Afghan Whispers: Hope, Hate & Fire · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Afghan Reality talks about signs of hope for Afghanistan after the London conference. The blogger says:
“Afghanistan Compact will serve as the international community's reassurance in helping rebuild Afghanistan. The document officially agreed upon at the two-day international conference in London starting January 31, 2006 highlights key areas where Afghanistan must rise to the challenge.We must embrace change; there is no other option. It is the option. Afghans have high hopes, which have not been fully met, neither by the international community nor by the government. De-licensing over 1500 NGOs is one first promising step. But, even this is an external reform. Most important, the government must demonstrate the same boldness in cleaning up its own fragile institutions.”
Another hot topic is still the Danish cartoons. Sanjar says :
“I was reading some of the Muslim newspapers and weblogs in reaction to this incident and there were two reasons which were most commonly spread. The more extreme writers believed it’s another manifestation of Western–Christian hostility toward Islam. They claimed the western “Politicians and the media have a tendency to see Muslims only as criminal, anti-social elements and as potential rapists” This could be seen in the irony of the cartoons, where the media connects the most prominent Islamic character with backwardness, bomb and criminality.The other reason was, it’s also connected with a lot of home issues which still remains unsolved in Europe, such as freedom of expression. The traditional European censorship comes to a dead end with the rise of right wing governments in power.”
Pouria Lotfi reports that last week there was a case of an Iranian guy, 27 years old, who had fled to Afghanistan hoping he could get asylum, probably in a third country. Unfortunately he became so disappointed at being unable to find a solution that he set himself on fire and died a few days later in hospital.