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When CBS' Elizabeth Palmer reported on the rampant corruption in Kabul in January, she told us that the local nickname for the neighborhood of lavish mansions populated by corrupt government bureaucrats was City of Loot. Now Nick Schifrin takes on a similar guided tour for ABC and he calls the "gaudy, garish and gigantic homes" of the Sherpur district Poppy Palaces, for their presumed underlying opium financing. Schifrin introduced us to Muhammad Siddique Chakiri, the Minister of Religious Affairs, who allegedly stashed his graft money in boxes of biscuits; Muhammad Ibrahim Adel, the Minister of Mines, who allegedly skimmed $30m from a $3bn concession; and abdul-Ahad Sahel, the Mayor of Kabul--convicted of graft, sentenced to four years in prison--who is still on the job.
Truckers routinely pay the police to make deliveries and students pay teachers to be promoted to the next grade. An average Afghan family "has to give 20% of its income in bribes," ABC's Schifrin reported. Palmer's estimate on CBS was 33%.
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