The second part of “the Horrors of Afghanistan” isn’t so scary and depressive as the previous one… Or are we just used to it?
The hotel in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
These Russian guys are UN contractors. They fly and maintain helicopters. Their mission here lasts 4 months but almost all of the time they spend in the hotel – to go out of the gate is forbidden. Very dangerous. The guys get 150.000 rubles (about $ 5.350) monthly. They like the hotel they live in. “Until yesterday the conditioner in our room was broken and at night it was really hot – 35 C. Now it’s repaired, the temperature is ok, 29 C. Basically, here we have everything we need – food is served, clothes are washed, we sleep in comfortable beds and use the Internet.”
As for the heat, the guys are right, it’s unbearable. In daytime the temperature reaches 50. When you open a car window, it seems like a hairdryer blows on you with hot air. But if you close it, you can simply suffocate. Cars with air conditioning are rare.
A reception desk. As we already wrote, foreigners are treated not very well here, so all the places where white people live are well guarded.
6 a.m, children play soccer in a small dust storm.
The guard of the hotel.
The local market is very colorful and looks like those of the Middle Ages. A perfect place for shooting historical films. There is no central sewage system in the city, but there are gutters along the streets in which all the wastes and garbage are thrown in. The stench is terrible.
The city dump is huge, smelly and very beautiful! Look, what wonderful caves in the slopes! Let’s see who lives in there…
Drug addicts…
About 100 drug addicts constantly hang about in these caves. Here they use heroin. But, in contrast to Kabul junkies, these ones are very friendly and ready to communicate.
A dose of heroin in Afghanistan costs only $ 2. It’s as much as a tin of RedBull or a ripe watermelon. A kilogram of heroin will cost $ 2.000. By the way, the local addicts prefer smoking heroin rather than injecting. It is heated on foil and inhaled through a straw.
One of the addicts’ name is Masi. He has been using heroin for more than 20 years. When the Taliban came to power, his family fled from Afghanistan to Moscow. Masi entered Moscow State University but couldn’t finish his studies – in the 90′s Germany conducted a program of repatriation of the Germans living in the former Soviet Union and Masi’s parents somehow convinced the authorities that they were German and emigrated to Germany.
The family settled in the new place. Masi gradually taught German, but his friends still remained the expatriate Soviets. One of them, an Uzbek, hooked him on heroin. After a few drives to the police, it turned out that he was in the country illegally and was sent home – to Afghanistan. The family, however, stayed in Germany.
Now he has neither a job, nor any prospects to get it. He lives in a cave on a garbage heap, and his only source of income – 200 euros sent by his parents every month.
This guy has just used a dose and now tries to stay on his uncontrollable feet.
That’s how the stinking gutters that run along all the streets of the city look.
There are special people who sometimes clear them. Look how much rubbish this man got out of only one corner. The water is completely black and similar in consistency to oil.
In some places the water isn’t very dirty, and kids bathe there with great pleasure!
Not thinking of typhoid and cholera that now are spreading all over the city…
Women.
The hero.
Porn is sold right on the streets.
As well as stolen mobile telephones.
Here you can cut off a piece of ice for yourself.
Local wool carpets cost from 100 to 500 dollars. But it will be difficult for you to buy them if you have no cash with yourself. There are no ATMs in the city! To be more precise, there are two of them, but both are broken! The nearest one is located in Kabul.
In Mazar-i-Sharif, many people speak Russian, probably because of the close location to Uzbekistan. The Beriozka shop (“birch” from Russian)
The main attraction of Mazar-i-Sharif is the Blue Mosque. According to local legend, it’s the tomb of the Caliph Ali whose body was stolen by kidnappers. For this reason, Mazar-i-Sharif is a place of worship, especially for the Shiites. The real tomb of the Caliph Ali is located in Najaf in Iraq.
It’s quite clear here.
And lots of pigeons.
There are very few Taliban in northern Afghanistan and they immediately stand out from the crowd.
Compare these evil Taliban thugs.
And this kind Uzbek. It’s very easy to distinguish them. The Taliban look at you like at a piece of meat in a store.
really great article, thanx for sharing = )
Take away the wrecked russian military vehicles and the military check points and it is like any other dirt poor country.
Great series showing us the real Afghanistan! 100 times more valuable than all the mainstream news source propaganda.
After the veiled women of Afganistan, seeing the pretty unveiled girls of Tazhikistan is a relief.
Is their idea of porn just women without scraves? Because on our porn magazines, there are actually naked women and men.
It is a shame that so many young Russian and American died in this awful place. For what?
The women of this “snake pit of a country” need to flee North to Russian freedom and let the troglodytes kill and rape each other till there’s only beetles and flies left.
Out of the pot and in to the fire?
?
Russia used to build bridges, big electric plants, a lot of afghan people came to moscow to study engeneering. No drugs, no taliban.
What did USA? Nothing.
They look after their pipelines with oil. Introduced an former american as president. no democratic elections, but a lot of lies, pverty, crime and war!
Comrade Nur Muhammed Taraki tried to save this feudal land through progressive Socialism. Neo-Stalinists (including Brezhnev) had him killed.
What a waste.
“In Tajikistan, it’s forbidden to smoke in public places.”
So see the master of the second plane. ^_^
What about the horrors in Abu-Ghuraib?
American lesbians tortured there the Afghan people.
What about civil people in Guantanamo?
What about children in Guantanaomo?
What about the killing Squad in the US-Army, who killed children for fun?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8035379/US-soldier-who-murdered-Afghan-civilians-for-sport-linked-to-Iraqi-deaths.html
check your facts, you can find more information on the web!
Hey Historian… Abu Ghuraib is in Iraq. Get your propaganda straight.
The lesbian division was posted in Kuwait that time so they are innocent.
Guantanamo is really a Sandals resort.
The death squad are Johova Witnesses.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse
Wow you can cut and paste…. congrats
Easy to cast stones. Obviously you have no nothing but hate for America with your war crimes comment. America has nothing to apologise for. Any individuals that broke thwe law (including the abu grahib asses)were justly punished. Civilians were injured and killed. That is war. Unfortunate things happen. Ask the Chechens and the Georgians how they feel.
Afghanistan….welcome to Hell.
“Children tear some grass.” No, they are planting rice.
These are amazing photos! The photographer should work for national geographic!
excellent report, nice pictures that we in the west never saw on our news, nice album thanks alot!!!
A roadmap with the road you took (places you ‘ve been) would had completed the album
funny to see the policeman who was charged to destroy the opium plants to take a breath from opium on his cigarette.
And this could happen during the cold war,when the 2 giants were waving their fists at each other and their fingers were ready to push a button?Good comment Scott.
the one of the little Afghan tajiki girl is beautiful…may we use that for our Afghan community newsletters please?
This is really depressing to see. I hoped that by this time in our civilization, this poverty would be only a memory. It makes me grateful to be born in the USA. I think any person in America who is suicidal, depressed, or unhappy with the USA should see this.