Re: Aid for Afghanistan

From: John Clark (jonkc@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Tue Jan 01 2002 - 11:24:03 MST


Kai Becker <kmb@kai-m-becker.de> Wrote:

> Facts that really matter are: Those people feel their country, their
> religion and their culture exploitet, devastetet and betrayed by the
>USA and you won't convince them with statistical data.

That's true, they will never love us so it's pointless to try to be lovable to
them. And the only fact I want to convince them of is that if they try to kill me
they will wind up with a bullet in the brain. I also think it's worth saying that
we understand the Afghani people one hell of a lot better than they
understand us.

> Fundamental mistake number 2 is to ignore the cultural background
>of other people. Peanut butter in food packets for example, with written
> instructions in several western languages. (1) Afghans don't know peanut
> butter

Hmm, if I was starving I think I could figure out that I'm supposed to place the
substance in my hand, move it to my mouth, chew, and then swallow. I really think
I could reason this out all by myself even if I didn't have a schematic or written
instructions I could follow.

>nor is it a usefull food for starving people.

20 tablespoons of peanut butter a day and nothing else provides more than
enough calories for a human being to survive, it also supplies enough protein,
fiber, vitamin E, Niacin , Folate, Vitamin B6 , Magnesium, Phosphorus ,
Copper, Potassium , Iron and Zinc. It would also give you about a third of
the needed vitamins B1, B2, D, and Calcium. I'd say that was useful.

>What seems to be difficult to communicate is that a long chain of
>unwise behaviour of the US (and other countries) in the past has
>led to the hate and the hostility of many people against the western
>countries and especially the USA.

Unwise? Probably false, certainly irrelevant. In a world with only one
superpower that superpower will be hated in certain quarters regardless
of its behavior, it's inevitable. However lots of people hate other people
but they don't go around killing them because they know their will be dire
consequences if they do, this war is about reminding Islamic fundamentalists
of that fact.

           John K Clark jonkc@att.net



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