BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
X-WR-CALNAME:www.indybay.org
PRODID:-//indybay/ical// v1.0//EN
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:Indybay-98263
SEQUENCE:98263
CREATED:20060428T230100Z
DESCRIPTION:CorpWatch is launching our new report "Afghanistan, Inc." with a night of 
 drinking, music, and conversation with investigative journalists, Fariba 
 Nawa and Pratap Chatterjee.  7:00 pm Presentation / 9:00-11pm Music and 
 Dance  **Featuring Afghan Musician Tameem, followed by Maneesh the 
 Twister**    Contractors in Afghanistan are making big money for bad work  
 Investigative journalist Fariba Nawa has spent the last four years in 
 Afghanistan detailing the bungled reconstruction effort, which the Bush 
 administration touts as a success story. On Tuesday, May 2nd, Ms. Nawa and 
 the Bay Area based non-profit CorpWatch will be rolling out the report, 
 Afghanistan, Inc. at 111 Minna Gallery (at 2nd Street).  Fariba Nawa, an 
 Afghan-American reporter returned to her native country to examine the 
 progress of reconstruction. She uncovered examples of where the money has 
 (and hasn’t) gone, how the system of international aid works (and 
 doesn’t), and what it is really like in the villages and cities where 
 outsiders are rebuilding the war-torn countryside.  At the 111 Minna 
 Gallery event, Ms. Nawa and CorpWatch, Executive Director Pratap 
 Chatterjee, who has just returned from Iraq himself, will reveal how some 
 of the same politically connected corporations who are doing similar work 
 in Iraq: Kellogg, Brown & Root (a subsidiary of Halliburton), DynCorp, 
 Blackwater, The Louis Berger Group and The Rendon Group are pocketing 
 millions of dollars and why the Afghan people are increasingly frustrated 
 and angry with the results.  With little or no competitive bidding on the 
 contracts, Afghans see foreign engineers, consultants, and mercenaries make 
 as much as $1,000 a day, while the locals they employ make $5 per day. They 
 see a highway that is crumbling before it is finished, a school with a 
 collapsed roof, a clinic with faulty plumbing and a farmers’ cooperative 
 that farmers can’t use. Basic security is still not in place although 
 high-priced foreign “experts” trained Afghan police and military.  
 After the journalists provide a picture of the reconstruction, the Afghan 
 musician, Tameem will take us on another journey fusing Eastern and Western 
 sounds; his compositions use verses by many of the great Persian poets, 
 Rumi, Hafiz, Attar and the twentieth century woman poet Forough. Tameem’s 
 unique sound has been influenced by his teachers, Ustad Zakir Hussain, the 
 master percussionist of India and the Afghan master Naseem Khan.  Maneesh, 
 the Twister, co-founder of the Dhamaal Artist Collective, which has been 
 championing hybrids of South Asian audio and visual art for over seven 
 years will be spinning dub reggae, bhangra, breakbeat and other Asian 
 electronica to end the evening.  Proceeds from this special evening will 
 support CorpWatch’s investigative projects. At Afghanistan, Inc., 
 you’ll get an inside look at a system gone out of control, with little 
 accountability and plenty of opportunity for graft and abuse. It is a story 
 we all need to know.  CorpWatch investigates and exposes corporate 
 violations of human rights, environmental crimes, fraud and corruption 
 around the world. Through its independent media work, CorpWatch fosters 
 global justice, accountability and democratic control of corporations.\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/04/28/98263.php
SUMMARY:Afghanistan, Inc.: Come meet CorpWatch Foreign Correspondents
LOCATION:At 2nd Street (in between Howard and Mission) in Downtown SF
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/04/28/98263.php
DTSTART:20060503T020000Z
DTEND:20060503T050000Z
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR