Jerome Starkey

Meet Herb-i-Islami in video - my 1969 Volkswagen Beetle in...

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 22:57:00 +0430

Meet Herb-i-Islami in video - my 1969 Volkswagen Beetle in Kabul. This debut video blog courtesy of expert film maker Sam French is Part 1 of a journey to repair, restore and eventually drive the old girl back to England.

The decrepit VW classic is being expertly and lovingly restored by a team of Afghan workmen. Zia Hassan Faqiri, the lead mechanic, has been working on Beetles (known as Folooks in Kabul) for 45 years.

We are also negotiating with some of Kabul’s best artists to try and get funky paint job once she’s got a fresh coat of classic cream from the body shop. (More on this later).

Bugs (and their Combi-van cousins) flooded Afghanistan in the 1960s and 70s as hippy travellers plied overland routes from Europe to India and Nepal, in search of free-love, weed, enlightenment and whatnot. A few of them were left behind.

A handful of my friends - journalists Jeremy Kelly, Ash Sweeting, Shoib Najafizada and aid worker Jess Stober - came along for second opinions, encouragement and advice.

Free love in the time of Volkswagen lives on in lone Kabul mechanic

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:49:00 +0430

Free love in the time of Volkswagen lives on in lone Kabul mechanic:

The Times
Jerome Starkey in Kabul

Dressed in drab overalls with calloused hands that labour long into the night, Zia Hassan Faqiri is an unlikely bastion of Afghanistan’s hippy heyday.

Yet for 45 years the father of eight has fixed the hippy’s motor of choice: the once-ubiquitous Volkswagen Beetles and Combi vans that filled the overland routes from Europe to Kathmandu.

Today his mud-walled workshop in a residential part of Kabul is the closest Afghanistan has to a Volkswagen garage. A handpainted sign proclaims his name, his trade and the circular VW logo.

“When Zahir Shah was on the throne (before 1973) there were thousands of Folooks in Kabul,” he said, using the local corruption of the German word Volks, which has become synonymous with Beetle in modern Kabuli dialect.

“Now, in the whole of Afghanistan perhaps there are 100 or 200 Folooks. The foreigners brought them here from Europe. Every day we’d have 10 or 15 come to our workshop.”

The men, Mr Faqiri said, had long hair and the women wore miniskirts. “We had a lot of freedom,” he said. “Things were better then.”

Free love for Mr Faqiri meant a time when he was free to teach young Afghan women how to drive, sitting together in the front of his four-speed Beetle. “Most of them are now in America,” he said.

In the early 1960s demand for VW mechanics was so high that Mr Faqiri, now 60, worked at the city’s main workshop during the day and set up his own stall at night. He remembers driving along new roads to Kandahar in the south and Laghman in the east, now hotbeds of insurgency.

He even drove a Beetle to Bamiyan, 2,800m (9,200ft) above sea level, then home to Afghanistan’s 5th-century Buddhas that were later destroyed by the Taleban. The air over the mountain passes was so thin and the tracks so steep that some early Beetles had to go up in reverse to get power from the low-ratio gearing.

Back then, he said, the cars on Kabul’s streets were a mix of Russian Volgas, French Citroëns, German Mercedes and American Jeeps. The first car that he worked on was an English Land Rover that the owner had crashed in the newly opened Salang tunnel — at the time the longest and highest in the world — which connects Kabul with the country’s north through the Hindu Kush mountains.

The Times has a special interest in his workshop because Mr Faqiri is in charge of reconditioning a 1969 rust bucket recently purchased by this journalist. “People love these cars,” he said. “Some people keep them in their gardens just for show.”

Kipling’s words ring out as enemy sharpshooter pulls his trigger

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:13:32 +0430

Kipling’s words ring out as enemy sharpshooter pulls his trigger:

The Times
Jerome Starkey

Winston Churchill knew the perils of Afghanistan’s snipers more than a century ago. Today, it seems, the Taleban sharpshooters are just as deadly. In his account of 1898 of a British excursion into the borderlands between what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan, he quoted Kipling’s Arithmetic on the Frontier: “A scrimmage in a Border Station/ A canter down some dark defile/ Two thousand pounds of education/ Drops to a ten-rupee jezail.”

Churchill’s report refers to the snipers as armed with long-barrelled, elaborately inlaid, jezails or muskets. Their fire was accurate and intense. “These sharpshooters enjoyed themselves immensely,” he wrote.

The fatal shootings of two British soldiers in Helmand have renewed fears over Taleban snipers. In February General James Conway, the Commandant of the US Marines, told Congress that the biggest threat was not necessarily the improvised explosive device. “It is the sniper that takes a long-range shot and can penetrate our protective equipment.”

In 2006, when British soldiers were first sent to Helmand, they would mock the Taleban insurgents’ “spray and pray” technique. Nonetheless, in the early years of the conflict, liberal rules of engagement meant that US and Nato soldiers could respond with 1,000lb bombs dropped on the insurgents’ firing positions.

By 2008 the Taleban, obliterated in battle against a better trained, more disciplined and technologically superior enemy, had switched to home-made bombs. Face-to-face contact became rare. But as Nato’s rules of engagement were tightened to reduce civilian casualties the Taleban tactics evolved.

By last month the coalition military officials admitted that there had been an alarming rise of “pinpointed” attacks and “small sniping incidents”. The Taleban, meanwhile, said that they had trained more fighters to use the Russian-made Dragunov rifles.

When a US sentry was shot in the head last week, his commanding officer blamed specialists trained overseas. “What country they are from I couldn’t tell you. But the skill of the enemy fighter that took down my soldier is not something that was trained here,” Lieutenant-Colonel David Flynn said.

The bullet is thought to have been fired from at least 400 metres — well beyond the accurate range of an AK47.

Both sides use sharpshooters to sap enemy morale and Nato is fighting back. “I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that we have people who hunt snipers and kill them,” Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Breasseale, the Isaf spokesman, said.

Kipling’s poem reaches a bleak conclusion. Training, wealth and technology are no match for valley scamps “blessed with perfect sight”.

“No proposition Euclid wrote/ No formulae the text-books know/ Will turn the bullet from your coat/ Or ward the tulwar’s downward blow/ Strike hard who cares – shoot straight who can/ The odds are on the cheaper man.”

Coalition big guns split over Afghan exit timetable

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 07:00:59 +0430

Coalition big guns split over Afghan exit timetable:

NATO leaders are divided over the speed with which they can start handing parts of Afghanistan back to Afghan forces, it emerged yesterday, as US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, acknowledged…

More than £26bn in aid — but the people of Bamiyan still live in caves

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 06:29:42 +0430

More than £26bn in aid — but the people of Bamiyan still live in caves:

THIRTEEN-year-old Sabri spends three and a half hours a day in a small village school for girls and more than five hours a day lugging water from a nearby river, up a steep mud track, to the caves in…

Check out the state of Herb-i-Islami (my 1969 Beelte in Kabul)...

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:54:00 +0430

Check out the state of Herb-i-Islami (my 1969 Beelte in Kabul) inside and out. She’s in dire need of a bit of love!

The improvised ignition is my favourite Afghan addition to the original Teutonic design. A floating button, normally kept behind the back seat, which looks remarkably like a detonator. Most of the wiring is on display as well, so peering in the window it looks a bit like how I’d imagine the inside of a suicide bomber’s car would look to a policeman.

Of course, there’s bugger all storage space, so Beetles aren’t much good for drugs or bombs. Maybe that’s why I got such a good price in the bazaar.

I’ve also found the Chassis No - #119298924 - which proves she was built in ‘69. But I’m desperate to find out how she got here? Is there a way of tracing the place she was first built and sold?

Talk of withdrawal will only encourage the Taleban to bide their time

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:44:00 +0430

Talk of withdrawal will only encourage the Taleban to bide their time:

The Times
Jerome Starkey in Kabul

In many ways Afghan soldiers are better suited to complex counter-insurgency operations than either the British, whom the Afghans remember as brutal 19th-century imperialists, or the Americans, whom they see as our modern-day equivalents.

Afghan forces understand tribal dynamics and the fluid nature of village influence and they can exploit them. When, as sometimes happens, they are heavy-handed, it is marginally less galling to the people whom they hurt because they are, at the very least, fellow Afghans.

For all these strengths, the Afghan Army is perhaps a generation from taking full control of this graveyard of empires. Any date for outright transition reflects waning Nato interest in the nine-year war, rather than progress on the ground. The army and the police are growing fast. There are 30,000 soldiers in training. But the numbers are not enough to quell an ideological insurgency against a government that is seen as predatory, selfish and corrupt.

Afghanistan aid from UK to rise amid claim of wasted billions

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:41:23 +0430

Afghanistan aid from UK to rise amid claim of wasted billions:

The Times
Jerome Starkey in Kabul

Britain will spend an extra £200 million in Afghanistan between now and 2014 as part of a 40 per cent rise in aid to prepare for a military withdrawal.

Andrew Mitchell, the International Development Secretary, will today announce plans to increase assistance to Afghanistan from £500 million to £700 million, despite claims that billions of pounds have already been wasted. Tomorrow a major international conference in Kabul will be attended by Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, and 40 foreign ministers including William Hague.

Removing troops by 2014 means disaster, allies told

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:38:00 +0430

Removing troops by 2014 means disaster, allies told:

The Times
Jerome Starkey and Roland Watson

President Obama and David Cameron have been warned that their plan to bring troops home from Afghanistan before 2015 is too hasty and risks leaving behind an Afghan army that is ill equipped to fend off the Taleban. Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, said yesterday that combat troops would be home by 2014, although significant numbers are likely to remain to continue training local security forces.

But as President Karzai oversees a conference this week in Kabul that seeks to prepare for such a withdrawal, some in the Afghan capital cautioned that he was far too optimistic. Daoud Sultanzoy, an Afghan MP, said: “Six to eight years would be more realistic. A national army is not built by forced injection of technical training and technical assistance. You have to instil a culture that emanates from the national political leadership, and that has not matured in this country yet.”

This is Kabul’s Number 1 Beetle Man. Zia Hassan Faqiri the...

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 10:36:00 +0430

This is Kabul’s Number 1 Beetle Man. Zia Hassan Faqiri the mechanic said he’s been working on Volkswagens in Afghanistan for 45 years. As far as I can tell, it’s Kabul’s only (semi) authorised VW garage. There’s even a little logo at the top of his shop!

Back in the day, he said, the VW garage was the biggest in the city - servicing all the overland vehicles from Europe. He remembers Beetles, he said, with mechanical indicators (any idea when they were phased out?).

There was a ‘73 model parked in front of the garage with Swiss plates underneath the Afghan licenses.

Fakhri’s the man in charge of reconditioning the engine in my newly bought 1969 Beetle (which my Aussie housemate ingeniously dubbed Herbi-i-Islami). Super film maker Sam French is helping us record it for a video blog.

When I told Fakhri that I thought we’d probably end up being good friends (because I expect to visit his shop almost every day from now on ever) he seemed genuinely surprised. Once every six months, he said.

Thanks to all the Beetle enthusiasts, especially Desert Dingo Racing, who have already been in touch with ideas and advice. I’ve ordered this idiot’s guide book.

The plan is evolving everyday, but this Beetle could just become my exit strategy. I’ve been in Afghanistan almost four years and by the time it’s ready to drive back to England, that might be just be when I leave.

Inshallah!

I acted alone, says man claiming to be rogue Afghan who murdered three British soldiers

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 08:40:38 +0430

I acted alone, says man claiming to be rogue Afghan who murdered three British soldiers:

A MAN claiming to be the renegade Afghan soldier who killed three British troops in Afghanistan has spoken about his motivation for the attack.

WATCH THIS FILM! There are always a million films about...

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 10:56:00 +0430

WATCH THIS FILM! There are always a million films about Afghanistan but none of them are as funny, moving or revealing as this one. Out of the Ashes charts the stellar rise of the Afghan cricket team from the refugee camps of Pakistan to the world cup, via Jersey, Tanzania and South America.

The feature length documentary premièred at the Edinburgh Film Festival, it’s due to be broadcast soon on BBC Storyville. It’s already had rave reviews.

You don’t even have to know anything about cricket to enjoy it.

Billions of pounds 'wasted' trying to help Afghanistan

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:58:45 +0430

Billions of pounds 'wasted' trying to help Afghanistan:

BILLIONS of pounds blown on trying to rid Afghanistan of opium and most of the military’s cash-for-work projects have been a complete waste of time and money, Afghanistan’s finance minister said…

This is my new VW Beetle (ingeniously christened Herb-i-Islami...

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:12:00 +0430

This is my new VW Beetle (ingeniously christened Herb-i-Islami by my Australian housemate), at the workshop in Kabul.

I don’t know enough about cars to say for certain whether or not it really is a 1969 model (as the vendor insists) but it’s certainly got enough rust and the suspension looks like it’s endured more than a few summers of love. (Most of the beetles in Afghanistan arrived overland with the hippies en route to India and Nepal. I’m told they go better in reverse up the really steepest hills).

The wheels wobble from side-to-side and the ignition is a button behind the driver seat (this I suspect was an Afghan mechanic’s improvised addition).

But with a bit of inshallah, it’s about three weeks from being the coolest car in Kabul.

Renegade Afghan kills three British troops

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:22:48 +0430

Renegade Afghan kills three British troops:

A MANHUNT is under way in southern Afghanistan after three British troops were murdered and several others were seriously wounded when a rogue Afghan soldier opened fire in their patrol base.

Afghan betrayal should not derail mission - PM

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:22:48 +0430

Afghan betrayal should not derail mission - PM:

David Cameron insisted today that Britain’s strategy in Afghanistan must not be derailed by the actions of a “rogue” Afghan soldier who murdered three British troops inside a base in Helmand…

Three British soldiers killed by Afghan renegade

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:52:27 +0430

Three British soldiers killed by Afghan renegade:

Three British troops were murdered by an Afghan soldier inside their checkpoint in Helmand this morning.

UN to consider removing ten Taleban names from terror blacklist

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 11:29:11 +0430

UN to consider removing ten Taleban names from terror blacklist:

At least ten senior Taleban officials who are on a terrorism blacklist are having their status reviewed in a UN effort to reach a settlement with Afghanistan’s insurgents.

This is a picture that should be seen big. It’s...

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 22:02:00 +0430

This is a picture that should be seen big. It’s Afghanistan’s first National Park at Band-e Amir in Bamiyan Province. A series of natural dams have created six lakes surrounded by sheer cliffs, at around 3000 metres above sea level, in the heart of the Hindu Kush.

Visiting and swimming in the ice-cold water is one of the best perks of my job.

One good reason to wear sunscreen.

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:00:00 +0430

One good reason to wear sunscreen.