From: Douglas Whitworth (douglas@centrenet.co.uk)
Date: Sun Nov 08 1998 - 13:42:17 MST
Dan wrote
>Again, I'm no expert, but I thought most Afgan women were illiterate.
Sending
>in books is not likely to work.
This is a very salient point - trying to precipitate change in a climate
where literacy, and thus education, are of a very low level, can have
potentially catastophic concequences ( witness the numerous revolutions and
counter revolutions in Africa etc). In order to gain meaningfull change,
those who have their fingers on the triggers, so to speak, also have to be
convinced that to change is in their interests too, otherwise, as so often
happens, all that changes are the hands holding the guns
Well intentioned interventions is such volatile environments as those that
exist in extremist societies like the Taliban's can so easily have very
violent repercussions for the very people in need of assistance.
I would suggest that any intervention would have to be very carefully
considered beforehand . Spaming Taliban Leaders with Porn doesn't sound
like one of them, as was suggested on a previous post
Douglas
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