An Afghan carpet trader displays a rug showing different weapons and machinery as he waits for customers at his shop on Chicken Street, Kabul. More than three decades of war have damaged Afghanistan's once-thriving carpet industry, but weavers are tapping into the bloody past to boost their fortunes.  AFP PHOTO
An Afghan carpet trader displays a rug showing different weapons and machinery as he waits for customers at his shop on Chicken Street, Kabul. More than three decades of war have damaged Afghanistan'sShow more

Afghanistan’s war on rugs



Kabul // More than three decades of war have damaged Afghanistan’s once-thriving carpet industry, but weavers are tapping into the bloody past to boost their fortunes with “war rugs” depicting guns, tanks and warplanes.

On Chicken Street, the most famous street in Afghanistan during the “hippie trail” tourist days of the late 60s and 70s and still the place to come for souvenirs, some of the carpets in the shops look like pages of the country’s war-torn history.

Since the Soviet Union invaded in 1979 Afghanistan has been in a state of near-constant conflict, and this strife is woven into the fabric of the woollen rugs.

Helicopters, tanks, Kalashnikovs, grenades, the Americans’ distinctive B-52 bombers and even drones form the designs, in place of the traditional patterns of landscapes and flowers.

One has a map of Afghanistan with “Tora Bora” marked — the suspected mountain hideout of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, from where he fled the US-led invasion in late 2001.

Another carries a solemn reminder of the 9/11 attacks that prompted the invasion, showing the World Trade Center’s twin towers with planes nearly hitting them, overlaid with Afghan and US flags and a peace dove.

Carpets with pictures of Soviet troops withdrawing from Afghanistan leaving behind tanks and Kalashnikovs also feature.

The US-led war in Afghanistan brought with it a flood of expats — aid workers, diplomats and security contractors — bringing boom times for carpet sellers.

Now the expat population is falling fast, the rug industry is struggling and the transformation in styles is an attempt to attract more business from a dwindling band of foreigners.

A carpet showing the map of Afghanistan with US fighter planes around it and the words “terrorism”, “Pakistan”, “China”, “USA” and “Britain” costs between $30 and $300 (Dh110 and Dh1,100) depending on its quality.

Mohammad Anwar, 62, who has been in the business for over 40 years, says designs have to keep up with demand.

“These rugs with pictures of war in them are for gifts. Foreigners buy them and keep them as a reminder of what kind of country they have been to,” he said.

Foreign soldiers used to be the main buyers, he said, but now very few of them remain after Nato’s drawdown of forces.

Nato ended its combat mission on December 31 after 13 years of fighting the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and downsized its forces from a peak of 130,000 in 2012 to about 17,000.

Haref Fazli, another Chicken Street rug seller, said that just as traditional weavers depicted the natural world of flowers and animals that surrounded them, so weavers now are showing war, because war is what has surrounded them for more than three decades.

“From long ago the carpet weavers would weave the map of Afghanistan on rugs as a symbol of the country, but when war began, the war elements such as guns, tanks and so on were added on the rugs,” he said.

Carpets have been a main source of income for millions of Afghans during the years of war, but business and sales have dropped drastically as foreigners have left.

Political uncertainty following a disputed presidential election last year and an array of other daunting problems, including a resilient Taliban insurgency and widespread corruption, have also badly hit the carpet business.

But Mohammad Kabir Raouf, 58, another seller, is hopeful that the new artistic transformation of patterns will help bring the business back on track.

“The war has had some good impact on the rug industry too, people have become more creative,” Mr Raouf said.

“There are many varieties of rugs in the market nowadays, they draw pictures, war elements, many different designs just to attract people.” he said.

*Agence France-Presse

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Cyclists must wear a helmet, arm and knee pads

Have a white front-light and a back red-light on their bike

They must place a number plate with reflective light to the back of the bike to alert road-users

Avoid carrying weights that could cause the bike to lose balance

They must cycle on designated lanes and areas and ride safe on pavements to avoid bumping into pedestrians

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It provided services to around 200 ports across 50 countries.

They also provide port chaplains to help them deliver professional welfare services.

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Tips for job-seekers
  • Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
  • Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.

David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East

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COMPANY PROFILE:

Name: Envision
Started: 2017
Founders: Karthik Mahadevan and Karthik Kannan
Based: The Netherlands
Sector: Technology/Assistive Technology
Initial investment: $1.5 million
Current number of staff: 20
Investment stage: Seed
Investors: 4impact, ABN Amro, Impact Ventures and group of angels

The story in numbers

18

This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens

450,000

More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps

1.5 million

There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m

73

The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association

18,000

The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme

77,400

The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study

4,926

This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee

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Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km

Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah To The Last Goodbye
By Dave Lory with Jim Irvin

Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest

Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.

Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.

Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.

Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.

Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.

Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia

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Men:
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62kg – Joao Gabriel de Sousa
69kg – Gianni Grippo
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94kg – Gustavo Batista
110kg – Erberth Santos

Women:
49kg – Mayssa Bastos
55kg – Nathalie Ribeiro
62kg – Gabrielle McComb
70kg – Thamara Silva
90kg – Gabrieli Pessanha