With no attacks, Afghanistan cities back in business

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The currency is getting stronger. Food prices are down. Customers are hailing Mohammed Ibrahim's taxi again. And those who live in Afghanistan's cities seem just a little happier.

In the United States, the talk is of war with Afghanistan, or at least with its Taliban leadership. But on Kabul's streets, life is edging toward normal -- or, at least, what "normal" is for a land that has been locked in warfare for nearly a generation.

"Why is everything better?" wondered Abdul Qayyum, selling vegetables Wednesday in the Afghan capital. "For me, it's a surprise."

For Afghans, though, impression can be far from reality. American strikes against Afghanistan's ruling Taliban and the man they call their "guest," suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden, seem likelier than ever, though U.S. officials say they are targeting primarily terrorist installations.

Afghans streamed out of their cities after last month's terrorist attacks in the United States, pouring into the countryside to flee what many feared would be swift and punishing American retribution.

Deserted two weeks ago

Two weeks ago, Afghans fleeing Kandahar, the headquarters of the ruling Taliban, said the arid southern desert town was deserted. One businessman, Ghulam Shah, said at the time that barely 20 percent of shops were open and fears of an attack were high.

This week, people returning to Kandahar said much of the town's business center had returned to normal. A few stores were still closed, they said, but most had reopened. Food was plentiful, wheat prices were low and farmers were bringing fruit to the market for sale.

In Jalalabad, the rickety wooden shops that line the main street have reopened. "Slowly, slowly people have been returning," said Abdul Razzak, a Jalalabad resident who travels freely across the nearby border into Pakistan.

And in Kabul, the local currency, the Afghani, has strengthened in recent days from 73,000 Afghanis to the dollar to 50,000. "This means a lot to us," said Mohammed Wali.

No worse in the country

For one thing, it means imported goods -- cooking oil, flour, tea and sugar -- are cheaper.

Abdul Shakoor, a Kabul fruit seller, said his sales have increased fivefold in recent days. "Once again, life seems to be returning to normal," he said. "There are now more people on the roads."

And Ibrahim, a taxi driver and father of eight children, said his business, too, has picked up again since the week began. But one group of clients has vanished: those with enough money for long trips.

"All those who could afford to have left Kabul," he said. "Now nobody asks me to drive them to the (Pakistan) border. I am driving inside Kabul."

There are other signs that conditions in the country, if not improving, are not getting any worse.

At one point last month, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said 5,000 people were camped in the open in southeastern Afghanistan trying to flee into neighboring Pakistan. Others were trying to reach Iran to the west.

Women were giving birth on the ground where they lay; children were weak from hunger. The United Nations pleaded with Afghanistan's neighbors to open their borders. A massive international appeal for help has been launched, with the Untied Nations seeking more than $500 million in aid.

Now, as international aid agencies tentatively resume shipments into the country -- 11 trucks of food and supplies arrived in Kabul on Wednesday morning -- the people of Afghanistan's cities try to go about their routines.

And those accustomed to war and uncertainty try, too, to exist through this odd limbo and ponder why, at such an unusual time, things can seem at least a bit normal.

"It is not that people are now no more worried about the attacks. They are afraid," said Ibrahim, the taxi driver. "But they have no choice other than to remain where they are. I don't know where to go with my family."