The end of the Kabul social scene as we know it...

For those of us lucky enough to only have to work a 5 day (although this almost always becomes closer to a 6-day) week here in Kabul, Saturday is generally known as L’atmo day. You turn up all scarfed and culturally appropriate, walk in, de-scarf, order the BEST apricot pie I've ever tasted, a pot of tea perhaps and … relax, knowing that at some point some, if not all, of the people you know in Kabul will drop by. And everyone who has spent any time here can recall a Thursday night getting a little too drunk on L’atmo’s generous spirit portions and dancing into the wee small hours to the likes of Shakira ('hips dont lie').

Actually called L’atmosphere, L’atmo it is a bar, a restaurant, a wi-fi zone, a garden, a pool…an institution among expats here. So imagine our despair when this Saturday, towel and bikini (yes Kabul is one of the only bikini-friendly places in Afghanistan) in hand my friend and I rock up to L’atmo to find that it has closed. “Closed for an hour?” we asked the guards hopefully, “ah closed for the day” piped up another group who had just turned up for a Saturday swim…."no, what? closed? closed as in closed down…but, but, this is L’atmo??!!” And this is Afghanistan where the Ministry of Finance can do a 1 day audit and decide on rather sketchy evidence that they will close down the place unless the owner pays $500,000 in taxes. This is despite the fact the owner (a French guy) is one of the few people here that actually do pay their taxes! The word on the Kabul rumour mill (which is not that accurate at the best of times…I heard a rumour about myself and a Fijian boyfriend who was coming to Kabul to reclaim me! I have never dated a Fijian!!) is that the Adam Smith Institute who are capacity building within the Ministry, told the MoF (min of Finance) that they should make an example of a non tax paying organisation. They chose Latmosphere, an Afghan staffed, tax paying, successful business. This is the short sightedness of the Government here. Instead of realizing that L’atmo was a good money earner for the Government, they saw it as a cash cow to squeeze dry. My housemate runs another restaurant here and she has spent weeks and months jumping through various government hoops and corrupt, bureaucratic systems. Roshan, which is the Agha Khan set up mobile phone supplier and which is the biggest payer of Government taxes in Afghanistan has 5 full time lawyers, on staff, simply to deal with whatever the Government keeps throwing at them to squeeze out more money. There is no forethought, no understanding that without encouraging a successful private business sector, the Afghan economy will never get up from its knees and the Government will never be able to survive without donor money. Mark, the guy who owns L’atmo, wrote an open letter explaining what had happened…he sounded tired of fighting…his last line was “good luck to whoever tries to start a business in this country”.


Another rumour circulating on the Kabul rumour tree is that Mark, the owner, is now on a hunger strike until the MoF open L’atmo again…that sounds to me like another Fijian boyfriend of a rumour!!