In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

Season’s Greetings! On behalf of In Asia‘s editorial board and bloggers, we thank you for your engagement and continued readership throughout the year. We’ll be taking a short break, but will return on January 9 for a special “Forecast: Asia in 2013″ edition. In the meantime, catch up on a few must-read pieces and highlights on the most pressing events and issues in Asia throughout 2012.

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Stone sculptures of headless torsos, huge niches stripped of priceless Buddhist statues, rubble scattered on the floor of empty galleries lined with classical columns – these are the images of carnage inflicted on the art and artifacts of Afghanistan in the last three decades.

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It is 11 in the morning on June 21, 2012. The phone has been ringing at ACSOR’s (Afghan Centre for Socio-Economic and Opinion Research) Central office in Kabul. The project management team has been busy assigning new sampling points to those calling in and seeking a replacement.

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One of the world’s most prominent experts in Afghan art, Mr. Omara Khan Masoudi, director of the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul, is in San Francisco this week on a two-week exchange at the Asian Art Museum. Masoudi is The Asia Foundation’s Brayton Wilbur, Jr. Fellow in Asian Art. Affiliated with the National Museum [...]

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Immediately following the recent release of the much-anticipated 2012 Survey of the Afghan People, In Asia editor Alma Freeman spoke with Asia Foundation governance and education specialist in Kabul, Roohafza Ludin, for her reaction to the survey findings.

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“Is Afghanistan headed in the right direction?” For in-depth, province-by-province data on what Afghans think of this and other questions on security, reconciliation, and unemployment from The Asia Foundation’s just-launched 2012 Survey of the Afghan People, visit the Foundation’s interactive “Visualizing Afghanistan” interactive site. You can click to compare data from seven years across different [...]

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On November 14, The Asia Foundation released the results of its eighth annual Survey of the Afghan People in Kabul and Washington, D.C. The survey is the most comprehensive and credible nationwide public opinion poll available to the Afghan Government, international donor community, NGOs, and other institutions working for the improved welfare of the Afghan people.

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For the most part, Afghanistan is portrayed today as violent and war-torn and with an ineffective and corrupt government. The consensus seems to be that there is little hope that the country will hold together or defend itself against the Taliban and other terrorists after U.S. and NATO combat troops leave two years hence.

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Let’s face it – the women activists of Afghanistan, along with the international community’s support, have done a pretty good job of achieving critical gains for women. For example, we have three women in our cabinet, we have almost 30 percent women in our parliament and women in parliament are the most active participants…

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The streets of Kabul were packed as usual with cars as women scurried by in the street covering their faces with their headscarves to keep out the dust. But today, traffic was much worse than usual due to a new minister travelling in his convoy of armored cars flanked by heavily armed men.

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