Afghan Delegation Tours East Bay Sites

SAN JOSE (KCBS) – An 11-member delegation from Afghanistan has spent the last four days touring a number of locations in the East Bay in order to establish better cultural relationships. These included a Civil War era Victorian in Fremont, a sanitary plant, and a local city council meeting.

Yousaf Pashtun said the trip is all about making person-to-person connections.

"The world is becoming smaller, we say, but unfortunately, culturally we are not moving towards that," said Pashtun. "We are only moving towards that physically and commercially, but culturally we are not moving. There are still big cultural barriers."

KCBS' Mike Colgan Reports:

Wahid Kazem, who moved to the Bay Area from Afghanistan in 1979 said that having a sister city relationship between Hayward and Ghazni, which has a population of 80,000, means a lot to him.

"I think that it hopefully shows that Afghanistan is evolving more into a current world," said Ghazni. "Instead of being a third world country they are trying some progression, not only in government, but also in the treatment of people, the economy and other social factors."

The Bay Area is home to the nation's largest Afghan population.

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