This is from a blogger at Daily KOS.

Thu Jul 23, 2009 at 12:08:32 AM PDT
The L.A. Times is running a story on its front page today whose humanity touches my heart -- Afghan kids find skateboards the wheel deal. The story begins

From Kabul, Afghanistan. Oliver Percovich, a lanky Australian in a black T-shirt, emerged from the van with a load of banged-up skateboards. The children grabbed the boards and raced off to skate in the cracked bowl of the dried-up fountain. Skateboarding was unknown to Afghans until Percovich, who followed his social scientist girlfriend to Kabul, starting teaching local children to skate in early 2007. Two years later, their relationship is over and his girlfriend is back in Australia. But Percovich's "Skateistan" nonprofit club has become a magnet for children in Kabul, the capital.
Percovich scrounged donations to start a skateboarding club open to both girls under 12 and boys up to age 17. Soon he will be opening a $1 million indoor skateboarding park, where in addition to learning skateboarding techniques in a safe environment, the children will be offered English and computer classes as well as "life skills" sessions. Amazing!

nirbama's diary :: ::
The "Skateistan" non-profit pays boys and girls who formerly begged in the streets to teach basic skateboard techniques to newbies. Skateistan is managing to bring boys and girls together in one activity, overcoming the rigid segregation that exists in Afghan society, at least for a few hours a day.

Percovich's non-profit has broken ground for a 19,000 foot indoor skatepark in Kabul. It will be Afghanistan's largest indoor sports facility when completed. Skateistan's logo features a skateboard crushing an assault rifle.

"The boards are just our carrots," Percovich said, shouting over the clack-clack-clack of skateboard wheels. "They're a way to connect with kids and build trust."
My two sons each got heavily into skateboarding from ages 10-15. In the U.S. there is a certain "outlaw" and libertarian appeal to skateboarding. Hence the well-known skating bumper sticker, "Skateboarding Is Not a Crime." It is hard to imagine how this will turn out within Afghani culture. It is clear that those Afghani children just want to have some fun, and skateboarding is amazing fun. But the thrill of moving under your own power and then being able to control the board as you become more experienced sends dangerous neurochemical signals to the brain. Yes, it's addictive, and it's also training in controlling your own life. If those Afghani kids are allowed time to grow up in the state of Skateistan, there's going to be some interesting cultural cross-currents leavening Afghani society.