Stardate 20011230.1459

(On Screen): When, exactly, does winter start in Afghanistan?

Warlords have threatened them, local Afghans have tried to rob them and the offices they used to store and distribute much-needed help have been looted down to the light fixtures.

Aid workers racing to feed the needy in Afghanistan before winter makes that mission nearly impossible are encountering sometimes frightening obstacles.

"This is very, very difficult, but we have to serve our people," said Mir Abdul Rahim, deputy field coordinator for the International Rescue Committee, a private aid organization with operations in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

So the onset of winter is still imminent, is it? But we were getting told in October by the aid agencies that the onset of winter was imminent. That was back when they were demanding an end to the bombing to permit the movement of humanitarian supplies before winter made such movement impossible -- only then we were told that winter would begin in the middle of November. Remember that?

(Note: I'm not trying to say that the aid workers don't have problems; I'm just trying to figure out why it is that winter is always two weeks away there, no matter when you ask the aid workers.)