From Left: Young Chinese guy, Yunus Qanooni, Ahmad Shah Massoud, Dr. Abdullah, and older Chinese guy
New York- I saw on the news yesterday that former Texas congressman of Hollywood legend, Charlie Wilson, died. In a way, I suppose his passing kind of represents the end of an opaque era. For some reason, the story, and that of the newly released 9/11 aerial photos made me realize that that era in Afghanistan history is really just that now; history. These stories jogged my memory of a foggy party night in Kabul last fall where I wound up in an underground karaoke bar called the Golden Key in Wazir Akbar Khan with some temporary journalist friends and a bevy of obnoxious NGO expat types. The bathroom was upstairs and on one trip I saw a kind of strange photo on the wall of this Chinese father and son who I think owned the restaurant bar establishment. From the looks of the photo, which they have proudly displayed, they were either doing business with Massoud or his cohorts or perhaps they had an establishment in the Panjshir Valley in 2001 (I didn’t see a Chinese bar in Khwaja Bauhuddin, that’s for sure)? What the photo basically says to me is these guys are OG and therefore untouchable in the Karzai government’s crackdown on places dispensing booze to debauched foreigners. Earlier that same evening, we were at Peter Jouvenal’s place and the waiters had shut the bar because there were rumors of a possible raid after another place was liberated of all its spirits a few days before in Wazir Akbar Khan. I was even further surprised to learn this sketchy place has a website upon googling it today: Golden Key Seafood Restaurant. I would love to know what the story behind this picture is. If anyone knows, please email me.