Frozen In Time    • Share   • Read Later  Consumed by the
ceaseless war in the north, the Taliban have ignored the
business of government, leaving Afghanistan in limbo  A kitchen
boy strolls out of Kabul's most popular restaurant carrying a
bowl of slops and vegetable peelings. He passes a group of
beggars: five women, each hidden behind an all-enveloping burka,
and half a dozen children. Twenty meters down the street he tips
the contents of the bowl into the gutter. Three of the women
rush after him and hover over the watery mess like blowflies,
scooping out scraps to feed their families. Not far away in
Kabul's Shehr-I-Nau district, a young woman shrouded in a blue
burka enters a smart clothing shop with a new dress she wants to
sell. My relatives sent it from Pakistan, but I already have the
same design, she says nonchalantly. Don't give me that excuse,
the shopkeeper says with a sympathetic smile. You're selling it
because of the economy. Pride injured, the woman walks out with
her dress in hand.  Such sc