|
|
We were looking for a Portuguese. When the mass exodus of foreigners from Kabul began at the beginning of the week, we felt the need to speak with someone who lived in the city and could tell us in detail what life was like in Afghanistan in recent years; how it was these days; and as it was foretold that the times to come would come. And we felt the need to talk to someone who would look at all this from our point of view – so we needed Portuguese who lived in Kabul.
|
|
The first contacts, as is often the case, were established through official channels. But they didn’t get very far. Actually, it’s better to be frank: they’ve got us nowhere. In government, the secretary of state for community affairs chose not to provide information. In the European Union, neither does the European External Action Service.
|
|
Here it was necessary to use imagination. Franziska Diaz Real, a lifestyle journalist who worked on this work, took to Facebook but later thought it would be nice to use LinkedIn as well. He researched the expressions Kabul, Portuguese Kabul, Portuguese Kabul and Portuguese Afghanistan and found an Air Force soldier who had been in the country for many years and knew the Portuguese who lived there. After exchanging messages with Francisca, the military contacted one of the Portuguese who were still at the Kabul airport. But nothing can be done: it was a moment too emotional to be interviewed.
|
|
Despite the refusal, throughout this process the name of Rui Madeira appeared, without any details about who he was or what he did. Franziska did the research and discovered two years ago news in which Rui Madeira appeared as the head of the control tower at the Kabul airport.
|
|
It wasn’t on Facebook. So I had to go back to LinkedIn. Francisca wrote Rui Madeira. Nothing. He applied a filter to the search and wrote “NATO” instead of a title. Nothing. It replaced NATO with Hamid Karzai, the official name of the airport in Kabul. Finally, there is a result.
|
|
After exchanging messages, Rui Madeira agreed to speak. You can read the result of this conversation in the special issue Rui lived for 12 years in Kabul and still admits that he has returned. Life in a country where women were not respected before. ” In it we get to know better the story of this Portuguese who lived and worked in Afghanistan for 12 years. Fortunately, he arrived in Portugal on August 8, a few days before the Taliban took over the capital.
|
|
These days Rui Madeira was able to speak with some of his colleagues. There was a message that left him unanswered. One of the Afghan women who trained as an air traffic controller and who was waiting for the plane to leave the country earlier this week wrote to her the following message: “I am fine, but I will die.”
|
