Dear Nadia,
Wonderful to talk to you yesterday. In this email you will find the Objective Statement and my resume. I have included them in the body of the email to avoid any glitches that might occur with attachments.
I am very excited about doing long-term development work with Afghans. I was referred to the Coalition by my longtime friens Sheraga Gulshan Raz and his son Khalid Raz. I first met them in 1987 or 1988, while I was majoring in geography at U.C., and they were running an import store (Khyber Pass) in Berkeley. Sheraga's lamentations about Afghanistan will always be with me; he knew that if the people of Afghanistan could just get enough breathing room and a reprieve from warfare, they could assemble a Loya Jurga, reestablish a government that represented all the ethnicities in the country, and reestablish civil society. He described to me what Afghanistan was like before 1979, and hoped that the country could at least return to that social condition. But that was 1988; and Afghanistan was only nine years into an upheaval that may not be over yet. Now there is an entire generation in the country that has known only war, uncertainty, famine, and violence.

In 1989 I went back to grad school in architecture, eventually completing a Master of Architecture and a Master of City and Regional Planning by 1994. It took longer because I came to architecture 'from the outside,' as an urban geographer. I soon discovered that, indeed, I did not conform to the culture of architects: I wanted to do low-income housing, most of my classmates wanted to win awards and build beautiful, sculptural, abstract buildings that I could not imagine financing. Fortunately there are professors in architecture who teach social-justice issues, and I was able to study with two of them: Sandy Hirshen introduced me to handicap accessibility in design, and Nezar Alsayyad taught me about the successes and failures in housing policy, and about urbanism in the Islamic world.
The lessons Nezar taught me about failures in international development have influenced my thinking in many ways. For one, I am strongly inclined to work for people from the region where I will do work. In fact I am a little nervous about working in Afghanistan without knowing Dari or Pashto, because I will only be able to communicate with English-speaking Afghans, who are likely to be upper-class. They are probably the only people who have the resources to get projects going, but I am still uncomfortable about not being able to do a reality check with the general Afghan public.
A second lesson I learned from Nezar is to avoid going into a different culture with a fixed ideology or ideal about 'what should be done.' That mistake was made hundreds of times in the 20th century. And yet, it is a mistake that architects should not make, because a core part of the profession is to serve your clients, respond to their needs, and understand those needs. The only time an architect should propose something different is when they listen and observe a client's needs closely, and perceive something that the client did not. This happens because an architect is part of the building industry, and has accumulated comparative knowledge. But that is a far cry from declaring that everyone should live in high-rise towers because they look impressive and 'modern!'

With the above qualifications in mind, I do have a few preconceptions that should be stated up front:
1. I believe that Kabul, and to some degree Mazar, Herat, and Qandhar will all grow very rapidly as international refugees return and as internal refugees flee drought and a collapsing rural economy. My guess is that Kabul will quadruple in population in the next eight years.
2. The government should plan for this expansion by facilitating the traditional pattern of growth in the region: groups will probably settle/camp/squat together in an area and form new neighborhoods in which all the people come from one region or at least one tribe. They will take care of building their own houses, over time; no-one needs to come in as as volunteers nor as professionals to help them build housing. What the government will need to do is provide infrastructure and some control over land division to ensure that the street system will function over the long term and accomodate the next expansion beyond. In time, and with the help of the residents, the city can provide water, trash collection, policing, sewers, schools and clinics. I think the mosque will normally be the symbolic core of the community, but it can begin with an open area and a quibla wall.
3. I believe the government should not attempt public housing and should promote low-rise designs that respond, as traditional houses do, to the climate, the family structure, the privacy/modesty values, and the earthquakes. As an Uzbek once told me years ago, 'in an earthquake, an old house may fall down, but I can just run outside into the courtyard or the street. If I am on the tenth floor of a high-rise, where will I go?'
4. The promotion of civil society is one of the best long-term strategies for economic growth. Fortunately civility is already part of Afghan culture; with Americans this is a more difficult task since our culture is less polite. An essential part of civil society is a clear, straghtforward civil code that is intuitive for the entire population. For that reason it should clearly derive from the Holy Qu'ran and the stronger Hadith. It is certainly worth looking at other civil codes (such as California's) to find comparative models for regulation of a heavily-industrialized region that has accommodated enormous growth in wealth, population, and diversity; but the code must make sense to the people who are using it and governed by it. I know that Switzerland reviewed and adopted some of the California code about a century ago, and that many Afghans, especially professionals, live in California, and as professionals they have worked with elements of the State codes for years. Therefore I cite it as a comparative example that Afghans may want to review, critically.
5. I like traditional Central Asian architecture, and if Afghans rebuild their cities to look traditional, I know it will help the tourist industry in the long term. But I am uncomfortable with 'traditionalism' as well. 150 years ago no-one worried about the authenticity of building types and designs. Therefore they were more free to adopt new building techniques, materials, and building types without feeling as though they were abandoning their cultural identity. Perhaps a good example for the future is what you see on the outskirts of Cairo: adobe houses with satellite dishes on top; Egyptians living in homes similar to the ones they have built for 4000 years and conversant in the latest news and issues broadcast on AlGezira and CNN. The anecdote is cute, but the lesson is more profound: we may need to set aside the Modernity/Traditionalist dialectical model and just let people live and change as people always have. 6. As for change, here is one example: should we look at ways of incorporating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into Afghan building and planning policies? ADA began as the Veteran's Recovery Act (1973) to help Vietnam Veterans who had lost limbs in the war. What started as a few rules to accommodate wheelchair-users now ranges from doorknob design to site planning. Afghans may find these design ideas even more applicable than Americans do.
Another example: could Afghans and Iranians in the Bay Area compile versions of Linux that run native in Farsi and Pashto, including basic word-processing, spreadsheet, and database programs? The software could be smaller and simpler than contemporary commercial software, so that it runs on older computers that Bay Area companies and citizens could donate.
A third example: can Afghans establish intellectual/copyright protections over some of their designs, such as carpet patterns that are known to come from specific villages or regions?

So! Sorry for the length of the email, but hopefully it will be useful for others who have not met me and want to know something about my attitudes before we meet. I am copying this to Doctors Momand and Younos, and to my brother with whom this is part of a long dialogue.
Perhaps soon we will be able to discuss other issues: my wife is an actor (played Doll Tearsheet in SF Shakes' productions of Henry IV two years ago) and I met her while I was putting together a Commedia production for the SF Fringe Festival in 1997. Like you I have run out of time to act or even make masks, but if we spent any length of time in Afghanistan, Lizzie might want to do some acting there, if it is feasible.
Below please find a resume and object statement.