Not often am I shocked in the 21st century, but hearing that some mothers in Afghanistan are having to sell their young daughters to older men, just to get food to feed their starving family is the most deplorable situation.
I'm lost for words.
What a dreadful situation.
Devastating.
Today prog on R4 yesterday and today - John Simpson and Secunder Kermani reporting from Afghanistan.
Truly heartbreaking.
So much for an orderly withdrawal.
A country completely abandoned and dragged back to medieval times; regressing 500 years in 3 months.
Sadly it's not massively uncommon in other places too.
https://plan-uk.org/about/our-work/child-marriage/sold-as-a-child-bride
The situation in Afghanistan is appealing though. I had no idea they were so dependant on foreign aid.
I'm surprised that you are surprised. The injustices in the World are staggering.
Maybe one day humans will become civilized.
To be fair we've come a long way.
I had no idea they were so dependant on foreign aid.
They really are but with banks closed it is almost impossible to move in enough money just to pay staff never mind actually run programs 🙁
A waiter in Egypt once offered me 10 Camels for my daughter.
I told him 20 Bensons and you've got a deal.
To be fair we’ve come a long way.
Its a pretty thin veneer.... its all a bit like the Truman Show
Maybe one day humans will become civilized.
i doubt this.
i reckon extinction of the human race would be far better.
Today prog on R4 yesterday and today – John Simpson and Secunder Kermani reporting from Afghanistan.
I heard some of that report.
Interesting that the (current) Taliban find themselves in an already tenuous situation.
Essentially they've had to allow the Aid org's back in for fear that a combined famine/economic crash/rival Islamic terror groups all lead to their downfall within months of taking over...
Apparently the sector of the Afghan economy doing best from all of this is people smuggling, what a surprise.
I still see this as a failing of "Western foreign policy", getting a country hooked on foreign aid and security over 2 decades, and then whipping it away in the space of a couple of weeks was never going to end well. I'm reasonably sure the intent was always to create a failed state in the middle east, perhaps to sap the resources of some more local states?
Of course caught in amongst all of this are civilians, The Human cost is really what needs to keep being reported, not some sort of triumphant narrative, pointing out how unfit the Taliban were to govern, we already knew that.
I saw this a couple of weeks ago on the news, a family stated that their baby daughter would be sold for $400 to a family to be married to their son later on. Absolutely horrific. I'll echo all that has been said above. When I heard that it made me hold my boys that wee bit tighter.
The reports also focused on the fact that rural people can't afford to feed and heat themselves this winter and many are expected to starve.
As well as shining a light on that, holding a mirror up to ourselves, the news also had the report on single mothers in the 50s - 70s forced to put their children up for adoption.
Essentially they’ve had to allow the Aid org’s back in
The Taliban had always encouraged them to keep working throughout and had NGO liason people in place already. The problem is a combination of lack of money in country, staff just not being able to work because of the instability and the fact that a lot of staff would have been female :(. It turns out that running a country is a lot more difficult than taking one over
Interesting that the (current) Taliban find themselves in an already tenuous situation.
The Taliban are riddled with factionalism involving warring families, groups from different regions, and even just older and newer members. There's already been assassinations and shoot-outs. I'm genuinely surprised it hasn't erupted into all out war already. I don't think it'll be much longer before they do. I don't think looking after the population is high on their list of things to do right now.
Given that both the Indian and ****stan govt had been quite happy using the cover of US involvement in Afghanistan to further their own political aims in the country, their reluctance to offer any humanitarian aid or any political help is strangely muted now...Same can be said for Russia and Iran, who were both desperate to see the end of US involvement. I have a suspicion that now they're all regionally "holding the baby" they all helped to create, they would welcome the return of the US.
I was looking at a graph of Afghan population growth the other day, as I was surprised that Afghanistan had a population of 40 million, I had thought it to be a much more sparsely populated country. Since about 1990 when it was just above 10 million it has been growing at 10 roughly 10 million per decade. That means that currently there are 3 times as many people under 30 as above.
That seams an incredible population growth for a country in the conflict it had been in. How can a country heal, when the mass of the population are so young, have been born into conflict, know no other life and are offered no realistic alternative pathways.
The situation in Afghanistan is appealing though. I had no idea they were so dependant on foreign aid.
Makes you wonder where all the opium poppy money goes .....
More sensibly it's a failed state that we will need to hold our noses and throw money at. People fleeing will head west so the local countries will step back to make sure it's our money going in not theirs.
Don't see a reasonable alternative to throwing money at the problem, look forward to decade's of handwringing about why we are funding a terrorist training narcostate where women are treated like property.
