Trigger
The Opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal just published on 3/18/2013 an inspiring, motivating article by Saad Mohseni titled “The Untold Story of Afghan Progress” (subscription required).
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I will not go into quoting extensively from this article, but the author, who is by his own description the chairman of the largest media group in Afghanistan, as myself have a very positive outlook on the near and long term prospects of Afghanistan.
I am sure this country located on the ancient Silk Road has a brighter future compared to the last three decades of internecine warfare brought about by the former Soviet Union, Taliban, Iran, Pakistan etc.
The recent discovery of vast deposits of natural resources augurs well for this country. Just think of the Mongolia.
According to the above article:
1. There are now over eight million school children (2.6 million of them girls), there were only 900,000 in 2001 and practically no girls.
2. The literacy rate is currently only 33%, but is predicted to grow to 60% by 2025 (I personally think, this is a considerable underestimation)
3. Urbanization is enormously increasing, thereby lessening the dependence on tribal and sectarian links
4. Paved highways jumped from 32 miles (no error) in 2002 to 7,450 miles today
5. Access to electricity has tripled to 18%
6. The economy has grown from $2 bn in 2001 to $20 bn today
7. 67% of the population or ca. 20 million people use mobile phones
8. and the list goes on
I once saw a documentary on
how some courageous Afghan people risked their lives to rescue ancient and
modern cultural artifacts of the National Museum in Kabul from the intolerant
and violent Taliban in a clever way. This was impressive!
My kudos to the people of Afghanistan.
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