The big decision facing any ex-pat in Kabul on any given Thursday, the start of the Afghan weekend, is what to do that night. In the glitz and glamour of Kabul’s party scene, the choice can be heavy as the security. There was the ‘Luna’ party at t...
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When al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and the Taliban fled Afghanistan, they made their last stand in Paktia province on the border with Pakistan. The Zazi valley, known during the Soviet occupation as “the gateway to Afghanistan,” is located on th...
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MondayI arrive in Kabul after a two and a half year absence, and there is much more construction, and a lot more sandbags, a sign at how much the security situation has deteriorated. I wonder if the construction is really changing the face of Kabu...
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Old school mafia-style corruption in Afghanistan is like prostitution on a national level. While it is repeated as received wisdom that corruption is part of the culture, at this level the wholesale rape of the country is pure cannibalism. Corrup...
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For decades newspapers have chased the elusive younger reader in an attempt to boost circulation. Ironic of course in light of events which overtook the industry as we know all too well. No one young reads newspapers, and no one older either it se...
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Imagine life ostracized from your community, returned to your family by your husband. Your crime? To have spent six days in labor delivering a stillborn child, the result of which has left you doubly incontinent so body fluids drip constantly, eat...
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The shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden are like highways with bumper-to-bumper traffic piling up, making them easy targets for the growing crop of pirates who terrorize these waters off the Somali coast. There have been reports recently that pirat...
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Rowan Laxton was watching news of Israeli military activity in Gaza on television while working out on an exercise bike at his central London gym. What happened next unnerved fellow gym patrons: “F-ing Israelis. F-ing Jews,” he screamed repeatedly...
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At the Kigali Memorial Centre on the outskirts of town, 258,000 people are buried, their bodies exhumed and re interred on the site. Overlooking the capital you see that Rwanda really is the land of a 1000 hills, les mille collines, undulating, gr...
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If there is a credit crunch in London, which few doubt, it’s not at Cipriani, the Italian restaurant in the heart of London’s exclusive Mayfair district, where Bellinis — fresh white peach juice and Prosecco — cost more than $20.00 each. A delicio...
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Heidi Kingstone, Copyright © 2025, All rights reserved.
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Dispatches from the Kabul Café 
Genocide – Personal Stories, Big Questions 