rahim Khan’s request. One day the Taliban ordered him to give it up and leave, but he refused, and was murdered, along with his wife. And the secret truth about Hassan is that Ali was not his father. He is the son of Baba, and is Amir's half-brother. Finally, Rahim Khan reveals that the true reason he has called Amir to Pakistan is to go to Kabul to rescue Hassan's son, Sohrab, from an orphanage.
Amir returns to Taliban-controlled Kabul with a guide, Farid, and searches for Sohrab at the orphanage. However, he does not find Sohrab there. The director of the orphanage tells them that a Taliban official comes often, brings cash and usually takes a girl home. Once in a while however, he takes a boy, recently Sohrab. The director tells Amir to go to a football match and the man "wearing black sunglasses" will be the man who took Sohrab. In order to enter Taliban territory, Amir, who is normally clean shaven, dons a fake beard and mustache, because otherwise the Taliban would exact Shariah punishment against him. Farid manages to secure an appointment with the speaker at his home, by saying that he and Amir have "personal business" with him.
Amir goes to the house where he finds out that the Taliban official, the man in sunglasses, is actually his childhood nemesis Assef, who recognizes his face behind the fake beard. Sohrab is being kept at the home where he is made to dance dressed in women's clothes, and it seems Assef might have been sexually assaulting him. (Sohrab later says, "I'm so dirty and full of sin. The bad man and the other two did things to me.") Assef agrees to relinquish him, but only if Amir can beat him in a fight to the death, with Sohrab as the prize. Assef brutally beats Amir, but Amir is saved when Sohrab uses his slingshot to shoot out Assef's left eye, fulfilling the threat his father had made years before.
Amir tells Sohrab of his plans to take him back to America and possibly adopt him, and promises that he will never be sent to an orphanage again. When difficulties arise in adopting Sohrab from Afghanistan, Amir tells Sohrab that he might have to stay in an orphanage for a while after all, and, Sohrab, devastated that Amir considers going back on his promise, attempts suicide. Amir finds Sohrab in time to save his life, and takes him back to the United States. However, Sohrab is emotionally damaged and refuses to speak. This continues on for about a year until his frozen emotions are temporarily thawed when Amir reminisces about his father, Hassan, while kite flying. Amir shows off some of Hassan’s tricks, and Sohrab begins to interact with Amir again. In the end Sohrab only shows a lopsided smile, but Amir takes to it with all his heart as he runs the kite for Sohrab, saying, "For you, a thousand times over."