One Brave and Bright Canadian
We're talking Afghanistan here. Oh sure, there are other brave Canadians deployed there now, but these are members of the Canadian Armed Forces, there to do their duty; brave they most certainly are, and doing the business they've been tasked with but this other Canadian goes another step further. As an independent, this lititation/tax lawyer from Vancouver, 50-year-old Norine MacDonald represents both the Senlis Council and all that is best of womanly virtues combined with strength of will and purpose.Funded by billionaire Swiss philanthropist Stephan Schmidheiny, the Senlis Council has offices in London, Paris, Brussels and Kabul (where 50 Afghans are in its employ), along with smaller field offices in four Afghan provinces. Ms. MacDonald founded the Senlis Council in 2003 and acts as the think-tank's president. She has lived in Kandahar and Helmand provinces in Afghanistan for the past several years conducting drug policy research and issuing reports advocating legalization and regulation of poppy farming in the country.
She has reason on her side. The American government's dedication to the eradication of poppy farming, along with that of the government of Afghanistan is causing dreadful hardship to subsistence farming families in this war-torn country. Unless and until a reasonable alternative is found whereby farmers would willingly give up poppy farming in favour of grain crops whose selling price would be subsidized to bring them up to the value of poppy sales, the situation will not be resolved.
At the present time U.S. troops are actively engaged in destroying poppy fields and leaving the farmers who cultivate them destitute. Alternate crops simply haven't the commercial value of the cultivated poppy, and these are farming communities already suffering war stress in a poor country short of other natural resources and long accustomed to the shortages that come in the wake of one invasion after another of foreign troops.
With resentment born of livelihoods displaced the Taliban don't have to look too hard for volunteers to swell their ranks. If a population has to choose between freedom and starvation, or a bitter dictatorship that brings order and the potential for normalcy it isn't too much of a stretch to imagine that young men will join the insurgents determined to retake their country from foreign intervention and interference. Ms. MacDonald, living among the people has some particular insights not recognized by NATO.
Ms. MacDonald doesn't dispute the need to support the current government of Afghanistan (vastly imperfect as a democratic legislative body as it is, given the fact that many of its legislators are the very same corrupt war lords that brought want and misery to the country, aligned against the Taliban but only marginally less malignant in intent and governance) and NATO forces in their determination to oust the resurgent Taliban and completely foil their intent to regain control of the county.
What she does dispute is the lack of attention given to the needs of the people of Afghanistan who have been displaced from their heritage, from their traditional homes, from their farms and settlements and towns, and assembled in vast, inhumane camps devoid of protection from the elements, of adequate food, of potable water, of medical assistance. This, hand in glove with the current poppy-eradication programme, will ensure that the population will never completely support NATO forces and their own government.
The latest Senlis Council report states that as many as 80,000 Afghans have been made homeless as a result of being forced to flee their homes as their villages and farms have become combat zones. These people are the cast-off victims of NATO efforts to retake geographical positions won by the resurgent Taliban. Their plight is a fairly intolerable one, given the NATO pledge to "win the hearts and minds" of the population while engaging in battle on their behalf.
In her efforts to aid and assist the dispossessed and the starving, Ms. MacDonald dresses in male Afghan clothing and has a protective retinue of guards. She undertakes to personal deliver food to refugee camps, in this most dangerous of geographies. Because of the danger inherent in Kandahar with fighting ongoing between the Taliban and NATO troops, NGOs are not installed in the area, delivering material aid and being engaged in vital food distribution.
We know that NATO troops in general and Canadian Armed Services personnel in particular are cognizant of the fact that civic infrastructure - health-care centres, schools - must be re-built and security provided for the Afghan population. Under current war conditions in Kandahar province in particular, this is difficult, since the Taliban destroy all these installations as soon as they're built.
But by re-thinking the failed policy of crop eradication in favour of controlling poppy culture, and ensuring an adequate return on crop sales to farmers, NATO would find greater good will extended their way from the population, and a commensurate unwillingness from that same population to support the Taliban.
It would not at all hurt matters were these practical items to be discussed with the Senlis Council and Ms. MacDonald in particular. Those who make decisions might even discover the utility of consultation.
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, January 02, 2007
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