The heart goes on...

After the Taliban movement took control of Kabul in 1996, they enforced strict bans on music and television. Although the Taliban had closed down cinemas and banned films when the movie was released in 1997, many Afghans were able to smuggle video tapes of the Titanic into the country from Pakistan. People took risks to obtain the film, covering all their windows with drapes while they watched it at night.

In 2001, the Taliban began arresting barbers who gave Afghan customers haircuts styled after Leonardo DiCaprio's in Titanic. For a time, there was even a market in Kabul called Titanic City, where merchants sold items that had the word "Titanic" on them.

Wedding cakes molded into the shape of the Titanic ship also become very popular, although some bakers who sold them were targeted by the Taliban and told to make cakes in the shape of Afghanistan's historical monuments instead.

Many Afghans, like the very talented musicians in the video who I am fortune to have as friends, know most of the words to Celine Dion's song by heart.

My Heart Will Go On from Elissa Bogos on Vimeo.

Friday Bozkashi Match

Bozkashi, a sport where Afghan men carry the carcass of a headless goat towards a goal, has been played in Afghanistan for centuries.

Outside Kabul, a match takes place every Friday and people from the capital and surrounding areas come to watch the competition.

Music by Ahmad Zahir.

Friday Bozkashi Match from Elissa Bogos on Vimeo.

Government buildings attacked by Taliban militants

Taliban militants struck the heart of Kabul this morning in an attack that left at least five people dead.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told the Associated Press that up to 20 Taliban fighters entered the heavily secure area in the capital to target several government buildings, including the presidential palace. The attack came on the same day that confirmed cabinet members were to be sworn in by President Karzai at the presidential palace.

After a suicide bomber targeted a building near the Foreign Ministry, a gunbattle raged for almost an hour in the capital.

"It's not surprising that the Taliban do this sort of thing,"AFP reported US special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke as saying.

One American man who was locked down in the Central Bank for the duration of the fighting had tears in his eyes as he told me that, when all the other Afghan evacuated the bank, several Afghan employees of the bank refused to leave until the foreigners in the bank were also evacuated. "That, to me, is the real Afghan spirit," he said.

Foreign forces arrived on the scene several hours after the first attack. One Afghan friend asked me why foreign forces didn't arrive sooner to help out. The American man chimed in: "That area is so heavily populated with pedestrians. God forbid the American forces fired into the crowd and ended up accidentally killing an innocent Afghan woman or child, the repurcussions..."

In other, lighter news, the Khaleej Times reported that the "world's least known bird" has been found breeding in Afghanistan. A breeding ground for the large-billed reed warbler was discovered in the Wakhan Corridor in northeastern Afghanistan.

Read the Khaleej Times full article about the large-billed reed warbler here:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2010/January/international_January920.xml&section=international&col=