Journey To Afghanistan: Voices Of Hope - CBC - Our World

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CBC - Our World
Journey To Afghanistan: Voices Of Hope
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General Information
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Type.................: documentary
More Information.....: (none)


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Technical Information
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Source...............: NTSC CABLE
AVI Size.............: 360,728,576 bytes
Duration.............: 00:22:33
FPS..................: 29.97

Video Codec..........: XviD
Codec DCT......: H263
QPel...........: No
GMC............: No
Video Bitrate........: 2000 (ABR)
Video Resolution.....: 640x464
Video Aspect Ratio...: 1.379

Audio Format.........: 0x0055(MP3, ISO) MPEG-1 Layer 3
Audio Encoder........: LAME 3.92
Bitrate..............: 128kbits/sec (CBR)
Hz...................: 48000
Channels.............: Stereo
Captured by..........: festering leper

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Description
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This week Brian continues his special broadcast out of a war torn country.
For two weeks he travelled from the exotic and booming capital, Kabul to
the hinterland, Kandahar, where the Taliban roam the hills. We present in
this special series his conversations with remarkable people who are making
a difference. This week, we meet a Scottish adventurer, Rory Stewart, who's
protecting the treasures of an ancient land, and a former Afghani assassin
working to save youth from following his bloody example. These are voices
of hope in a land at the crossroads of history.

Brian writes: "Preserving Afghanistan's heritage has become the overwhelming
passion of a truly remarkable Scottish adventurer and writer Rory Stewart.
Stewart (no relation) has just published a book on Afghanistan, "The Places
In Between", hailed as a "modern masterpiece � almost too good to be true"
by the New York Times. A former soldier and diplomat, Stewart set out in
2002 to walk alone across Afghanistan just as the Taliban were forced from
power. This was a wildly dangerous exercise, staggering in its daring, but
one which brought him almost uniquely close to the Afghan people and culture.
Rory Stewart has now founded The Turquoise Mountain Foundation in Kabul to
help this nation conserve what it has every right to feel proud of � I met
this most unusual man who is dapper, yet tough as steel, at his foundation
headquarters outside Kabul."

Another remarkable person that Brian interviews is Neamat Arghand, an ex-
Mujahideen-turned-youth worker. Brian writes" It still comes as a shock to
me to meet people here, now well into their 30's, who really cannot remember
a time of peace and whose youth was forever blighted by war. But Neamat Arghand
is not someone who seeks or even expects our sympathy. Arghand grew up fighting
the Soviet invasion over 20 years ago. As a Mujahideen guerrilla he became an
assassin and a bomber. He killed many people, without much regret at the time.
This was so typical of youth drawn into insurgencies. Today, however, he's
come to reject violence --- and now seeks to prevent local youth in Kandahar
Province from joining the Taliban. He's established an Islamic volunteer group
which seeks to find work for impoverished and rootless youth repairing the
local irrigation canals crumbling through neglect. He's helped in this by
Canadian troops." What is riveting about this interview is the frankness and
direct way that Arghand describes the process by which he was recruited for
guerrilla fighting and how poverty plays an essential role in recruitment
today.


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