Updated News » Afghanistan

Could Afghanistan’s minerals bring more than wealth?

UpdatedFrequently — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:16:00 +0000

It was recently discovered that Afghsnistan has 1 trillion dollars worth of precious metals underground. This news whetted the appetites of the US government and its corporations, and they are moving to again gain more control over the country. But as we have seen with other countries rich in minerals remain they still remain largely poor and greatly violent. So what is to prevent Afghanistan from reaching the same condition?

From this op-ed piece in the New York Times, Paul Collier states the problem ahead for Afghanistan and gives some suggestions.

Indeed, security in Afghanistan could easily deteriorate as a result of the discoveries, as it has not only in Congo but also in Nigeria (rich in oil) and Sierra Leone (diamonds). Afghanistan’s huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and lithium and other metals could end up financing more tribal and ideological warfare. Greed might stoke violence among the combatants, and attract more Afghans to fight. Consider how in Sierra Leone diamonds enabled the Revolutionary United Front to evolve from a protest movement into a lethal diamonds racket.
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Most important, Afghanistan must see that its citizens who live near the mineral deposits benefit — with jobs and spending on public works. Nigeria is a prime example of what happens when the local population pays the price for extraction without reaping the rewards. Oil drilling in the Niger Delta has created few jobs for local people but caused hundreds of spills, ruining their ability to make their traditional living from fishing or agriculture. Politicians have pocketed most of the oil revenues. As the residents of the delta realized that outsiders were profiting from the destruction of their land, gangs formed to kidnap oil workers and sabotage pipelines.

To avoid such fallout, Afghanistan should follow the example of Botswana, which has used diamond revenues to build roads, power lines and schools, raising the economic standard of the country from very poor to upper-middle income. Malaysia, likewise, has used revenues from tin and oil to diversify its economy and create jobs — building, for example, a manufactured exports zone in the impoverished region of Penang.
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Afghanistan is part of the last frontier for resource discovery — one of the 60 most impoverished countries, which account for around a quarter of the earth’s land but which have barely been prospected. Over the next decade, given high world commodity prices, the last frontier will be explored, creating more opportunities like that in Afghanistan. All these countries will need to resist the kind of plunder that has characterized resource-rich countries with weak governance.

Could Afghanistan’s minerals bring more than wealth? is a post from: Updated News

Video: What do the Afghan people want?

UpdatedFrequently — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:41:00 +0000

From Oxfam, this video asks; what do the Afghan people really want? OXFAM is an international Non-Governmental Organization that operates advocacy, education and emergency assistance programs to help those in poverty.

Video: What do the Afghan people want? is a post from: Updated News

Afghanistan, June 2010 (Photos)

Bookyards — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 05:00:00 +0000

A young woman lies down on the grave of U.S. Marine Corps Lance Corporal Noah Pier on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery May 31, 2010 in Arlington, Virginia. Pier was killed February 12, 2010 in Marja, Afghanistan. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

From Boston.com:

This month has been the deadliest month yet for foreign troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. Department of Defense now reports that one hundred coalition troops were killed this month. The death toll for 2010 to date now stands at 320. With soldiers and equipment still arriving in the country, peak troop strength is anticipated to reach 150,000 by August. And, with the removal of General Stanley McChrystal from command of Afghanistan following an embarrassing article in Rolling Stone magazine, a shift in leadership is underway with General David Petraeus attending confirmation hearings now. Efforts are now being made ot both weaken the Taliban and pressure them to reconcile with the Afghan government, but progress is slow, and many earlier gains are becoming unstable once more. Collected here are images of the country and conflict over the past month, part of an ongoing monthly series on Afghanistan.

Go here for this photo collection.

Afghanistan, June 2010 (Photos) is a post from: Updated News

Ignorance about needles and HIV in Afghanistan

UpdatedFrequently — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:18:00 +0000

From IRIN, a story about educating against the ignorance on AIDS and needles in Afghanistan.

Esmatullah, 24, has been injecting heroin for over two years but he is unaware that sharing needles could infect him with HIV, hepatitis or other highly contagious blood-borne diseases.

“I don’t know anything about these diseases and how they’re transferred from one person to another,” he told IRIN; he had recently been deported from Iran where he had become an addict.

Over 85 percent of the injecting drug users (IDUs) interviewed in a joint survey by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Afghan government said they had shared a needle or syringe to inject drugs.

The sharing of needles and syringes is one of the most efficient ways to transmit HIV and other blood-borne diseases.

HIV prevalence among IDUs in the cities of Kabul, Herat and Mazar increased from 3 percent in 2006 to 7 percent in 2009, according to the NGO Médecins du monde (MdM) which offers harm reduction services (strategies aimed at reducing health risks) to drug users in Kabul.

“This is very worrying in this country because it already faces too many health priorities and will not be able to afford an HIV/AIDS epidemic,” Olivier Vandecasteele, MdM’s country coordinator, told IRIN.

He said Afghanistan had already met and surpassed the UNAIDS definition for a concentrated HIV epidemic which is an HIV prevalence of at least 5 percent in a particular vulnerable group.

Addiction-HIV correlation

Drug addiction has increased sharply in Afghanistan over the past four years.

The surge in the number of IDUs could lead to an HIV epidemic in Afghanistan, where awareness about the deadly disease is minimal, experts warn.

“The correlation between injecting drug use and HIV is significant,” Sarah Waller, a drug demand reduction expert with UNODC, told IRIN.

Overall about 8 percent of the country’s adult population (about one million people aged 15-64) are believed to be using narcotics, with 120,000 addicted to heroin and others who use opium as a painkiller for want of appropriate medical care.

Awareness about HIV among younger IDUs in some provinces was rated as non-existent, according to Afghanistan’s report to the UN on HIV/AIDS in 2010.

Despite strong cultural constraints, at least 6 percent of the addicts acknowledged they had had sexual intercourse, often for money or drugs, while most had never used a condom.

Backed by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), some NGOs distribute free condoms to drug users in an effort to curb sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.

Harm reduction services

Despite rapid increases in both drug use and HIV infection rates, access to harm reduction services such as drug treatment, counselling, and rehabilitation has remained limited to only about 10 percent of drug users, the joint survey said.

Experts say the country must quickly scale up harm reduction services before the situation slips out of control.

“Given the alarming indications towards a concentrated HIV epidemic, services for the health and support of IDUs should be scaled up urgently and rapidly and on a sustainable basis,” said Waller.

The government, largely dependent on foreign aid, has called on donors to help it tackle the problem.

“Now is the best time to help prevent the growing crisis of drugs and HIV/AIDS in Afghanistan,” Zalmai Afzali, a spokesman of the Ministry of Counter Narcotics, told IRIN. “If the world does not help us now it will lead to a catastrophe which no one will be able to remedy.”

With about 650 HIV cases registered by the MoPH and the total number of people living with HIV/AIDS estimated at 3,000, Afghanistan is as yet relatively unscathed, but the war-ravaged country remains vulnerable.

The ready availability of drugs, lack of resources and awareness, and conservative attitudes, are the key impediments to progress in tackling the problem. But poverty, unemployment, mental health problems and illiteracy add to it.

Ignorance about needles and HIV in Afghanistan is a post from: Updated News

Military attempts at aid shows mixed results in Afghanistan

UpdatedFrequently — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:44:00 +0000

From IRIN, the mixed results of military personnel doing humanitarian aid work in Afghanistan.

Abdul Hadi, a taylor, is ambivalent: “Yes the bazaar is better now than it was before because the Marines are here to provide security. Before it was the Taliban who controlled security – things were secure then but the Taliban used to threaten to chop off people’s hands if they were found stealing. But people here are happy whoever brings security – either the Taliban or Marines. As long as business can be done.”

Hadi’s store is in a part of Helmand province that until recently was the scene of fierce fighting between Taliban and US troops. “When the Americans first came there was a lot of fighting around here between them and the Taliban and we had to close our shop for one week because of it. But after the fighting we re-opened again.”

As part of a strategy to win local support for their military operations in the area and ensure greater protection for their foot patrols, US marines have spent US$130,000 rehabilitating the bazaar, putting in shop doors and windows, new drainage schemes, as well as a planned new road to run through it.

For Hadi, all of this is a bonus and although it might not matter to him who provides security or financial support, the idea that the military are increasingly involved in aid distribution across Helmand province is of major concern for many NGOs and aid agencies.

As the security situation in Helmand deteriorates, the region is rapidly becoming too dangerous for aid organizations and UN agencies. Increasingly, development work is being carried out by international troops – with mixed results.

For aid agencies blurring the lines between war and assistance is worrying. Several agencies, including Oxfam, Care and Afghanaid published a report in January pointing out that this year, $1 billion would be spent on aid by the military, more than the government’s budget for health, education and agriculture combined. They say many projects are quick fixes with no lasting effect and found many examples where the aid given was culturally inappropriate or ineffective.

Root of instability

The Helmand town of Mian Poshteh is desperately poor and has no local school. Poppy production is still the major source of income for most families, many of whom support the Taliban.

Marine Captain Scott Cuomo is commanding officer for both Mian Poshteh and Lakari Bazaar, an area not much bigger than 15 sqkm. He insists the hearts and minds strategy – outlined in the US Army’s Commander’s Guide to Money as a Weapons System -benefits both the local population and his military mission.

“The first Shura [tribal council] that was held back in October 2009 saw only three elders coming. Now at every Shura there are at least 15 to 20 elders who attend. We are currently negotiating with the elders to build a school and health clinic in Mian Poshteh.”

He says there have also been positive strategic knock-on effects. “The bazaar was a renowned centre for both opium and weapons: Lakari was seen as a major block to establishing long-term security in the whole district because it is a key hub and because the Taliban were using it as a weapon and opium transit point. Since the arrival of the Marines and improved Afghan army presence, everything that is now being sold in Lakari Bazaar is legitimate.”

Aside from supporting the bazaar, Marines have established a medical clinic at their base, which has so far treated nearly 2,000 patients from the surrounding area. This is the only medical facility in the district.

Allowing locals to access such key services and building trust with the local aid projects is a key part of US counter-insurgency (COIN) tactics. USAID-funded civilian advisers have also been brought in to work alongside troops in encouraging locals to grow alternatives to poppies. For the Marines, tackling poverty, seen as an underlying cause of the insurgency, makes perfect sense. Locals, happy with financial aid, are more likely to support their operations and less likely to attack them, so the theory goes.

But according to research by the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University, it is corruption and the ineffectiveness of the government rather than poverty that is at the root of Afghanistan’s current insecurity. “A COIN strategy premised on using aid to win the population over to such a negatively perceived government faces an uphill struggle, especially in a competitive environment where the Taliban are perceived by many to be more effective in addressing the people’s highest priority needs of security and access to justice.”

In the report of a conference discussing the COIN strategy in March 2010, researchers argued that ill-conceived, poorly implemented aid projects with weak oversight has done more harm than good for the international coalition in Afghanistan.

“There is a need for much greater awareness regarding the destabilizing effects of aid in terms of creating perceived winners and losers, promoting a destructive war/aid economy, and fuelling corruption,” the report noted. “Donors should avoid setting development aid up to fail by expecting it to deliver on unrealistically ambitious stabilisation objectives for which it is not well-suited.”

Military attempts at aid shows mixed results in Afghanistan is a post from: Updated News

A Battalion’s Story: Off To Afghanistan For One Year

Bookyards — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 15:59:00 +0000

FLYING MILITARY CLASS From late March until mid-April, the First Battalion, 87th Infantry moved in waves through Germany, Kyrgyzstan and Kuwait to a small airstrip about 150 miles north of Kabul. Damon Winter/The New York Times

One Battalion’s Wrenching Deployment To Afghanistan — New York Times

Pvt. Johnnie Stevenson spent his final hours at Fort Drum alone, trying to put his game face on. He played some Ludacris on his iPod, then turned it off. He unpacked his 72-hour bag, then repacked it. Did he have enough toothpaste and spare socks? Had he paid his bills? Was he ready for war? For a year?

Capt. Adrian Bonenberger took a drive through the farmland of northern New York to absorb one last view of the St. Lawrence River. To drink one last cup of coffee at the Lyric Bistro in Clayton. To savor one last moment of real peace and quiet before heading to Afghanistan. For a year.

Overtures To The Taliban May Ignite Afghanistan’s Ethnic Animosities

Bookyards — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Afghan Overture to Taliban Aggravates Ethnic Tensions — New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — The drive by President Hamid Karzai to strike a deal with Taliban leaders and their Pakistani backers is causing deep unease in Afghanistan’s minority communities, who fought the Taliban the longest and suffered the most during their rule.

The leaders of the country’s Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara communities, which make up close to half of Afghanistan’s population, are vowing to resist — and if necessary, fight — any deal that involves bringing members of the Taliban insurgency into a power-sharing arrangement with the government.

Opiate addiction doubles within five years in Afghanistan

UpdatedFrequently — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 01:15:00 +0000

Over the past five years opiate addiction has doubled in Afghanistan. It is believed that more and more people are turning to the drugs to escape the war.

From this Associated Press article that we found at NPR, we read more about the increase in addiction.

Nearly 3 percent of Afghans aged 15 to 64 are addicted to opiates, according to a study by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. The U.N. defines addicts as regular users.

That puts Afghanistan, along with Russia and Iran, as the top three countries for opiate drug use worldwide, according to Sarah Waller, an official of the U.N.’s drug office in Kabul. She said a 2005 survey found about 1.4 percent of Afghan adults were opiate addicts.

The data suggest that even as the U.S. and its allies pour billions of dollars into programs to try to wean the Afghan economy off of drug money, opium and heroin have become more entrenched in the lives of ordinary Afghans. That creates yet another barrier to international efforts to combat the drug trade, which helps pay for the Taliban insurgency.

“The human face of Afghanistan’s drug problem is not only seen on the streets of Moscow, London or Paris. It is in the eyes of its own citizens, dependent on a daily dose of opium and heroin above all — but also cannabis, painkillers and tranquilizers,” said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

Afghanistan supplies 90 percent of the world’s opium, the main ingredient in heroin, and is the global leader in hashish production. Drug crops have helped finance insurgents and encourage corruption, particularly in the south where the Taliban control cultivation of opium poppies and smuggling routes.

The Afghan government and its international backers have made a massive effort in recent years to discourage farmers from growing opium poppy, and its cultivation dropped 22 percent last year. Some of the drop is likely due to lower market prices, but the government has said it also shows that the Afghan war on drugs is having some success. Twenty of the country’s 34 provinces were declared poppy-free in 2009.

Opiate addiction doubles within five years in Afghanistan is a post from: Updated News

Another Sign That The Situation Is Getting Worse In Afghanistan

Bookyards — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 23:30:00 +0000

A well worn Kalashnikov automatic rifle sits on the ground near in Mangow in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan. Spencer Platt / Getty

From Time Magazine:

The reliable measure of stability in many countries is the value of the currency or the price of equities, bread or fuel — but not in Afghanistan: Here, the key indicator on which nearly every Afghan keeps tabs is the price of a Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle. And the bad news is that the market is bullish. The stepped-up Taliban offensive, and mounting discord over the outcome of last month’s election, has seen the price of a Chinese-made AK smuggled in from Pakistan rise from $150 to $400 in just three months. “People are arming themselves,” one western official in Kabul noted with alarm.

Read more ….

My Comment: If I was living there, my AK-47s will be everywhere …. including RPGs, land mines, ammo, hand grenades, bullet proof vests, night vision goggles, knives and pistols, food and water to last me a year, and a communication setup to call in for backup …. and then …. I will backup everything that I have already put into place.

A near trembling on the price of a AK-47 in 3 months …. yup …. the deteriorating situation makes the arms bazaar a bullish place to be.

Another Sign That The Situation Is Getting Worse In Afghanistan is a post from: Updated News

New York Times Reporter Freed In Dramatic Rescue — A News Roundup

Bookyards — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:00:00 +0000

Stephen Farrell, left, and Sultan Munadi interview an Afghan man hurt in a Nato airstrike. They were captured when they went to the scene. (Omar Sobhani/Reuters)

Journalist Stephen Farrell Tells Of Bloody Battle As British Troops Flew To Rescue — Times Online

The thump-thump of helicopters sounded shortly after midnight as the two journalists prepared to spend another night held captive, surrounded by Taleban fighters.

For Stephen Farrell of The New York Times, a former Middle East correspondent for The Times, delivery was at hand. For Sultan Munadi, his Afghan translator, death was just minutes away.