A lack of progress after the military’s campaign against the Taliban has raised fears of renewed militancy. [More]
-- The Kettle
Showing posts with label New York Times. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York Times. Show all posts
Monday, November 15, 2010
NY Times: Rebuilding Lags in Pakistan Area After Offensive
A lack of progress after the military’s campaign against the Taliban has raised fears of renewed militancy. [More]
-- The Kettle
Thursday, November 5, 2009
NYTimes: More Schools, Not Troops
A compelling argument against more troops in Afghanistan rests on this trade-off: For the cost of an additional soldier stationed in Afghanistan for a year, nearly 20 schools could be built. [More]
Excerpt:
Greg Mortenson, author of “Three Cups of Tea,” has now built 39 schools in Afghanistan and 92 in Pakistan — and not one has been burned down or closed. The aid organization CARE has 295 schools educating 50,000 girls in Afghanistan, and not a single one has been closed or burned by the Taliban. The Afghan Institute of Learning, another aid group, has 32 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with none closed by the Taliban (although local communities have temporarily suspended three for security reasons).
-- The Kettle Rumbles
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
NY Times: Remembering Afghanistan’s Golden Age
From the 1930s to the 1970s, Afghanistan had a semblance of a national government and Kabul was known as “the Paris of Central Asia.” [MORE]
-- The Kettle Rumbles
NY Times: Racing Time and Taliban to Rebuild in Pakistan
Reconstruction of battered villages has yet to begin in the upper Swat Valley, making the area ripe for another Taliban takeover. [MORE]
-- The Kettle Rumbles
Thursday, September 24, 2009
NY Times: Real Men Tax Gas
Real Men Tax Gas
There is something wrong when our country is considering sending more troops to Afghanistan, but can’t even talk about a gasoline tax to reduce our dependency on oil. [More]
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The man has a point. Who are really the "cheese eating surrender monkeys" if the country is willing to send young people to fight (and die) in Afghanistan, but won't tax oil to fund the deficit and promote energy independence?
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
NYTimes: Purge of Iranian Universities Is Feared
Recent speeches by Iranian leaders have stoked fears that the government will purge universities of professors and curriculums deemed “un-Islamic.” [More]
-- The Kettle Rumbles
The Lede: Iranians Say Prison Rape Is Not New
Two prominent members of Iran's human rights community have published essays on Iranian Web sites arguing that far from being a new phenomenon, prison rape has a long history in the Islamic Republic. [More]
-- The Kettle Rumbles
NYTimes: To Save Afghanistan, Look to Its Past
Any one of the crises Afghanistan faces would justify convening a loya jirga, or grand assembly. But the most compelling reason for doing so is to select a president. [More]
-- The Kettle Rumbles
Sunday, August 23, 2009
NYTimes: A School Bus for Shamsia
A writer returned to Afghanistan to buy a bus for Afghan girls who were attacked on their walk to school. But it turns out giving isn’t always easy. [More]
Thursday, August 20, 2009
NYTimes: The Women’s Crusade
The liberation of women could help solve many of the world’s problems, from poverty to child mortality to terrorism. [MORE]
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Some of these people are truly amazing. Seeing what other people have to go through just to be able to read or provide for their kids makes so many of the things that concern people in my world so trivial. When I find myself wasting time, I think about stories like Tererai's. She spent much of her life being told to not educate herself, not to go beyond what was expected of women like her. She was beaten and punished for trying, but in the end, a cattle herder from Zimbabwe DID go to America, IS making a difference for the lives of her children and her people, and WILL achieve all her dreams, including getting a PhD. Wow.
I think we should all ask ourselves what it is exactly that we're doing with our time, wealth, and education. There is more to life than entertainment and luxury.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
NYTimes: Central Asia Sounds Alarm on Islamic Radicalism
Officials in the region fear that homegrown militants may be moving north to take on the area’s brittle governments. [MORE]
-- The Kettle Rumbles
Thursday, July 30, 2009
NYTimes: Nicholas D. Kristof: An Update on Assiya
After my Sunday column on Assiya Rafiq, the teenage girl who is trying to prosecute the police in Pakistan who raped her, an update. First, many, many of you donated money through Mercy Corps to the Mukhtar Mai fund (a total of $75,000 so far), and some of that was stipulated for Assiya. [MORE]
-- The Kettle Rumbles
-- The Kettle Rumbles
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
NYTimes: In War and Isolation, a Fighter for Afghan Women
Pashtoon Azfar, director of Afghanistan’s Institute of Health Sciences and president of the midwives association, is bringing attention to maternal deaths. [MORE]
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Her mother delivered her own 10 children by herself! Wow. The article demonstrates the damage Afghan society has endured at the hands the Taliban, but I am sure the civil war and Soviet invasion before then didn't help either.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
NYTIMES: Not a Victim, but a Hero
A Pakistani girl musters the courage to publicly fight her rapists, despite threats to her family. [MORE]
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Knowing how hard other people's lives are makes it hard to complain about the little frustrations I have to deal with. I am grateful for the resources and freedom I have, and hope that these things will allow me to make a real difference in this world. I would change the title of that article to "A Victim, but Also a Hero," but I am no Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times! I have done nothing in my life that comes close to how bravely Assiya Rafiq has perservered after her ordeal.
I've been trying to figure out the mercycorps.org website mentioned in the article. There doesn't seem to be a fund to help Assiya's family. Maybe if I twitter the author, he would actually respond and tell me how to get money to her!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
NY Times: Teacher, Can We Leave Now? No.
Watching the delight in the faces of Afghan girls crowded into a school waiting to learn put a new perspective on the war. [MORE]
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Thomas Friedman writes about his thoughts after being at one of the Central Asai Institute's schools in Afghanistan. The impression he got was enough to give him hope that perhaps not everything that has happened in Afghanistan is bad and that perhaps the world can't just leave and abandon the region (again).
Monday, July 6, 2009
NYTimes: Running Out of Options, Afghans Pay for an Exit
Running Out of Options, Afghans Pay for an Exit
Young Afghans are abandoning their country, frustrated by endless war, a lack of prospects and the slow pace of change. [MORE]
Thursday, June 25, 2009
NYTimes: Saving a Kashmiri Village After Remaking His Life
An American who arrived as a volunteer rescue worker after the 2005 earthquake that killed 80,000 Pakistanis started a hospital that treats 100,000 annually. [MORE]
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From broken home, drug addiction, music, rescue worker, to hospital administrator. God bless individuals like Todd Shea.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
NY Times: Nicholas D. Kristof: Putting the Microsavings in Microfinance
It has become increasingly clear that the most important element of microfinance isn’t lending, but savings. That lesson was taught to me by SEWA in India, Kashf in Pakistan and Grameen in Bangladesh. Only some poor people will benefit from the chance to borrow, but almost all will benefit from the chance to save. That’s also [...] (More here)
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Can you imagine paying 40% a year to save your money at a bank? That's exactly what happens in some parts of the world. Nicholas Kristof speaks of how micro savings and not micro credit may by the most important aspect of microfinance. Not only is this more impactful, it might actually be more achieveable, I think. Several years ago and even now, I was/am able to fund a savings account in the United States for $10 (or less!?). I subsequently opted to put the bulk of my savings elsewhere, but that $10 deposit continues to exist in a savings account which has been collecting interest ever since.
So, why can't "regular" banks continue to lend as they are used to, but allow for micro savings from the poor? The obvious answer might be discrimination and a desire to put up a more prestigious appearance--having poor or impoverished people at banking centers might turn off more fortunate account holders... One would hope we can get passed that sort of thinking.
Monday, May 25, 2009
NY Times: U.S. Captain Hears Pleas for Afghan Detainee
An American officer, who in civilian life is a policeman, helped find a lawyer for a man held as a suspected Taliban leader.
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Captain Black should be commended for putting in the extra effort to listen to locals in Afghanistan. Instead, he is investigated by the military and told to stop speaking about the case. The war for the hearts and minds of people in Afghanistan is already lost if we can't act by the same principles this country was founded on. Does the basic human right of habeas corpus not apply to non-Americans? How about non-Westerners? Fear does not excuse tyranny.
Conditions are hard and good information and records are hard to come by in Afghanistan. So, I don't blame the U.S. Military for making mistakes. Mistakes by themselves won't lead to ruin...but a failure to learn from them and do better certainly will.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
The Associated Press: Third Afghan Girls’ School Experiences Sudden Illness
At least 98 people from an Afghan girls school were admitted to a hospital Tuesday for headaches and vomiting in the third such episode in three weeks.
Excerpt: "MUHMUD RAQI, Afghanistan (AP) — At least 98 people from an Afghan girls’ school were admitted to a hospital on Tuesday for headaches and vomiting in the third such episode in three weeks, officials and doctors said."
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I really, really hope that these girls aren't being poisoned. It's awful that people who insist that girls shouldn't be educated resort to throwing acid in their face, blinding and disfiguring them for life. In "Three Cups of Tea," Greg Mortenson speaks of how he got official recognition from the Shia High Council (forgive me if I am messing up the proper title for this council) that his work with educating girls was noble and is in keeping with the Koran. I truly admire the courage of these organizations, teachers, builders, parents, and students. They are risking their lives and well being to educate young women and improve their future.
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