Autumn, glorious autumn ! The temperatures are gorgeous, the skies are blue, leaves are falling, the last insects are squirreling around and the last rose petals are dropping away.

After a long time I find the time to truly relax.

The past few weeks and months had a lot of tension in them: first and foremost the elections which for us had up-kept the hope of true change in the leadership of this country. My boyfriend was part of the campaign and often worked long hours. Now it has all come to nothing because of a principle-based decision which lead into a dead end. If it had been me I would have just gone along with the 2nd round and if there had again been fraud allegations I would have had another investigation rolled out. But Dr. Abdullah decided otherwise. He is taking the long way around – let’s hope it has the desired outcome soon.

Then my boyfriend and I fell out at one point – he accusing me of indiscretions – his full tendency to jealousy surfacing. But we worked it out, we got back together. But the stress I went through is indescribable, particularly because his allegations were totally baseless.

Then we had this major attack on a UN guesthouse – I woke up from the shooting and explosions nearby my house. It was a surreal experience. There is no direct impact and yet one follows the events on TV while it’s happening right around the corner. 8 people died in my neighbourhood and I watched Al Jazeera !

Then – two weeks ago – I moved into a new house after my previous landlord decided to cancel the contract which I had signed with her representatives 6 months prior.for 2 years. When Madam herself then returned from the US she decided that all this wasn’t what she wanted. Ah well, I didn’t wait for any BS to surface and simply moved out. Luckily I found this great house not far from my old one in Shar-e-Now. Enough space for me, my office, another company’s office and two more rooms to rent out in a separate attached apartment.

Today I’m sitting in beautiful Flower Street Cafe enjoying this beautiful Juma.

I have been wanting to go to Panjshir for the longest time. But somehow always something came up. . Now I must go soon – I miss going there, going to Amir Sahib’s tomb. Maybe next week …

In the meantime our Library project has also stalled because of everybody’s involvement with the campaign. But I managed to finalise the website and a couple of other things. But now we need to get kicking – by his 10-years anniversary this institution should be established and running in at least one or two cities. (yes, I haven’t given up hope. How can I – he was the reason why I came here, so if I achieve nothing else but to build a memorial in his honour I have fulfilled my purpose ….)

What just happened?

Did they just make a fraudster the new President of Afghanistan? And it was so swift that it made everybody’s head spin (they can be fast in this country if they want to).

They made someone President whose vote in the first round was 80% rigged* and thus does not enjoy any legitimacy to be in this position.

But nobody of the international community even blinked !! No doubts, no questions – simply pure acceptance hidden behind Ban Ki Moons cheesy diplomatic smile.

Why? Because no one is actually interested in up keeping due process or instilling honest legitimacy which is the underpinning of a strong government – all they are interested in is keeping the country quiet – and that at almost any cost, it seems. Quiet, for the moment, so that they – in their misguided strategies for this country – don’t have more headaches on their hands.

It was the same during the Taliban years – no one really moved to get rid of that regime which suppressed the country because they were the only ones who were able to keep it “quiet”. Western countries made an indirect pact with these forces simply with the goal not to miss out on any mineral wealth and strategic advantages which arise from a good relationship with Afghanistan – regardless of their rulers.

There may be large parts of the population who will be less than happy about that. And even if it doesn’t come to widespread demonstrations the legitimacy of the new President will be questioned at every occasion, as will the quality of democracy in general and local power holders will deduce new opportunities for themselves. This will contribute to further disintegration of the country: in the south and south-east the Taliban is gaining strength, and in the north Abdullah supporters who feel cheated may try to “do their own thing”. Overall not helpful !!

What should have been done instead is this:

A interim President should have been put in place until such time that there is enough time to hold 2nd round elections and remove all tainted people from the process. That way the new president would have gained an honest vote and legitimacy among the people.

But that of course would have given the internationals more uncertainty for a prolonged period of time – this was unacceptable, so they went with the fowl solution – in the name of “keeping the country quiet”

* numbers given by the opposition observers during the recent re-counting of the first-round votes. 30% was the official number later released so as to avoid potential violence and other trouble, I suppose; still and already Karzai was pushed below 50%.