How much for a hit?

The recent rise in the role of drugs in Afghanistan has gained a lot of press. An article by a correspondent for the Associated Press today, chose to highlight the high number of widows in a particular village in the impoverished province of Herat where, according to the article, in the 1,000 families, there are 350 widows. While many of the husbands in the article died over the course of the preceding and incessant wars this nation has seen, more and more are perishing on the road to earning a better living by turning to the dangerous business of smuggling drugs. I was myself shocked at some of the numbers reported in this article and thought I would share these with you, I quote:

"The men said each time a smuggler crossed the border, he carried 20 to 40 pounds of high-grade, concentrated heroin. Mohammad said each delivery earned the carrier $200 a pound _ a possible profit of $8,000 a trip _ extremely good money in a country where teachers and police officers earn just $70 a month.

Across the border in Iran, the street price of heroin is about $5,800 a pound, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime's latest World Drug Report. That figure jumps to $46,300 a pound in Britain and to $94,300 in the United States."

The poppy industry in Afghanistan is currently estimated at an annual worth of around $3.1 billion, and the nation produces enough opium to make approximately 90 percent of the world's heroin. Perhaps the most important question to ask here though, is why is a teacher and a police officer earning only $70 a month? In this sense I suppose Afghanistan is no different than many other struggling nations where illegal means prove much more profitable than the legal alternatives (think Latin American drug lords, corrupt African leaders, human smugglers in Asia, to name but a few), yet most of those countries are not receiving literally billions of foreign aid money every single year, year after year.

Along the same lines, an article by the Asia Times, ponders this exact question of "what went wrong" questioning the reality of a highly centralized (read: mistrusted by most) government more intent on hiring their starving brothers and uncles than serving the people (the article highlights two key elements of successful governance severely lacking: performance and accountability - I can attest, neither of which is present in any form), instead of decentralizing the government, and encouraging local officials to uphold "security, justice and protection of private property" (note: all things the Taleban are aiming to provide to the destitute residents of throw-away places in Afghanistan too far from Kabul to be noticed).

Notably, Afghanistan tops the UN list for Least Developed Countries (LDCs). With a key requirement of per capita GDP of below $750, it is not hard to see why a growing number of struggling Afghans are resorting to the smuggling of illegal drugs. Frankly, I can't really blame them. Stay tuned for a piece on why things simply don't work here, and a little tongue in cheek explanation of things easily lost in translation.

Painful Perspectives

Photo left: The hillside coming into Kabul from the north is covered in mud-constructed houses.

To put it mildly, things in Afghanistan is not always as it appears. This seems to be most pronounced when frequenting one of the few expat establishments that pride themselves in removing the visitor from the dusty realities that is Kabul. And it was in exactly one of these establishments that I found myself on May 4th.

After a hectic first week in country, including my first field mission a mere sixteen hours after landing (which meant a 5am departure), Chris thought it would be a nice treat to escape from the house he shares with ten other UNOPS people, to the serenity of the Serena Hotel in Kabul. While the guesthouse is one of the best in all of Kabul, inhabited by a group of fascinating internationals from Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, UK, Canada and Australia - it is still a shared space, somewhat akin to a commune in college.

So on our Friday off, we went to the outrageously decadent brunch at the Serena with all the housemates and opted to stay the night in one of their elegant guest rooms. It was in the room, while looking around the expanse of private space with a clean functioning bathroom that I started thinking. The nightly rate for the hotel came close to the annual salary for the poorest Afghans who often live on less than $1 a day.

Photo right: Women gather around a handpump to fetch water in plastic containers (Northern Kabul)

In a country with a GDP (2006) of only $1,310 and an unemployment rate of over 40%, poverty plagues the dusty streets of Kabul as beggars, young and old, harass passers-by for scraps of food or yell "dolla, dolla" to foreigners frequenting the shops. The GDP relies on agriculture for about 38% of the nation's revenue, while a mere 10% of the economy is related to each the service and industrial sectors. A full 80% of the 15 million people in the workforce are engaged in agriculture as their main source of income. The bottom line is that a shocking 53% of the population of Afghanistan survives below the poverty line.

The next day I was spoilt to a full-body massage in the spa at the hotel. The young Filipino girl skillfully worked out all the knots and pains from a week of constant traveling, all the while chatting to me about how she wants to visit the Blue Mosque in Mazar e-Sharif. Cost of the massage: one month's salary for a judge in Afghanistan.