6 ms·

How I coached a basketball team in Afghanistan and what went wrong

212 points by drpp 14y ago

kanamekun 14y ago
Sounds like a worthwhile effort to support Internet connectivity in Afghanistan. Wish the author would create an indiegogo fundraiser to raise money to pay the fees, so that I could help support it!
- trevore 14y ago
  So I'm not the author of that but I am the SSF engineer in charge of that network and was present while that story was unfolding. Funding is in fact one of our biggest issue these days. We've discussed doing various fund raising efforts including Indiegogo but it does not solve the real needs. The problem is that our expenses for that network are all recurring. We can get occasional injections of money for things like gear and generators, but it is hard to find someone who is willing to pay for the bandwidth or Afghan salaries on an ongoing basis. All of us in SSF have no income from our work over there but we all continue to support our friends in Jalalabad in every way we can. For an indiegogo campaign to be successful it actually takes a fair amount of effort and is only a stop gap solution to the problem. So we are all focused on trying to sustain ourselves while actually solving problems. I can't speak for everyone in our crew but most of us don't have the time, energy or heart to do a full fund raising campaign that we know is only a temporary solution. What we really need is a sponsor to take over bandwidth costs and the salary of our fantastic Afghan crew who works on the ground over there. So on the off chance anyone reads that and knows of someone who might be interested in becoming a sponsor, I can be reached at trevor.ellermann@gmail.com Feel free to direct any inquiries my way. If there is any question of my identity and involvement in Synergy Strike Force, I have ways of authenticating I am who I say I am. Also, I would not ask for any money directly. There is a large, well known, non-profit that everyone knows that would be the entity dealing with any financial transactions. Also, if you just want to nerd out over a cool network we run outside the barbwire in afghanistan hit me up.
  - iskander 14y ago
    Is anyone from the States still in Jalalabad or is the security situation too risky? Also, how did you guys get started?
    - trevore 14y ago
      I hope you can appreciate that this is a little too public of a forum for discussing current operational details of our operation over there. I can say that we are still engaged and intend to stay that way. Hoever, with Mehrab's assassination everything has changed. On a personal note, his death is one of the hardest blows of my life. The group was founded by Dr. Dave Warner. He was hired by to go over there and help start several schools* in the area. While over there he ended up finding the Taj Mahal, taking over the lease one it and founding the Synergy Strike Force. SSF grew into much more then just schools and has been involved in many different humanitarian projects. We are all just freelancers trying to dodge the bureaucracy that get's in everyone else's way and make a difference for the people over there. * The schools have nothing to do with cups of tea in case anyone is curious about that.
      - trevore 14y ago
        Several people have pinged to ask what is with the name. I did not come up with it but I can tell you my take on it. The name is kind of a joke name and kind of an intentional name. It's bad enough that nobody is going to try to take over our name (which has happened), it sounds just official enough to appear legit to non-native English speakers and pretty aptly describes what we do. We spend a lot of time identifying problems and then finding the right people to solve them. When the most of the aid organizations are bound to their safe houses for security reasons they need people like us. We are outside the barbwire connecting the people who need help with the people who want to provide it. So we identify a problem and strike it with synergy to come up with solutions. We work with just about anyone on the ground in the country who is willing to work with us to solve problems and improve the lives of the Afghan people. We often just say the letters SSF.
    - trevore 14y ago
tobyjsullivan 14y ago
What a phenominal account from "outside the wire" in Afghanastan. Thanks for sharing.
javajosh 14y ago
This piece is amazing, and highlights one truth: the amount of self-afflicted human misery in Afghanistan is truly astounding. And it raises a lot of questions. Is Afghanistan totally hopeless? Is there something wrong with the Afghans? Is it Islam? The American occupation? Something in the water? Why would anyone choose to live in such conditions, and choose to perpetuate the institutions, behaviors, and beliefs that create such an environment? What indeed is at the root of this misery? I would argue that the key change they need is for the people to be overwhelmingly disapproving of destruction. If you intentionally destroy someone or something, the mob should make sure your ass is grass. You can say what you want, hang out with whoever you want - but as soon as you destroy, you're toast. Now, ideally you let the mob pitch in to hire someone to enforce this one rule, and perhaps even add some overhead to ensure that they enforce it more-or-less fairly. And so you have taxes, police, and courts. (And if you want to be more subtle about what constitutes destruction, you can make laws, but that's optional). Afghan society must start severely punishing destructive people. Leave punishing blasphemy to Allah. Since creation is so much slower and more difficult than destruction, the net effect will be a continually improving infrastructure and society. EDIT: Also, I would like to put up posters denouncing denouncers and see if maybe that would help.
- zmanji 14y ago
  Afghanistan has been a perpetual warzone for decades now and every attempt after each war to rebuild important civil instituions (courts, taxes, police) has been poorly done. In the brief period where there were institutions and stability things were better. If from the article, “During the time of the Taliban we did not have such encounters. Everyone kept to his lane.”.
  - javajosh 14y ago
    I'm trying to think of what the good people of Afghanistan can do to create good regions of Afghanistan. It seems clear that good people need to band together, get some serious firepower, and create a safe haven where the One Rule (no destruction) is strictly enforced. It's a fascinating problem because it's almost like dealing with a zombie apocalypse. Too bad that it's real.
platz 14y ago
I'm really pleased to see n+1 appear on hacker news. This is a great publication. Sometimes the writing can be a little obtuse, but in general I think many hn'ers would enjoy finding out more about them.
dccoolgai 14y ago
Incredibly moving. I hope these guys all come out OK.
stuartd 14y ago
"According to Islamic Shari’a law, a man must shave his mustache, armpits, and pubic hair." you learn something every day..
- jnbiche 14y ago
  Actually, to the best of my knowledge, that particular stricture regarding body hair only applies to Muslims while on hajj (the trip to Mecca). This particular standard is probably more related to Pashtun culture, or to their particular interpretation of Islam.
- yozmsn 14y ago
  why only the 'stache?
Petrushka 14y ago
Great story. I was expecting the team to win the tournament when a local official with no governing power stepped in and allowed them three chances to score a last-second buzzer beater though... (Hint: 1972 Olympics) As an avid sports fan, and very active basketball player and cyclist, the major shifts in current thinking towards evaluating the world of sports through statistical and business eyes is to me quite unfortunate. To those that make their money through that world, fine, but as a fan, I want to marvel in the achievements of athletes, not be debating whether a pitcher is over-rated because of his exFIB. Basketball is about the battles against racism of Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson, the soaring style of Dr. J, the elan of Magic, the blue collar work of Bird, the competitive viciousness of Michael Jordan, and the physicality of Lebron. Cycling is about the will of Eugene Christophe, the ethics of Gino Bartali, the ferocity of Eddy Merckx, the spirit of Bernard Hinault, the pain of Marco Pantani, and the insanity of Jens Voigt. Even if we can't reach that level ourselves, it is that approach to what makes sports great that allows for events and stories like this article. Without that spirit, there wouldn't be any reason to have amateur sports to begin with. Leave everything else alone.
drpp 14y ago
@trevore - great to see you on the thread! There are a lot of questions raised here that are hard to answer, but I can share a troubling observation. Of all the US personnel I have met in Afghanistan, fewer than a handful were engineers, makers, creators rather than enforcers, money dispensers, or supervisors. Sure, the military has its own engineers, but very few are outside the wire interacting with people. Where are the civil communication, construction, mechanical, etc. engineers? I think there is a larger role in global peer to peer diplomacy for such a cadre. I've got more stories to tell, so does @trevore, some of them are posted jalalagood.com/ --> more will come out guided by the questions you ask.
avn2109 14y ago
This is surely the first time something from n+1 magazine has made it onto HN.
- gruseom 14y ago
  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=101106 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=101106 Lots more via http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aycombinator.com+nplusonemag http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aycombinator.com+npluso...
Uhhrrr 14y ago
To one extent or another, most NGOs are "missionary organizations", and are certainly threatening the way of life of the more hidebound Muslims. So I'm less surprised than some here at the conclusion of the story. I think the question to ask is, if you're part of this existing traditionalist social structure, what's the benefit of adopting a more Western way of thinking? It is not obvious to them that Afghanistan was less fucked under Soviet influence, or is less fucked under US and other NGO influence now.
- Uhhrrr 14y ago
  Perhaps I was downvoted because I didn't make clear the reason for asking that question. Mindsets can be very difficult to break, and telling those in power in Afghanistan, "We're going to let women vote on things and let you kids look up crazy things you don't like or even understand on the Internet!" will not help. Better to ask the tribal leaders, "what sucks about Afghanistan for you?" and try to find the intersection of that with something along the path away from revenge killings and stonings and toward full-fledged democracy and liberty. Then iterate.
lucastheisen 14y ago
I don't have anything to add, but thank you for the story.

212 points by drpp 14y ago

Sounds like a worthwhile effort to support Internet connectivity in Afghanistan. Wish the author would create an indiegogo fundraiser to raise money to pay the fees, so that I could help support it!

trevore 14y ago
So I'm not the author of that but I am the SSF engineer in charge of that network and was present while that story was unfolding. Funding is in fact one of our biggest issue these days. We've discussed doing various fund raising efforts including Indiegogo but it does not solve the real needs. The problem is that our expenses for that network are all recurring. We can get occasional injections of money for things like gear and generators, but it is hard to find someone who is willing to pay for the bandwidth or Afghan salaries on an ongoing basis. All of us in SSF have no income from our work over there but we all continue to support our friends in Jalalabad in every way we can. For an indiegogo campaign to be successful it actually takes a fair amount of effort and is only a stop gap solution to the problem. So we are all focused on trying to sustain ourselves while actually solving problems. I can't speak for everyone in our crew but most of us don't have the time, energy or heart to do a full fund raising campaign that we know is only a temporary solution. What we really need is a sponsor to take over bandwidth costs and the salary of our fantastic Afghan crew who works on the ground over there. So on the off chance anyone reads that and knows of someone who might be interested in becoming a sponsor, I can be reached at trevor.ellermann@gmail.com Feel free to direct any inquiries my way. If there is any question of my identity and involvement in Synergy Strike Force, I have ways of authenticating I am who I say I am. Also, I would not ask for any money directly. There is a large, well known, non-profit that everyone knows that would be the entity dealing with any financial transactions. Also, if you just want to nerd out over a cool network we run outside the barbwire in afghanistan hit me up.
- iskander 14y ago
  Is anyone from the States still in Jalalabad or is the security situation too risky? Also, how did you guys get started?
  - trevore 14y ago
    I hope you can appreciate that this is a little too public of a forum for discussing current operational details of our operation over there. I can say that we are still engaged and intend to stay that way. Hoever, with Mehrab's assassination everything has changed. On a personal note, his death is one of the hardest blows of my life. The group was founded by Dr. Dave Warner. He was hired by to go over there and help start several schools* in the area. While over there he ended up finding the Taj Mahal, taking over the lease one it and founding the Synergy Strike Force. SSF grew into much more then just schools and has been involved in many different humanitarian projects. We are all just freelancers trying to dodge the bureaucracy that get's in everyone else's way and make a difference for the people over there. * The schools have nothing to do with cups of tea in case anyone is curious about that.
    - trevore 14y ago
      Several people have pinged to ask what is with the name. I did not come up with it but I can tell you my take on it. The name is kind of a joke name and kind of an intentional name. It's bad enough that nobody is going to try to take over our name (which has happened), it sounds just official enough to appear legit to non-native English speakers and pretty aptly describes what we do. We spend a lot of time identifying problems and then finding the right people to solve them. When the most of the aid organizations are bound to their safe houses for security reasons they need people like us. We are outside the barbwire connecting the people who need help with the people who want to provide it. So we identify a problem and strike it with synergy to come up with solutions. We work with just about anyone on the ground in the country who is willing to work with us to solve problems and improve the lives of the Afghan people. We often just say the letters SSF.
  - trevore 14y ago

tobyjsullivan 14y ago

What a phenominal account from "outside the wire" in Afghanastan. Thanks for sharing.

javajosh 14y ago

This piece is amazing, and highlights one truth: the amount of self-afflicted human misery in Afghanistan is truly astounding. And it raises a lot of questions. Is Afghanistan totally hopeless? Is there something wrong with the Afghans? Is it Islam? The American occupation? Something in the water? Why would anyone choose to live in such conditions, and choose to perpetuate the institutions, behaviors, and beliefs that create such an environment? What indeed is at the root of this misery? I would argue that the key change they need is for the people to be overwhelmingly disapproving of destruction. If you intentionally destroy someone or something, the mob should make sure your ass is grass. You can say what you want, hang out with whoever you want - but as soon as you destroy, you're toast. Now, ideally you let the mob pitch in to hire someone to enforce this one rule, and perhaps even add some overhead to ensure that they enforce it more-or-less fairly. And so you have taxes, police, and courts. (And if you want to be more subtle about what constitutes destruction, you can make laws, but that's optional). Afghan society must start severely punishing destructive people. Leave punishing blasphemy to Allah. Since creation is so much slower and more difficult than destruction, the net effect will be a continually improving infrastructure and society. EDIT: Also, I would like to put up posters denouncing denouncers and see if maybe that would help.

zmanji 14y ago
Afghanistan has been a perpetual warzone for decades now and every attempt after each war to rebuild important civil instituions (courts, taxes, police) has been poorly done. In the brief period where there were institutions and stability things were better. If from the article, “During the time of the Taliban we did not have such encounters. Everyone kept to his lane.”.
- javajosh 14y ago
  I'm trying to think of what the good people of Afghanistan can do to create good regions of Afghanistan. It seems clear that good people need to band together, get some serious firepower, and create a safe haven where the One Rule (no destruction) is strictly enforced. It's a fascinating problem because it's almost like dealing with a zombie apocalypse. Too bad that it's real.

platz 14y ago

I'm really pleased to see n+1 appear on hacker news. This is a great publication. Sometimes the writing can be a little obtuse, but in general I think many hn'ers would enjoy finding out more about them.

dccoolgai 14y ago

Incredibly moving. I hope these guys all come out OK.

stuartd 14y ago

"According to Islamic Shari’a law, a man must shave his mustache, armpits, and pubic hair." you learn something every day..

jnbiche 14y ago
Actually, to the best of my knowledge, that particular stricture regarding body hair only applies to Muslims while on hajj (the trip to Mecca). This particular standard is probably more related to Pashtun culture, or to their particular interpretation of Islam.
yozmsn 14y ago
why only the 'stache?

Petrushka 14y ago

Great story. I was expecting the team to win the tournament when a local official with no governing power stepped in and allowed them three chances to score a last-second buzzer beater though... (Hint: 1972 Olympics) As an avid sports fan, and very active basketball player and cyclist, the major shifts in current thinking towards evaluating the world of sports through statistical and business eyes is to me quite unfortunate. To those that make their money through that world, fine, but as a fan, I want to marvel in the achievements of athletes, not be debating whether a pitcher is over-rated because of his exFIB. Basketball is about the battles against racism of Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson, the soaring style of Dr. J, the elan of Magic, the blue collar work of Bird, the competitive viciousness of Michael Jordan, and the physicality of Lebron. Cycling is about the will of Eugene Christophe, the ethics of Gino Bartali, the ferocity of Eddy Merckx, the spirit of Bernard Hinault, the pain of Marco Pantani, and the insanity of Jens Voigt. Even if we can't reach that level ourselves, it is that approach to what makes sports great that allows for events and stories like this article. Without that spirit, there wouldn't be any reason to have amateur sports to begin with. Leave everything else alone.

drpp 14y ago

@trevore - great to see you on the thread! There are a lot of questions raised here that are hard to answer, but I can share a troubling observation. Of all the US personnel I have met in Afghanistan, fewer than a handful were engineers, makers, creators rather than enforcers, money dispensers, or supervisors. Sure, the military has its own engineers, but very few are outside the wire interacting with people. Where are the civil communication, construction, mechanical, etc. engineers? I think there is a larger role in global peer to peer diplomacy for such a cadre. I've got more stories to tell, so does @trevore, some of them are posted jalalagood.com/ --> more will come out guided by the questions you ask.

avn2109 14y ago

This is surely the first time something from n+1 magazine has made it onto HN.

gruseom 14y ago
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=101106 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=101106 Lots more via http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aycombinator.com+nplusonemag http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aycombinator.com+npluso...

Uhhrrr 14y ago

To one extent or another, most NGOs are "missionary organizations", and are certainly threatening the way of life of the more hidebound Muslims. So I'm less surprised than some here at the conclusion of the story. I think the question to ask is, if you're part of this existing traditionalist social structure, what's the benefit of adopting a more Western way of thinking? It is not obvious to them that Afghanistan was less fucked under Soviet influence, or is less fucked under US and other NGO influence now.

Uhhrrr 14y ago
Perhaps I was downvoted because I didn't make clear the reason for asking that question. Mindsets can be very difficult to break, and telling those in power in Afghanistan, "We're going to let women vote on things and let you kids look up crazy things you don't like or even understand on the Internet!" will not help. Better to ask the tribal leaders, "what sucks about Afghanistan for you?" and try to find the intersection of that with something along the path away from revenge killings and stonings and toward full-fledged democracy and liberty. Then iterate.

lucastheisen 14y ago

I don't have anything to add, but thank you for the story.