Days before Afghanistan fell to the Taliban last August, Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan president, was “welcomed” to the United Arab Emirates. He was alleged to have taken with him $169m, from his country’s treasury.

Six months on, Khalid Payenda, once Ghani’s finance minister, is driving an Uber in Washington DC.

“If I complete 50 trips in the next two days, I receive a $95 bonus,” Payenda told the Washington Post, from behind the wheel of a Honda Accord.

The 40-year-old once oversaw a US-supported $6bn budget. The Post reported that in one night earlier this week, he made “a little over $150 for six hours’ work, not counting his commute – a mediocre night”.

The Post recorded Payenda telling one passenger his move from Kabul to Washington had been “quite an adjustment”.

He also said he was grateful for the opportunity to be able to support his family but, “Right now, I don’t have any place. I don’t belong here and I don’t belong there. It’s a very empty feeling.”

Afghanistan faces a humanitarian and economic crisis, assets frozen and cut off from international aid that would require recognition of the Taliban government which replaced the US-supported regime.

The Post described Payenda’s experience in late 2020, when his mother died of Covid-19 in an impoverished Kabul hospital. He became finance minister after that. The Post said he now wished he had not.

“I saw a lot of ugliness, and we failed,” he said. “I was part of the failure. It’s difficult when you look at the misery of the people and you feel responsible.”

Payenda told the Post he believed Afghans “didn’t have the collective will to reform, to be serious”. But he also said the US betrayed its commitment to democracy and human rights after making Afghanistan a centerpiece of post-9/11 policy.

“Maybe there were good intentions initially but the United States probably didn’t mean this,” Payenda said.

Payenda resigned as finance minister a week before the Taliban seized Kabul, as his relationship with Ghani deteriorated. Fearing the president would have him arrested, he left for the US, where he joined his family.

“We had 20 years and the whole world’s support to build a system that would work for the people,” Payenda said in a text message to a World Bank official in Kabul on the day the capital fell, quoted by the Post.

“All we built was a house of cards that came down crashing this fast. A house of cards built on the foundation of corruption.”

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/20/afghanistans-former-finance-minister-is-now-uber-driver-in-washington-dc

Honest Job is better than crime anyday anytime

I'm usually surprised when I read stories like this. Perhaps because of the notion that politicians in developing nations usually "stash" adequate resources for at least the next three generations.

When very senior executives or high ranking politicians struggle after they leave their posts, they should be able to make a good living without partaking in any fraudulent activities. There are usually opportunities and problems they must have come across in their jobs that can be solved profitably, except they have zero entrepreneurial inclination.

Uber of all jobs?

That's a low for a country's former finance minister.

With the fanfare that greeted his defection, one would think the powers that be would hook him up with an equally lucrative job in America.
But look where he is.

People should understand that America is not the heaven and beacon of morality it paints itself to be.
At least, not with it demonising Afghanistan and making a darling of Kashogi's Saudi Arabia.
So, they should go easy with swallowing the propaganda hook, line and sinker.

Man should have remained in his country.

What We Do To Survive, Does Not Define Us

Ikillbrokehoes:
From grace to grass

no big deal. Ask Job in the Bible.

CrownOfClay724:
Uber of all jobs?

That's a low for a country's former finance minister.

With the fanfare that greeted his defection, one would think the powers that be would hook him up with an equally lucrative job in America.
But look where he is.

People should understand that America is not the heaven and beacon of morality it paints itself to be.
At least, not with it demonising Afghanistan and making a darling of Kashogi's Saudi Arabia.
So, they should go easy with swallowing the propaganda hook, line and sinker.

Man should have remained in his country.

Definitely a low when compared with someone like Tidjane Thiam, or NOI. I'm sure he must have had a private sector career before becoming minister of finance.
Even without US assistance, he should be able to get himself an average (investment) banking job having managed billions of dollars.

RoddyMan:


Definitely a low when compared with someone like Tidjane Thiam, or NOI. I'm sure he must have had a private sector career before becoming minister of finance.
Even without US assistance, he should be able to get himself an average (investment) banking job having managed billions of dollars.

My exact sentiment.