If property prices and sales are a measure of a country's success and progress, there is hope for Afghanistan, despite all the current talk about NATO's failure to secure a stable peace and the start of an endgame that can ultimately benefit only the Taliban.

The latest of the Western gloom merchants to pontificate on what the future holds for Afghanistan is the former British Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown. Last month Ashdown was quoted as saying, 'Maybe President Obama didn't quite mean what he said last year when he announced the start of the US withdrawal next summer. But words, even inadvertent ones, have a momentum of their own. And few in Afghanistan doubt the direction in which that momentum is travelling…

'A victor's peace is probably no longer within our reach. We may have to accept a peace on terms that are much more uncomfortable.'

Whether Lord Ashdown is proven right remains to be seen, but it cuts no ice with a group of Kabul property developers who have just paid a record price to buy the land on which the United Nations International Community Association (Unica) bar and hotel are located.

Whether the developers paid US $6 million or $16 million for the property (depending on which report to believe), the sum involved seems almost inconsequential, given what is being planned for the future.

Regulars who used to frequent the Unica premises inevitably lament the closing down of the facilities, as does the legendary Russian-trained geologist and barman Abdul Hamid, but their regret is overshadowed by the developers' ambition to create a Dubai-style mall and business centre that could in the future generate millions of dollars of fresh deals.

Perhaps the developers know something that is not being shared with the rest of the international community operating out of Kabul. Either the developers have an understanding with the Taliban, the projected future rulers of Afghanistan, or the Taliban themselves have changed and see no problem or contradiction between their policies and the development of luxury offices, residences and shopping centres in the heart of Kabul.

Kabulis are the first to tell visiting foreigners about not one, but several luxury apartment complexes springing up all over their city. They also explain in hushed tones how four-bedroom apartments are now changing hands at US$ 500,000, a huge amount of money for any war-torn capital city.

Other old-timers in Kabul, those who remember the last Taliban government, say the Unica bar was never closed down by the Taliban authorities. It stayed open even after Taliban officials discovered that the pool in the centre of the Unica complex was for swimming and not a source of drinking water for thirsty Taliban guards, mullahs and other officials.

Others who have faith in the future of Afghanistan, Taliban or no Taliban, include a 46-year old Englishwoman who has single-handedly helped to revive the country's gemstone industry. Sophia Swire, a senior gemstone adviser to the current Afghan government, is currently preparing a report for the World Bank that she hopes will pave the way for modern investment in a forgotten industry that dates back to the time of Tutankhamun and Cleopatra.

Rubies, aquamarines, emeralds and gold are just part of Afghanistan's priceless but hitherto untapped mineral resources. Swire's bid to unlock some of this hidden treasures coincides with the recent publication of a US report which estimated that Afghanistan's mineral deposits, including gold, cobalt and lithium, could be worth US $1 trillion.
Swire, whose work was highlighted by the Sunday Times newspaper in the UK, believes that even a relatively small investment of US $10 million could revolutionise mining techniques and boost the value of the industry.

'Mining techniques haven't changed for thousands of years and the men work in appalling conditions,' she was quoted as telling the Sunday Times. They burrow into the rock and support shafts with branches and twigs. 'It's straight out of the Wild West.'

Earlier she was quoted as explaining how 'in remote areas, villagers simply walk up the mountains and blast them with dynamite or use old ordnance left over from the Russians and Americans to blast gems out of the mountainside. Any stones are then smuggled out through Pakistan, bleeding the country of revenue'.

Swire currently works for the Kabul-based Turquoise Mountain Foundation, a charity that was set up by recently elected British Conservative MP Rory Stewart, who previously worked in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Officials tipple while Punjab floods

Lawmakers from India's Punjab state are no better or worse than their counterparts from other parts of the world. Some even share with legislators from similar democratic societies a passion for the finer things of life.

A delegation of Punjabi legislators found itself in Scotland last month to study the whisky manufacturing process and pollution management by local distilleries.

Nothing wrong with that, except that members of the visiting delegation chose to enjoy the hospitality of the Scotch Whisky Association at a time when their constituencies were struggling to tackle a minor emergency following the late arrival of torrential monsoon rains.

As the Punjab and other parts of Northern India were trying to cope with the impact of the floods, which have claimed dozens of lives and left hundreds homeless, eight members of the Punjab state assembly's Pollution Control Committee were touring some of Scotland's best known whisky plants.

The usual courtesies were extended by the Scotch Whisky Association so that each member of the delegation received a free £25 bottle of Auchentashan malt when they visited the relevant distillery on the outskirts of Glasgow.

Asked to justify his trip, one delegate, Mr Jagdeep Nakai, said, 'It is totally discreet and we cannot say anything. We came for a purpose and we are doing that.' One of his colleagues, Anil Joshi, offered and excuse for this indiscreation saying, 'When we left for the UK there were no floods at that time, we do not have a remote control to do anything from here. We paid for the trip from our own pocket and have not claimed reimbursement yet.'

A spokesman for the Scotch Whisky Association said, 'We have taken them to two distilleries, one grain distillery and one malt distillery, to see how they are dealing with environmental issues like water use, water distillation and extraction of heavy metals.

'We use a lot of water, for example, for cooling in the condensers and that water has to be returned in good order to the water course. When we distil, we get solid and liquid residue and there are rules about how these residues are disposed of. Sometimes the liquid waste can be disposed off in drains and sewers, but it has to be treated beforehand. It is this kind of issue they are interested in.'

North Korean life is nothing to envy about

For all its sabre-rattling, including the testing of nuclear missiles, blood-curdling threats and the development of long-range missiles that might reach the west coast of the US, North Korea does not consistently impinge on the radar screens of the wider world.

News reports of the latest horror story bring the country back on to the front pages, but it still fails to make it a day-to-day concern of the global community. Obscure, backward, remote and primitive are just some of the less flattering adjectives used to characterise the government in Pyongyang.

North Korea's immediate non communist neighbours, South Korea and Japan, understandably have a more acute awareness of the daily dangers they face and their perceptions have not changed since the end of the war on the Korean peninsula.

Now, however, thanks to a newly published book, the wider world community has a chance to get to grips with the reality of life under the bad and ever more mad dictatorial regime operating out of Pyongyang.

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, which won this year's BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non fiction, is written by Los Angeles Times journalist Barbara Demick. Based on real-life interviews, it charts the lives of six North Koreans from the city of Chonjin who managed to escape through China to South Korea.

Their accounts reveal how a country that once offered its citizens free food, health care and full employment has descended into poverty, darkness and starvation under Kim Jong Il.

One of the most moving stories in the book revolves around the life of a starving paediatrician, Dr Kim, who wades across a river to China and arrives at a local farm, where she spots a bowl of rice and meat on the floor. It was only when she heard the bark that she realised dogs in China were better fed than doctors in North Korea.  

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