Saturday August 10, 7 pm. “Perspectives on Afghanistan” with Bruce Long and Richard Marks. Bruce Long spent most of his Federal career at the White House Office of Management and Budget. When he retired in 2001, he began a second career as an International Public Finance consultant. He has worked multiple times in Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, Rwanda, and Azerbaijan. He worked in Kabul 7 times from 2003 through 2008. Bruce and two other consultants prepared the first US-supported budget for Afghanistan, lived in a small house with a wood stove, was driven around in an old Toyota with right-hand drive. When he last worked in Kabul, he lived in a large, rather garish house and was driven in a Toyota Land Cruiser with a driver and a shooter in the front seat. Bruce will relate observations of his experiences in Afghanistan and show pictures on the big screen of Kabul and Afghan women, men, and children taken over the 5-year period.
Richard Marks will moderate a panel discussion with two young ladies from Afghanistan. Shamila Kohestani and Malahat Mazaher have both studied in the United States under the auspices of the Afghan Girl’s Financial Assistance Fund. Shamila graduated from Blair Academy in 2008 and Drew University in 2012. She participated in the Women and Girls Fund sponsored Afghan program with Khaled Hosseini at the Avalon Theater in Easton in October 2010 and is currently employed with the International Republican Institute. Malahat attended St. Timothy’s for one year and is currently in entering her sophomore year at Lafayette College. She is currently in Kabul assisting with the democratic election efforts. Richard Marks served in the board of the United States branch of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and remains active with refugee assistance organizations.
Photographs from Zalmai, a former Afghan refugee and current award-winning Magnum photographer whose images have appeared in Time Magazine, will be on display during the program, and throughMonday August 12. There will be 70 copies of the book “And The Mountains Echoed”, all signed by Khaled Hosseini and priced at $25 each. Dock Street Foundation has purchased them and will donate all of them to OCC so 100% of sales will benefit the Oxford Community Center.
Admission: donation. Cash bar. For more information, please contact the Oxford Community Center at 410-226-5904, or email [email protected].
Photo by Bruce Long
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