Castles in the air: Afghans pay a heavy price for uncertainty

A man walks past a clothes shop at a shopping mall in central Kabul March 9, 2014. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl

KABUL (Reuters) - A bored security guard, a Kalashnikov rifle over his shoulder, stands guard alone outside an idle construction site for a 10-storey building in downtown Kabul, one of more than a dozen concrete shells with not a single construction worker in sight.

It was meant to be boom-time after decades of war and privation. Over the past few years, shiny new shopping malls started to spring up around the Afghan capital and construction cranes dotted Kabul's spectacular, snow-capped horizon.