Afghanistan’s first skateboarding school holds promise for children who are unfazed by violence and still bound by strict rules of family and society. Adam B. Ellick in The New York Times:
Kabul: It looked like an ordinary neighborhood playground: six children tumbling off their skateboards to the tune of laughter. But only hours before, just 20 yards away, the body of a suicide car bomber was sprawled beside a glistening pool of blood.
Afghan youth have learned to recover almost instantly from such routine violence. One person determined to inject some normalcy into their lives is Oliver Percovich. A 34-year-old from Melbourne, Australia, he plans to open this country’s first skateboarding school, Skateistan, this spring. He sees sport as a way to woo students into after-school activities like English and computer classes, which are otherwise reserved for the elite.
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Now the Afghans will need to deal with vandalised public property, like metal and stair rails.