“In midsummer Cip Jungberg, the second USAID officer for the district, arrived. As Antoine Huss left, the district needed two officers to work there, plus Mohammad Zahir, our local cultural advisor-cum-interpreter. Cip, who was from North Dakota, had worked on… — Douglas Grindle Copy Share
“when people thought the country was headed in the wrong direction, corruption was their second-biggest concern, after security.3” — Douglas Grindle Copy Share Image
“Despite our cultural training, we remained ignorant of the cultural and political nuances that would affect our ability to run meetings effectively. The sole… — Douglas Grindle Copy Share Image
“One true measure of progress in Afghanistan is the relationship between the government and the people. The more the villagers support the government, the better the war is going. And this is relatively simple to measure. The best metric is how many people visit the district center every week. The presence of many elders indicated the government was doing well,… — Douglas Grindle Copy Share
“In midsummer Cip Jungberg, the second USAID officer for the district, arrived. As Antoine Huss left, the district needed two officers to work there, plus Mohammad Zahir, our local cultural advisor-cum-interpreter. Cip, who was from North Dakota, had worked on a provincial reconstruction team in Iraq, knew plenty about working in war zones, and had good ideas about developing new… — Douglas Grindle Copy Share
“A failing district would cause the entire government to fail, he added, and so the government was on course to fail because the districts… — Douglas Grindle Copy Share Image
“the government worked, if it could be trusted, and what they really needed. As Antoine Huss moved out and was succeeded in August by Cip Jungberg, we were able to complete the picture we had received from the district staff by talking directly with the elders in their own villages. Without a weekly hands-on encounter, we would not have a… — Douglas Grindle Copy Share
“Taliban commanders have reported the movement derives direct support from Pakistan’s ISI, or Inter-Service Intelligence Directorate, the intelligence service. One study noted, “According to… — Douglas Grindle Copy Share Image
“In Afghanistan when a woman is widowed, she is generally taken in by her late husband’s family. His brother might marry her if she… — Douglas Grindle Copy Share Image
“The embassy bureaucrat responded that there was no problem with creating a system that did not work very well. He said the Afghan system… — Douglas Grindle Copy Share Image
“Only the district could be trusted to make spending a priority, but how could the district do that if it had no money? The… — Douglas Grindle Copy Share Image
“The bulk of development funding was spent by the international donors themselves, as USAID or the Canadians did when they spent millions of dollars… — Douglas Grindle Copy Share Image
“In each village Nazak said the same thing: don’t work with the Taliban; work with me and get projects. Supporting the Taliban will lead… — Douglas Grindle Copy Share Image
