Pepe Escobar
Dear reader: let's sit back, relax, and take a trip down memory lane to prehistoric times - the pre-9/11, pre-YouTube, pre-Facebook world. Ten years ago, Taliban Afghanistan - Talibanistan - was under a social, cultural, political and economic nightmare. Arguably, not much has changed. Or has it? Ten years ago, New York-based photographer Jason Florio and myself slowly crossed Talibanistan overland from east to west, from the Pakistani border at Landi Kotal to the Iranian border at Islam Qillah. As Afghan aid workers acknowledged, we were the first Westerners to pull this off in quite a while.
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ReplyDeleteFor centuries, Afghan men have taken boys, roughly 9 to 15 years old, as lovers. Some research suggests that half the Pashtun tribal members in Kandahar and other southern towns are bacha baz, the term for an older man with a boy lover. Literally it means "boy player." The men like to boast about it.
http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-08-29/opinion/22949948_1_karzai-family-afghan-men-president-hamid-karzai
In 2001, Afghanistan had 1 thousand freshman in college. Today there are 40 thousand freshmen in college.
ReplyDeleteIn 2001, Afghanistan had 800 thousand boys and almost no girls in school. Today there are 4.5 million boys and 2.5 million girls in school.
Afghanistan has far more roads and is far richer than it was in 2001. Real GDP growth has averaged more than 10% a year since 2001.
One of the largest changes is the formation of a powerful professional Afghan National Army or ANA.
The ANA is by far the most popular and respected institution among Afghan villagers. Unfortunately because of insufficient funding, the ANA cannot hire every Afghan who wants to join it.
You never comment on articles..you do not read them to start with.You dump your shit and go..You're the worst kind of commentators around.You're a troll
ReplyDeleteanan, you know well that you're banned for behaving like a troll but you managed to post under a different IP. I'll let it pass but why do you insist on commenting on a blog where you're not welcome? What does that make of you?
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