Close your eyes and try to picture you and all the members of your family in this environment. You are living in Afghanistan where every so often, Al-Qaeda blows something up trying to kill Americans and other coalition forces and end up killing innocent Afghans as well. Every now and then, a Taliban bomber blows something up trying to kill Americans and non Taliban Afghans. Only they also wind up killing innocent women and children as well to prove who is really in control. Or, sometimes a Taliban youngster would legally shoot a female non-Taliban youngster in the face because she was not wearing a burka.
If you are fortunate enough to be able to imagine yourself living there with all your family members, add this to the above concerns: you and your family are probably hungry if not starving. Not only are Afghans having to contend with the above threats today, many Afghans are having to relive these same conditions when the Russians came. There were suicide bombers then to trying to ‘keel’ the infidel Russians.
Well, today nearly 25 times as many Afghans die of hunger and/or from complications brought on by exposure to harsh winter temperatures according to a United Nations Security Council report. As if all this were not enough to cope with, imagine you are pregnant because remember, you are hungry! How many hungry Afghans are there you ask? Fully one-third of the population of 7.4 million! And another third are on the borderline with regard to the quantity, quality and nutritional value of the food they have. That includes almost one and a quarter million children under age 5 – of which 300,000 die every year. Class, for your homework assignment, write an essay on why groups like the Taliban can come to power in the midst of this kind of abject poverty. Be sure to include why you think other Afghans are in the opium business. As for you who are reading this anywhere and everywhere in the world, does your religion tell you to feed the hungry? Twenty percent of the world’s population throw away enough food to feed every poor child in the world every day. Maybe Santa will bring Afghan children some food this year!
Comment: How can any nation or people whose religious faith advocates that all human beings are created equal standby while nearly 70% of the world’s children are malnourished? Does wealth transcend humanity to the degree that undernourishment and starvation of some is acceptable? I seem to recall learning that the Romans and similar wealth-driven empires would have said yes!
