A Little Good News

Here's an interesting personal story about Afghanistan's newly appointed Ambassador that is very encouraging. The East Bay is home to a large community of Afghani emigres, so we get a trickle of news in the local papers.

Serving his country from afar

Afghan man leaves war-torn homeland to make a new life for himself -- and become U.S. ambassador

Washington -- In the saga of Said Tayeb Jawad's forced exile and sudden return to his homeland and his current posting as ambassador on Washington's leafy Embassy Row you can see the wild roller coaster ride of the last quarter century of Afghanistan's history.

As a 23-year-old law school graduate from a well-to-do family, Jawad fled Afghanistan in 1980 in the wake of the Soviet invasion. He ended up in the Bay Area, where he continued his schooling, became a U.S. citizen, landed a good job and settled into a comfortable life with his wife and son in the Oakland hills.

Then came the grisly events of Sept. 11, 2001, and the subsequent U.S. invasion of Afghanistan aimed at ousting the Taliban and its al Qaeda allies. Jawad felt compelled like many other Afghan emigres to help his homeland and its new president, Hamid Karzai.

With no previous government experience, Jawad was pressed into service first as the president's press secretary, then as chief of staff and now as the holder of Afghanistan's most important overseas post: ambassador to the United States, the Karzai government's main patron and protector.

Jawad gave up his comfortable life, sold his house and even his American citizenship to assist his adopted and countries of origin.

The new job, which Jawad took up in December, is probably the most personally wrenching of all the posts he has filled for Karzai in the whirlwind of the past two years.

Under international law, the 46-year-old Jawad had to give up his U.S. citizenship, at least temporarily, to become ambassador. His wife, Shamim Jawad, and their son Iman, 14, had stayed behind in Oakland while he went to Kabul and hitched their star to Karzai.

Shamim Jawad, a financial consultant for the giant TIAA-CREF mutual fund company, sold their home with its view of the Golden Gate Bridge in November and moved with Iman to an imposing mansion in Washington's swank Kalorama neighborhood, which is still undergoing remodeling after years of sitting empty while Afghanistan's wild situation was sorted out.

"It was a hard decision to sell our home,'' the ambassador said in his vast and still sparsely decorated office. "And it was a hard decision to give up my citizenship. But it was a technical decision because in this way I could serve my country and U.S. interests better.

The media makes light of, or totally ignores improvements and accomplishments in Afhganistan, measuring success by feet of roads laid. While men such as Jawan quietly take on the daunting task of tranforming Afghanistan and eventually the entire region.

Posted by feste at March 17, 2004 07:12 AM | TrackBack