A Conversation w/ Sarah Chayes

Post Six
bw - August 23, 2003 - #8

As I read your first five posts, I couldn't help but wonder WHAT Afghanistan you are talking about. then came post number 6. That's the Afghanistan I was wondering about... The urgency of your situation sure is palpable, I am very curious as to what your thoughts are concerning AIR in light of the remark you close post 6 with: "In one year, the Americans will lose this country…" Is AIR something that can put the breaks on this slide towards anarchy?

The Slim Chance
Sarah Chayes - August 27, 2003 - #13

Well seen. I'm not sure AIR in and of itself can have much of an impact. But if we don't try, while we have the slim chance, what are we?

Thanks for your concern.

Living Risk
Nannette - August 23, 2003 - #9

You may not be able to say, but I wonder about your personal circumstances. How you're living. What kind of security you and the station will have.

I wonder about your personal story leading to this extraordinary life containing risk and discomfort.

Three Cows And Acute Discomfort
Sarah Chayes - August 27, 2003 - #12

Personal situation involves a compound with a lovely garden and three cows...whence fresh milk for tea in the AM. Security is...a problem, in the abstract. There's a lot of licking your finger and sticking it into the wind... Security here is largely based on deterrence. You are safe if people believe that SOMEONE will track them down and kill them if they do anything to you. I have had to resort to having certain people told this, after I received threats. This sounds very dramatic, but it isn't really, it's just local theatrics. I think, for the moment, our force-field is safe. Of course if I begin to think differently, I will have to take appropriate measures, for me and the station.

I don't know about this life, how it came about...certainly unplanned, but always with an acute feeling of discomfort whenever I got too comfortable. Does that make any sense?

Specifics
CM Lane - August 23, 2003 - #10

Can you speak more toward the specifics regarding staff, equipment, and funding? How many reporters/producers, studios, players, and the like? What's your signal range? Where does your funding come from?

The Skinny On The Station
Sarah Chayes - August 27, 2003 - #11

Staff is skeleton, for the moment, due to the lack of qualified personnel in Kandahar. We want this to be local radio, not staffed by imports from Kabul or the diaspora, but as a result, we're pretty slim. Five men make up the core staff of reporter/producers -- Najib who's funny and very capable, and doesn't lie about himself or his courage, Sarwar who's a bit dreamy but very willing, Hikmat, a Farsi-speaker who's perhaps the most serious of the bunch, Ibrahim, who comes from the local newspaper, and is very involved with the local literary crowd, and Ma'mun, the youngest, very ambitious, good reporting instincts, very energetic. You have the profile of Isma'il Timor in the original documents.

We just got some funding from the German foreign ministry for women's programming, so a group of women we have been meeting with about the constitution is constituting our women's team. They began work last Monday. They are: Fahima, a high school headmistress, very active and sunny and thoughtful, Shakira, another high school headmistress, more passive, Shahida, now monitor for GTZ women's programs in Kandahar, sharp-tongued and alert, Bilqisa, an educated woman whose husband won't let her work, probably the best qualified in the group, and Ma Gul and Shala, two very common-sensical illiterate housewives, who have made some of the most pertinent contributions to the constitution discussion.

Funding comes primarily from the Carr Foundation, a private human rights organization based in Cambridge, MA. Additional funding is from USAID, the Soros Foundation, and the European Commission.

Two studios, still in the throes of loving creation by Gul Agha the carpenter and his assistant. Gul Agha was recently distracted by the kidnapping of his young brother by a local militia unit, which forced him to work for them (cooking, etc.) for free, and tried to rape him. We got him released yesterday.

Equipment is a standard package put together by Internews in Kabul. I confess to being less than pleased with the price/value ratio on the reporters' kit, which I know something about. Commercial mini-disk recorders for $300, Chinese microphones, no shot-guns, no lapel mikes, etc. I'll have to add some in.

Signal range will be Kandahar proper to begin with -- FM line of sight.

Electric Slide
Eve Lyman - August 27, 2003 #14

Hi - I am the US coordinator of ACS and will attempt to answer some of these questions, as the electricity in Kandahar is barely working any more, and Sarah is having trouble with accessing the Internet. Amazingly enough, after the fall of the Taliban, the situation with electricity in Kandahar was perfect. There was never any problem, for almost a year, and now it is getting worse and worse. These are the kinds of things the US needs to do in order to stop the slide into anarchy.

AIR will maybe, just maybe, at least begin to give the people a voice.

Click image for full view.

Gleams Of Mead
Thomas Marzahl - August 29, 2003 - #17

Kudos to you for fulfilling another part of your dream, and for gathering a small group of thoughtful and committed people, who can make a difference, and help change the world a little bit... as Margaret Mead said I don't know when…

I'm curious whether this radio station was always part of the Afghans for a Civil Society mission statement/goals when you hired on a year and a half or so ago, or whether it was a gleam in your eye that gradually grew into reality.

And how about the interaction between men and women, in production and possibly even on the air, in the future? Do you foresee problems?

Timor-Dried Blanket
Sarah Chayes - September 4, 2003 - #30

Thanks so much for your kind note. Re gleam in my eyes. Frankly, on the contrary! Knowing what it takes to get even 4 minutes of radio on the air, I was the constant wet blanket on this project. Thank God for Timor! Re men and women...I foresee no problems...for those women who even have the permission to come and work. But they will probably be working separately at first.

Radio Alert
Jay Allison - August 29, 2003 - #18

Sarah, Eve, et. al: do people in Kandahar know the broadcast signal is imminent? If not, how will you let them know? What is the history there of radio as a communication tool? Does everyone have radios?

Will you record your first moments on the air? I hope so. We'd love to post them here.

Hoary Headed Hitches
Sarah Chayes - August 31, 2003 - #19

I've grown very cautious, after a year and a half over here. I tend NOT to want to make splashy announcements, but just try to do the job as best we can. Then if we're late, or if the inevitable hitches rear their hoary heads, we won't be blamed or ridiculed. I'd rather word of mouth spread as people like our programming. Then we can start discreetly posting things around town. (Though posters etc. are not very popular here.)

Mic'ing Sarah
Julia Barton - August 31, 2003 - #22

I'm wondering if the Afghans you know are curious about your background and life outside the country. If so, what kind of questions do they ask you? And I have to ask, how do they feel about you wearing men's clothes?

Discreet In Pashtu
Sarah Chayes - September 4, 2003 - #31

Very few questions of a typical Western searching kind. Afghans are quite discreet, verbally. So it usually comes down to: am I married, how many siblings do I have, are both my parents alive? I assume most people assume I am a CIA agent, which frankly is good for my health, since folks are less likely to take pot-shots at me. This is typical of Americans working in conflict situations. Re: men's clothes. I certainly get some comments, and people ask me why I do. But I think there a kind of permissive zone for foreigners, a lot of things are accepted that wouldn't be from Afghans. The fact that I speak a bit of Pashtu helps a lot.

Intrigue And Awe
Viki Merrick - September 3, 2003 - #24

I am in awe of what you are doing…You mentioned being not so good at getting comfortable. And this intrigues me - you have a daunting resume, if not travelogue, for a reporter. You tended to be present in some of the world's more dangerous settings.

Is it possible you got comfortable doing that? Too comfortable? Can you talk a little about what inspired you to stop reporting and take on the mission? Why Afghanistan and not the Balkans?

That Old Chaos And Rebirth Jones
Sarah Chayes - September 4, 2003 - #29

Maybe I am too comfortable with being...out there. Though I must say I do not consider myself a "war reporter." I am not a conflict junkie, rather a "chaos and rebirth" junkie. Many people asked me if I regretted not being in Iraq during the war. Not at ALL was my emphatic response...until the day Baghdad fell, when to my great surprise I felt a little twinge.

The Balkans DID inspire me, but what was different in Afghanistan was the leadership. I never felt in the Balkans that there was a single political leader with the vision or desire to really make a difference for his people. Here, the Karzais inspired me. Though I was pretty sure the odds are stacked very heavily against them. That's why it felt like an obligation to...pitch in.

I have steadily (in ebbs and flows) questioned the value of just reporting on these situations, rather than "doing something." I guess the moment of switching over was one of those transition moments when a number of factors come together at the same time -- the inspiration, an invitation, a crystallizing sense of disappointment with US journalism at a key juncture (the anti-Taliban conflict).

Buds Opening
Viki Merrick - September 3, 2003 - #25

How do you allow for letting genuine personality of the community infuse the programming? Is this a goal? I don't know if you ever had a chance to read the GOBI Wave discussion from Mongolia, but I was so struck by some of the brief moments in the day turned over to local pleasure if you will (singing, messaging). Maybe that flavor lies within "Flower Garden" and "Buds Opening" and "light of Islam:" what do you think?

And I also woke up thinking about the woman whose husband won't let her work...what does she stand for in "constituting the constitution"? You said she's the best qualified, can you elaborate?

Key Bricks
Sarah Chayes - September 4, 2003 - #33

A lot of the personality will emerge from the people we interview for ALL of our shows, from simply having Kandaharis on the air, their stories, their achievements. It's a first!

That woman was the one who launched a previous discussion by asking: how can we get out from under this need for permission? It's a real bind: if women act without their husbands' permission they are beaten or threatened with divorce. In case of divorce they lose their children. I said, this is like a huge wall. It won't be torn down all at once, but let's look for some key bricks. But even those are difficult to work on, let alone dislodge.

By qualified, I meant her reading and conceptual abilities.

Click image for full view..

Citizenship
chelsea merz - September 3, 2003 - #27

As you've lived all over the world has your identity as an American changed? Do you identify with being an American? Or do you consider yourself a citizen of the world?

Sans Cleave
Sarah Chayes - September 4, 2003 - #32

I do consider myself an American. ...I vaguely considered what it might be like adopting French citizenship, since I had lived there for years and actually knew my district's rep. in National Assembly personally, but it just seemed false. I'm not French, I'm American. ...and yet, I could never imagine coming back to the US for good. It is just too...far away from the world. I remember coming for some weeks immediately after Sept. 11th and feeling total disconnect with the reactions of almost everyone, including some really cosmopolitan friends...even though I was deeply moved of course. Am I a citizen of the world, or of nowhere? Everyone else seems to cleave to some place or geographic identity.

From Report to Reconstruction
Edie Rubinowitz - September 7, 2003 - #34

I was wondering if you talk a little bit more about the process of going from reporting on events to becoming part of the reconstruction efforts. Are there any reporting habits one has to break to "be part of the solution?"

Unmodified
Sarah Chayes - September 15, 2003 - #42

I think I always identified with my stories a bit more than most reporters, so what I really feel is a sense of relief for that characteristic to be fitting in better. Also, it is a pleasure NOT to have to put a microphone in people's faces...much more intimacy -- mikes turn out to be a big barrier, and you have to be constantly calculating the degree to which a person is just expressing him or her-self, and the degree to which they're modifying for the mike. Note also that this particular reconstruction job, due to the odd circumstance of being connected with the Afghan president's (very analytical) brother, involves more policy analysis and discussion than just about any other. So for me it's the perfect mixture.

Story Threads
Jackson - September 7, 2003 - #35

There is the story, and then there is your story. Do you wonder if, at some point, you will either try to sort them out or tell them together as part of an even greater narrative?

Moonscape Tangles
Sarah Chayes - September 15, 2003 - #47 The problem is I have always LOATHED the first person in journalism. Then some folks came to do a documentary on us, rebuilding a village (Life After War. Will air on the Sundance Channel in late December). I knew I was the vehicle for the story, for getting viewers to identify with this moonscape of a place, but I was pretty shocked when I saw the thing the first time. It was largely about me. What an eyes-open violation of my principles!! But it does get tangled up...the former governor of Kandahar blaming me for his getting fired -- and lord knows I worked at it -- or telling him to "slap him on the ass" if I ever have a bone to pick with him...and the entanglements go on from there. I'll probably never get it sorted out. But that's part of the fun of this incarnation.

News Quagmire
helen woodward - September 8, 2003 - #36

It is so difficult to get a real picture of what is going on over there from over here; media focus is generally trained on Iraq right now, with only brief mention of what is going on in Afghanistan…How easy is it for you, personally, to stay in touch with world news, or do you bother, is it superfluous to your daily life?…Does Iraq look like a quagmire from over there?

More importantly, how about the average afghan person on the street? what level of non-local news do they get? In sistering with the Mongolian radio station Gobi Wave, I found out that there are a tiny number of radios per capita in Mongolia, like one for every 20 homes or something…it blows my mind that we get 24 hour news coverage in the West, from a multitude of media sources, and we feel in the dark, how does it feel from over there?

Professional Deformation
Sarah Chayes - September 15, 2003 - #44

Re outside news... It's a professional deformation, as the French say, but I tend to throw myself pretty thoroughly into wherever I am. It feels like the whole world. I do listen to a few minutes of BBC World Service every AM, and devour magazines that come our way once a month or so. Afghans listen avidly to the BBC, in company often. But as that's Pashtu/Farsi service, it tends to be rather -- if not exclusively -- regionally focused. From my perspective, especially given what I've been witnessing, Iraq looks not only like a predictable quagmire, but perhaps a pretty well planned one. Could the lightening defeat of Saddam's forces have been due to a strategic withdrawal?

Religion, Mistrust, Kinship
Rolf Siverson - September 10, 2003 - #40

First, seeing as religion seems like a very important matter to the Afghanis…How much of the programming do you think will be devoted to religion i.e., speeches by local clerics, you mentioned something about readings from the Koran, etc? On the logistical side, will the station be taking breaks at the hours of prayer?

Second, I know in a lot of countries that have just come out of totalitarian rule where there is little or no free speech, there tends to be a general mistrust of the media, especially the news. Do you see that being a problem in the future, or is it a problem already, and what do you think is the best way to combat that?

Third, what kind of support is AIR getting from the local community? Are people willing to lend a hand, or do people have a sort of ambivalent "wait and see" attitude, or are some people out right hostile? Is the local government involved? Do you want them to be?

Re Readings, Residents, Regimes
Sarah Chayes - September 15, 2003 - #46

Religion IS a big deal in Kandahar, though people are much less ideologically motivated than one would think, given the previous regime. We will open each broadcast day with a short Qur'an reading, but only one of our weekly programs is devoted to religious subjects, and it will tend to offer non-wahhabi/fundamentalist readings of some of the most important teachings of Islam. Timor is an amazingly gentle, open-hearted/minded man. Re the public, we are trying not to trumpet ourselves much. Public support, hopefully, will come with good programming. Re government. New Kandahar governor and communications minister are informed. Don't want any more involvement than that. Stay tuned re their reaction!

EDITOR'S NOTE - October 28, 2003

At this writing, Sarah is still busy with the launch. She is also gathering support for the initiative through appearances in the media here, on PBS's "NOW" and "Frontline World" and in the documentary film "Life After War" for the Sundance Channel. She promises to keep us posted on her progress, so check her Transom Discussion Topic for news.

<< part 1 Introduction & Sarah Chayes' Manifesto

part 3 >> Photos From Afghanistan by Eve Lyman