“If I complete 50 trips in the next two days, I receive a $95 bonus,” Payenda was quoted as saying to The Washington Post, from behind the wheel of a Honda Accord.
The 40-year-old once oversaw a US-supported $6 billion budget. The Post reported that in one night earlier this week, he made “a little over $150 for six hours’ work, not counting his commute – a mediocre night”.
“All we built was a house of cards that came down crashing this fast. A house of cards built on the foundation of corruption.”
The Post recorded Payenda telling one passenger his move from Kabul to Washington had been “quite an adjustment”.
He also said he was grateful for the opportunity to be able to support his family but, “right now, I don’t have any place. I don’t belong here and I don’t belong there. It’s a very empty feeling”.
“I saw a lot of ugliness, and we failed,” he said. “I was part of the failure. It’s difficult when you look at the misery of the people and you feel responsible.”
Payenda told the Post he believed Afghans “didn’t have the collective will to reform, to be serious”.
But he also said the US betrayed its commitment to democracy and human rights after making Afghanistan a centrepiece of post-9/11 policy.
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