Updated News » Blog

Here Is The Most Unreported Story About Afghanistan: The Booming Economy

Bookyards — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:00:00 +0000

Modernizing: An Afghan technician working at Tolo (Dawn) 23 television in Kabul, which began broadcasting this month. REUTERS

Booming Afghan Biz: One Key To Long Term Peace — New York Post

What’s the most under-re ported reason to feel opti mistic about Afghanistan? Its booming economy.

Afghanistan has averaged over 10 percent growth a year since the Taliban’s fall late in 2001. That’s as fast as China or India (if from a much lower base). And a recent survey shows that, despite the ongoing war, Afghan firms are doing well and feeling hopeful.

They should be: Money is pouring into infrastructure improvements, job creation and corporate investments that are starting to transform one of the world’s poorest economies. Big mineral finds have even opened the possibility of self-sustaining growth — if Afghanistan can achieve reforms and stability.

My Comment: Some of my friends who read this blog have been on my case that I have been consistently dark and pessimistic on Afghanistan for the past few years …. OK …. I know that they have a point …. so the post above is a story that reveals some hope for the country.

Update: Consider this the first of many posts on what is going right in Afghanistan. I will summarize and update these stories every Sunday night (21:00 EST) …. starting this week (August 1).

Here Is The Most Unreported Story About Afghanistan: The Booming Economy is a post from: Updated News

Looking for link exchanges, while on vacation

UpdatedFrequently — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 01:45:00 +0000

Your humble blogger is about to go on vacation. Again this year, we are heading to the far north, beyond the reach of the internet. Where woods and water are a lot more plentiful than social networks or 3G phones. So our regular posting schedule will not resume until August 1st. My brother just might do a few posts while we are away, but we are not making him guarantee anything.

Before we go, we figured we would ask if anyone out there would like to do a link exchange with Poverty News Blog. We are especially looking for other NGOs, charities, fair trade, social businesses and the like. We can either include you on the blog’s list of “Get Involved” links or put you on our blog roll. Please write a comment below to get the ball rolling. So until next month… Ce Ya!

Looking for link exchanges, while on vacation is a post from: Updated News

Editor’s Note

Bookyards — Sun, 30 May 2010 11:54:00 +0000

Regular readers of this blog know that for the past month I have been working on a project that has taken me away from regularly posting on this blog. Fortunately …. this is all coming to an end tomorrow. As I am now in the home stretch to finish this project, postings will be light today and tomorrow, but my regular (hourly) postings will return by tomorrow night.

Editor’s Note is a post from: Updated News

Poverty News Blog on social networks

UpdatedFrequently — Fri, 28 May 2010 17:58:00 +0000

Our Facebook group hasn’t had any new members in some time, so we figured this was a good spot to give it a little plug.

Each of our posts are linked onto the group wall. So if we understand how Facebook works correctly, when you join the group, each post will show up on your news feed. Until of course you get tired of it cluttering your feed and you choose to block us, which we wouldn’t recommend.

Anyone who is a part of the Facebook group has an open invite to participate or start any on-topic discussions on the group message board. You can join our Facebook group by hitting this link. Being a part of the group is a great way to get our attention, because, we admit, we sort of have a Facebook addiction.

Poverty News Blog is also on Twitter. We link each and every post onto the Twitter page. You may also see some strange tweet of us trying to get someone’s attention, retweets of other items we find interesting, or updates on our schedule. You can follow us by heading to this link.

It’s a holiday weekend in the United States, and to celebrate we are having company stay with us. So in an effort to be a “good host”, you won’t see any posts from us until Tuesday. Have fun!

Poverty News Blog on social networks is a post from: Updated News

Why Afghans Are Poor Shots

Bookyards — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 03:59:00 +0000

Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

Afghan Marksmanship: Pointing, Not Aiming — New York Times

This blog has recently been examining poor Afghan marksmanship, focusing on remarkably bad Taliban performance with rifles in combat and some of the probable reasons behind it. We’ll shift now to a discussion of Afghan government units, which regularly provide an opportunity to assess outgoing fire.

Puncturing some of the legends of Afghan fighting prowess has value for at least two reasons.

My Comment: An informative article …. and a sober analysis on why years will probably be necessary to train and condition the Afghan Army to fight as a professional force.

Why Afghans Are Poor Shots is a post from: Updated News

How One Soldier’s Life Was Saved In Afghanistan

Bookyards — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:00:00 +0000

(Click Image to Enlarge)

Revealed: How Hundreds Of Military Personnel, Millions Of Pounds And An Experimental ‘Lung’ Saved The Life Of A British Soldier… Shot By Accident In His Own Camp — The Daily Mail

It was one of the most complex military logistical and medical operations ever undertaken – and it saved the life of a young British soldier critically injured in Afghanistan.

It involved hundreds of doctors, air and ground crews of several nations, travelling many thousands of miles, revolutionary and experimental medical equipment, several planes and helicopters and communications between three continents and cost millions of pounds.

My Comment: Mega kudos to Michael Yon and Soldiers’ Angels in saving this soldiers life. Our prayers and hopes are with the family of this soldier. Michael Yon’s account of this remarkable story is on his blog that is here.

How One Soldier’s Life Was Saved In Afghanistan is a post from: Updated News

More Earthquakes, this time in Chile

UpdatedFrequently — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 14:04:00 +0000

As soon as we got out of bed we heard of this morning’s earthquake in Chile. The earthquake hit 8.8 on the Richter scale and has caused significant damage. Tsunami warnings have been issued for Hawaii and the West coast in the aftermath of this latest plate movement. Video footage is trickling into the news networks showing significant damage to buildings.

Chile was recently moved up in classification by the world’s lending organizations. They are now known as “developed” nation upgraded from “under-developed.” In fact, the few times that Chile have been mentioned on our blog were good news stories about the economic growth in the country. The fear this morning is how much the damage of this earthquake will set back those efforts.

Coverage of this latest earthquake does not have many details yet at the time of our posting, but we did find a good summary from The UK’s Telegraph.

More Earthquakes, this time in Chile is a post from: Updated News

“The Mountain Thief” premiers March 11 -21st

UpdatedFrequently — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:36:00 +0000

Some time ago a filmmaker approached our blog to help promote his film. We agreed because it wasn’t an ordinary film. “The Mountain Thief” depicts life in a garbage slum in the Philippines. The residents of the slum literally live on top of a pile of garbage.

“The Mountain Thief” not only tells this true to life story but takes the interaction with that life to a more intimate level. Filmmaker Gerry Balasta opened a acting training workshop at the garbage slum. People who attended classes at the workshop went on to star in the film. Fund-raising has also taken place to help with medical needs of some of the film’s actors.

At the time of out initial post on “The Mountain Thief” Balasta was still doing some fund-raising to finish the film. Now we are happy to announce that the film is now finished, and will finally premier at a film festival in San Fransisco March 11-21st

For more details and a screening schedule, visit the official Mountain Thief blog. The new trailer for the film is below.

“The Mountain Thief” premiers March 11 -21st is a post from: Updated News

BREAKING!!!! No 9/11 Trials In New York

Bookyards — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 04:00:00 +0000

POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVE SITES FOR KSM TERROR TRIAL.

White House Orders Justice Department To Look For Other Places To Hold 9/11 Terror Trial — New York Daily News

The White House ordered the Justice Department on Thursday night to consider other places to try the 9/11 terror suspects after a wave of opposition to holding the trial in lower Manhattan.

The dramatic turnabout came hours after Mayor Bloomberg said he would “prefer that they did it elsewhere” and then spoke to Attorney General Eric Holder.

My Comment: Long time readers of this blog know that this should not be a surprise. The Obama Justice Department has been disorganized on this issue since day 1 …. continuing the same confusing tradition of the Bush administration on this signature issue.

BREAKING!!!! No 9/11 Trials In New York is a post from: Updated News

The U.S. Is Unprepared For Bioterrorism: WMD Panel

Bookyards — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:00:00 +0000

WMD Panel Gives an F to Obama and Congress for Failing to Prepare for Bioweapons Attack — Newsweek

The Obama administration and Congress get an F for failing to prepare for a biological terrorist attack—a “national security” risk that is getting greater “by the day,” according to the director of a blue-ribbon federal panel set up to study the issue.

Borrowing a page from the 9/11 Commission, the bipartisan WMD panel is today issuing a “report card” on how the U.S. government has responded to its December 2008 recommendations for steps needed to prepare for the threat that terrorists will strike using nuclear or biological weapons.

Update: Report: U.S. Unprepared for Bioterrorism — Time Magazine/AP

My Comment: Reading about bioterrorism issues for the past few years reminds me of all the reading that I have done on nuclear terrorism issues. Everyone talks about it, everyone provides plans and programs to counter it …. but in the end nothing happens.

On a side note, one my favorite blogs that covers Bioterrorism issues and who poo-poos all the fear rhetoric on this issue is Armchair Generalist. The link to his blog is here.

The U.S. Is Unprepared For Bioterrorism: WMD Panel is a post from: Updated News