< Plugging Afghanistan's Brain Drain

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Heard on All Things Considered

November 19, 2008 - ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

This is All Things Considered from NPR News. I'm Robert Siegel.

MELISSA BLOCK, host:

And I'm Melissa Block continuing now with our series of conversations this week on the future of Afghanistan. And the future of that country could be determined by people such our next guest. He's part of a new generation committed to helping the country rebuild. Khaleeq Ahmad just returned to Afghanistan four days ago to work for an Afghan telecom company. He's 30. He was born in Afghanistan, but grew up and went to college in the U.S. In 2002, he went back to Afghanistan to work as an aide to President Hamid Karzai. Then after a year in grad school in London, Ahmad worked in the Washington, D.C., area. That's where his family lives. But he decided his real mission was in Afghanistan.

Mr. KHALEEQ AHMAD (Telecom Company Field Director, Afghanistan): I looked at other opportunities. I thought about working in Washington, staying there. But then I owe it to this country. I owe it to the people here. I understand the country. And there's a lot of qualified Afghans that left after three years ago, you know, after three years in 2005, 2006, and they won't go back anymore.

But I wanted to come back. And especially it's a year before the elections. I wanted to see what was going on, what's happening, how the country had changed from a year ago. So I was very - I was still interested in Afghanistan. And finally I made the decision, and I took that job and came here.

BLOCK: You're coming back to a country where violence is at its highest level since the U.S. invasion back in 2001. How much of a factor was that? I mean, did that give you pause as you thought about going home?

Mr. AHMAD: Well, when I was talking to a lot of my friends in the U.S., especially ones who had worked in Afghanistan, they were very careful, especially with the kidnapping situation that was going on around the country and also hearing about suicide bombings, and you know. So it was in the back of my head the whole time.

But then I also saw some people who were still going back, who were still coming to Kabul. And they said, well, you know, it's not what the media portrays it, and it's not that bad. So I came. And now that I'm here, the security doesn't bother you, but not having electricity and dealing with the same state bureaucracy in certain places will bother you and will be a bigger issue to you than security.

BLOCK: You mentioned the electricity situation. You're speaking with us from our bureau in Kabul, and our reporter there, Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, tells us that the power shortage there is getting worse, not better, that people have electricity for one night out of three for five hours. But what does that tell you about where the country is, again, seven years after the U.S. invasion?

Mr. AHMAD: Well, when I was working here for five years, one reason I came and one reason some of my really good friends were here working, the most important advantage a person from the West would bring to Afghanistan, as in an Afghan person coming from the West, was his management skills. And one thing that never happened was the training of the Afghan people in the past five years. You had companies, you had different organizations who came here. But when their contracts were over they went back.

And the qualified Afghans today do not work for the government, they work in the private sector or they work in NGOs or work for the U.N. because they're paid better there. And there was capacity building in some places. If the minister was good, they made it a major issue. But in a lot of ministries there was no capacity building.

BLOCK: You're tying the lack of power, the unreliable power supply, directly to faulty government - in other words a lack of brain power within the government?

Mr. AHMAD: Yes. One side is, yes, the lack of qualified people in the government, but also the lack of commitment by the international community because most of the time, without the right funding or the right money, they could not afford to buy the diesel needed to bring electricity to Kabul. Building dams were not given a big priority for the international community.

But it was actually - for the Afghan government it was a big priority as in always asking the international community to help them build dams, because they would have been the most reliable source of bringing electricity to Afghanistan. But we all made our mistakes, I believe. But it's still not too late. I mean, I came back because deep inside I'm still optimistic about everything.

BLOCK: Does what you've seen over the last four days, since you've been back in Kabul, fuel that optimism, or have you started to think maybe I was overly optimistic coming back, things are worse that I might have expected?

Mr. AHMAD: Well, my first night when I came here, I went to one of my favorite Lebanese restaurant in Kabul. And when I walked in there, I saw the place was full and there was, you know, a lot of my old friends were just sitting there and many of them surprised to see me. It kind of gave me a little hope. But when I spoke to them, they were afraid of coming to the restaurant at that time of the night. But at the same time we want to have - we're here, we have to, you know, have a normal life. But again four days is still too little. I mean, I could answer this question better for you in a month or two months time.

BLOCK: We'll have to call you back then.

Mr. AHMAD: Yes.

(Soundbite of laughter)

BLOCK: You mentioned the brain drain, essentially from government. It's interesting to me that you've come back to Afghanistan to be in the private sector. You've not come back to government. Did you think about whether maybe you could do more good from within to try to turn the government around there in some way?

Mr. AHMAD: I did. You know, I believe in the old saying of Ghandi, "Be the change you wish to see." We all went with that philosophy, and we wanted to change something, teach people something that we knew. But I wanted to understand the other side of politics and governance in Afghanistan. Now that I'm a businessman, I will understand how the government functions to a person that's not connected with the government.

Before, when you were in the government, especially in the president's office, everywhere you go the doors are open to you. But now I'm in the private sector, I want to see how those doors are open now. You know, now those doors are closed, and how do I open those doors? And I wanted to understand that better.

BLOCK: Well, Khaleeq Ahmad, thanks very much for talking with us, and welcome back to Afghanistan.

Mr. AHMAD: Thank you very much.

BLOCK: Khaleeq Ahmad speaking with us from Kabul where he is now director of field operations for a telecom company. Tomorrow on the program, should the Afghan government negotiate with the Taliban? I'll talk about that with Afghanistan's ambassador to the U.S. and with the assistant secretary of state for the region.

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