Afghan Warrior

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world. However Afghanistan has made remarkable progress since the fall of the Taliban. But we still have a very weak economy. Although Afghanistan's economy has improved over the last three years, the government has not been able to to carry out a proper assessment. Education, health care, the lack of jobs, homes, power and drinking water are the main problems that Afghanistan is facing today. Wages are extremely low. Civil servants, teachers and even doctors are lucky to get between $40 and $100 per month. The government officals only make $40 a month. Former officers, except ANA officers, only make $100 a month - even the colonels.

Food is very expensive for the people. Beside some rich people, most people eat meat once per week. Milk, bread, sugar, and cooking oil prices are very high for people, especially for the civil servants. A government worker makes 2000 afghani a month and one kilo of sheep meat is 200 afghani while one kilo of cow's meat costs 140 Afghani. A liter of diesel fuel costs 26 Afghani and a liter of petrol fuel costs between 24 and 27 afghani. Most people buy second hand clothes because the price of new clothes and shoes is very expensive. A teacher can not buy a coat for 1500 afghani because a teacher (e.g. a high school teacher) makes only 3000 afghani a month. The US dollar price in afghani is one $US dollar equals to 48 afghani. The price keeps changing every day - sometime s one US dollar equals 50 afghani.

So it is impossible for most people to buy meat every day, or even 3 times a week, because the salary of a government worker is equal to the price of 10 kilos of meat. Only those people who work for foreign organizations make much more than the government officials. Food price is not the only problem in Afghanistan - the taxi rents are very high too. Although there are many public busses, they are not enough to solve the people's problems because the population of Kabul city is over 3 million people, and since the fall of the Taliban almost two million people have returned to Kabul. Some refugees who are homeless live under tents. Almost 50% of people are homeless in Kabul and they ask the government to build shelters for them. Many people sold their houses during the 1992 war and during the Taliban regime and they spent their money while they were in Pakistan and Iran during that time. They sold their houses for really cheap prices because the situation was really bad and now their houses are 10 times more than the price they sold them at, so the people hope that the new government will issue some land to homeless people, but its unclear when that will happen.