This is so incredibly sad.
The rest is here.
I think we need to rethink the military "solution" in Afghanistan and put that money into helping these people build strength on their own.
Quote:
| Afghan aid fails to feed the hungry Women with a child in Afghanistan Parwan province is quiet, but signs of discontent are growing By Peter Greste BBC News, Parwan province, Afghanistan It is not hard to see why Alla Gul is upset. Her two-year-old daughter cries weakly in her arms with barely enough energy to eat. The child stares vacantly at the other patients in the Charikar hospital ward, her muscles wasted with malnutrition, her angular bones protruding like twigs beneath her papery skin. When Alla Gul returned with her family from a refugee camp in Iran six years ago to Afghanistan, they expected better things. The Taliban had fallen, security had returned and international aid began pouring in - billions of dollars' worth. "It's indeed very difficult. For months, we haven't been able to afford to buy meat for our children. It's very painful to watch," she said. Alla Gul and her daughter Alla Gul's two-year-old daughter is weak with hunger Alla Gul says she never wanted handouts. But she and her husband - a contract farmer who gets a portion of the produce from the land he works - always believed they would lead a comfortable life. Now, he simply can't earn enough to feed the family. Dr Aslam Fawad is despairing. Each day he walks the malnutrition ward, watching more and more patients arrive from across this otherwise fertile farming district. Poverty is so deep that even many farmers are unable to feed their families. Dr Fawad does his best to help, but the dire state of the economy means that some patients keep returning, time after time. "The malnutrition problem in Afghanistan, and especially Parwan province, is very bad. That's because of the years of fighting, the damage to our infrastructure and rising unemployment. "It's all helped to make things worse," he said. Deep discontent The statistics bear him out: officially, unemployment is about 40%, though it is probably far higher than that; of those who do have a job in Parwan, 45% earn less than one dollar a day; chronic malnutrition for children under five across Afghanistan is 54%. And perhaps most surprising of all, on a UN scale of human development indicators, Afghanistan has slipped from 117th in the world, to 181st - second from the bottom - since the Taliban were ousted. Professor Sayed Massood, an economist from Kabul University, believes that backsliding is responsible for much of the deep discontent with the government, and growing support for the insurgency. Vegetables for sale at a market Even farm workers are suffering from malnutrition He blames the crisis of public confidence on the policy of pouring billions of dollars in development aid into regions where the insurgency is strongest. "Instead of the benefits [of aid] going to friends, they are going to enemies. We needed to spend money in the places where the people believe in democracy and work for the government. "But instead only the enemies are getting rich," he said. "We need to set examples of peaceful provinces that are also prosperous, but that's just not happening." |
I think we need to rethink the military "solution" in Afghanistan and put that money into helping these people build strength on their own.
